Speaker 1: Ah, beaut force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to software radio, special operations, military
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community
Speaker 1: sofprep dot com on time on target, I mean in Scotto,
Speaker 1: Jack Murphy in studio again. Here I am. If you
Speaker 1: haven't listened in the last episode. People like the episode
Speaker 1: of Dead Derek was great. Yeah, yeah, he was really cold.
Speaker 1: I'd love to haven't been to come again, especially if
Speaker 1: anything pops off on about military rotary wing aviation. Sounds
Speaker 1: like spent a lot of time on research and that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He wrote two articles that we recently put on the site.
Speaker 1: Four so we had to the last type check and
Speaker 1: there might be too getting gotten up there. No, no,
Speaker 1: I think all four of them are out now, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple of different articles or two of them recent
Speaker 1: or I mean they were all about aviation, um you
Speaker 1: know stuff kind of like on the periphery of the
Speaker 1: extortion seventeen crash one was about um mobile uh you know,
Speaker 1: offset infill stuff using landing helicopters and riding dirt bikes
Speaker 1: and quads off and things like that. Wrote another one
Speaker 1: the Myths and Misconceptions around extortion seventeen um. And so
Speaker 1: there's four articles in total that that he shot my
Speaker 1: wife that we published on the website. I was surprised
Speaker 1: there wasn't that much of a backlash from the episode,
Speaker 1: Like I did figure i'd get some tweets and emails
Speaker 1: saying that Wachrell's story is what happened, because I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who are I would say,
Speaker 1: like emotionally invested in the book, the movie. They really
Speaker 1: loved the whole story, and I didn't see a lot
Speaker 1: of that, which I mean was good and I don't
Speaker 1: think he even made it queer on the show. Is
Speaker 1: intent is not to like attack anyone, It's just to
Speaker 1: get the truth out there. Yeah. I think you know
Speaker 1: Ed said it himself. People are ready to hear the truth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. Um, they really enjoyed it. So this episode
Speaker 1: we have Dan Crenshaw coming on a running for congress.
Speaker 1: In the second is Strict of Texas. Um, we have
Speaker 1: an email to get to is checking the emails at
Speaker 1: Softwrep dot radio at softwrep dot com. You want to
Speaker 1: do that first and then get into this Dick pics six. Sure,
Speaker 1: let's knock out the emails and and that's an article
Speaker 1: that is getting a lot of controversy. This is I
Speaker 1: thought this was a really interesting one, actually, because it's
Speaker 1: something you talk about on the show pretty often. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's from Trey. Uh. SOFTWAREP First, I've enjoyed all
Speaker 1: the content on SOFTWAREP Radio and SOFTWAREP dot com. I
Speaker 1: am also deeply grateful that my comment on Jack's article
Speaker 1: about the acceptance and welcoming of communism in the US
Speaker 1: became the featured comment. My my question is, how do
Speaker 1: you define what an expert is, both when talking about
Speaker 1: those who write about specific military issues, but also in
Speaker 1: all areas. It's the thought I've wrestled with a lot
Speaker 1: as a college student. Thank you, And that's from Trey.
Speaker 1: That's a really good question, actually, Um, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of ways you can define an expert. Um. And I'm
Speaker 1: somebody I think I've said that pass. I hesitate to
Speaker 1: call myself a counter terrorism expert because there's so many
Speaker 1: quote unquote counter terrorism experts out there, and if you're
Speaker 1: an expert on a subject, you should be able to
Speaker 1: talk about everything there is on that subject. Right. But
Speaker 1: if we sat here and you started grilling me about
Speaker 1: the history of Palestinian nationalism. I would be able to
Speaker 1: tell you a little bit about it, but not a
Speaker 1: comprehensive view. But if you're a counter terrorism expert, shoudn't
Speaker 1: you know all of that? You know, when you when
Speaker 1: you really start to learn a lot about a subject,
Speaker 1: you learn how much there is that you don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: So what is an expert? Is someone who has like
Speaker 1: a PhD? A subject matter expert? Um? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think you have to kind of look at it
Speaker 1: at like levels and have like a more grandular view. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, somebody who was a colonel and served in uh,
Speaker 1: let's say Ramadi Iraq. That guy might be a great
Speaker 1: subject matter expert on military operations in Ramadi Iraq the
Speaker 1: year he was there in two thousand five, But he
Speaker 1: might not be an expert and say, what what's going
Speaker 1: on in the Korean peninsula right now? So there's different
Speaker 1: ways to look at expertise. You know, just because you're
Speaker 1: a former Army ranger or former CIA officer or former
Speaker 1: Navy seal doesn't mean you know everything about everything. And
Speaker 1: that seems like actually Ed was talking about that on
Speaker 1: the last podcast. He's like, they try to find one
Speaker 1: source to speak on every single subject. But that's not
Speaker 1: how the modern world works. It's so complex, so technical,
Speaker 1: that there's no one person that knows say everything about
Speaker 1: the Department of Defense. You know, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not an expert on like missile defense. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know. I know a little bit. I
Speaker 1: probably know a little bit more than the average person,
Speaker 1: but I'm not an expert. How do you choose what
Speaker 1: you do write about then, and what you comment on?
