#1550 - Wesley Hunt

[0] Joe Rogan podcast, checking out.

[1] The Joe Rogan Experience.

[2] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

[3] Mr. Hunt.

[4] Welcome aboard.

[5] Happy to be here.

[6] Thanks for being here.

[7] I really appreciate it.

[8] A friend of Dan Crenshaw's is a friend of mine, all of them.

[9] So, Congress.

[10] Running for Congress.

[11] This is what I want my congressman to look like, jacked veterans.

[12] Wouldn't the world be a better place?

[13] I agree.

[14] I think so.

[15] I mean, it really would be.

[16] So tell me what this has been like running for Congress.

[17] Is this the first office you've run for?

[18] This is the first time, thank God.

[19] What started this?

[20] I know you're friends with Dan, who's also a congressman, but what started this, this journey?

[21] Yes.

[22] Great question, and thank you so much for having me. My pleasure.

[23] This is awesome.

[24] Really appreciate you.

[25] And what started this was really just my family and how can we continue service just in a different capacity.

[26] I come from a military family.

[27] So my dad did 23 years in the Army, retired as a lieutenant colonel.

[28] My sister went to West Point in my family first.

[29] So she's 10 years older than me, did 23 years active duty.

[30] She was a military intelligence officer deployed to Iraq twice and did a few tours or brought as well.

[31] I went to West Point in my family second.

[32] We're 10 years apart, my sister and I, and then graduated West Point, class of 2004, flew Apaches in Iraq for eight, was actually.

[33] active duty eight years deployed to Iraq, did 55 combat air missions in Baghdad, and then did two tours of duty in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic liaison officer.

[34] My brother, who was 10 months and eight days my juniors who were Irish twins, he also went to West Point and he did five years in the Navy.

[35] I went to Harvard Business School for his graduate degree and now lives in Houston with his family.

[36] There's about 60 years worth of military service just in my immediate family.

[37] Wow.

[38] Respect.

[39] Thank you, sir.

[40] That's a lot.

[41] Thank you.

[42] That's a serious, serious military family.

[43] It is.

[44] My mom's the best of us.

[45] So she stood at home for two months in 2006 while I was flying combat air missions in Baghdad.

[46] My sister was doing intel in the green zone.

[47] And my brother was in the Arabian Gulf under destroy for two months at the same time.

[48] So even though she didn't serve in the military per se, she served those who served by lending her family.

[49] So, people ask me why am I running for Congress, I always lead with that because that's the kind of service and sacrifice it takes for us to live in this free country.

[50] So this is just a mindset that you were raised with.

[51] Absolutely.

[52] And what made you, what made you make the leap?

[53] So there's a lot of things going on in the country that we're seeing right now.

[54] Really?

[55] I thought everything was fine.

[56] few things we got going on in the country right now and my dad always taught us leadership is not about when it's convenient for you it's about when your country needs you and our country needs us I think in this in this which seems to be a dark time we've had some dark times in the past I'm sure we'll get into that but it's always my opinion that patriots always step up when our country needs us the most and that's kind of what we were taught to do to give back to the country that gave us all that we have.

[57] Now, to all the things that are going on in the country right now, what stands out to you as something that you feel like you can contribute and possibly help correct or at least get on the right track?

[58] Yeah, so there's a lot of talk of, a lot of racial injustices of the past.

[59] This is something that I think I'm uniquely positioned to talk about.

[60] My great -great -grandfather was a slave.

[61] His name was Silas Crawford, born on Rosedown Plantation, just north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

[62] Three of his great -great -grandchildren, all attended West Point.

[63] I earned three master's degrees from Cornell University.

[64] Brother went to Harvard.

[65] Sister has her advanced degree in applied mathematics.

[66] We've had the honor of serving our country.

[67] We've had the honor to live in a free country.

[68] We are standing on the backs and on the shoulders of absolute giants.

[69] And while we have a ways to go, by God, that's some serious progress.

[70] And I like the idea of focusing on the future and not the past, and I think as a black man in this country, I get some of the hardships.

[71] Trust me on that.

[72] But how can we begin to heal by focusing on the good that we have done and building on that instead of standing by idling and watching the country burn?

[73] It seems like both things have to be addressed.

[74] It seems like you have to concentrate on the good things and have to concentrate on the people like yourself that have made incredible progress in your life.

[75] But I think we also have to concentrate on injustice.

[76] And racial bias and racial injustice and all the problems that we're seeing.

[77] You know, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine where we were talking about police and how important the police are, but also how important it is to, if you see something like the George Floyd situation, you see that video.

[78] And then that one guy's horrible actions changed.

[79] It changes everyone's perception of the police.

[80] Yeah.

[81] But meanwhile, there's millions of interactions that police have with citizens that never go that way that are positive.

[82] There's millions of cops.

[83] I don't know how many, there's millions of cops.

[84] I don't even know how many cops are there in the country.

[85] Oh, that's a good question.

[86] That is a good question.

[87] How many police officers are there in the country?

[88] Let's find out.

[89] But either way, most of them, I feel, first of all, it's an insanely difficult job.

[90] Yes, it is.

[91] And when you, you don't, the good altercations, they don't go viral.

[92] Of course they don't.

[93] You know, so we have this distorted perception of what happens when cops meet people.

[94] Here it goes.

[95] In 2019, there's 697 ,195 ,000 full -time law enforcement officers.

[96] 697 ,000.

[97] Wow.

[98] Okay.

[99] So it's not millions.

[100] But I would say that they're, that you're right, there are actually millions of interactions.

[101] with our citizens every year.

[102] Yes, millions.

[103] And most of them don't go viral because they're fairly normal, license registration, here you go, you're speeding, I'm sorry, here's a citation or here's a warning or whatever the fuck the situation is.

[104] That's right.

[105] Those problems like the George Floyd thing, they have to be addressed.

[106] We can't have those anymore, especially when they can go viral because it's not just this one moment.

[107] The problem is this one moment can change everyone's perceptions of cops and then you have all this crazy talk like we need to defund the police right yeah you lifted your hands like please stop that because that's that's ridiculous and the people who end up suffering the most when you defund the police are actually minority communities with people that look like me and them and if they actually talk to a lot of minority communities they don't want to defund the police they just want the police to do better right exactly yeah and that's where the problem lies because, you know, I was talking to Jocko, Jocko Willink on the podcast about that, and Jocko was like this defund the police talk is the wrong answer.

[108] The right answer is more funding and more training.

[109] He said, I think they should be doing 20 % of their time training.

[110] Will he do the training?

[111] He would.

[112] Yeah.

[113] Jocko would do it.

[114] It would be awesome.

[115] Yeah, I mean, he's a, that's a leader, you know.

[116] I mean, he's a guy who he Volified leader.

[117] 100%.

[118] Yeah.

[119] Undeniable.

[120] So his, his perception is that what we're dealing with is people that are untrained, uh, under motivated, underappreciated.

[121] And some of them just bad people.

[122] That's right.

[123] Like the, the, the guy in the George Floyd case, whatever the fuck is, Derek.

[124] It's a bad actor.

[125] Yeah, exactly.

[126] Bad human being that probably had been bad for a long time, had several instances on his record that were similar.

[127] A guy who's been probably, you know, whether he's fucked up because of the job or before the job or a combination of both things.

[128] We got to figure out a way to weed those people out.

[129] He's got to go.

[130] That should be like this is the poster boy for what's wrong with the system.

[131] It's not the system.

[132] You don't throw the whole fucking system out.

[133] That's right.

[134] I mean, anybody who's ever been in a situation where you need the cops and they show up, there's a great sign of relief and you feel protected.

[135] That's right.

[136] And law enforcement.

[137] And if that's ever happened to you, and I hope it never does, but if it has ever happened to anybody listening, then you'll appreciate the police.

[138] This is personal for me too, Joe, because when I got out of West Point, 2004, it was during the Abu Ghraib scandal.

[139] I don't know if you recall that.

[140] We had a few idiots that treated some prisoners very poorly and posted the pictures up in the world.

[141] Saw that.

[142] And I entered the military at a time where that was the perception of military officers and soldiers.

[143] And that's not true.

[144] Right, exactly.

[145] I would never, most of us would never behave that way and we condemn those actions.

[146] We condemn that behavior.

[147] Yeah.

[148] After the George Floyd event, I actually went down to the Houston Police Union to go talk to some of the police officers.

[149] 100 % of them, all of them were disgusted.

[150] Yeah.

[151] With how George Floyd was treated?

[152] So I don't think that's it.

[153] That's not even an issue.

[154] It's just that how do we then work with law enforcement to empower them to get rid of the people that we know are idiots.

[155] Yes.

[156] Yes.

[157] Yeah, that should be the conversation.

[158] But the problem is that conversation doesn't work on social media.

[159] You know, it's too nuanced.

[160] There's too many layers to it.

[161] There's too much talking has to be done when you, right, defund the police.

[162] It's nice and clean.

[163] Yes.

[164] You know, it's three words.

[165] It's easy.

[166] And everybody goes, yes.

[167] Headline.

[168] And if you go along with it, you're on the right side.

[169] Like, yeah, you're a good person.

[170] You know, and you're like, no, we need cops.

[171] Oh, you fucking piece of shit.

[172] It's ridiculous.

[173] Yeah.

[174] You see what Charles Berkeley said a few weeks back.

[175] Yes.

[176] He followed that.

[177] And his logic is actually quite sound, especially even in Houston, Texas, where a lot of the affluent areas, see, they have their own police that are paid for.

[178] by their own taxes that they pay in their own community.

[179] So if you're talking about defying the police, again, you're not taking away the safety of those communities.

[180] You're taking away the safety of black and brown people.

[181] Yes.

[182] And he said that and he got crucified for it.

[183] Yeah.

[184] And that's the problem we have right now, Joe.

[185] Like, we can have both conversations.

[186] Well, I think the problem is, like, he said something, and then there's a lot of people that want to respond to that, right?

[187] And they don't get a chance to.

[188] So they just attack them on social media.

[189] And it's like the louder their voices are, the most, and especially if you're someone of prominence, if you have a platform, you can attack him and you get a lot of credit for it.

[190] You know, and then people like you.

[191] And this is one of the problems with social media is that people say things not just because it's their opinion.

[192] They say things because they want to get a reaction.

[193] That's right.

[194] They say things for retweets.

[195] And they hide behind it.

[196] Yeah.

[197] Yeah.

[198] And, well, it's easy to do.

[199] You know, it's an easy time to snipe at people.

[200] It is.

[201] And, you know, I don't know, first of all, that Brianna -Taylor situation, tragic, horrific.

[202] It's complicated.

[203] Complicated.

[204] Here's the big problem.

[205] The war on drugs.

[206] That's the big problem.

[207] The big problem is you're having these no -knock raids for, I mean, what was he supposed to be selling?

[208] Marijuana?

[209] I think he was selling marijuana.

[210] That was the idea that he was selling.

[211] I don't even know if he was.

[212] But this was, so you're breaking down a door or someone?

[213] Is that what it was about?

[214] I believe so.

[215] Which is fucking insane.

[216] insane.

[217] Right?

[218] Insane.

[219] That's insane, period.

[220] To break down doors for that.

[221] I agree.

[222] Insane.

[223] This is how it all...

[224] I mean, when you have no knock raids, and, you know, if you're a person who's a homeowner and you believe in the Second Amendment, and you have a firearm, and you hear someone kicking down your door, you have a right to defend yourself.

[225] So this guy shooting at the cops is a rational response to something.

[226] He has no idea what's going on, assumedly.

[227] And if someone says, open up, it's the cops and kicks down the door it turns out to not be a cop, it turns out to be a rival drug dealer or just a thief.

[228] Right.

[229] Is that what the investigation revealed?

[230] Was it really, they really didn't knock at all?

[231] I don't believe they did.

[232] I've seen both.

[233] I've heard that there was a knock, that certain neighbors did hear, and then I've heard that it was a no knock.

[234] I don't know what they did or didn't.

[235] But here's the problem.

[236] If you're a person that is alone in your home at night and someone says their police, how the fuck do you know it's really the police?

[237] That's true, too.

[238] How do you know?

[239] That's true, too.

[240] Like if I was going to kill somebody and I wanted them open up the door and say I'm the police.

[241] Yeah, open up, it's the police.

[242] I mean, it's 100 % been done before.

[243] It's logical, yeah.

[244] And if you're at home and you don't know.

[245] And if you also, if you're a black guy and you're paying attention to the news and you hear it's the police, that doesn't put you at ease.

[246] Right?

[247] Right.

[248] Right.

[249] It's a horrible story.

[250] It is.

[251] It is.

[252] And I think these are the kind of anecdotal stories that we need to build and grow on.

[253] Yes.

[254] Right.

[255] Let's not, let's not burn the country.

[256] down because of them.

[257] Let's figure out how to write this and then change our doctrine and then train our forces better so that they can better serve our communities and we can better serve them.

[258] Yeah.

[259] What's really important to me is I heard a story when I went to go visit the police union.

[260] And there was a spouse that was there and she told me, you know, Wesley, the best thing that I could hear every day is the sound of Velcro.

[261] I said, what do you mean?

[262] He said at the end of the day, when I hear Velcro at night, it means that my spouse made it home alive.

[263] So he's taken off his vest.

[264] She's taken off his vest.

[265] And then they have the thousands, 600 and how many thousand people, families, have to deal with this every single solitary day.

[266] Yeah.

[267] And most of them do a really good job.

[268] Yeah.

[269] So the George Floyd instance, the Brianna Taylor instances, I want to use those to build and grow, but I want to really hug our law enforcement officers and tell them, hey, you're doing a good job.

[270] Let's build and grow together.

[271] Yeah.

[272] When I made mistakes as a kid, you know, my dad didn't just kick me out the house.

[273] He taught me right from wrong so that I wouldn't make the same mistakes next time so we could all get better together.

[274] Well, if you talk to anyone who has this defund the police narrative, I mean, and there have been conversations with these people.

[275] There's no real answer.

[276] There's no real answer.

[277] Well, what do you do about violent crime?

[278] And if you look at what happened in New York City, murders have gone up some insane number.

[279] I don't know what the – I watched a breakdown.

[280] of the numbers of robberies have gone up murders have gone up it's fucking insane and communities are calling for the police to be reinstated in these areas right and this is this is what happens when you have this online activist perspective and you apply it to the real world you have this defund the police and everybody's like yeah yes do it and then you go and do it yes and then And what happens, violence.

[281] That's right.

[282] You have to have the fucking police.

[283] When Trump, Trump tweets law and order in all caps, it's one of the rare times I go, yeah.

[284] Yeah.

[285] He went on a great tweet raid the other night after they juiced him up with steroids and let him out of the hospital.

[286] It was fuck.

[287] I get all of them.

[288] Maybe laugh.

[289] It's funny.

[290] I love the video.

[291] He's like, maybe I'm immune.

[292] I don't know.

[293] Maybe I'm immune.

[294] Maybe.

[295] Shit.

[296] I laugh.

[297] I laugh at you.

[298] This is the best I felt in 20 years.

[299] Like this guy.

[300] He's a savage.

[301] He's 74, fat and eats nothing but McDonald's fries.

[302] He beat it.

[303] Kicks COVID in a couple of days.

[304] And people are like, yeah, but he's getting the right treatment.

[305] Like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[306] But the treatment's available.

[307] Can everybody get this treatment?

[308] Is this treatment in a fucking gold mine in India somewhere?

[309] And you have to, you know, send a guy on a llama down into a cave to get it?

[310] No, it seems like it's pretty common.

[311] It's not.

[312] And as somebody and I, you know, we were talking about earlier, I had COVID.

[313] You had it.

[314] Yeah, my whole family had it.

[315] But you had it like that.

[316] That's right.

[317] In and out.

[318] That's right.

[319] Never asymptomatic.

[320] Never had an issue.

[321] But my wife and daughter, my wife had some symptoms as we talked about.

[322] My daughter, who's 20 months old, no symptoms.

[323] Yeah, little kids generally seem to have zero problem with it.

[324] There's obviously exceptions.

[325] But young folks like yourself seem to be able to just get through the breeze and healthy people.

[326] Healthy people.

[327] Yeah, this is the big thing.

[328] Obviously, your fitness.

[329] Fitness.

[330] Yeah, where you have a strong body, strong immune system.

[331] system healthy.

[332] I'm sure you eat well.

[333] Yes, I do.

[334] Yeah.

[335] I mean, that is what's wrong with this country.

[336] We have a lot of people that are metabolically unhealthy.

[337] And then when something happens, any body can't respond to it or perfectly.

[338] Exactly, exactly, especially something new and weird like this COVID -19.

[339] That's right.

[340] Meanwhile, Trump has all those things wrong with them and the medication still fixed them.

[341] That's what's crazy.

[342] Doesn't work out.

[343] He thinks his body's a battery and working out would like drain some of the battery.

[344] I heard him explain that.

[345] It was like, I saw that.

[346] What in the fuck are you talking about?

[347] That's not how that works.

[348] That's literally not how it works.

[349] It's the opposite of how it works.

[350] But meanwhile, he's okay.

[351] And obviously, you've got to give credit to Walter Reed.

[352] You got to give credit to the hospital and all the doctors and all the amazing researchers that have put in the work to create those treatments.

[353] But here's a thought.

[354] He has been one of the people that has been pushing for those experimental treatments.

[355] and there's been a lot of resistance to that.

[356] Yes.

[357] And I think he's probably now one of the best arguments for those experimental treatments.

[358] At this point.

[359] 74.

[360] Yes.

[361] I got an email from a guy today.

[362] He's like, he's still 5 % a good person that I respect.

[363] Still 5 % likely to die.

[364] I'm like, what are you talking about?

[365] Yeah.

[366] Fucking guys doing speeches, he looks great.

[367] By the way, when you're 74, you got a 30 % likelihood of dying anyway.

[368] Period.

[369] Like, what does the average age people die?

[370] I think it's like 76.

[371] The median, I saw this the other night, the median age is 78.

[372] Yeah, okay.

[373] So he's already 50 % likely to die.

[374] Is that what that means?

[375] So what's the median age of our life expectancy in the U .S.?

[376] It's not high.

[377] It's by 78.

[378] Yeah, so which would be his second term, right when it ends.

[379] Right when it ends.

[380] It would be Joe Biden's first term.

[381] Whoa, Jamie, what are you doing?

[382] What were you about to play?

[383] I was looking at something talking out there.

[384] seen this being passed around online there's some people are comparing his timeline of COVID diagnosis or COVID yeah to Herman Keynes because he passed away after going to a rally I have it on screen okay there was a time period when he said he was feeling good and the doctors all said he was great and then he died like a week later a week later mm so I've just seen this getting passed around a lot just like for conversation.

[385] Interesting.

[386] Test positive 7 -2 says he's improving seven eight so that's eight days later and then and then does it 28 days yeah so 13 days later doctor says he seems happy and then 12 days before he died he says he's really getting better yeah 12 days after that how old was herman kane uh good question the thing about uh anyone it's what else do you have going on?

[387] Do you have diabetes?

[388] Do you have...

[389] C -O -P -D.

[390] There's a lot of different factors.

[391] And even obesity.

[392] 75.

[393] So he's in the neighborhood right there with Trump.

[394] Because easily...

[395] I mean, who knows what kind of treatment he got, though?

[396] Maybe Herman Kane didn't get the same treatment that Trump got.

[397] I wonder what remedies that gave him.

[398] Either way, not good for 70 -year -old people to get it.

[399] It is not.

[400] Also not good for 70 -year -old people to get it.

[401] the flu.

[402] It's not.

[403] Not good for them to get anything.

[404] It's not.

[405] I think the way that we responded to this is a bit overkill because I think there is a way for us to make sure that we keep the people who are at risk to get this virus and could potentially die from it like my parents who are alive and well in 71, 72 years old.

[406] They should probably stay home.

[407] Yes.

[408] Stay home, wear a mask, keep away from people, you know, and the beautiful thing about today is we do have, well, at least here we have this rapid response test at the studio.

[409] I hope they have this rapid response, or not rapid response, but rapid result test everywhere.

[410] I mean, if we can get to a point where we can, I believe they're working on, I'd read some saliva test where you lick a swab, but you can find out within minutes.

[411] With the minutes, yeah.

[412] Yeah.

[413] I mean, if we can get to that point where you have a 100 % accurate test, we can keep people away from sick people.

[414] And that is, that's the remedy to this whole thing, is the more testing we can do, the better.

[415] Yes.

[416] The more knowledge we have, the better.

[417] The more we can track it, the better.

[418] There's nothing wrong with that.

[419] I think we thought it was going to be way worse than it is.

[420] I think that's what I thought.

[421] I mean, look, obviously, I'm a moron and I'm not a doctor.

[422] But when March was rolling around and everything was shutting down, I was very nervous.

[423] I was very nervous.

[424] I was nervous for my family.

[425] I was nervous for my mother and my father, and I was nervous for older friends that I have.

[426] And I was nervous for my obese friends.

[427] I was like, fuck, this is not good.

[428] And I was worried we're going to lose people.

[429] Looking this up, I forgot, he also, he was a cancer survivor.

[430] In 2006, he was in Herman Kane, right?

[431] Yeah, 30 % chance of surviving stage four colon cancer that's going to deliver.

[432] Oh, Jesus.

[433] He did maybe have a preexisting.

[434] Oh, for sure.

[435] The CDC came out and they said, you know, 6 % of those who did pass from COVID were COVID -only deaths.

[436] Right.

[437] Which is some, kind of something to point out too.

[438] We're talking about, you know, our health and being healthy people and the obesity issue that we even have.

[439] in America and there's a piece of also staying physically fit, it's staying mentally fit as well.

[440] They coincide with each other.

[441] Yes.

[442] Beating this virus, I think a lot of it as well is your overall mentality.

[443] How do you feel about yourself?

[444] Mind over matter in certain ways is something that I'm a fan of because when you go into a situation, I've read some studies here about cancer, people that have an optimistic outlook actually have a higher chance of beating cancer.

[445] That's interesting.

[446] Yeah.

[447] I would agree with that tentatively, right?

[448] Because I think some diseases just fuck you up You got it.

[449] Sometimes there's nothing you can do about.

[450] But there's a reason why the placebo effect works, and it's because states of mind do have a profound effect on the human body in a way that we don't totally understand.

[451] You know, that's why I think meditation and breath work is very important, and people should do that all the time, because it just helps alleviate anxiety, and I think alleviating anxiety and alleviating a certain, amount of stress is probably good for you and then also having is little burden in your life in terms of like negative relationships bad friends that you can't trust people that are weighing you down all that kind of shit all that stuff compounds and has an effect on your immune system has an effect on your psyche has effect on your self -esteem how you feel about yourself how you feel about the world we have to work on all those things but we don't hear any of that all we hear about is wear a mask, stay home.

[452] That's right.

[453] We've got to shut down restaurants.

[454] That's right.

[455] Shut down gyms are the craziest one.

[456] Like that's the place where everybody should go.

[457] Yes.

[458] To improve your body, to be able to fight and ward off these kinds of viruses and diseases.

[459] That's the best part about it.

[460] Yeah, what they should do is put these big, we got that air filter down there on the ground.

[461] It's supposed to filter out all the bad, We got, it's too loud.

[462] The problem is too loud while we're, is it on, it's on very low.

[463] It's not very low.

[464] But when we crank it up, it's like full blast, it sounds like there's a fucking airplane in the room.

[465] But you could have those at the gym.

[466] You can have those all over the place at the gym.

[467] They're not that expensive.

[468] And to keep people outside of the gym, you are now compounding all those other things.

[469] That's right.

[470] You're giving people, you're taking away this avenue that they have to alleviate stress, which for me is gigantic.

[471] I'm a different human.

[472] I'm two different people.

[473] I'm the guy who doesn't work out.

[474] and the guy works out and you want to hang out with the guy who works out all the time I'm super friendly I hug everybody the guy who doesn't work out it's cranky he's quick to judge things quick to say fuck that guy that's right like all that all those you know what I mean like all those negative aspects I don't like that I don't want to be that way you know and I don't think anybody does and I think the best way to alleviate that is to clear the body of stress and when you tell people they can't go to the gym like come on man Like in New Jersey, they were shutting down people working out in the parking lot, which is just bananas.

[475] You know, and the best thing for me, and even running for office has been very busy with an 11 -day -old daughter, 20 -month -old daughter, and just running for Congress in general.

[476] And that is you have to carve out time to work out.

[477] And I think it's important to me that I do something extremely difficult that might suck a little bit every single day.

[478] It just keeps the mental edge It keeps the mental acuity At an instructor in flight school He would always say And he was my Apache instructor He would always say You got to kill something every day Even if it's an ant No matter how small Just to keep the edge Right That guy's a fucking psycho But that's the guy you want But that's the guy you want That's the break glass in case of war dude That's right You got to kill something every day day even if it's no matter how small holy shit just just to keep the edge right jesus and i'm like and i feel the same way about working out you got you got to keep the edge you got to challenge your mind you got challenge your body every day when you force yourself to do it yeah a hundred percent of time don't you feel better after you've worked out 100 percent now you're going into it you're like this is not the day that i really want to do this right now well the beautiful thing about like this is sober October for me. And one of the things that I pledge is that during sober October, I'm going to work out, I'm doing something every single day.

[479] So when I know I have to, but when I know I have to and then I do it, I get it done.

[480] But I always work out.

[481] But I take days off.

[482] But now I'm wondering, like, do I take too many days off?

[483] Like, maybe I'm being a bitch.

[484] Like maybe when I take two days off a week, I really only need one.

[485] And that other one is just a bitch day.

[486] I'm not sure.

[487] Not sure because it's kind of amazing when you have a set schedule, when you have to do something, that you get it done and you realize you can get it done when you require more of your body.

[488] That's right.

[489] And then your body responds to stress and stimulus much better in other aspects that you don't even think about.

[490] Even if it's just you got to do 100 pushups and 100 bodyweight squats, that'll take 10 minutes.

[491] That's not that much time.

[492] But you can do it.

[493] You can do that in 10 minutes.

[494] I mean, it can be done.

[495] You do push -ups and sets of 20.

[496] And in between, you do sets of 20 body weight squats and just bang them out, left and right, left and right.

[497] You'll be tired as fuck.

[498] Yep.

[499] 10 minutes, 15 minutes later.

[500] You have a sweat going.

[501] Yeah.

[502] And so, like, I only have 10 minutes.

[503] Good.

[504] Go to work.

[505] Do that.

[506] And you can do that.

[507] And then you also feel like you, then you've also accomplished something.

[508] Yes.

[509] And also, like, the idea of what I just did something, or if you do this, I did something that actually, how many people would have actually just chosen to do this for, 10 minutes.

[510] Right.

[511] That makes me different.

[512] Yeah.

[513] It gives you an edge.

[514] It gives you an edge.

[515] It gives you an edge.

[516] And it makes you feel better about yourself.

[517] Like you did what you needed to do.

[518] That's right.

[519] Yeah.

[520] I think that that's a great message that we can get out there to the world.

[521] And I've been promoting that message for a long time.

[522] Is that when you challenge your mind and you force your body to do things, you increase your ability to do difficult things.

[523] That's right.

[524] And increase is your overall ability to do difficult things.

[525] That's right.

[526] Yeah.

[527] That's right.

[528] The days that are the roughest for me on the campaign trail are the days that I didn't work out.

[529] I'm sure.

[530] And my campaign manager knows it too.

[531] He could tell.

[532] Now what has the campaign trail been like?

[533] What is in general, what do you have to do?

[534] Goodness.

[535] Yeah.

[536] So with COVID things have obviously changed the way that we do things dramatically.

[537] By the way, if everyone is noticing that both me and Wesley are sweating the fucking AC in this room is shit out on us and it's now, it doesn't even say.

[538] Yeah, the thermostat's broken.

[539] It was 78 degrees when we walked in here with all this equipment and then all this intense talking.

[540] Here's the thing, but we work, well, we work out so we can handle it.

[541] So it's a slow sweat.

[542] We can do it.

[543] Yes.

[544] But, I mean, if people are like, what's going on?

[545] These guys have, they're just sitting there.

[546] Why are they sweating?

[547] It's all about working out when they're not doing anything.

[548] You're sweating.

[549] I can open the door and get some airflow.

[550] No, don't worry about it.

[551] We're good.

[552] So tell me about the campaign trail.

[553] What does it entail and how long have you been doing?

[554] But when I met you in Houston was, what, July?

[555] That's right.

[556] That's right.

[557] I met you with Dan Crenshaw at the Houston Improv, great spot with Willie Dee from the Ghetto Boys.

[558] Great job, by the way.

[559] Thank you.

[560] Thank you very much.

[561] Great job.

[562] When did it start and what does it entail?

[563] Like, what do you have to do?

[564] So I announced about a year and a half ago.

[565] And what you have to do is basically work every day, tirelessly, try to reach as many voters in the district as possible and as efficiently as you can.

[566] And there's avenues in which you can do that.

[567] So there's broadcast television.

[568] There's mail, there's digital, there's knocking on doors, there's person -to -person stuff.

[569] What's really lacking because of COVID is the latter, the person -to -person stuff.

[570] So you're not really allowed to have big gatherings like you used to be able to do for, you know, fundraisers and meet and greets and things like that.

[571] So you have to get creative.

[572] This is now evolved into a lot of more Zoom calls.

[573] It's evolved to what we're doing in Houston, some front yard meet and grease that are socially distanced.

[574] And we make sure that we keep everybody safe and everyone's wearing a mask.

[575] but we are still out in the community actually talking to people because there's absolutely nothing like meeting someone in person.

[576] Yeah.

[577] Even meeting you in person at the improv.

[578] It's just way different.

[579] I've been following you for years, but it's just a different touch when you actually see the person.

[580] And so that's what the challenge has been.

[581] So what we are doing is just lining up as many front yard, backyard, meeting greets throughout the district as possible.

[582] And I think we've done a pretty good job at getting out in the community.

[583] So when you say back, yard or front yard meet and greets like how do those come about like what do you do yeah well we have people that reach out to us and they'll say hey look you know we have we have we have a we have a community here people want to meet you we can get 10 15 20 people out here that usually set up some chairs or just stand around um i'll come over meet everybody the best of my ability give them kind of my talk answer questions that they would have with me on how they want to see government run for the future how can i continue to be their humble servant what can we do to save our country what can do to kind of quell a lot of the division that we're seeing right now.

[584] And then I go off to the next one.

[585] It's very efficient.

[586] It's very good.

[587] And I think a lot of people have been very receptive to it too.

[588] Now, what other issues do you think are concerns that people have that maybe you have a unique perspective on that you can help?

[589] Like what are the big issues do you see in the country that you think that need to be addressed in a way that you are not seeing being addressed currently.

[590] So I'm a Houston boy, born and raised.

[591] First football game I went to was for the Houston Oilers back in the, back in the love you blue days.

[592] I don't know what the love you blue days are.

[593] Get out of here.

[594] It's the Houston Orlidge when they had their light blue.

[595] Oh my goodness.

[596] I'm a sports commentator professionally that knows nothing.

[597] I know nothing about sports.

[598] It's embarrassing.

[599] It's embarrassing.

[600] Jamie makes fun of me all the time.

[601] It's like, I don't know shit.

[602] Jamie knows.

[603] Tell me what is it?

[604] I saw Warren Moon play on his birthday back when I was a kid.

[605] Did you really?

[606] It gets the Browns.

[607] I don't remember who won the game.

[608] I was only like eight.

[609] Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

[610] I've been to an Oilers game, too.

[611] That's awesome.

[612] There you go.

[613] Yeah, so they're playing the Astrodower.

[614] I've never seen a football game live.

[615] You're making that up.

[616] Nope.

[617] You're dead serious.

[618] No. I've only watched the Super Bowl like twice ever.

[619] That's it.

[620] It's only football games I've ever seen.

[621] You've watched it.

[622] You didn't go to the Super Bowl.

[623] No, no. I've never been to a football game live ever.

[624] Do you plan on doing it?

[625] No. No. Is there a reason for this?

[626] I mean, it's a great sport and everything, but I got shit to do.

[627] I'm the wrong guy, man. I know.

[628] I get it.

[629] People, they're like, what the fuck is wrong?

[630] I haven't Artie Lang yelled at me. He yelled at me. He yelled at me. I don't know anything about sports.

[631] He's like, what the fuck is wrong with you?

[632] I'm like, hey, man. I mean, you ask me, want to ask me some shit about fighting.

[633] I know a lot of shit about that.

[634] Moy Thai, a lot of shit about jujitsu.

[635] I know a lot of shit about the UFC.

[636] Yeah.

[637] But that's it.

[638] That's it.

[639] I'm sorry.

[640] I'm a one.

[641] one -trick pony.

[642] That's too funny.

[643] Well, oilers, I basically call the Houston Oilers.

[644] Okay.

[645] And, you know, this is an oil and gas town.

[646] And I am not a climate denier.

[647] Like a lot of millennials, quite frankly, I do believe that human beings can influence the climate.

[648] But Houston is known as the energy capital of the world.

[649] And encompassed in the energy capital of the world is the energy district of the world, which is Congressional District 7, where I and running in in Houston.

[650] And the narrative that I am seeing about fossil fuels doesn't necessarily jive well with me at all.

[651] Let's talk about that.

[652] I'd love to talk to you about that.

[653] California recently, the state that I escaped.

[654] I want to ask you about that too after this, actually.

[655] Scaped!

[656] I feel so happy.

[657] Welcome to Texas, too, by the way.

[658] Appreciate it.

[659] Yeah, when I saw you was right around the time that I'd made the decision.

[660] Tom Papa, my buddy, who was just here yesterday, sent me a picture.