Speaker 1: Because I know for you, there's times you'll turn down
Speaker 1: an interviewer. You'll say, I don't really know this well.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you speak on stuff that
Speaker 1: I'm sure you admitted we are not an expert on.
Speaker 1: You'll go on CNN and talk about the presidential election
Speaker 1: law was going on, and people could say that's not
Speaker 1: your expert use, Yeah you could. Well. I mean again,
Speaker 1: it's all levels of expertise. Um I I would say, admittedly,
Speaker 1: not an expert on presidential elections. But I do have
Speaker 1: a degree in political science. UM I do follow you
Speaker 1: know politics, So I mean, I guess I have some
Speaker 1: level of expertise, but I'm not you know, subject matter expert.
Speaker 1: Um I do turn down a lot of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: mostly when I weigh in on presidential politics, I do
Speaker 1: it to UM as it relates to military affairs. UM.
Speaker 1: If you come and ask me personally, Jack Murphy, what's
Speaker 1: your opinion? I can give you opinions and rants all day.
Speaker 1: But but when I go on television or I write articles,
Speaker 1: I try to keep it within the UH you know,
Speaker 1: a certain venue. UM Like there are times, you know,
Speaker 1: are you try to have me on a few times
Speaker 1: in to talk about things like ferguson UM or like
Speaker 1: social issues and things like that, which Derek loves to
Speaker 1: talk about when he's been on, and he's not an
Speaker 1: expert on it, but it's it's an interest and I
Speaker 1: will I can talk about we can talk about it
Speaker 1: a little bit. I'm not like afraid of the subject.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that I'm an expert in UM
Speaker 1: law or domestic policy or UM you know, practical law
Speaker 1: enforcement procedures or civil rights movements. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think I know enough about those subjects to qualify as
Speaker 1: an expert on that topic. It's an interesting thing, though,
Speaker 1: because most of the people who you see on TV,
Speaker 1: I would say, are not experts I mean, yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of them are complete fucking morons. Frankly, I mean,
Speaker 1: you just get somebody who's like a pretty face, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sorry it sounds like some misogynistic comment,
Speaker 1: but how many times do we just see some cute
Speaker 1: blonde on television who literally has no idea what she's
Speaker 1: talking about, And it's like, this is a cute blonde
Speaker 1: with an opinion. But there are there are men too,
Speaker 1: of course, plenty of men on television who also have
Speaker 1: no fucking clue what they're talking about. Wayne Simmons was
Speaker 1: the Fox News, like c I a go to guy
Speaker 1: for years, and it turns out he's stolen valor had
Speaker 1: no fucking clue what he is talking about. It's it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where, um, I think as long
Speaker 1: as people should just be educated on the fact that
Speaker 1: whether it's Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, like, they're all in
Speaker 1: the business of getting ratings, making money for their advertisers,
Speaker 1: and to be honest, I mean, I don't fault them
Speaker 1: for it. It's capitalism, like they put that above getting
Speaker 1: out quality news and also everything. If you turn onto
Speaker 1: any of those news stations, more times than not, it's
Speaker 1: a debate on an issue before you even really know
Speaker 1: the substance of the issue. Well, they're given the consumer
Speaker 1: what they want, and you know they love split screen debate.
Speaker 1: People people say, I want the truth, I want the facts. No,
Speaker 1: they don't. Come on, let's not lie to ourselves. People
Speaker 1: want to be entertained. They're addicted to outrage. They don't
Speaker 1: want like that dry you know, fact based analysis. They
Speaker 1: don't that's too complicated. Nobody wants to go through all
Speaker 1: that trouble. People want to be entertained, they want to
Speaker 1: get angry, they want to have passionate convictions. Um So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean when people tell me they want facts and
Speaker 1: they want truth and all this, you kind of have
Speaker 1: to take that with a grain of salt, because nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten, that's not what they're looking for.