[661] of Los Angeles and obviously this is because of the fires but also what the fuck is that come on look at that look at that it's massive traffic and the sky is a weird shade of gray and brown and he said you've poisoned my L .A. mind with that picture and I said you're in the wrong place my brother now you know he's in the wrong place he knows where to go this in Texas I've always love Texas.

[662] I filmed one of my specials here.

[663] I did one of my CDs here back in 99.

[664] The first CD I ever did I filmed at the Houston lap stop in 1999, the one on River Oaks.

[665] I know the one.

[666] Yeah, it's not there anymore.

[667] It was one of the best spots in the country.

[668] I love Texas.

[669] I've always loved Texas.

[670] And it was one of the places where when I thought about getting out of L .A., I was like, there's only a couple places I'm interested in.

[671] I'm interested in Montana because of the beauty and just the wildness and I want to live in a place with grizzly bears.

[672] And Colorado, I love that, weed, legal mushrooms now too.

[673] Woo!

[674] And then Texas.

[675] I just love people from Texas.

[676] I love the attitude.

[677] People are super friendly.

[678] Like, they have a distorted perception with Texas is.

[679] I think Texas in a lot of ways is what other people think of when they think of America.

[680] Yeah.

[681] Think of wild motherfuckers with guns and tigers in their backyard.

[682] And big trucks.

[683] In big trucks.

[684] And barbecue.

[685] You know, I mean, that is Texas in a lot of ways.

[686] But, so let's get back to what we were saying, though.

[687] Yeah.

[688] You were talking about oil, when I was saying that I escaped Los Angeles.

[689] One of the things that's going on is Gavin Newsom has passed this new law saying that they will sell no cars that run on gasoline that are new after 2035.

[690] And a lot of people are freaking out.

[691] And one of the things they're freaking out about is, do you know how much lithium you're going to have to pull out of the fucking ground to make the batteries for all these electric cars and that this is not good for the environment.

[692] That's right.

[693] Yeah, the lithium mines like mining.

[694] There's a great meat eater podcast.

[695] I want to encourage everybody to listen to my friend Steve Ronella's podcast and it's going on right now.

[696] It's episode 241 Half Life of Never and it's all about the I think it's called the Pebble Mine or the pebble beach mine.

[697] What is the mine that's going on that there's a project in Alaska that they're going to do?

[698] I think it's called the Pebble Mine mine it's either the pebble mine but pebble beach is like a golf course right yes it is i think it's called the pebble mine is that what it is um but it's a it's a crazy copper and gold mine that they're proposing like one of the biggest mines in the world in alaska and it's near bristol bay which is like which one is it pebble mine pebble mines um it's near bristol bay which is the number one salmon fishing resource and salmon resource on a planet earth and they're saying it will destroy everything and these people want to do that to to pull minerals and and to pull gold and copper out of the ground it's going to devastate the environment and sulfur as well you're going to have to get through a shitload of sulfur and then move and destroy but that the podcast is eye -opening it's really fascinating but you got a mine to get lithium this is not good for the environment this is I mean and I'm a person with an electric car I have a Tesla I love it got it got it but it's not This is not like one is awesome and perfect, and the other one is terrible for everybody.

[699] It's a combination of everything, and that needs to be the solution for the future.

[700] I'm also not a big fan of the government saying when an industry is supposed to end.

[701] Yes.

[702] I'm a big fan of the government empowering the private sector to innovate to get to the next affordable, renewable source that's going to happen.

[703] It's my opinion if Jeff Bezos doesn't get there first, the first trillionaire, in my opinion, who's already born, is going to be the person that's going to be the person that's going to happen.

[704] comes up with an abundant renewable source for the future that everyone can't afford.

[705] Now, I get the Green New Deal and attendance of it, what they're trying to do, but what's not addressed in that is global warming and the operative word being global.

[706] If we don't get India and China and Russia and Africa and South America to reduce their carbon footprint with us, you can literally destroy the oil and gas industry here in the U .S. at no gain to the globe.

[707] That doesn't make sense to me. That is such an important point.

[708] That's so important.

[709] Nobody's talking about the other country.

[710] So China and India are building four coal plants per month.

[711] And it's not a case of if we build it, they will come.

[712] That's not how this works.

[713] In fact, our energy independence is also an issue of national security as well.

[714] We're energy independent.

[715] Why?

[716] Because of fracking that, quite frankly, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris actually want to do away with by 2035 as well.

[717] It's actually a national agenda.

[718] And so we are reducing our carbon footprint because of fracking, because natural gas burns cleaner.

[719] But most importantly, Joe, 20 years ago, we would kill a bad guy in the Middle East.

[720] And then we have to turn around and ask these same countries for resources in oil.

[721] That's a conflict of interest, if you could imagine.

[722] Of course.

[723] So we don't have to do that anymore.

[724] So when we kill Qasem Soleimani outside of Baghdad airport, who was a bad guy, responsible for actually kill.

[725] some West Point graduates actually in Iraq, we don't have to ask them for oil.

[726] So this is an issue where we have to marry economics, innovation, and of course make sure that we are good stewards of this earth.

[727] But right now there's roughly one billion, with a B, roughly one billion light trucks and vehicles in the world today that are gas powered.

[728] And over the course of the next 20 years, the world is going to add another.

[729] a billion vehicles, and of that billion, 750 million of them are going to be gas powered.

[730] Again, there's not a California problem.

[731] It's a global issue that we have to take a look at.

[732] From a defense standpoint, I flew Apache helicopters, and we have a joke in the Army, how do you know if somebody flew Apaches?

[733] We will tell you.

[734] We always do.

[735] And what's funny about the Apache and about destroy.

[736] and about F -22s, and that's you can't fuel them on solar and wind.

[737] We literally aren't going anywhere for the next few generations.

[738] What I want to hear the conversation shift to is more of the idea of us working with these oil and gas companies to innovate for the future, and they want it too.

[739] It's a matter of time until we get there, but let's bring them along with the conversation and not demonize them.

[740] And as somebody that's Houston born and bred, this is the conversation that's near and dear to my heart because, again, it's the energy capital of the world.

[741] And I am all for solar.

[742] I am all for wind.

[743] I am all for renewables.

[744] I get it.

[745] But it's a combination of all of the above, not an or conversation.

[746] Now, what is the Green New Deal?

[747] Can you lay that out for us?

[748] What are they looking to do?

[749] Titus of the Green New Deal.

[750] One big thing that Joe Biden talks about and what Bernie Sanders was.

[751] talking about as well is being carbon neutral by 2035, which effectively is an end to the oil and gas industry in the United States.

[752] That's one tenant of it.

[753] Another one is fracking bans.

[754] And again, as I just articulated, this is the very technology that's actually reducing our carbon footprint.

[755] Also, just more restrictions on oil and gas companies to be able to drill and find resources as well.

[756] And it is a job killer in Houston, Texas, particularly as we recover from COVID -19.

[757] And we've been hit pretty hard because if you notice, the oil gas industry has been hit pretty hard too.

[758] Started off with just obviously a shortage of demand because people just stopped driving.

[759] And that really drove cost down tremendously.

[760] And so we have to recover.

[761] from this thing, and the way to do it is not to employ more restrictions on an already hurting industry that, quite frankly, has got to be around rather you like it or not.

[762] Also, the byproducts of petrochemicals as well, this microphone, this mug, your phone, it's hydrocarbons.

[763] The shoes on your feet is all byproducts of the oil and gas industry.

[764] and so what people don't realize is that the chairs that they sit in the silverware that they eat off of where they eat sleep breathe and live the mattress that they're sleeping on it's fossil fuels we literally aren't going anywhere i understand the benevolence of the green new deal it's always good in theory i got it i think i think if we could magically snap our fingers and the world could be just carbon neutral that that that sounds great that sounds great but that's not how that's not how this works we are always about progression.

[765] This country is always about innovation and progression.

[766] We've been doing this for generations.

[767] Let's continue that progression by enabling, again, the private sector to innovate to the next level.

[768] If you're paying attention to what the Green New Deal says, it basically just demonizes an entire industry, and I think for lack of understanding what the industry does for the world.

[769] Is there in the Green New Deal, Is there a solution for what they deem the problems of the oil and gas industry?

[770] Do they have a replacement for those resources?

[771] So there lies the point.

[772] Hydrocarbons are a storable energy that have a lot of power in them.

[773] And that's actually the reason why the world uses them.

[774] Bottom line is, is this.

[775] You can't turn your lights on.

[776] The world can't turn their lights on.

[777] The U .S. can't turn their lights on for the time being without oil.

[778] gas when the only gas industry.

[779] If we were able to miraculously even attempt to turn this entire country into a renewable source, it's just not possible.

[780] I don't know exactly what the numbers are, but we would actually only be able to fuel less than last I read 8 % of our world, of the United States's energy demands if we were able to completely transform to renewable resources.

[781] So that's just wind and solar?

[782] Yeah, wind solar and battery lithium ion, you know, these kinds of these kinds of things.

[783] But they also require something to charge them.

[784] What about nuclear?

[785] Because one of the things that is really uncomfortable for people is that nuclear power is one of the cleanest sources of power that we know of.

[786] It's just we know about disasters.

[787] We know about Fukushima.

[788] We know about Three Mile Island.

[789] We know about all the Chernobyl.

[790] Chernobyl.

[791] We know about these disasters, which in many cases are indicative of old technology, Like Fukushima, they really didn't know how to shut it down.

[792] Yes.

[793] Which is fucking bananas that they decided to build it anyway.

[794] Mind boggling.

[795] They're like, we'll figure it out eventually.

[796] But they, there's ways of doing nuclear right where you have very little environmental damage.

[797] That's right.

[798] But that's a, you just bring up nuclear power and everybody's like, we're going to die.

[799] That's right.

[800] Everyone freaks out.

[801] Yeah, and they think Trinople.

[802] What do you think about nuclear?

[803] So this is, this is again the importance of innovation.

[804] You brought up an excellent point.

[805] You see, in past technologies, we didn't have the ability to be able to really create something without understanding what the worst outcomes could possibly be.

[806] Do you think over the course of the last 50 years we've actually advanced to know more and to be able to do better and to be more effective with how we do this?

[807] Of course we have.

[808] Right.

[809] But it kind of goes back to the oil and gas industry as well.

[810] we have the over demonization of an energy source, people just, as we were talking about, they just shut it off.

[811] Right.

[812] It becomes a headline.

[813] That's it.

[814] I don't want anything else to do with it.

[815] Oh, no, we saw a bad incident.

[816] That's it.

[817] It becomes headline news instead of us being, wait a minute, if you're going to try to tell me that 2020 was the same as the 70s and the 60s and the 50s from a technological standpoint, it's ridiculous.

[818] I mean, look at your Tesla that you drive.

[819] No. I mean, that is a technological marvel and advancement in itself.

[820] And now we're producing it on a mass scale.

[821] Thank you, Elon Musk.

[822] And again, even the production of the Tesla.

[823] That doesn't mean we do away with the oil and gas industry.

[824] Oh, we could have both.

[825] Let's continue to do both.

[826] So from a nuclear standpoint, I also think that that's gotten demonized as well because of some incidences.

[827] And we need to realize that from a technological standpoint, we are certainly further along than we were before.

[828] Let's pursue this.

[829] Let's empower these companies to come up with a safe way of building these plants and also making sure that everybody can stay safe in the future.

[830] What I've actually heard discussed that's kind of fascinating is technologies that could be on the horizon that can actually pull carbon and pull particles from the atmosphere.

[831] Yes.

[832] That they can develop essentially enormous air filters that can be used in high pollution areas and cities and urban centers, and they actually can pull pollution out of the air and potentially use that carbon, and it can actually be a resource.

[833] That's exactly right.

[834] Right.

[835] So, tell me. Think about that.

[836] Pretty crazy.

[837] But it kind of makes sense, right?

[838] Like, if you can put it out there, then it's there.

[839] Well, if you can push it out, can you extract it?

[840] It seems like you should be able to mean we extract nitrogen from the atmosphere, right?

[841] I mean, that's how they make a lot of fertilizer.

[842] That's right.

[843] There's got to be a way to take that carbon out.

[844] Of course there is.

[845] And again, people want to look at where we are right now.

[846] Maybe we aren't there now.

[847] Right.

[848] But we can easily be there in the not so distant future.

[849] Sure.

[850] Well, 150 years ago, we were riding horses.

[851] Thank you.

[852] Yeah.

[853] And think about what you just said.

[854] That wasn't that long ago, by the way.

[855] That's pretty recent.

[856] That's crazy recent.

[857] I mean, in World War I, in World War I, they were still using livestock.

[858] Yeah.

[859] Bananas.

[860] I mean, think about that.

[861] I know.

[862] Yeah.

[863] And now we're flying Apaches.

[864] It's hard for people to, once they have it in their mind, that they are doing a good thing.

[865] Like the proponents of the Green New Deal, they are doing a good thing.

[866] This is the way, and anyone who opposes that or anyone who even has debate about it is on the wrong side.

[867] You are on the side of the fossil fuel industry.

[868] You've been paid off.

[869] You're a shill.

[870] You don't care about the environment.

[871] You don't care about our children.

[872] And then they'll propose it this way, that, you know, this person does not care about the future of this country.

[873] We're going to burn.

[874] Look what's happening in California.

[875] This is Trump's fault.

[876] Like we were discussing this in the podcast yesterday.

[877] It didn't matter who became president in 2016.

[878] The exact same conditions would be in place here.

[879] This battleship is an enormous thing.

[880] It's hard to turn around.

[881] You think that somehow or another, if Hillary Clinton was president, that California wouldn't be on fire right now?

[882] The exact same thing would be happening.

[883] Of course would be.

[884] 100%.

[885] There's no other way around it.

[886] And what I always say to people that have to add this conversation with, and again, I have two kids at the house.

[887] and it is my opinion at this point with two baby girls that it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we hand them a better world than we inherited.

[888] Yes.

[889] We were talking like, again, you know, the birth of a child is a spiritual thing.

[890] We're saying this before the podcast.

[891] It's a spiritual.

[892] You're talking about your youngest and how crazy it is.

[893] It's just, it's crazy.

[894] It's life -changing.

[895] My youngest is 10, but still, I think back.

[896] And, you know, there's times when I'm alone where I just go, I can't even believe I have children.

[897] I can't even believe that it's a thing.

[898] that a person who comes out of your own DNA is now walking and talking and hanging out with you.

[899] Yes.

[900] And destroying our living room.

[901] That's we live and breathe.

[902] Yeah, for sure.

[903] So, of course I care about them.

[904] And of course I care about the environment.

[905] I just want to take a pragmatic approach to making sure that.

[906] Yeah.

[907] Well, we're so polarized today.

[908] If you don't agree with me, you must be evil.

[909] And this is our perspective, or you must be naive, or you must be, foolish.

[910] These are the perspectives that are the narrative that you see on social media today, which is where so many people are forming their opinions and then arguing them.

[911] And it's insanity.

[912] It's such a crazy time where people want people, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine today.

[913] They were talking about this new social media platform where this person was arguing, don't hear people's opinions.

[914] What we need to do is de -platform them.

[915] Right.

[916] But it's just, that's insane.

[917] So everybody has to agree with you.

[918] And you don't, I don't even know if you're You're right.

[919] You don't even know if you're right.

[920] The way you find out if you're right, right.

[921] You got to talk to other people.

[922] Right.

[923] There's a lot of times I've talked to people and I went, huh, okay, yeah, I'm wrong.

[924] That's important.

[925] That's the whole point.

[926] Yeah, you have to be able to have these conversations.

[927] What the proponents of the Green New Deal, what are they proposing in terms of replacing fossil fuels and these things that we're relying on currently to power everything and have the country running exactly.

[928] how it's running now.

[929] And therein lies the problem.

[930] They're not.

[931] They're not.

[932] So what are they saying though when they're when they're question on this?

[933] Like what are we going to do in 2035 in terms of like how are we going to keep the lights on?

[934] I have no idea.

[935] Really?

[936] And this is and this is literally part of my problem and that is if you weren't going to tell me a substantive viable solution by if so if you want to say that's it, it's not my fingers like thanos.

[937] That's it.

[938] We're going to be carbon neutral here.

[939] And okay.

[940] Okay.

[941] So what's the path to do so?

[942] What resources are we going to use to get there?

[943] How are we going to replace these resources?

[944] And again, I'm not a climate denier.

[945] I keep saying this over and over again, but nothing's being proposed that's rational and reasonable that's actually addressing global warming.

[946] It completely leaves out the other countries.

[947] It completely leaves out the globe.

[948] And that's problematic to me. Yes.

[949] Yeah, what they're not even discussing it at all.