Speaker 1: I'm also I'm trying to pull it up on here
Speaker 1: to make a point if I can. Um, I think
Speaker 1: I'm pulling it up right now. There we go. Um So,
Speaker 1: people also want to live in an echo chamber, I
Speaker 1: think on social media. So Tim Kennedy actually recently tweeted
Speaker 1: like a few things about climate change, and he put
Speaker 1: up this video of him and I'll read it. It's
Speaker 1: hiss heartbreaking reality of climate change. Where I am standing
Speaker 1: ten years ago was covered in ten ft of ice.
Speaker 1: This glacier was was disappearing for the last twenty years,
Speaker 1: just like all other bodies of ice around the world.
Speaker 1: We have to act, all right, So you put that up.
Speaker 1: And then I saw on his Facebook he wrote like
Speaker 1: I just lost hundreds of Twitter followers by voicing a
Speaker 1: view on climate change. And I think it's because Tim
Speaker 1: Kennedy generally appeals to a more conservative audience. He is
Speaker 1: very conservative on his views. Uh, but this was a
Speaker 1: some for some reason that's considered a more liberal view.
Speaker 1: And I think if you don't hear, if you don't
Speaker 1: want to hear exactly what your opinion is out there
Speaker 1: in the media, you're like, I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: this guy speak. Oh yeah. Every time I say something,
Speaker 1: uh something negative about Trump, people flip out. I mean
Speaker 1: they go crazy. It's like, are you really such a
Speaker 1: snowflake that you can't handle it just recently happened. And
Speaker 1: then it also a little a little I mean, he's president.
Speaker 1: You know the president is going to be criticized, you know.
Speaker 1: They also then asked like I didn't know you were,
Speaker 1: or say I didn't know you were a liberal, Jack,
Speaker 1: I didn't know you must be a liberal plant Jack Murphy.
Speaker 1: How much did George Soros pay you to write that?
Speaker 1: It's like, come on, guys, let's thick in our skin
Speaker 1: a little bit here. I mean, Donald Trump says a
Speaker 1: lot of ridiculous stuff, and I mean he's going to
Speaker 1: be criticized for that. Um, it doesn't mean that he's
Speaker 1: like the you know, uh, it doesn't mean he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, Satan or something like this or these are
Speaker 1: like exaggerations that people make. Um, you know, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is literally worse than Hitler. Like no, okay, no, that's
Speaker 1: not true. But but the president is going to be
Speaker 1: criticized and he's open to criticism, and people have the
Speaker 1: right to criticize the president. And I don't know why
Speaker 1: that's so controversial. I feel like a lot of people
Speaker 1: and we saw it during the Obama administration of course too,
Speaker 1: and during the w administration, people just like drink the
Speaker 1: kool aid like hardcore, and it's like you just become
Speaker 1: a fanboy or something and you have some slavish obedience
Speaker 1: to a presidential administration that's not really the America. I know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it has to probably do
Speaker 1: with the media, like they've really those yeah, they and
Speaker 1: they've driven this right left paradigm. Choose aside and stick
Speaker 1: to it, pal. Yeah, so when you tweet out something
Speaker 1: more conservative, people will be like, oh, I thought Jack
Speaker 1: Murphy was a liberal and then you tweet out something
Speaker 1: critical of the president. Are you how could you do that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't get it. Side. Are you on?
Speaker 1: Um anyway? Getting into something that you just wrote that
Speaker 1: was pretty controversial Dick Picks six. That's not the full title. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it right now. The full title is
Speaker 1: Dick Picks six the seventh Special Forces Group Sex and
Speaker 1: Black Blackmail Network. I mean, rather than reading from the
Speaker 1: article itself, I might as well get into it with you.
Speaker 1: And is this the full article for subscribers or is
Speaker 1: it behind the No, it's not behind the paywall. Anyone
Speaker 1: can go and read it. Um. You know, you type
Speaker 1: that article title or something similar to it in a
Speaker 1: search engine and it should come right up um and
Speaker 1: anyone can read it. Um. So yeah, I worked on
Speaker 1: the story for a few months, and uh, it was
Speaker 1: difficult to say the least, and UM, I wish I
Speaker 1: could get into, like some of the back story and
Speaker 1: stuff like that behind how things work. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: of course there were sources I talked to that I
Speaker 1: have to protect at the same time, and quite a
Speaker 1: few off the record conversations as well. UM. The gist
Speaker 1: of this story is that the group secretary at seventh
Speaker 1: Special Forces Group was quite promiscuous, actively seeking out relationships
Speaker 1: with men in the unit. Um. So she slept with
Speaker 1: quite a few green berets, h Sergeant majors and team
Speaker 1: sergeants and colonel's other officers, captains. Um, she got around
Speaker 1: quite a bit, and it caused kind of a mess,
Speaker 1: as you can think. You know that if you have
Speaker 1: this sort of you know, promiscuous sexual activity, you know
Speaker 1: it happens in the corporate world too, right, But this
Speaker 1: is in a military environment, and I have no interest
Speaker 1: in playing the morality police here by any means. UM.
Speaker 1: I think as we get a little deeper into the story,
Speaker 1: you'll see why this is newsworthy or why this is
Speaker 1: important and it's not about affairs at the workplace. Um.
Speaker 1: Things started to get more and more out of control. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, multiple guys, Um you know, sleeping with her
Speaker 1: at the same time. Um, she tried to break it
Speaker 1: off with one colonel and uh, she was coming to
Speaker 1: work crying actually because he kept sending her unsolicited pictures
Speaker 1: of his genitalia. And this guy, this officer, his name's
Speaker 1: Dave Bowling, was so prolific that his own men they
Speaker 1: nicknamed him Dick pick six. So six is the name,
Speaker 1: is the call sign of the colonel, you know, for
Speaker 1: people who haven't been in the military. And so Dick
Speaker 1: pick six became his moniker. Um, and things just kind
Speaker 1: of spiraled downhill from there. Um. This secretary, Jennifer O'Brien,
Speaker 1: she was also smoking crystal meth and fhetamine. Um that
Speaker 1: started to come out. And when a new colonel came in, Uh,
Speaker 1: Colonel Ball, he saw what was going on in his
Speaker 1: headquarters and was like, oh my God, like we gotta
Speaker 1: do something about this. And and Colonel Ball really tried
Speaker 1: to do the right thing and clean the situation up,
Speaker 1: um to try to take measures. Um. Meanwhile, after Dave Bowling,
Speaker 1: the next guy who was with actually there's some overlap
Speaker 1: between them, was Jason Startori and Star Tori came and
Speaker 1: he was sleeping with her his wife allegedly found the
Speaker 1: electronic messages between him and the secretary and realized that
Speaker 1: he was having an affair. UM. Some kind of altercation
Speaker 1: broke out and uh Star Tori was arrested for allegedly
Speaker 1: strangling his wife. UM. Those charges were later dropped. Uh
Speaker 1: Star TORII then goes and he's with O'Brien and he,
Speaker 1: according to O'Brien, he physically abused her as well. And
Speaker 1: there's pictures in the article of her bruised up and
Speaker 1: UM should beat up um, you know, pretty badly. And UM,
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, the charges were dropped, so
Speaker 1: there's no conviction there and you can look at, you know,
Speaker 1: the evidence and make your own decision. I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think she did suffer physical abuse. UM. Did he
Speaker 1: have a for it? He vigorously denied that he physically
Speaker 1: abused either his wife or O'Brien. Um, so there's for
Speaker 1: the record, you know, he I talked to Star Tory
Speaker 1: and he denied it. UM. So things continue to get
Speaker 1: worse and worse. The investigations are getting out of hand
Speaker 1: or there there are. What's going on first was Seventh
Speaker 1: Group was trying to initiate investigations into O'Brien and some
Speaker 1: of these other characters and what was going on here,
Speaker 1: And initially it was about the drug use, but then
Speaker 1: they were like, well, okay, this is also an opportunity
Speaker 1: to investigate her for all these affairs she's having with
Speaker 1: all of these different guys, and UM Special Forces Command
Speaker 1: kept shutting down the investigations. They would go to back
Speaker 1: to Colonel Ball and Seventh Group and they would say,
Speaker 1: not only are we not going to help you, but
Speaker 1: you need to shut this investigation down and stop making waves.
Speaker 1: And there were officers and there were other people in
Speaker 1: Seventh Group at the time who were trying to do
Speaker 1: the right thing here, and they were looking at each
Speaker 1: other like what the fuck, Like what's going on? Why
Speaker 1: is SF Command at Fort Bragg trying to shut us down?
Speaker 1: And it didn't so it didn't make any sense. So
Speaker 1: then uh, internally in the Seventh Group, the investigation continues
Speaker 1: and jen is eventually placed on administrative leave UM and
Speaker 1: she's getting her security clearance UM yanked. Jennifer O'Brien then
Speaker 1: starts writing up a hit list of all of the
Speaker 1: men that she has potential blackmail material on. She was
Speaker 1: working trying to use that material to get UM officers
Speaker 1: and senior n c o s in the unit to
Speaker 1: try to help her out, help her get her job back.
Speaker 1: But when it became apparent she wasn't getting her job
Speaker 1: back at all, she made up this hit list and
Speaker 1: said she was going to take down the entire unit.