[950] No, they're just conveniently annoying it sounds it sounds good it's it sounds good yeah it does sound good sounds amazing we get me wrong it sounds great but there's not the name of it green new deal who doesn't like green things it's beautiful hmm but biden says he doesn't believe in the green new deal though right he was no he so first he said so first he said he did and then he backed walked that back ever so slightly and said well no no no not the green new deal it's entirety tenets of the green new deal did he describe which tenants translation to me it's it's the green new deal are you troubled by the fact that the democrats have this gentleman running for president that seems at the very least like his better days behind him it got to the point for where at first when i watched the corned pop video you've seen that one yes the corn pop one what the fuck is that video it was the most bizarre thing my most bizarre thing they've ever seen how about all the kids behind him talking like they didn't even pay attention to this guy it was the weirdest thing it was like really literally literally the word of the guy and I sent it to my brother Rendon because he was my best friend we talked like four times a day I say it to Rendon and he's just like is this even real I got hairy legs there's so many of those the blonde and it's it was really weird that was back in December and I thought it was funny and then now I don't think it's very funny anymore actually and And this is, this is very dangerous, I think, for the country.

[951] And we need to be very careful with who we put forward.

[952] There is a clear decline in Mr. Biden.

[953] I think we can all agree with that.

[954] I think we can all say that the reason why Kamala Harris was chosen was probably to make sure that someone of a sounder mind can actually run the country.

[955] Yeah.

[956] And we're young and healthy.

[957] And she's probably going to be the president.

[958] I mean, that if he wins, that she will be really pulling the strings.

[959] Now, you just came from California.

[960] And again, politics, Democrat, Republican, this is Texas.

[961] Democrats, Republicans are Texas.

[962] That's fine.

[963] You understand this.

[964] Do you know how left and how liberal you have to be to be a senator from California?

[965] How left?

[966] Extremely.

[967] As left as you could probably be, if you think about it.

[968] That's not where the values of Texas are, though.

[969] And so what we have to be very careful.

[970] is in the idea of making sure that if she's going to be run of the country, you do understand that those values are going to be the issues that are going to be running Texas as well.

[971] And that's just not, or I believe, Texas, or really the nation is.

[972] I think we are far more center than that.

[973] Yeah, I agree.

[974] And I think the center is probably where the rational discussions are taking place.

[975] But everyone's scared to be in the center.

[976] Oh, yeah.

[977] Because if you're in the center, you're not supportive by the left, you're not supported by the right.

[978] And that's the problem with this country right now is that we're so divided and people seek comfort and being connected to a certain ideology, whether you're full -on liberal or full -on conservative.

[979] So another reason why I'm running is because I always like to add perspective and add color to the history of this country.

[980] That's why I bring in my great -great -grandfather.

[981] And I always talk about the Civil War.

[982] So one of my favorite stories about West Point is there is a...

[983] a monument is called trophy point is actually one of the most prominent pieces at west point at one point was the largest single piece of granite in the history of the world and then the world at the time that was in a monument it's beautiful it overlooks the hudson river surrounding trophy point are civil war eric cannons that are that are buried into the ground muzzle first why why during the civil war you had west point classmates that were friends that were trained together that were in class together that would graduate, and depending on where you were from geographically, some wouldn't go and fight for the north, and others would go and fight for the south.

[984] And you had West Point classmates killing each other.

[985] The reason why a trophy point or battle monument was created, and the reason why those canons are surrounding it buried into the ground muzzle first is to commemorate the notion of never aiming our cannons at our fellow countrymen again.

[986] That's division.

[987] When I think about the Vietnam era, when you had soldiers that were.

[988] were drafted, by the way, not volunteer, they were drafted.

[989] They'll go off to war to do our country's biddings, and they would lose limbs, and most importantly, pieces of their mind because of PTSD, that they would never get back for the rest of their natural lives.

[990] And they'd come back home, they'd get off a plane, and they would be spat on by fellow Americans.

[991] Joe, I came home to a hero's welcome, and the first thing people tell me all day, every day is thank you for your service.

[992] That's division.

[993] My parents who are alive and well today They're in their 70s as I was telling you earlier My dad was born in 1949 The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 So he spent a lot of his teenage years And has segregated south He's seen the back of buses And he has seen colored only water fountains He's alive and well today That's division So I want to add perspective To how far this country has really come and we've got to understand how do we build on these things and also understand that this pendulum shifts back and forth.

[994] I think people like Dan Crenshaw are people that want to make sure that we bring this pendulum back this way, but just being reasonable human beings.

[995] Yes.

[996] That's it.

[997] We could disagree politically.

[998] How could be reasonable people?

[999] That's one of his best qualities.

[1000] It is.

[1001] He's so measured and so rational and reasonable and when he talks, He says things that make sense.

[1002] Yes.

[1003] He's logical.

[1004] And, I mean, as well, I'm trying to tell him, run for president.

[1005] How old is he now?

[1006] 36.

[1007] So that's how old you have to be, right?

[1008] Yeah, yeah.

[1009] He'd be a great one.

[1010] I told people that's all the time.

[1011] People are like.

[1012] How about you two together?

[1013] How about that?

[1014] Oh, my goodness.

[1015] No, Dan, you know, you know how seals are.

[1016] No, tell me. I tell me. I got to ask this.

[1017] I got to ask this the other day.

[1018] I got to ask, you know, what's, what's, what's, the issue.

[1019] You know, I have an issue with the country, and Wesley, I'm concerned about where we're going to be in 10 years.

[1020] And I retorted why, Dan Krishog could be the president.

[1021] And I think that would be an excellent thing, to be honest with you.

[1022] Yeah.

[1023] To have a leader like that as president.

[1024] I would vote for him.

[1025] I would vote for him myself.

[1026] And so I always look at Americans like him that get into the breach when it seems like it's dark, it seems like it's bad.

[1027] We are the ones that step in and pull that pendulum back by just being reasonable people.

[1028] That's why he's here.

[1029] What's wrong with seals?

[1030] Seals are intense.

[1031] Oh yeah.

[1032] Seals are intense.

[1033] Seals are uber competitive and they are very intense and they are my most favorite people on the entire planet because what they do and their dedication to service, sacrifice, and if you ask a Navy SEAL to give their life for this country tomorrow, they don't even think about it.

[1034] They don't think twice about it.

[1035] They'll do it.

[1036] So I kind of say that tongue in cheek because quite frankly I love them but that level of intensity is why America is always so different.

[1037] It's that passion.

[1038] It's that love.

[1039] It's that it's that it's that just that camaraderie that seals have you've been around quite a few of them.

[1040] I mean I have too and it is it is hilarious to watch them compete against each other.

[1041] It's awesome.

[1042] Yeah.

[1043] But I love it too because I think that's that's kind of the American warrior ethos that's somewhere in all of us.

[1044] They are just at the tip of the spirit when it comes to exemplifying it.

[1045] And that's why when Dan Crenshaw calls me up and it says, hey, man, I got an idea for a video, you in?

[1046] And I was like, okay, tell me more.

[1047] And he goes, well, first I'm going to jump out of an airplane.

[1048] And I'm like, sign me up.

[1049] Sign me up.

[1050] That video is crazy.

[1051] It's awesome.

[1052] That's a great, but we should, can we play it?

[1053] Sure.

[1054] You know the video, Jamie?

[1055] Sure.

[1056] The text is reloaded.

[1057] Jamie will find it.

[1058] I don't think we'll get in trouble.

[1059] Oh, well, we'll let them know.

[1060] I mean, yeah, it's not going to hurt.

[1061] It's only going to help.

[1062] Oh, yeah.

[1063] So I've made it.

[1064] So can I okay?

[1065] Yeah, I think.

[1066] Probably.

[1067] Whoever owns it, I think.

[1068] Who owns?

[1069] Somebody own it?

[1070] Dan will like this.

[1071] Dan will let it go for sure.

[1072] So anyway, so keep going.

[1073] So he tells he's going to jump out of an airplane.

[1074] He's going to jump out of an airplane.

[1075] And then he's like, do you want to be in it?

[1076] And my next question was, so can I wear my flight suit?

[1077] It's four minutes long, too.

[1078] We can't play the whole thing.

[1079] We can't?

[1080] Do you want to watch the whole thing for four minutes?

[1081] Is that bad?

[1082] I'm asking.

[1083] Probably the problem is there's not a lot of talking.

[1084] Yeah.

[1085] Crenshaw Command Center.

[1086] This is fun, too.

[1087] It's also kind of ridiculous.

[1088] Like you can see, Anguant with its bionic eye.

[1089] By the way, they're probably about three years away from giving him one of those.

[1090] Oh, yeah.

[1091] After this.

[1092] Save Texas.

[1093] Don't, da, da, that people are genuinely worried about Texas going blue, right?

[1094] This is why we're running.

[1095] And there's a lot of people that are using this hashtag turn Texas blue as if that's going to fix things.

[1096] There you go.

[1097] Wesley Hunt, and he's on the plane right now?

[1098] And that's him live, too.

[1099] Oh, yeah.

[1100] Of course it is.

[1101] There it goes.

[1102] That crazy fuck.

[1103] He's probably so excited to risk his life.

[1104] It's like, yay, something exciting.

[1105] This is great.

[1106] Oh, look at the landing.

[1107] The superhero landing.

[1108] The superhero landing and then all of a sudden he's got a suit on.

[1109] It's so silly.

[1110] It's great.

[1111] It's so silly and awesome at the same time.

[1112] Look at you.

[1113] So know how to fly one of these things?

[1114] Dan Crenshaw.

[1115] I'm putting a team together, Wesley.

[1116] You guys are terrible actors.

[1117] You know I would miss this for the world.

[1118] You know I would miss this for the world.

[1119] It shows all your credentials.

[1120] I think August is going to want to come, too.

[1121] That's me, August Flueger, he's wearing, he's running out here too, awesome guy.

[1122] August Flueger is running for what is running for?

[1123] He's running for a seat up in District 11.

[1124] He's an Air Force Academy guy, F -22 pilot, amazing guy.

[1125] What were you doing working under a helicopter of a typical Air Force fixing the Arbius problems?

[1126] This guy, this guy, damn, bro, you could have just texted me, man. Why got to jump out of an airplane?

[1127] Because it's cooler to jump.

[1128] Never mind.

[1129] We get the point.

[1130] You get the point.

[1131] People can watch it.

[1132] It's available on, is it on Dan's YouTube page?

[1133] Yeah, it's to Texas Reloaded .com.

[1134] Okay, there you go.

[1135] Texas Reloaded .com.

[1136] It's on YouTube.

[1137] It's on his Instagram.

[1138] It's all over the place.

[1139] There you go.

[1140] Save Texas.

[1141] Yeah, people are really worried about all folks like me moving from, California.

[1142] Yeah.

[1143] Worried.

[1144] They're worried about.

[1145] You know, it's funny is that we want, we will come one, come all.

[1146] Give me your tired of your poor.

[1147] Come on to Texas.

[1148] But you got to understand something.

[1149] You come in here because of low taxes and low regulation and you want to live your life and liberty and make sure that you can protect yourself and protect your family.

[1150] And that means you have to, you have to vote a certain way.

[1151] And that's why we kind of are Texas.

[1152] Don't turn this place into what you fled.

[1153] That's exactly right.

[1154] Yeah.

[1155] That's what Matthew McConaughey was telling me. That's exactly right.

[1156] You have to kind of put that out there to people.

[1157] And I understand.

[1158] People have their different views and whatnot, but you're here for a reason.

[1159] Yeah.

[1160] Well, the thing is, you can be socially liberal.

[1161] Yes, you can.

[1162] But also understand that there's certain things that are just not wise.

[1163] Yes.

[1164] And a lot of those things are ruining California.

[1165] That's right.

[1166] There's over -regulation in California that's off the fucking chart.

[1167] The taxes are so crazy there, and they're trying to raise them up to 16 .8%.

[1168] And then what are you going to do?

[1169] that money.

[1170] Fuck it up worse?

[1171] You're going to have more money to fuck things up?

[1172] I just don't understand their logic of opening and not opening things.

[1173] And especially now when you look at the deaths, like they want to talk about COVID cases.

[1174] The cases are low.

[1175] They're not that high.

[1176] And the deaths are very low.

[1177] It's like we've kind of got a handle on what this is.

[1178] You can let people open up their businesses.

[1179] You can let people wear masks and be careful and take care of themselves and Take vitamin D and zinc and vitamin C, and we can at least get back to some semblance of normality.

[1180] That's right.

[1181] But they don't want to do that for some weird reason.

[1182] And this is the one that drives me crazy.

[1183] They keep saying after the election.

[1184] They're not even trying to hide the fact that they're politicizing this.

[1185] Like they won't let kids go back to school in California until after the election.

[1186] Like, what the fuck does the election have to do with anything?

[1187] Nothing.

[1188] How is that scientific?

[1189] Like, how is November 3rd?

[1190] How is that your science point?

[1191] it's not again this is what makes texas texas we just believe in liberty yes we believe in allowing and empowering the citizens to make your own personal informed decisions for your own life yes if you want to take the risk then then we allow you to do so go buy a tiger how'd you know i was going to say that do you know the statistic about tigers here what there's more tigers in captivity in Texas than all of the wild of the world.

[1192] I did not know that.

[1193] There's more tigers in private collections in Texas.

[1194] Activity in Texas.

[1195] In Texas.

[1196] Then all of the wild of the planet Earth.

[1197] Sometimes a little bit too much freedom.

[1198] It can cause problems.

[1199] That's the legit.

[1200] I had a whole bit about it in my 2016 Netflix special.

[1201] Yeah, that's a legit statistic.

[1202] I guess I'm not getting a dog.

[1203] I'm buying a tiger.

[1204] I had Mike Tyson on and he was explaining to me. Here it is.

[1205] How many tigers?

[1206] 2 ,000 to 5 ,000 tigers living in the southern state of the United States.

[1207] That's unbelievable.

[1208] So it was even more incredible is 2 ,000 to 5 ,000.

[1209] That's a pretty big gap.

[1210] It could be more tigers.

[1211] Meanwhile, they don't know.

[1212] That means they can be like 3 ,000 unaccounted for tigers.

[1213] That we don't even know about.

[1214] Yeah.

[1215] So there's roughly 3 ,800 tigers living in the world globally.

[1216] There's as many as 5 ,000 tigers living just in Texas.

[1217] Just in Texas.

[1218] Just in Texas.

[1219] yeah and I'm sure that picked up after after the tiger king got oh I'm sure I'm sure people are like hey I didn't know I get a tiger I was appalled at how easy it was to get a tiger and not only that how cheap it was to get a tiger how much is the tiger cost I think it was like was it like 600 bucks oh it wasn't yeah it was a puppies there are puppies that are more expensive I'm a fire member right oh for sure I believe I paid more than that for my dog.

[1220] Yeah, I thought, I thought for sure this would be, I mean, thousands of minimum thousands of dollars.

[1221] Yeah, so it's thought like $100 ,000 for a fucking tiger.

[1222] He's walking around with these little tiger cubs and it's just like, yeah, like 500 bucks a piece.

[1223] I'm like, are you kidding me?

[1224] Jamie's got something here.

[1225] Oh my goodness.

[1226] 500 bucks.

[1227] 500 bucks.

[1228] You could buy an orange bengal tiger and tie it up in your yard, no questions asked.

[1229] A white tiger will cause you 5 ,000 and it's all perfectly legal in Texas.

[1230] The exotic animal trade is a billion dollar industry.

[1231] Wow.

[1232] Wow.

[1233] That's nuts.

[1234] They're endangered, but you can buy them for $500.

[1235] That's right.

[1236] That's bonkers.

[1237] Is this crazy?

[1238] I mean, what kind of regulation do they have on the size of your yard?

[1239] Oh, my gosh.

[1240] Wasn't there a situation where a bunch of kids were getting high and they went into an abandoned house and they found a tiger inside of it?

[1241] I thought it.

[1242] Yeah.

[1243] Like, I'm like, that's the most Texas shit I've ever heard.

[1244] You're like a move in Texas after you saw that.

[1245] No, that's not why.

[1246] But that is one of the most Texas things I've ever fucking heard.

[1247] It is.

[1248] abandoned house it just happens to have a tiger in it that's that that's absolutely it's what does it what's the title cannabis smoker finds tiger in abandoned house in Texas what'd you do if you saw tiger well you would hope it's been eating right hope that motherfucker's full you know your lunch is what is what that turns into I mean I you ever seen those um ligers it's a tiger absolutely that is the most weird shit ever because they're massive too yeah apparently the gene i don't remember if it's from the male or the female which has to be which i think it has to be like a male lion a female tiger and then for whatever reason the genes for growth regulation don't exist right what so they you have this thing that can be like 15 feet long it's fucking massive it's so big but they're pretty chill that's the other thing they'll they're like they don't necessarily attack people anymore than like a regular tiger so let me get this let me get this right job you're going to buy a liger no no no you're going to buy a liber bro i got a golden retriever that's it i have the calmest dog of all time look at the size of that thing in the upper left gosh look at that thing look at that what in the fuck god damn that's big click on that jamie yeah what what that's unbelievable yeah that's a dude from the movie look at the size of that thing my lord that is so big that doesn't even look real that's unbelievable that lady's just feeding in a bottle Yeah, right?