Speaker 1: And it's like, okay, if you're firing me, I'm taking
Speaker 1: all of you down with me. So she starts working
Speaker 1: up this hit list, UM, and uh starts releasing that
Speaker 1: in her information. And my understanding was there were text messages,
Speaker 1: there were emails, there were pictures, there were videos. I mean,
Speaker 1: she had like, uh, nice sized cachet of information that
Speaker 1: she was holding over people's heads. Um. Then what happened.
Speaker 1: This is a few months back, the investigation continues. It's
Speaker 1: gotten bigger. Um, it's out of the control of you know,
Speaker 1: these colonels and sergeant majors. They can't control the information anymore. Um.
Speaker 1: Was the command Sergeant major of Special Forces Command, Brian
Speaker 1: Rary was removed very quietly. And you see there's like
Speaker 1: an Army Times article that was like total like whitewash
Speaker 1: with a very you know, PC message from the use
Speaker 1: of sock public affairs officer. UM. And it turned out
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, I found out it was actually
Speaker 1: part of that information that Jennifer O'Brien had. She also
Speaker 1: had leverage over the command Sergeant major of Special Forces Command.
Speaker 1: And now it starts to make sense why Special Forces
Speaker 1: Command kept shutting down the investigation, why they didn't want
Speaker 1: it to go forward. Um. So the article is about
Speaker 1: all of this, and it's about you know, the good
Speaker 1: old boy network that kind of exists, is so called,
Speaker 1: you know, the boys club that we've heard so much
Speaker 1: about in recent months as the Harvey Weinstein scandal is unfolded,
Speaker 1: that there's this like little clique of men who kind
Speaker 1: of facilitate and perpetuate this type of behavior. And that's
Speaker 1: definitely what happened at seventh Special Forces Group and at
Speaker 1: Special Forces Command. Interesting. So the article is now Dick
Speaker 1: picks six the Seventh Special Forces Groups sex and blackmail network. Um,
Speaker 1: before we bring on Dan. It's funny that you mentioned
Speaker 1: Harvey Weinstein because I know the pictures are out of
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfree with Harvey Weinstein. There's that whole uh, I
Speaker 1: don't know, just uh big firestorm. I wouldn't say firestorm
Speaker 1: I guess a collective thing going on on Twitter in
Speaker 1: the media that Oprah Winfree you made a speech to
Speaker 1: people like the Golden Globes, and now she should be
Speaker 1: the president in well, and it's actually sudden. Nick from
Speaker 1: Ranger Up tweeted out and it was the exact same
Speaker 1: way I felt, is, you know, we're having an unqualified
Speaker 1: billionaire president to replace another unqualified billionaire president. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's ridiculous. Um. But after Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: become the president, I feel like everything is kind of
Speaker 1: fair game. Like if this was five years ago, I
Speaker 1: was the way Opra woyd Free is gonna be the president. Right,
Speaker 1: It's at this point it seems very real. It's like
Speaker 1: everything is possible now, right, Yeah, like Dwyne Johnson could
Speaker 1: become president. Yeah, Ted Nugent could run. I mean, who
Speaker 1: can't be president really? Um, But I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like that South Park episode, Like Hollywood is just,
Speaker 1: you know, the perfect storm of self satisfaction. They love
Speaker 1: to look at themselves in the mirror and talk about
Speaker 1: how great they are. And this whole thing with Harvey Weinstein,
Speaker 1: you know, really exposed Hollywood for what it is and
Speaker 1: all the darkness inside it. I mean, Hollywood has been
Speaker 1: lecturing us as Americans for so long about morality and
Speaker 1: every other goddamn thing, and here it is what's going
Speaker 1: on in their own house. And now that they've been exposed,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, we're doing our housekeeping and this and that. Well,
Speaker 1: good for you, guys, But meanwhile, more and more of
Speaker 1: you are going down and you're diming each other out
Speaker 1: like it's going out of style. So I mean, I
Speaker 1: welcome any sort of house cleaning, and I hope that
Speaker 1: anybody who, you know, committed sexual harassment gets fired and
Speaker 1: anyone who sexually assaulted as a woman or a man
Speaker 1: for that matter, goes to prison. So that's that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. That's a positive development. But for these celebrities
Speaker 1: to kind of like after the fact, it's like after
Speaker 1: you've been caught in the act. Now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're like this activist and you're you're out there talking
Speaker 1: about it, Like, why where were you a year ago?
Speaker 1: Now that it's safe for you to come out and
Speaker 1: talk about this, you're talking about it. You know, I
Speaker 1: wish they had as much balls as you know, some
Speaker 1: of the people who talk to me about stuff like
Speaker 1: this article we just talked about about the UH. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many others have I worked on, like the Jonathan
Speaker 1: um uh Sar Toro story and the hundred first Airborne
Speaker 1: the guy who was sexually assaulting his own privates, his
Speaker 1: own soldiers in Afghanistan. I wish that, you know, these
Speaker 1: Hollywood celebrities, these icons were all supposed to look up to.