[1249] That's like giving it a shot.

[1250] You give it a shot of milk, a shot glass of milk.

[1251] Texas has got some wacky laws.

[1252] But again, we've freedom, liberty.

[1253] These are just tenets that we have here that we just adhere to.

[1254] And also friendliness.

[1255] Yeah.

[1256] Like, people go out of the way to be nice here.

[1257] Like, drivers are more polite.

[1258] I noticed that they cut you off less.

[1259] They're generally to let you in the lane easier.

[1260] It's like there's a more polite.

[1261] society and the thing about Austin that I really enjoy is it's just not that many people too.

[1262] There's something about enormous populations where you kind of like lose your appreciation of people because there's too many of them.

[1263] They become a problem like all these people on the highway all these people at the mall, all these people like you don't appreciate them as much.

[1264] Right.

[1265] And so another place that I find somewhere of Texas is actually Iowa.

[1266] So my wife is from Iowa and I have the most amazing mother -in -law ever.

[1267] She's great.

[1268] and when you go to Iowa people are just flat out kind to you they're just nice well it gets so fucking cold in the winter they got to stay together yeah I got a good buddy mine lives in Iowa shout out to John Dudley okay there you go yeah he lives in Iowa his reasons are the most nutty ever he's a deer hunter and he has an enormous lease like well you owns land and he leases land so altogether he's got like more than 700 acres I believe in Iowa just for deer hunting I don't think I want to say I don't want to give out his spot but he's gotcha yeah but he's he's a rare dude he's a very famous bow hunter and so he teaches archery teaches bow hunting and teaches it online he's got this knock on archery set up like they set up bows for people and all the stuff makes videos of bow hunting but literally move to Iowa because the best white -tailed deer hunting in the world arguably is, you know, it's arguable, whether it's Kansas or Illinois or Iowa, but Iowa's in the mix, and his place is pretty special.

[1269] Yeah, I went hunting there a couple of years ago, and hopefully I'll get to go back here late November.

[1270] It's pretty awesome.

[1271] It's amazing.

[1272] Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

[1273] And when you drive down the road, you better go slow because those motherfuckers, they're everywhere.

[1274] They're just darting out all over the place.

[1275] Everywhere.

[1276] And they will destroy your vehicle.

[1277] They will destroy your vehicle.

[1278] He gets some big deer there.

[1279] and his place because he cultivates it only for bow hunting.

[1280] Oh, my gosh.

[1281] Yeah, and he knows what he's doing.

[1282] He puts up food plots and stuff.

[1283] And it's a part of the culture there that if you don't live in an area that has a culture that revolves around deer hunting, whether it's, you know, Wisconsin has it, other parts of the world have it.

[1284] But it's different.

[1285] It's different there.

[1286] That's right.

[1287] Yeah.

[1288] It's absolutely incredible.

[1289] And I believe the state's actually buckshot only.

[1290] Oh, really?

[1291] Is it?

[1292] You can't use a rifle?

[1293] Nope.

[1294] That's how Massachusetts was That makes things challenging It's like shooting a cannonball Yeah, those slugs Those are kind of crazy Yeah Yeah, it's just It is though In that way Like you get a lot of farmers A lot of hardworking people Yes we do And generally very nice They wave to you on the roads And again, not that many people It's a smaller population of people So my wife, she moved down here And it kind of she fits in seamlessly She'll always say the kind of values of Iowa or like kind of the values of Texas.

[1295] Yeah, but without the black ice.

[1296] That's the worst, dude.

[1297] It's insane.

[1298] When you don't know, and then all of a sudden your car is like, and you're spinning around in circles.

[1299] Yeah, on the highway.

[1300] Yeah, I grew up in Boston.

[1301] So, you know, I experienced a lot of snow and a lot of black ice.

[1302] That's the weirdest one, because it just rains a little bit, and then it freezes over.

[1303] And then I was on the, it was a funny thing when I was in high school.

[1304] Me and my friend, John, were on the roof of, I lived on a hill.

[1305] Yeah.

[1306] And we were on the roof of the garage drinking, watching people slide down the street and slamming the curbs and bounce off of each other.

[1307] Because one day the whole street became just like a skating rink.

[1308] Just all black ice.

[1309] And we sat up on that roof for hours, just watching people slide.

[1310] So we called the cops.

[1311] And we're like, hey man, people keep slamming into each other here.

[1312] So the cops did it.

[1313] They came sliding down and they slammed into the curb and they bounced off the fucking.

[1314] It was not terrible.

[1315] Like, my man, I didn't need to call you.

[1316] We try to tell you guys.

[1317] You don't fucking look.

[1318] Yeah, we got it.

[1319] No, you don't.

[1320] Like, bang.

[1321] Clearly, you don't.

[1322] But that's a, you know, if you live in anywhere where it gets that cold, that's our common occurrence.

[1323] Yes, I was, I was in grad school at Cornell up in Ithaca.

[1324] So, I mean, it was just the same.

[1325] Yeah.

[1326] It got to the point.

[1327] I just stayed off the road.

[1328] The one thing I do like about snow, though, is it makes everybody go mellow.

[1329] Everybody mellows out.

[1330] It chills.

[1331] It chills you out.

[1332] Just drive slowly.

[1333] If you got good tires and a four -wheel drive, you'll be all right.

[1334] You'll be all right.

[1335] right yeah it just it also makes you feel like more comfortable like you huddle up in the home you appreciate the fire you appreciate cozy yeah yeah yeah and it's the weird thing is the eerie quiet outside yeah when you go outside and snow because the snow acts as like a sound deadening for everything so if you got 12 inches of snow on the ground and it's snowing outside you don't hear a fucking thing except for your steps as you crunch into the snow that's all you hear yeah but the quiet it's really awesome it's pretty amazing yeah but that's the problem with iowa's the cold it's it right now and it's flat as fuck it's a lot of corn too yeah it's a lot of corn but i love it yeah there's good things yeah this and um a lot of people are exiting california and they're trying to find places to go and they're going to bozeman montana and they're going to arizona they're going they're going all over the place and they're realizing that this uh this situation this COVID situation that we're in handled differently.

[1336] Yes.

[1337] In different places of the country.

[1338] I have friends that come from California and they come out here and they're like, holy shit, it's like everyone's normal.

[1339] That's right.

[1340] I'm like, yeah, you could be normal, man. That's right.

[1341] Wear a mask.

[1342] Don't be an asshole.

[1343] Yeah, you could go to a restaurant.

[1344] So the good thing, good thing about Houston is, obviously we took it very seriously as we should.

[1345] And I will never tell anybody not to.

[1346] But you're starting to see glimpses of life again.

[1347] You're starting to see people kind of starting to go out.

[1348] restaurant rules so if you're walking around you're wearing a mask but if you're sitting down it's okay California they want you to put your mask on in between bites now it's just that's a new thing I mean think about it shut the fuck up think about what you just said just shut the fuck up think about what you just said it's ridiculous so if you're outside you have to eat outside anyway do you have to do it outside is that what the new rule is outside you have to put your mask on in between bites come on it's just so stupid come on they just want to control people in some weird way like they were trying to tell kids they can't go to Halloween they can't go trick -or -treating and then everybody freaked out and they're like okay we change our mind like what kind of policies do you have like what what is what's what's the what is the motivation behind these policies and how can you just change your mind because people get upset if it's so important that you really think children should stay inside on Halloween and then everybody freaks out so you go okay we change our mind like what are you basing it on and who are you that's right and why do you get to choose this is not what the the constitution was supposed to be enabling no it is not.

[1349] And my other concerning thing, especially when it comes to young people and kids, and that's, we, we don't, we don't have these kids in school.

[1350] And the problem is, is that when you are, you know, young, when you're 18 years old, one year means a lot.

[1351] Yes.

[1352] And I'm not talking about academics.

[1353] I am talking about social growth and social development.

[1354] Yes.

[1355] We are stunting the social growth and social development of these kids.

[1356] Unquestionably.

[1357] Because when you are around groups of people, that's how you grow.

[1358] That's how your personality is formed.

[1359] And we're robbing them of that for roughly a year.

[1360] And I just feel like there's a way to do it to make sure that the kids are safe, which is our number one priority.

[1361] If there are instructors that are at risk, how do we keep them away?

[1362] And then allow the teachers a lot of them that I speak with who actually really want to get back to work and teach these kids because that's their passion.

[1363] And they're willing to take that risk because that's what they signed up for.

[1364] And that's what they told me. And I and I feel like there is a way where we could accomplish all the above, but we don't want to have a conversation about it.

[1365] After the election, Wesley, let's just wait until after the election.

[1366] I don't know why you're rushing now.

[1367] You're going to put people at risk.

[1368] People's lives.

[1369] Someone died.

[1370] These kids, we're hurting the kids.

[1371] Unquestionably.

[1372] And, you know, the other thing that people don't want to take any consideration or even don't want to discuss is how many people are dying during this COVID crisis because of depression because of suicide because they lost their business they lost their income they lost their livelihood they lost their home devastating it's happening and it's a factor and it's not a factor that's being talked about you're not seeing charts that track how much the suicides have gone up so high i have a friend who talked to a sheriff in los angeles who said we used to see one suicide every week or so now we see five a day that's exactly right and you're like this is crazy and it's crazy because we have the technology to fix this and actually handle it i mean for example example case and point came to your studio awesome studio by the way it's good seat in person walk in what do you do you text me hey there's a nurse you're gonna get COVID test takes 15 minutes great we all find out we're negative and we can get on with that with our with our day yes you know how easy that is yeah it well it's not readily available readily available everywhere yet yet but it can be it can be yeah that's the argument that it can be well what I want to do with the comedy club is set up like 10 of those and just have everybody say look the show's at eight get there at seven you get tested once you're clean 15 minutes in you can go have a drink and the show started eight and this way we could just sit down like humans like we used to do just seven eight months ago and have a good old time we can still do that I think yes it can be done and I think more importantly you have to let people take risks if you let people take risks like Dan Crenshaw jumping out of airplanes for a fucking video people right and I understand that you're putting other people at risk I do understand that by the way that's not that's not lost on me yes it's not lost on me either but I do think that we need to take precautions about that that needs to be but if you're a person like so if you're a 24 year old and you live with another 24 year old and you want to go out but you can't go out that's bullshit you should be able to do whatever you want to do and just it's up to you and we should really highlight your responsibility to get tested and not expose yourself to other people that are at risk that are high risk or that are vulnerable we could definitely do this by the way yes it can be done but it can't be done with overregulation and it can't be done with the kind of attitude that they have in california where they think they could just shut everything down that's right and this is this is why i left i just i don't see this getting better anytime soon i just i saw it as being a thing where they weren't addressing the negative aspects of locking things down for right now we're at six seven months what is it going to be is it a year is it a year and a half like what are the How are you going to deal with the negative aspects, the negative social, the economic, just the way people feel about the city?

[1373] How are you going to deal with all that?

[1374] Is there a strategy in place?

[1375] Seems to be none.

[1376] They're looking at everything with rose -colored glasses, and they keep getting paid.

[1377] And that's part of the problem, is all these politicians keep getting paid.

[1378] And I know Gavin Newsom was at one point in time saying he was going to take a pay cut.

[1379] But he never did.

[1380] As far as I'm concerned, as far as I know, I don't think he did.

[1381] I think well I love that it's not enough said is you brought the Constitution yeah and again I've used the word liberty multiple times now because that's absolutely real to me yeah I mean they set this they set this framework up to empower the citizens to have their own religion to live where they want to live if you don't like your state you can move as you did and vote with your feet you if you don't like the tax rate in one state you can move somewhere else I mean we've allowed we built this country to allow people to make their own decisions yes in the second and we start to erode that and take that away from people is when we're getting in trouble and that completely flies in the face of what the construct of this country was supposed to be originally.

[1382] And that's where people like me, for example, you ask why I run for Congress, this is why.

[1383] Because we have to get back to empowering citizens to make their own decisions.

[1384] Yes.

[1385] Spent.

[1386] Eight years in the Army, four years at West Point.

[1387] That's 12 years total in the military.

[1388] Love the military.

[1389] Thank God I did it.

[1390] Best decision I've ever made.

[1391] But we don't need.

[1392] more federal government and more regulation.

[1393] We need as little regulation as possible.

[1394] I understand the human condition every now and again can have some nefarious intent.

[1395] I understand that.

[1396] But really, it's about empowering the individual to make their own choices and make their own decisions.

[1397] Federal government is not supposed to tell people what to do and how to live.

[1398] People are fleeing their countries from all over the world to come right here to this country.

[1399] And I just sat with a woman from Taiwan today.

[1400] They are fleeing their countries to come here to live free.

[1401] And then here we are talking about regulation to take that very thing that makes us different away from our citizens.

[1402] My concern is that we're not going to get it back.

[1403] My concern is I understand that they have motivation to reduce these freedoms to contain COVID.

[1404] But freedoms lost are rarely regained.

[1405] Yes.

[1406] And my concern is that they're going to find other excuses to keep people locked down.

[1407] other excuses to try to exercise these powers that they've learned how to use this is what's weird about this is like you've let a genie out of the bottle you've you've let people like that mayor garcetti guy in l .a tell people what they can and can't do they're shutting off electricity and water if you have a party at your house yeah like this kind of shit is like that's supposed to be those are essentials like when did when are you allowed to do that like since when can you do that and everybody's like oh because of COVID well how do you get that back does it have to be what if covid is a returning thing what if COVID is like the common cold and people are just going to get it from now on I like the flu or like you like you like the flu right so what do you are we giving up enormous amounts of power to the government now so are we losing all of our liberties because because of this disease that we're all dealing with and we're going to put our faith in the hands of people who are elected, that we never intended them to have these powers in the first place.

[1408] And now we're seeing these powers are used very differently in different parts of the country.

[1409] So this is the good thing about information, and we walk around every day with a supercomputer in our hands.

[1410] We're actually one of the first generations to ever be able to do that for the bulk of our lives.

[1411] And I think that people wake up and they realize that, so, no, I don't want to be over -regulated.

[1412] So I'm going to go somewhere where I am not overregulated.

[1413] So I'm going to move.

[1414] Exhibit A, right?

[1415] I think that people are awakened by stuff like this, particularly when we over, when government overplays their hand and a particular population where they're like, no, we're not going to take it.

[1416] And then what happens?

[1417] People either A move or they put somebody else and they elect somebody else and they fire the person who's in charge.

[1418] We're seeing a lot of what's happening in Portland and in Seattle, and it's kind of interesting.

[1419] I'm very curious to see how those elections go in the future because those local leaders failed their people.

[1420] They failed their citizens.

[1421] I think that area is so liberal that they're not going to learn their lesson.

[1422] We'll see.

[1423] We will see.

[1424] There's a lot of Trump supporters in Portland, too, that are doing these big parades with American flags and Trump flags and driving their trucks and honking their horns.

[1425] I wonder if that's going to have an impact.

[1426] I think it will because the number one, the number one role, the government, another federal government, is to keep her citizen safe.

[1427] That's the number one goal.

[1428] Yeah.

[1429] And when in Portland, you have a police chief that says to small business owners who are losing their businesses because they're getting arighted and looted.

[1430] And the police chief says this, sorry, you're on your own.

[1431] Well, you have now failed.

[1432] Now, why are they saying you're on your own?

[1433] Because the mayor won't allow them to do anything?

[1434] Well, that's because they are now defunding.

[1435] the police and then they're setting up areas where they won't allow law enforcement to even enter like Seattle like in Seattle like in check yes and then now the citizens are actually not as safe well that one was bonkers where the mayor was on television say maybe it's the summer of love what you found out what are you talking about you found out the whole idea behind it is so my take on it was you you're doing something that has never been done before you're taking over blocks you're putting up boundaries and you're deciding it's yours.

[1436] But you set a precedent now because you didn't earn any of that space.

[1437] You didn't earn that land, you didn't earn those buildings, you took it by force.

[1438] You set a precedent and what's to stop someone from taking that from you?

[1439] That's right.

[1440] With the same strategy saying, no, I think I'm right.

[1441] So I'm going to come in with bigger guns and more people and we're going to shut out all these businesses and we're going to put up bigger barriers and we're going to have more stringent policing.

[1442] They were beating people up for filming things.

[1443] it's just it's so dumb like you embodied the worst aspect of a dictatorship in a six block thing and you did it quick you became the worst country in america i mean if that's a independent country and that it's in the continental united states right you became the worst version of what america is that's right that's right that's right can't agree with you and people see this by the way people see it i think they do people see it i think they do i think there's a lot of people that are seeing it there are a lot of people that have seen that these idealistic portrayals of what government can be you know like this idealistic we need to defund the police and put all the money into social programs like yes with no long -term solution you see oh Jesus look what happens that's right oh this is terrible that's right we don't we don't want that no it's a wake -up call for a lot of people it is a wake -up call yeah um and then the mayor of Portland I mean he's he's hilarious like he goes outside and they're like fuck you resign He's like, he is the most progressive guy.