Speaker 1: I wish they had as much courage as some of
Speaker 1: these young men and women who have come forward to
Speaker 1: talk about sexual harassment and sexual assault UM or for
Speaker 1: that matter, even some of the young actresses in Hollywood
Speaker 1: who came forward, the first ones to come forward and
Speaker 1: start talking about McGowan, start talking about Harvey Weinstein. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until after the hard work had already been done.
Speaker 1: I think it's easy for people like Oprah to come
Speaker 1: out and join the bandwagon. I would have been more beyond.
Speaker 1: You know, she gave a speech to people liked, and
Speaker 1: now it's Opra and well that's just a Facebook hash tag, right,
Speaker 1: That's gonna be replaced by something else in two days.
Speaker 1: I don't know, though, I mean, I feel like Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was ad ashtag and it really happened. Um and
Speaker 1: people compared. I just think everything really is fair game
Speaker 1: now because people will say, oh, well, Ronald Reagan was
Speaker 1: an actor and he became the president, but Ronald Reagan
Speaker 1: became a successful governor. You know, this would even I remember, um,
Speaker 1: when the presidential race was John Carrey versus Bush. That
Speaker 1: was the first election I was able to vote in.
Speaker 1: It might have been yours too, right, I can't remember
Speaker 1: um because we're about the same age. So that was
Speaker 1: my first one I remember prior to Um. Well may
Speaker 1: I think maybe it was a push for him to
Speaker 1: run as an independent, but there was a big like that.
Speaker 1: There was a big ad campaign on TV of amend
Speaker 1: the Constitution for Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, as much as that
Speaker 1: sounded kind of crazy, at least arm schwartzeneg governor had
Speaker 1: been a governor. Uh definitely was not a great governor
Speaker 1: in all aspects if you read all about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: he definitely had a lot of roadblocks, a lot of
Speaker 1: things that went wrong. And if he hadn't knocked up
Speaker 1: the nanny, they'd probably still be talking about that. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's true. Um, but yeah, at least he had the
Speaker 1: experience of running a state. Donald Trump literally went from
Speaker 1: nothing in terms of political career to the president. So
Speaker 1: it's like, why can't Oprah win free if if he did,
Speaker 1: It's it's a fair point. And I'm watching some of
Speaker 1: these commentators on Fox and it's like we were talking
Speaker 1: about pretty blonds and all that. I won't say any
Speaker 1: names of who it was, but like I saw one
Speaker 1: girl in particular who I've met, and she was on
Speaker 1: Fox Business and she's like, well, maybe she'd be a
Speaker 1: great president. I mean, she's she's a businesswoman. And that's
Speaker 1: become like the meme that you're a businessperson, you will
Speaker 1: make a good president, and it's a completely different fields. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I I hear that all the time too, and I
Speaker 1: completely disagree that, yeah, being a good businessman or businesswoman
Speaker 1: would makes you a good politician or a good leader
Speaker 1: or a good president. That's total nonsense because the differences
Speaker 1: the profit incentives are different. Um, when you go into
Speaker 1: politics and you deal with these complicated issues, there are
Speaker 1: resources that are indivisible. One of the big difference is uh,
Speaker 1: in business, as you can and as Americans were great
Speaker 1: at this American businessman is trying to set up a
Speaker 1: deal so that it's a win win win, and everyone
Speaker 1: takes away something. Everyone walks away from the deal. Happy. Um,
Speaker 1: when you get into politics, is you know, Jared Kushner
Speaker 1: is finding out there are some things that are indivisible,
Speaker 1: like Israel and Palestine. It's not so easy to just
Speaker 1: draw a fucking red line across territory like okay, you
Speaker 1: have that, you have that, or or you have all
Speaker 1: of that and you have nothing. Um. You know, politics
Speaker 1: in international politics and domestic politics are just so radically
Speaker 1: different than business. And Um, I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say. I mean, I know what to say that.
Speaker 1: You know, Trump is proof of that being a good
Speaker 1: businessman doesn't make you a good president. But other people
Speaker 1: are gonna be like, you don't know what the funk
Speaker 1: you're talking about, Jack, He's building a wall. Well this
Speaker 1: goes back to you not you know, talking about things
Speaker 1: you're not necessarily a subject matter expert on, but having opinion.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I would just look at and say,
Speaker 1: what what has Trump had done since he's gotten in office? Um,
Speaker 1: he got his tax for Form bill passed that Fox me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to pay more in taxes, thank you. Um.
Speaker 1: Everything else he failed to repeal Obamacare. This wall is
Speaker 1: nowhere in sight. I mean, what, what has he actually done?
Speaker 1: And I mean granted he's like what one year in
Speaker 1: but it seems like he's gotten very little done. I
Speaker 1: I will leave it at that. Um. But with with that,
Speaker 1: for the first time, on with us. Dan Crenshaw running
Speaker 1: for Congress in the second District of Texas as a
Speaker 1: Republican former Seal Team three UH ten year combat vet,
Speaker 1: also reading your bio Masters in Public Administration from the
Speaker 1: Harvard Kennedy School of Government. So you've done more than
Speaker 1: just special operations, which is a lot in itself of course. Um,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, man, thanks for having me. I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of all the things you guys put out,
Speaker 1: so it's an honor to be here. Awesome. Well, the
Speaker 1: first thing I was going to ask you about before
Speaker 1: we get into like any real questions, I was just
Speaker 1: out of curiosity. Um, Drew Wallace, who runs all of
Speaker 1: our stuff for softwarep TV, is the one who made
Speaker 1: the connection. So I was wondering how you go back Withdrew.
Speaker 1: And then also, uh, Jason Kennets or our head of brand,
Speaker 1: was like, I've met Dan. He's a solid guy. So
Speaker 1: hearing a lot of good things about you. Oh, I
Speaker 1: gotta thanks the other great guys, Um Drew and I.
Speaker 1: How did we get connected? I guess through it through
Speaker 1: another mutual friend at Oakley. Um, and we just hit
Speaker 1: it off for a while. Um and uh despite his
Speaker 1: ranger background. UM, but you great, great guy. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm glad to see he's doing well. Um working with
Speaker 1: you all now. But I was talked to him a
Speaker 1: lot of Oakley and it took a special interest in me.
Speaker 1: And I'm feeling sorry for me and giving me, uh
Speaker 1: sunglasses when I needed them. Uh, you know, with my
Speaker 1: my one good eye, UH need to be specially protected.
Speaker 1: It's pretty sensitive to the light. So they helped me
Speaker 1: out a lot with that. Hey Dan, it's Shack. Thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on the show today. Hey, thank you Jack,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Yeah. I guess a good way
Speaker 1: to start this interview today is I want to ask you, so,
Speaker 1: what made you decide to run for Congress? I mean,
Speaker 1: you had this pretty incredible background in the military and
Speaker 1: then going to Harvard and then what was this just
Speaker 1: sort of like the natural next step for you? Uh,
Speaker 1: not not initially, but not something I hadn't thought of
Speaker 1: you know, we we had to assisted in my wife
Speaker 1: um in the past. And you know how because the
Speaker 1: real question is how do you how do you make
Speaker 1: an impact? How do you continue making an impact? You know,
Speaker 1: my entire life would want to be an a b
Speaker 1: CEL really since like age twelve. You know, you read
Speaker 1: a book and you're hooked, and you're hooked to the
Speaker 1: adventure and the patriotism and the elitism of it. And
Speaker 1: that's just what I wanted to do. And so when
Speaker 1: that's all sort of wrapping up and coming to an end,
Speaker 1: what do you do with your life? And you know,
Speaker 1: I I knew a couple of things. I knew that
Speaker 1: I really can't get up in the morning for anything
Speaker 1: that doesn't really giving a sense of fulfillment. And m
Speaker 1: the still teams I think did that for me and
Speaker 1: and I think they did that for me because of
Speaker 1: the the the intensity of it, the the impact that
Speaker 1: you that you're having, and you know, that dedication to
Speaker 1: public service and serving your country and the way that
Speaker 1: makes you feel um and and the goods you see
Speaker 1: it does for your country, and how how critical it is.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a there's a ton of ways
Speaker 1: to serve your country, and so I think the way
Speaker 1: I do it that you know, it's it's through leadership
Speaker 1: to the leadership I learned the teams and bringing that
Speaker 1: kind of credibility and passion and inspiration to Congress and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and showing people what leadership actually means. It's
Speaker 1: not just it's not just authority. People didn't or you know,
Speaker 1: my my guys didn't follow me through mine fields and
Speaker 1: into dangerous, scariest environments imaginable type places. Um, unless they
Speaker 1: had actually believed that you were the right guy for
Speaker 1: the job. You know, yes, you have some sort of
Speaker 1: authority over them, but they're not following you because of
Speaker 1: the bars that your collar and anybody in the military
Speaker 1: would agree with that. And it shouldn't really be any
Speaker 1: different for your elected representatives. You should, you should truly
Speaker 1: be able to say that you believe in them and
Speaker 1: that they've got your back. And that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: leadership I want to show, um for the people of Texas.