[1444] He got canceled.

[1445] The most, think about that, right?

[1446] Not enough.

[1447] He got good enough, bitch.

[1448] Like the price is wrong, right?

[1449] They try to light his apartment building on fire.

[1450] It's just amazing that literally the most progressive mayor in America and they're like, not enough.

[1451] Not enough.

[1452] Resigned, sir.

[1453] It's not good enough.

[1454] So where does it stop and where does it end?

[1455] I don't know.

[1456] They want 100 % defund the police.

[1457] They want to give these people a year to, that was their demand.

[1458] give them a year to find alternative meaningful employment and then no more police yeah okay go on down we need you come on down here to Texas yeah congratulations folks you just fucked up your entire city you're welcome what are you going to do with that what do you how do you plan on working that out with no police what happens if your car gets stolen you're going to call social worker what you can do if someone breaks into your house what are you going to call yeah what are you going to do about murder what are you going to do about yeah they just don't miraculously go away Right.

[1459] Yeah.

[1460] Well, it's just these idealistic views of what the future should be and the way you think you're going to implement them today currently.

[1461] And we just need to get, well, there's bad cops.

[1462] We've got to get rid of all the cops.

[1463] Well, there's bad protesters too.

[1464] Should we get rid of all protests?

[1465] Of course not.

[1466] Of course not.

[1467] Yeah.

[1468] When you see people smash buildings and smash windows, no one's saying you can't protest anymore.

[1469] No one's saying there's no more.

[1470] Well, obviously, that's a part of protesting because you've got bad people.

[1471] And when you have a group that anyone can join in on, like, anyone can join most of these groups, you're going to get a bunch of assholes.

[1472] That's right.

[1473] That's how it happens.

[1474] Yeah.

[1475] That's how it happens.

[1476] And you need law and order to fix that.

[1477] Yes, you do.

[1478] You need consequences for unlawful acts.

[1479] And the best way to do that is with the police.

[1480] And they choose to do it too, by the way.

[1481] These people choose to get up in the morning and they choose to protect people.

[1482] They do.

[1483] And I always say this.

[1484] They don't always get it right.

[1485] We know this.

[1486] I recognize that.

[1487] Yeah.

[1488] But this is not the answer either.

[1489] Well, they're human.

[1490] And when you get a bunch of humans together, look, if you get 100 people in a room, one of them's going to be a fucking idiot.

[1491] There's no way around it.

[1492] If you get a bunch of cops, one of them's going to be incompetent.

[1493] If you're lucky, one of them.

[1494] If you're lucky.

[1495] And here's the other deal.

[1496] Like, how many of those poor folks are running around with PTSD untreated?

[1497] A large percentage of them, they're seeing...

[1498] What they've seen...

[1499] Murders and violence and car accidents and, you name it.

[1500] Child abuse and all this time.

[1501] You name it.

[1502] You name it.

[1503] All the horrors of humanity.

[1504] They see it on a daily basis.

[1505] It's a part of their life.

[1506] Human trafficking.

[1507] That's another thing that we don't talk about.

[1508] That is another thing that just goes in and out of the news.

[1509] We were talking about on the podcast, the 39 or 35 kids that were rescued in Georgia.

[1510] And it was a blip in the news.

[1511] But meanwhile, I saw a thousand articles on how mean Ellen is.

[1512] Ellen's mean.

[1513] She's so mean.

[1514] Meanwhile, there's like people are out there risking their life to stop human trafficking.

[1515] They're rescuing children from human trafficking.

[1516] When is this?

[1517] US Marshall.

[1518] Wow, 72 million missing children.

[1519] Excuse me. 72, does it say million?

[1520] 72 missing children across Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Georgia in the past several weeks.

[1521] In the past several weeks.

[1522] So what is what is, this is where.

[1523] these so when you read an article like that U .S. Marshals rescued 72 missing children you this is where like all the Q &on people get crazy because they think that Donald Trump is secretly working behind the scenes to stop child trafficking and that there's like some secret cabal in the government that wants to enable this shit and then Facebook bans Q &N and they think everyone's going crazy now like this this child trafficking thing is real is real it has always existed did you know that he Houston is actually one of the hubs for child trafficking in the U .S. Really?

[1524] Yes, it is.

[1525] Now, how do they find out about child trafficking?

[1526] Like, what do they, how do they infiltrate?

[1527] So usually it's local law enforcement that recognizes some abnormalities of the behavior of some of the children.

[1528] Usually it's certain areas, certain shops, certain businesses that are kind of harboring these people.

[1529] A lot of them just get stopped because, I mean, it's kind of really.

[1530] odd if you're in a van or an 18 wheeler and then there's like 20 kids in it.

[1531] It's weird.

[1532] And we as a culture have got to work with local law enforcement to start to curb this thing because that's where the rubber meets the road.

[1533] I don't know if you saw the story.

[1534] I know if you could pull it up, sir, but if you saw the story about the flight attendant that helped out.

[1535] Yes, the girl.

[1536] That recognized the abnormality of a girl on a flight by herself and saved her life.

[1537] Yes.

[1538] And they had the authorities on the ground when the plane landed, yeah.

[1539] Waiting.

[1540] Yeah.

[1541] We have got to see more of that.

[1542] And so this is how we're talking about the Army.

[1543] You got to police your own troops.

[1544] We got to police our own.

[1545] If we are just acutely aware of the abnormalities and the behavior of young children who clearly are under duress, we cannot turn a blind eye to it.

[1546] Why is this not a bigger story in mainstream news?

[1547] This is one of the things that concerns me. I don't understand where you're not seeing this on CNN This is not...

[1548] Every day.

[1549] Why are we seeing this every day on CNN?

[1550] Right.

[1551] That story right there should be leading on...

[1552] Everything.

[1553] Prime Time news.

[1554] Everything.

[1555] That should be leading.

[1556] 72 missing children rescued.

[1557] Yes.

[1558] So how are they...

[1559] It can't be just that they're randomly discovering these kids in a truck or they see a kid on a plane acting weird and that's how they catch everybody.

[1560] Right.

[1561] How are they infiltrating?

[1562] Like how...

[1563] Because there's also a bunch of guys that are former spec ops guys that are working to fight child trafficking.

[1564] How are they doing this?

[1565] So the solution to this in my opinion, I'll get to answer in a second, the solution is in my opinion is actually, and I would be in huge favor of this, of literally starting a separate task force to address this and known hotspots.

[1566] The other way we're finding out, to answer your question, the other way that we're finding out as to how they're infiltrating is really if you go to hubs of the world, like Houston, you go to coastal cities where people are actually bringing people into the country, that's exactly where you're going to find a lot of it.

[1567] So if you just kind of hang out around these areas, then you'll see a lot more of it.

[1568] You'll discover a lot more of it.

[1569] And so Houston has become kind of one of those hubs because of its geographic locations.

[1570] It's actually near a port city.

[1571] And obviously, people are coming through port cities at a higher rate.

[1572] Cargo is coming through at a higher rate.

[1573] And so we're actually able to track that at a better rate.

[1574] if you just kind of hang around the hoop you'll find it so how are these people communicating oh my goodness this is this seems like if the government can use programs like edward snowdon revealed yeah like how are they how are they organizing these things and where are they getting these kids from they get these kids to max you all over the world a lot of them are coming from impoverished communities um a lot of them are coming from impoverished countries and they're shipping shipping them in a lot of them come from Asian countries actually and a lot of them come right here in the US and this is something that that dawned on me is particularly with having two girls now and that is it's also my job to continue to protect them and all of these young people and it's actually young boys as well it's not just it's not just young ladies it's actually coming upon them to keep them safe if we can't keep them safe then what are we doing here literally like that's our role now you know as fathers and as responsible human beings is keeping our young people safe and the biggest thing is this there clearly is an appetite and there clearly is a culture for it what I want to do is how do we place extreme punishment on those who behave in this and partake in this behavior I'll tell you what it could be happening right next door to you to somebody that seems to be a normal human being but we have got to stop them we have to stop the predator from feasting on our children yeah and it's got to be demonized let's let's demonize that yeah 100 % yeah how are these people communicating though are they doing it through the dark web are they doing it through forums are they doing it through are they using code like how are they doing this i've heard all the above yeah i've also heard communicating through just open email inboxes right they don't hit send but they have the password for multiple emails and they'll just go in get the message and then never open or close it so it's impossible basically to track it's just like a draft oh i see and so other people have the login the account and they check it out through the draft oh that makes sense you know it's funny because this subject because of uh things like pizagate the subject became so taboo that no one wants to talk about it because it sounds preposterous because PizzaGate was so preposterous.

[1575] The guy shows up and with a gun looking for kids that are tied up in the basement.

[1576] Everybody's like, oh my God.

[1577] There's nobody here.

[1578] Everyone's wacky.

[1579] These child sex trafficking fanatics that are interested in this and that are trying to stop this.

[1580] They're all crazy people.

[1581] Right.

[1582] But that's not really the case.

[1583] Right.

[1584] The problem with something like Pizza Gate is it confuses everybody.

[1585] Yeah.

[1586] And you start thinking that all this stuff is nonsense.

[1587] But then these stories, they, they make it to these websites and you see that this is a real thing.

[1588] These are real news stories, but then they don't get talked about in mainstream.

[1589] And then we lose track of who the real enemy is.

[1590] Yeah, that's a real enemy, not Ellen.

[1591] That's dangerous, right?

[1592] Not Ellen being mean to her assistant.

[1593] Just fuck, man. Just what we care about is so bizarre.

[1594] It's such a symptom of how sick we are as a culture and that our priorities are so skewed and that this is sort of accentuated by, our addiction to social media and that people are concentrating so much on things that are trivial and nonsensical.

[1595] What's up, buddy?

[1596] I found an article on Routers that said that the mainstream media is been reporting on this.

[1597] So, like, I'm looking through pages to find out details on different reporting of this.

[1598] All I'm finding this on is, like, local news sites.

[1599] So, like, what does that mean, though, that it's not being reported?

[1600] Well, you don't see it on CNN.

[1601] you're not seeing it as like mainstream television news where it's a big subject that gets discussed that we have a giant problem like this in this country that's what i'm saying i'm digging through here and then like the human trafficking angle according to what like the u .s marshals done here it's one and four of these kids so if there's 25 kids picked up at six or seven of them were human trafficking the other 20 or so are like kids that ran away or kids that were being abused and they found them because they were missing so some of them missing for two weeks some up to two years well not every kid is in a human traffic that's those 72 that's that's that 72 the ones the 35 though in Georgia I think it's all the same thing yeah same kind of thing so they're collecting and then they're like reporting the number so like they're getting they're collecting these 35 kids over a period of time and then they're reporting we found 35 kids so like it's a month later they found 35 kids one from September, which should have been reported five weeks ago, says that they recovered 25 missing and endangered children over the last month.

[1602] One and four was part of what they believe in alleged human trafficking situation.

[1603] Obviously, one is too many.

[1604] Obviously, obviously, obviously.

[1605] But so it seems like there's all, they're finding missing kids and a percentage of them happen to be a part of human trafficking.

[1606] And now here's the question.

[1607] How many of the kids that being human trafficked actually get discovered we're finding this five here six here these but how many of them actually are there do we know we don't right we don't we don't just the fact that it's a real thing it's spooky as fuck it is and it's dangerous yeah it's terrifying it's terrifying for fathers and mothers it is you know it's like the fact that or brothers and sisters the fact that it could be someone close to you yes what other subjects and what other concerns do you have about the current state of this country?

[1608] Maybe things that we haven't discussed before.

[1609] So, again, we're sitting here talking about the division in the country, which is something that I think it's a very real issue that we've been talking about.

[1610] But I also just kind of want to say, what's the solution to the division in the country?

[1611] We're always talking about problems, but then what are we going to do about it?

[1612] And the one thing I got to ask a few weeks ago, like, Wesley, what are you going to do when you get into Congress?

[1613] What can you do differently that nobody else has done to try to start to bridge this gap and bridge this divide?

[1614] 2018, we have the fewest number of veterans in Congress and in the Senate since roughly World War II.

[1615] And I think that's actually a part of the issue and a part of the problem.

[1616] So when I get to Washington is actually what I believe will be my personal mandate is to go find Democrats that are veterans.

[1617] And let's have a conversation.

[1618] And it actually won't be about policy or politics.

[1619] It would actually be more about where did you serve?

[1620] What did you do?

[1621] Who do you know?

[1622] What circles did you run?

[1623] And maybe we have a common bond there.

[1624] Because people that are willing to give their lives for this country just view the world a little bit differently.

[1625] So I want to be a part of that contingent that actually tries to bring military people to the table and to be a part of that.

[1626] You look at me, you look at Dan Crenshaw, you look at August Flugher.

[1627] We're all military guys.

[1628] So we all get each other on that point.

[1629] Now, we're all Republicans, but Democrats do as well because we've taken the oath to defend this country against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

[1630] I think that's the beginning to start to bridge the divide, and it lies with soldiers.

[1631] And again, you look at this time period.

[1632] This is the time for soldiers that are, you know, Operation Iraqi Freedom, OEF, Enduring Freedom, you know, folks that actually have gone into private sector, gone and gotten, you know, further education, but still have that bug to continue to serve, still have that itch.

[1633] And I think they need, our country needs more of us than anything else right now.

[1634] I think that's where it starts.

[1635] I, Wesley Hunt, I'm going to be one of 435 congressmen and women that are currently serving this country today.

[1636] I'm one person.

[1637] One person can't change the entire system.

[1638] but two, three, four, five, six, ten, twenty can.

[1639] Mm. But you can't get to two unless you have one.

[1640] Can't get to three unless you have two.

[1641] Can't get to four.

[1642] And so, even if I'm two or three or four, I am, I represent the continuance of the coalition building.

[1643] It's going to take some time.

[1644] Well, when it comes to foreign policy, when it comes to, decisions of military actions when it comes to war itself there's I think of it's a very important to have people who have actually served that are making those decisions and it's disturbing as hell when people making those decisions that have never served don't understand it never been in the military and they're making decisions that are going to put our veterans at risk they're going to send them overseas to do these actions and in a way that they do not personally understand because they don't have any actual experience.

[1645] The people like you, the people like Dan Crenshaw, Tulsi Gabbard, people that have served, these are the people that, in my opinion, should be the ones that we listen to.

[1646] So it's personal because I lost 14 of my West Point classmates in the global war on terror.

[1647] And when I think about these brave men, way better men than me to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

[1648] gave the eulogy, this bracelet, says David Frazier on it, wear it every day as a reminder as to why we are all here and why we have to continue to serve.

[1649] And we have to make sure that when we ask somebody to go die for their country, we got to make sure that we know exactly what we're doing and how we're doing it.

[1650] Regardless of what the cause is, dying for your country is the most noble death anyone can ever have, in my opinion.

[1651] I don't care what the war was.

[1652] I don't care what the reason was.

[1653] Those brave men, died a noble death in moving forward if we're going to ask somebody to pay that sacrifice we as lawmakers and we as leaders better make sure it's for a reason that is the most high and most noble the one thing that i do see about president trump in his doctrine is the idea of getting us out of these decade long wars i tend to agree with that actually that region of the world is actually diametrically opposed to the way that we view the world here in this country.

[1654] It is.

[1655] And there are ways through technology to continue to be an effective fighting force, the most effective fighting force in the world without having brigades worth of soldiers in the Middle East in perpetuity.

[1656] So I like that.

[1657] I like using special ops.

[1658] I like using small teams.

[1659] I like using our brains and our technology.

[1660] I like all that.

[1661] I think President Trump is spot on on that.

[1662] And I do think that he's actually valuing the life of every individual soldier by making this decision.

[1663] And then when you do that, you build credibility.

[1664] Because when you do send people in harm's way, we get it.

[1665] We get it.

[1666] This guy is sending us here for this cause.

[1667] It's a worthy cause.

[1668] Get it up, let's go.

[1669] And that's the kind of confidence that you want to have in your leaders, not just the president, but across the board.

[1670] when you've been there you know what it feels like when you've lost classmates you know what it feels like and as a congressman when we choose this in someone to war and I look at that brave young man or that brave young woman and I say look this might be it for you they look at me and they say yes sir but if you're sending me I trust you we've got to get that back the only way you're going to get that back is people like you Thank you, sir.

[1671] I really believe that.

[1672] I don't think anybody who's never served is going to be able to make those decisions and have the respect of the people that are going to be sent over there.

[1673] Yep.

[1674] What are the things we need to cover here?

[1675] I was going to talk a little bit even about social media a little bit.

[1676] Okay.

[1677] That's a good subject.

[1678] What makes us a very interesting topic for me is that while we are divided, I don't think it's as bad as everyone thinks it is.

[1679] It's not as bad if you get people in.

[1680] room together it's not at all actually right just not to talk it's not bad at all 20 years ago in the event what happened something would happen something bad would happen and you turn on the evening news and you might see it twice that's it you might see it on the news you might see it in newspaper that's it something bad happens today your phone blows up it's on twitter it's on IG, it's on Facebook, and then it's on a CNN app, your Fox News app, then it's on Fox News cable, then it's on local TV.

[1681] So we have now seen the same incident like eight times on eight different platforms, which gives the perception that it's worse than it really is.

[1682] I got to thinking about this a lot, because my father, my father is my hero.

[1683] And he is a, he is a very, very wise man. I got to thinking about this because he goes, son, do you really think it's harder to be a black man a day than it was when I was growing up?

[1684] That was rhetorical.

[1685] The answer is absolutely not.

[1686] But it got me thinking about it because it gives the perception that it is, given all that we're seeing.

[1687] But quite frankly, we've always gotten better.

[1688] My brother and I always joke about America.

[1689] He was like, what's the best time to be an American?

[1690] Tomorrow.

[1691] Tomorrow.

[1692] Tomorrow.

[1693] Am I better off being in America right now than I was when I graduated high school in 2000?

[1694] Absolutely.

[1695] So what is distorting our view so much that gives us the perception that we're way worse off?

[1696] Well, over the course of the past 15 years, we have developed this social media system that, quite frankly, sends out just negative information and people then hide behind their words.

[1697] they hide behind their posts because they don't actually confront people one -on -one.

[1698] But is it really worse, Joe?

[1699] Really worse in what way?

[1700] So, like, so, so let's just, let's just, let's just go back to the racial issues in this country.

[1701] Okay.

[1702] Let's just go back to that.

[1703] When I was in high school, you know, I thought about some of the language that was used, some of the language that was said, some of the ways that I was treated.

[1704] And when I compare that to the way I am treated right now, it's very different, actually.

[1705] It's way better.

[1706] Again, I'm actually running for Congress in a predominantly white district, overwhelmingly white district.

[1707] Would that have been the case 30 years ago?

[1708] Would they have nominated me?

[1709] Would they have elected me?

[1710] I'm not quite sure.

[1711] But now they have overwhelmingly.

[1712] And they don't even care that I'm black.

[1713] I think what people would push back on is for sure things.

[1714] are getting better.

[1715] Yes.

[1716] But what they would say is there's massive amounts of room for improvement and many, many, many things that need to be done to correct the way things are wrong in this country right now.

[1717] Of course.

[1718] That's why people have a hard time when people look at the bright side of things.

[1719] Okay.

[1720] They look at the bright side of things and they go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1721] Okay, but you can't just ignore all these problems that exist right now.

[1722] And that's what I refuse to do, which is why I tend to bring up the past and progress.

[1723] Yeah.

[1724] So when people ignore it is when they don't talk about their great -great -grandfather who was once a slave.

[1725] You see, I acknowledge that because I want to actually build on it.

[1726] What I don't like are people who just refuse to even mention that.

[1727] What I don't like are people who don't even want to acknowledge our past slavery.

[1728] I actually want to talk about it because when you talk about it, we can fix it.

[1729] What do you think could be done about injustices that are happening currently?

[1730] Like, one of the things that I've discussed in this podcast many times is there are parts of this country, whether it's Baltimore or Detroit or South Side of Chicago, that are almost perpetually engulfed in crime.

[1731] And they have been forever, and it doesn't seem to be any effort whatsoever to reverse that.

[1732] How can you fix those?

[1733] I understand you're becoming a congressman in a specific district, but when you look at the country as an overall, and you look at these particular bad spots what strategies can be used that aren't being used to fix this the strategy of empathy and understanding not yelling at each other not demonizing each other not saying that your culture is so messed up and it's it's your fault acknowledging that particularly in the black community the welfare state was created and that's actually what has caused a lot of the consternation in our culture today.

[1734] That's not black people's fault, actually.

[1735] It's actually the system's fault.

[1736] Black people also have to take some responsibility for some of the cultural issues that we have as well.

[1737] It's not all white people's fault, actually.

[1738] We have to accept some of this too.

[1739] If both sides can accept and take on the culpability, of it, on the problems that we see today, and we can admit it, and we can talk about it, then that's how we can begin to heal.

[1740] But obviously some physical actions need to take place.

[1741] I can't actually agree more with you on that.

[1742] And physical actions need to actually take place for everybody.

[1743] The issue is that when one side says, well, they should do this, but they should do this.

[1744] Well, you should do that.

[1745] we're pointing fingers and nothing and nothing gets done.

[1746] So the police are brutalizing us and a black person has a two and a half more higher chance of dying at the hands of police than a white person.

[1747] That's actually a fact.

[1748] It's actually a fact.

[1749] So look at the police officers, but then the police officers and other groups can't say, well, that's because, well, there's a higher incidence of crime amongst brown and black people.

[1750] What did that accomplish?

[1751] Nothing.

[1752] right because nobody wants to assume responsibility that both are issues right both are issues both are problems this is where someone like me is actually uniquely positioned that I look I have I have been discriminated against I have been profiled I get it I have been treated poorly by white people I've been treated poorly by black people and vice versa I I understand all this so what what are we going to do to actually solve the problem and this is where it takes real tough leadership because what happens is you start getting in a circular firing squad and everybody's firing on you from all sides and it gets tough for someone like me every now and again who's kind of stuck and caught in the middle but I always joke around and I say well I've also been in combat and I've been shot at before I can deal with it but somebody has got to take this on instead of pointing the fingers at each other who's going to bring both sides to the table.

[1753] And again, can Wesley Hunt do it by myself?

[1754] No. But what I hope in my candidacy and in conversations like this, thank you so much, is that what I hope, what I hope is that people can hear the message and then say, ah, okay, I get that tone, I accept this responsibility.

[1755] So now what can we do about it?

[1756] That's where we start.

[1757] And right now, we are way over here.

[1758] that but we have to work incrementally to get us back together I am confident that this country can do it because just like I've said before we've been way worse we've been at war with each other and we were able to overcome that we can overcome this too it's just going to take some work Joe what would you do like if you I know I understand you're running for Congress you're not running to be king of the country right but if you if you had a magic wand And you could take, someone could say, Wesley Hunt, what would you do about, let's just say south side of Chicago, which is just one of the most murderous places in this country right now?

[1759] Yes.

[1760] Terrible.

[1761] Yes.

[1762] What would you do?

[1763] I give you the power.

[1764] Like, Wesley, you fix this.

[1765] How would you fix that?

[1766] So one of the issues, in my opinion, in Chicago, is the relationship with law enforcement and the citizens of that community.

[1767] We need to be in the business of building.

[1768] relationships with those that protect them and keep them safe, as long as, as long as we can again admit that there is a problem on both sides.

[1769] What can I, Wesley Hunt, specifically do?

[1770] You've heard all, you've heard so many different ideas on how to how to combat this.

[1771] What I say is this, we start off with conversations.

[1772] You have to start off with the community leaders who are, again, who are willing to accept culpability for some of the problems and culturally speaking, and then you start with the law enforcement officers that I wanted to admit that we actually want to be a part of the solution and not be a part of the problem.

[1773] And it takes one person to do that on either side to systematically fix the community one person at a time.

[1774] You can't take just one big bite the apple on this thing.

[1775] It's going to take some time and it's going to have to be incremental.

[1776] Quite frankly, it's going to have to be generational as well because there's so much distrust.

[1777] There's so much distrust on both sides that we can't even have a conversation about it.

[1778] So we have to start small and then go big from there.

[1779] And it starts right at the community level.

[1780] Do you think also an announcing intention to specifically work on this and having this be a big conversation that takes place publicly, that law enforcement, does want to communicate with community leaders and that there's a direct effort to try to improve these places to let people know we care we know it's a problem even though it's been ignored for so long it will be ignored no longer that's it's it that's it that's it's where you start that's where you start and it's i agree with you that is it's a long process yes sir the frustrating thing is that it just hasn't really hasn't been addressed that much sadly and I always said if you want to make America great you really want less losers so you want more people with an opportunity to get past the situation they're currently in and so many people are trapped they're trapped in these crime -ridden gang ridden drug -ridden neighborhoods where it's normal for people to be in and out of jail yeah and this is what they grow accustomed to because they grow up it right and that's that that's no way to grow up yeah um social media let's get back to that there One of the things that drives me crazy about social media is this flippant nature, this way that people think it's fine to just censor people and censor people that disagree with you.

[1781] One of the things is Unity 2020 was something that was created by Brett Weinstein and many other people.

[1782] Brett, who is very liberal, very progressive.

[1783] He was the guy that was the professor at Evergreen State was run out by these crazy kids that wanted to take over and turn it into a utopia for leftists.

[1784] That's the very paraphrased version of the story.

[1785] But he created this thing called Unity 2020, and he wanted to have conversations between the left and the right and have these people talk and try to come up with someone who's a better solution to run this country than what we're currently being offered.

[1786] Twitter banned the account I mean it was the most reasonable I don't know if they got it back see if they got Unity 2020 back but the most reasonable and their take on it was say no to Biden say no to Trump and let's come up with a better solution that this can be done and Twitter's like no that's ridiculous it's completely ridiculous but the question is the first amendment what is this here suspended Articles of Unity Is that what it is Articles of Unity is that the same thing as Unity 2020 same thing yeah the official account Articles of Unity yeah banned so they banned it and why because they don't agree with the sentiment they think that maybe perhaps we should all fall in line and vote for Joe Biden because this is what they want and if you are progressive and you're a liberal you just have to accept the differences that you have with and Kamala Harris and their perspectives and you need to just fall in line and there's no other third party and the idea that you're fucking carrying water for the two -party system in 2020 is bonkers and that you freedom of speech is supposed to be the freedom to discuss ideas.

[1787] This is not it's not an enormous percentage of the population that's going along with this guy he's offering an educated perspective.

[1788] Our constitution.

[1789] It is our constitution.

[1790] It's also So it's so important to listen to things that you disagree with to understand why you disagree with them and to understand if maybe there's some knowledge in there that you can acquire.

[1791] Maybe there's a part of their perspective that you do agree with.

[1792] Maybe there's, maybe you see the error in their ways and you can discuss it with them.

[1793] You can say, well, this is where you guys got it wrong.

[1794] Right.

[1795] Like, that happens on this fucking show all the time.

[1796] So improve it.

[1797] You can improve it.

[1798] Yes.

[1799] I mean, discussing things.

[1800] It's fucking critical.

[1801] But whether it's Facebook, whether it's Twitter, Facebook banning Q and Look, I'm not a QAnon fan.

[1802] But how could you ban that?

[1803] But here's the problem.

[1804] If you ban them, why are you letting the flat earthers still have a fucking page?

[1805] Why are you letting the JFK people?

[1806] The people that think the assassination was caused by aliens.

[1807] Where do you draw the line on what's true and what's not?

[1808] And the problem is you just started down a slippery slope.

[1809] And look, I don't even know what QAnon mean.

[1810] I know a lot of people believe in it.

[1811] But I don't even know what they stand for.

[1812] I just know there's a lot of wacky folks involved.

[1813] I know them personally and they're wacky, so I'm like, ah, but the fact that Facebook wants to just ban it.

[1814] It's ridiculous.

[1815] I just don't think they should have that kind of editorial power, the power to decide what gets discussed and what doesn't get discussed.

[1816] Do you think that maybe perhaps, and this is my friend Kyle Kalinsky had the suggestion that the First Amendment, rather, should be amended?

[1817] to include social media, and that social media should be treated as a utility, a utility that everybody should be able to enjoy.

[1818] Interesting.

[1819] That, look, you can't do things like docs people or call for people's death or, you know, incite violence, obviously.

[1820] Yeah, yes, yeah, or threatened people.

[1821] But express opinions?

[1822] Come on.

[1823] You can't express opinions.

[1824] I mean, you can get banned on Twitter for some of the most preposterous things.

[1825] Yeah.

[1826] You know, for a while was like, learn to code.

[1827] you say learn to code you would get banned yeah like because they were saying this was in response to people like coal miners what are they going to do when they get out of there someone said learn to code and so then whenever anybody would get fired for the other reason that's it someone would say learn to code they'd be like your band for life like come on it's nuts come on but it is this thing where you're allowing people to censor people's voices and i don't i think you should let all the nuts talk let them all talk it's called freedom of speech as long as you're not threatening somebody yes and the question is, like, people say, well, they're harmful and their opinions sway people in a certain way.

[1828] Sway who?

[1829] Sway you?

[1830] Is it swaying you?

[1831] Are they making you think the earth is flat?

[1832] Are they making you, no. No, no, it's swaying morons.

[1833] So what do we do?

[1834] We're going to regulate to stop morons from believing stupid shit?

[1835] Is that what we're doing?

[1836] It's impossible.

[1837] It's impossible.

[1838] And it's also an American.

[1839] To stop expression, even expression that you don't agree with.

[1840] is un -American it's the wrong way to approach it but there's so many people that believe in deep platforming and that that's the way to handle these things I think they're wrong I think the more conversation and the more discussion no matter what the better because it teaches you about the world the problem is you have that switch and you can just pop them just pop that switch and now they're off Twitter forever fuck what?

[1841] What did you say unity what fuck you click done next and it's not again it's not even people harassing people.

[1842] It's not people threatening people.

[1843] It's just people expressing opinions that you don't enjoy.

[1844] What do you think should be done about this?

[1845] And why haven't they've done something?

[1846] I mean, I know the president's discussed this.

[1847] But what can be done about this?

[1848] So this topic is near and dear to my heart because you could imagine somebody like me going to Ithaca, New York at Cornell.

[1849] I am a Texan.

[1850] I come from an energy capital the world.

[1851] I am a veteran.

[1852] And in Ithaca, you would kind of solve the world's problems in coffee shops.

[1853] And I'd walk in wearing something like this and boots and a hat.

[1854] I'm a conservative guy and I'm black.

[1855] I don't know anything about Ithaca.

[1856] Other than John Jones is from Ithaca.

[1857] Ithaca.

[1858] Ithaca.

[1859] I'm a really liberal city.

[1860] Very liberal.

[1861] College town?

[1862] Yes, it is.

[1863] It's Cornell and Ithaca College.

[1864] It's a college town.

[1865] And great place, by the way.

[1866] Love it.

[1867] A lovely place.

[1868] Love my time there, actually.

[1869] And I would talk to people, obviously, that were very liberal, and we would meet up on weekends all the time, and we would just talk, and you could probably imagine that we didn't see the world the same way.

[1870] But we always got to talk and meet up the next week and the next week, and they were my classmates, and they were my friends, and we got to learn how to respect each other.

[1871] one of my classmates actually who is a banker up in New York who is a who was a Bernie bro very liberal guy he sent me some money for the campaign and then sent me a note and he said you know Wesley if I was down there I don't think I'd even vote for you I said thanks man and then he goes but but I hope you win because I know you're a good guy and I know that you believe in this country why wouldn't he vote for you then Well, because...

[1872] How conflicted.

[1873] He's helping you, but he doesn't want you to win, but he wants you to win.

[1874] But he wouldn't vote for you.

[1875] But here's some money to win, so...

[1876] I'm so confused.

[1877] I don't know how to feel about that.

[1878] But it's complicated, right?

[1879] It's complicated.

[1880] He may not vote, but does want me to win.

[1881] And so that's where we're actually missing that element of we might disagree politically, but I respect you as a person enough to hear.

[1882] you out.

[1883] This is why we have to stop canceling people.

[1884] This is why we have to stop quelling just opinions because it's actually a form of disrespect to the very fiber of someone's human being.

[1885] We've got to get to the point where we start respecting each other again and this has to stop.

[1886] And, you know, President Trump tweets a lot as we, as we see.

[1887] And it's dawned on me that he does a lot because that's, that's, that's, that's, his way to get his point across to circumvent everything else.

[1888] Now, do I agree with all of it?

[1889] No. Do I disagree sometimes?

[1890] Sure, do I agree with some of it?

[1891] I absolutely do.

[1892] But the whole point is, is this, that's an attempt to go direct to the people with his voice and his opinion.

[1893] Rather, you like it or disagree with it or not, that's actually beside the point.

[1894] This is where we start to break that down, because everybody should have the leeway to do just that.

[1895] So we have to lead by example.

[1896] And when I see stuff like this, it's actually infuriating to me. Because if it's a very liberal opinion, knock yourself out.

[1897] In fact, I want to hear it.

[1898] I want to hear more about it.

[1899] Yeah.

[1900] But if it's a conservative opinion or if it's different from my opinion, then we ban it and it gets canceled.

[1901] Do you only fact check the more conservative points in opinions and not fact check the others because they disagree with you?

[1902] Right.

[1903] or agree with you this is a very dangerous place to be in this is a valuable conversation to have because this is where legislators need to have a conversation about this what is freedom of speech right what is freedom of assembly what is it like like really what is it and I think our founding fathers intended it intended it for it to be exactly what you're talking about right now they never anticipated something like social media no and I think that social media represents the current town center, where people can get together and talk about ideas.

[1904] They just never anticipated one person, be able to reach thousands and thousands of people with one individual opinion.

[1905] With one phrase or with one tweet or with one, millions of people.

[1906] But to stop that from happening because you disagree with it is just unconstitutional.

[1907] Particularly if it's just political.

[1908] It's unconstitutional.

[1909] It's also, it's abusive.

[1910] Yes.

[1911] You didn't, no one anticipated that.

[1912] that social media was ever going to be what it is now.

[1913] That's true.

[1914] That it would be this town center of discussion.

[1915] It was, you know, the beginning it was just people putting up pictures of their dog or something.

[1916] You know, it was normal stuff.

[1917] But what it is now is, it's the battleground for global communication.

[1918] It is.

[1919] And the fact that it's being run almost entirely by left -wing people is very problematic, especially with their penchant for censorship.

[1920] Right.

[1921] right well I think Dan Crenshaw actually does a really good job with his social media and again it's about going direct to consumer is what he does and even with again with the video and his Instagram account that has millions of followers on it that's actually that's actually the way to combat this he has built a heck of a brand that actually allows him to speak to people without worrying about rather not his going to be censored or not because it's his opinion that he is putting on his brand on his page yeah this is how to kind of start to take that back through social media and that's actually what i intend on doing too here over the course of the next few years the problem is you can be shadow banned you can be silenced your tweets can be deleted and that's the problem yeah and the fact that this has become a viable solution to a lot of people on the left they think it's a wise thing to do yes it's cancel people yeah it's just not it's not acceptable it's also a lot of these people are mentally ill that are doing this that's like legitimately mental and when I say mentally ill I mean overridden with anxiety yeah and depression and spending hours and hours and hours a day getting in fights online that's an ill person right I mean look we want to talk about mental health and this is something when people would push back against this but I want you to consider this okay peace of mind, like clarity, if you are arguing with people on Twitter, I would say right now you're mentally ill. If you're spending hours and hours every day, which a lot of these people are, just arguing and shitting on people all day long, you're probably ill. That's not optimal.

[1922] That's not healthy.

[1923] It's not a great way of communicating.

[1924] But these social media networks, they facilitate mental illness in a lot of ways in a lot of these people.

[1925] People that don't understand the negative consequences of engaging constantly in conflict.

[1926] And negativity.

[1927] Yes, in negativity.

[1928] It's not wise.

[1929] It's just not wise.

[1930] And a lot of them are depressed.

[1931] I've talked to people who, you know, I've talked to them after they've gotten off of these, like, Twitter binges.

[1932] And they're like, dude, I got to stay off Twitter, man. I get depressed.

[1933] I can't sleep.

[1934] I can't sleep.

[1935] Think about that.

[1936] I can't sleep.

[1937] They get up in the middle of the night to pee and they check their Twitter.

[1938] They check to see if people are agreeing or disagreeing with them.

[1939] They check to see who's angry at them and who's tweeting them.

[1940] Because the neurotic.

[1941] Oh, they go crazy.

[1942] Yeah.

[1943] And it's just so unhealthy.

[1944] And then these people are the ones that think it's okay to silence other people to disagree with them.

[1945] Wrong answer.

[1946] It's a wrong answer.

[1947] It's a wrong answer.

[1948] But I think it needs to be, we need to figure out a way to regulate this like we regulate utilities.

[1949] I really do.

[1950] I don't think you can, I don't think you could call.

[1951] calls, I don't think you could say, oh, it's a private company.

[1952] They can do whatever they want.

[1953] It's a private company that reaches billions of people.

[1954] Like, it's a pipeline for communication.

[1955] I understand that they created it, but it's being used by so many people, and it's responsible for so much discourse.

[1956] The argument should be made, I think, that this is one of the main forms of communication.

[1957] And to deny people, because of their political ideology, the access to this, I think is devastating.

[1958] And I think it's terrible.

[1959] for our country.

[1960] It's terrible because it promotes division.

[1961] That's right.

[1962] It promotes more of the people on the right that are getting censored.

[1963] They're going to hate the people in the left, even more.

[1964] And it creates that friction.

[1965] It creates more friction.

[1966] What can be done about this?

[1967] It's a tough one.

[1968] It's a tough one.

[1969] What can be done about it is, again, what I always retort and go back to, that's conversations like this.

[1970] So who's actually having conversations like this, by the way, about this topic?

[1971] Not that many people.

[1972] Not very many people.

[1973] So what can be done about it is we have to increase the conversations like this with what I believe can be reasonable people from all walks of life on both sides of the aisle.

[1974] We have to talk about this.

[1975] I think if there were reasonable people that were sitting here no matter where you're from, no matter where you're from, no matter what race, color, religion, creed, a political affiliation, if you're sitting here listening to this conversation and you've read the Constitution and you've been in this country for the bulk of your, hell, not even for the bulk of your life, you've lived in America for long enough to understand freedom and liberty.

[1976] You hear this conversation.

[1977] You'd hear this conversation.

[1978] you would say maybe we should push back on that yeah maybe we should so this is what you're doing honestly as a leader by just even having these conversations and we just need more of it and we need to have conversations with leaders in politics and in entertain in the entertainment industry we have to have conversations with foreign countries and other leaders this is how we start with leaders and industry and CEOs we have to have these conversations.

[1979] I feel like we're at a time right now where we've just flat out stopped.

[1980] We're just, we're just yelling at each other.

[1981] And we spent the better part of, in our, my opinion, literally talking about the crux of the problem, which is unconstitutional and against First Amendment and our rights.

[1982] Let's talk about that, what that means.

[1983] And even in my, in my opinion, maybe, I don't know, maybe I look, I see the glass half full.

[1984] Even the most liberal person if they were sitting here as a human being looking at each other would say they have a point i think liberal people that are objective would see the danger and censorship yes and if they didn't i don't know how they'd call themselves liberal how are you going to call yourself progressive when you are anti -communication it's the antithesis of being liberal yes by not wanting to hear other people's opinion because it doesn't agree with yours is actually opposite of the word liberalism yeah it really is but in this day and age it's really, it's become so tribal that these people, they form these groups and then they live in these thought bubbles and they only want to communicate with people that agree with their ideology.

[1985] Yes.

[1986] And they want it to be confirmed.

[1987] They want confirmation bias.

[1988] That's what they want.

[1989] They want to be surrounded by people that think the same way they do.

[1990] And that we're more polarized now than ever is just, it's so disheartening.

[1991] I always push back on people that asked me that started a question off like this.

[1992] Wesley, how could you?

[1993] Wrong.

[1994] Let me, let me just stop you right there.

[1995] What do they say that about?

[1996] The question, lots of things.

[1997] Give me one.

[1998] How could you?

[1999] How could you?

[2000] How could you?

[2001] How could you be a black Republican?

[2002] Oh, that's an interesting one.

[2003] How could you?

[2004] Yeah.

[2005] Just, just the wrong question to ask anybody.

[2006] Right.

[2007] The question is, is, why are you, or why do you?

[2008] Yeah.

[2009] Either you're seeking to condemn or you're seeking to understand.

[2010] If you're seeking to understand, asking a question why because you want to learn something yes if you're asking how do you or how could you you've already made your mind up right you're you're casting judgment with your question you've already done it yeah how much grief do you get for being black and being Republican at the same time I wouldn't say I wouldn't say I wouldn't say grief I do get a lot of pushback I get a lot of pushback on social media as you could probably imagine until somebody sits down and actually you have a conversation with me. Right.

[2011] And then all of a sudden.

[2012] You're reasonable.

[2013] Then all of a sudden.

[2014] Yeah.

[2015] Well, I can't imagine anybody listening to this conversation not thinking you're reasonable.

[2016] Right.

[2017] But if you look at, you look at a tweet or sound bites, you look at a brief thing and you try to categorize someone, the absence of nuance is very dangerous.

[2018] Yes, it is.

[2019] And eliminating nuance from clearly nuanced discussions.

[2020] That's right.

[2021] Human beings are nuanced.

[2022] Yes, we are.

[2023] Yeah.

[2024] I mean, there's no event.

[2025] or butts about it.

[2026] We are complicated.

[2027] Super.

[2028] So accept that.

[2029] Right.

[2030] And to try to boil someone down to a quote or to a demographic or to any simplistic interpretation of a person.

[2031] It's impossible to do that.

[2032] It's not wise.

[2033] Yes, sir.

[2034] And when people do it, they're being disingenuous and they're being sneaky.

[2035] Yeah.

[2036] But that's more often now than not.

[2037] It is.

[2038] That's the problem.

[2039] And we accept it.

[2040] And if it's, if it goes along with our belief system or our ideology, be like, yeah, You roll with it.

[2041] Fuck him.

[2042] Yeah.

[2043] Part of my, I don't know, I believe in serendipity and I'm just, I don't know how I got here at this time, at this place.

[2044] But I do think I'm here for a reason because this is a courageous thing to be able to have these conversations and then take it out to the public, specifically in politics and its climate today.

[2045] But it's kind of my mandate.

[2046] I have to do it.

[2047] because if Dan doesn't do it and if I don't do it, then literally nobody's going to do it.

[2048] Well, I'm very excited about the entrance of all these veterans getting into politics.

[2049] I think it's very important.

[2050] It is.

[2051] And I think it's something that's been missing and lacking, people with real world experience on these subjects that we discuss.

[2052] Yes.

[2053] Yes.

[2054] I agree.

[2055] I'm happy there's guys like you and Dan and many others that are entering into politics.

[2056] and I think the people that have experienced the kind of things that you guys have experienced there's an education that cannot be acquired any other way that's right literally trial by fire yeah literally I'm just glad that no one's censored podcast yet I don't think you let that happen brother I'll try not to but fuck man people get crazy depending upon who gets into comedy or comedy depending upon who gets into politics or who gets into power.

[2057] I mean, look, there are dictatorships that are currently going on in this world.

[2058] The idea that that could never happen here is preposterousers.

[2059] Oh, I kid it.

[2060] Human beings can fall into all sorts of traps, and they have throughout history.

[2061] We are aware of those traps, and we think, well, that won't happen to us.

[2062] We're always one generation away.

[2063] Yes.

[2064] Or one tragedy away.

[2065] Or one decision that we make to give up rights in order to have safety.

[2066] safety and then boom next thing you know guess what someone's checking all your emails yep guess what you can't express an opinion or guess what you can't talk shit like men like to get together and talk shit we're like yeah and we say a bunch of shit that we probably don't even really mean but it's funny to say right especially soldiers dude i've been around so many seals have the most fucked up sense of humor oh my god some of these guys that work security for me holy shit they're hilarious dark but funny yes but but if you took some of that shit and put it in a quote you're like oh my god lock that person out of context yes yes that person's terrible yeah this is what they're planning like that's not what he's talking shit don't you know what talking shit is god especially with alcohol involved oh my god you don't and everyone talking shit knows it's talking shit and that's why everybody's laughing that's right yeah we all we're we're all in on the joke yes talking shit is a very important part of human beings it is it's a very important part of men men and discourse yeah that's right if a man can't talk shit with me i can't talk to them i can't because you can't talk shit come on man yeah you can't talk a little shit it's fun like the the half smile while you're saying things and i'm smiling too you know what you're looking at you you both we both know we're doing we're talking shit yeah i think talking shit is very important That's okay.

[2067] It gets demonized so much, and it becomes a part of this whole narrative of toxic masculinity.

[2068] Listen, if it wasn't for toxic masculinity, we'd all be speaking in German, so shut the fuck up.

[2069] That's exactly right.

[2070] Yeah.

[2071] That's exactly right, because it was toxic masculinity that stormed the beaches of normally.

[2072] Yeah, it's not toxic.

[2073] In a barrage of machine fire.

[2074] It's just masculinity.

[2075] And by the way, here's the dirty secret.

[2076] Women love masculine men.

[2077] Sorry, guys.

[2078] sorry dorks you're not going to fix that you're not going to fix that you're not going to change that that's just how it is we're animals human beings are animals we are animals yeah we we're complicated though we are complicated and you can't you can't boil us down to like some fucking ridiculous disnified narrative that you'd like us to fall into but there's this there's an inclination to do that today Roy Jones Jr. talked about on the podcast he's like they're trying to neuter men That is how it feels.

[2079] They're trying to socially neuter men to get them to fall into a pattern that they would like because it's easier to control people in that way.

[2080] And also, it eliminates the kind of competition that you can't win.

[2081] If you're a nerdy, feminine man and you view toxic masculinity, you view men who are very masculine as something you can never be, you want to try to eliminate that or you want to try to control that.

[2082] And you see a lot of that.

[2083] You see a lot of it from people that have had bad interactions with men.

[2084] There's a way to be tactful, and there's a way to be respectful and still maintain your masculinity.

[2085] Yes, but you also, I was going to get to, you see a lot of shitty men that want to neuter women.

[2086] They want to, yeah, they don't like strong women, they don't like power, because they've had bad relationships with women, or they've had women that didn't like them, or that they feel bad about their relationships with them because the women dismiss them or were in any.

[2087] interested in them, or, you know, or just, it's just...

[2088] See, with that, see, when you do that, so then you don't have a Wesley and a Rendon Hunt because my sister went to West Point first.

[2089] She is a strong woman that actually set quite the example for my brother and I. That's why we all three went.

[2090] Yes.

[2091] So, so why would I want to take away her strength and her power and her individuality to actually lead men and women and also be a good example for her brothers?

[2092] Yes.

[2093] who are two masculine guys but here's the thing strong people yes appreciate strong people period weak people don't like strong people that's where it comes down to it has the the masculine feminine thing that's a trap yes there's a lot of strong women yes who love masculine men there's a lot of strong men who love powerful women, they don't fear it because they're not weak.

[2094] Right.

[2095] A few days ago, I got to meet Nikki Haley in person.

[2096] She is remarkable.

[2097] She's a strong leader.

[2098] I don't know who Nikki Haley is.

[2099] Nikki Haley.

[2100] She's the former governor of South Carolina, U .N. Ambassador under President Trump.

[2101] Unbelievable.

[2102] You could tell she's strong.

[2103] She is level -headed.

[2104] She is extremely shrewd.

[2105] She is extremely shrewd.

[2106] She is extremely smart.

[2107] She's amazing.

[2108] And I'm sitting at the table with her and it's me and her and my wife and Dan and Tara Crenshaw.

[2109] And we're sitting there and I'm looking at Dan.

[2110] Dan's looking at me. I'm like, I mean, she is incredible.

[2111] That has nothing to do with her being a woman or me flying a patches or Dan being a seal.

[2112] She's a strong person.

[2113] She's a strong woman.

[2114] She is a leader.

[2115] Exactly.

[2116] Exactly.

[2117] Exactly.

[2118] That's what we need to get to.

[2119] And that's what we need to get to.

[2120] We need to, we need to, we need to set.

[2121] celebrate powerful people.

[2122] That's right.

[2123] People who are strong, people who are leaders.

[2124] And I want to stand for something.

[2125] People exemplify what we enjoy seeing in others.

[2126] That's right.

[2127] Great character, great intelligence, integrity.

[2128] Right.

[2129] Someone is interesting.

[2130] Mental strength.

[2131] All those things are, we should really reinforce that.

[2132] And celebrate those things.

[2133] Don't deemize.

[2134] Celebrate those things.

[2135] Celebrate it.

[2136] Exactly.

[2137] Yeah.

[2138] What else?

[2139] What are the subjects you think we need to cover?

[2140] I think you made an argument.

[2141] awesome point today.

[2142] I really do.

[2143] I have it covered it all.

[2144] I hope these motherfuckers vote for it.

[2145] I really do.

[2146] I hope they get out.

[2147] I hope they get out.

[2148] I hope we get the word out and they see this podcast.

[2149] They go, oh, okay.

[2150] Me too.

[2151] Me too.

[2152] We're working hard at it.

[2153] And again, I just want to say always, always, always, I am in American first and I'm proud of it.

[2154] You can't tell me this is not the greatest experiment in history of this world.

[2155] And I'm just blessed to be a part of it.

[2156] You can't tell me that either.

[2157] You cannot tell me otherwise.

[2158] No. No, I love it.

[2159] I love it.

[2160] I love it.

[2161] And I love the guys like you are out there.

[2162] Thank you, brother.

[2163] Trying to represent America correctly.

[2164] Thank you, bro.

[2165] I appreciate you.

[2166] Thank you.

[2167] My pleasure.

[2168] Tell people one more time what district, how to get after it.

[2169] Sure.

[2170] It's Houston, Texas, Congressional District 7.

[2171] My website is WesleyforTexas .com.

[2172] Wesley for Texas.

[2173] Thank you, sir.

[2174] Thank you, brother.

[2175] Appreciate it very much.

[2176] Awesome.

[2177] Thank you.

[2178] Wesley Hunt, ladies and gentlemen, you know what to do.

[2179] Get out there.

[2180] Vote for it.

[2181] Bye, everybody.