Speaker 1: I was written on your website about how you know,
Speaker 1: you describe how you lost one eye and you know,
Speaker 1: went temporarily blind in the other eye. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're caught in an I e D strike and
Speaker 1: I've interviewed other veterans about this, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask your take because this is always very interesting to
Speaker 1: hear about, you know, how people bounce back. And I
Speaker 1: noticed that you went on a couple more deployments after
Speaker 1: that injury, and I was just wondering if you could
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about, you know, the recovery process
Speaker 1: and how you kind of jumped back in the saddle.
Speaker 1: Of course. Um. Yeah, so you know, I got hit lost,
Speaker 1: I was blinded immediately, Um, knocked over. Didn't really lose consciousness,
Speaker 1: but I was. I was torn up pretty bad. One
Speaker 1: of our Afghan interpreters said, stepping an i D pressure
Speaker 1: plate right in front of me, and Um, he was
Speaker 1: dismembered right away. And I took the blast because I
Speaker 1: was only a couple of feet away and looking right
Speaker 1: at him, so I didn't I was blind, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I quite realized I was blood in the
Speaker 1: sense that I figured it was just dirt my eyes
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. So there was a long
Speaker 1: period which really never ended, by the way, a period
Speaker 1: of self a self deception where I was I was
Speaker 1: never really blind. I mean basically I was, but I
Speaker 1: really didn't think of it that way. Um, I was
Speaker 1: able to walk it off and get to the Metavac
Speaker 1: Hilo and they put me out right away. And I
Speaker 1: woke up about five days later, still blind of course,
Speaker 1: um now completely missing my right eye because had been
Speaker 1: been removed and uh surgery and candahar and to so
Speaker 1: I woke up from Germany, and you know that their
Speaker 1: message to me was essentially, you you might see get
Speaker 1: out of your left eye. It's not it's not looking
Speaker 1: so great. We got a cataract, so we have to
Speaker 1: stabilize you and then get you to Besasa where we'll
Speaker 1: actually do the operation. And again that kind of self
Speaker 1: deception kicked in where I really just didn't believe them.
Speaker 1: You know, you didn't want to. I don't know, it
Speaker 1: just didn't. It wasn't like a there was there was
Speaker 1: really there was. There was no pushing and pulling inside
Speaker 1: my brain like it was just like, okay, you're saying
Speaker 1: there's a chance. I guess there's a chance, and and
Speaker 1: and and that's just how I thought. And frankly it
Speaker 1: was probably better for my mental health, but that's how
Speaker 1: I thought. And but but I was hallucinating constantly too
Speaker 1: because because like I said, I was blind but still
Speaker 1: seeing what I what I where I had just been.
Speaker 1: So I was constantly seeing Afghanistan all over my hospital room,
Speaker 1: um in dreams and then waking up from dreams and
Speaker 1: still seeing those hallucinations. It's a very weird, awful experience. UM.
Speaker 1: So we eventually it through that, and you know, of
Speaker 1: course proving the doctors, um, proving their negativity wrong by
Speaker 1: by by actually recovering and actually eventually gaining full sight
Speaker 1: in my left eye. Not perfect site by any means.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I saw have to wear a
Speaker 1: very specialized contact to see anything at all. But we
Speaker 1: got through it. And you know why why I keep
Speaker 1: going And you know, not medically retire from the military
Speaker 1: right then and there. And I don't know, that just
Speaker 1: wasn't There wasn't an option, you know. I think people
Speaker 1: ask me that a lot, and it's kind of a
Speaker 1: tough question because I never really wrestled with it. There
Speaker 1: was there was never a moment where I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: I mean I should probably get out of the military
Speaker 1: now that that That conversation never occurred. The only conversations
Speaker 1: that occurred were which, you know, can I go back
Speaker 1: into a platoon or do I have to do other
Speaker 1: kind of deployments, Like what kind of service can I
Speaker 1: continue doing? Not really should I continue? It was just
Speaker 1: it was just never a conversation that I had, was
Speaker 1: never something I wrestled with. So it's our question to answer. Um,
Speaker 1: it's the best way to answer. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: you're going to have to do better than that to
Speaker 1: keep me from continuing uh service and continue serving with
Speaker 1: my brothers, You're gonna have to do more than take
Speaker 1: away my sight. I think it's great that they that
Speaker 1: they let guys who have been injured stay in, you know,
Speaker 1: even if they I mean, sometimes they can requalify and
Speaker 1: become you know, ground guys again putting boots to assides.
Speaker 1: But even if that's not possible, you know, for those
Speaker 1: guys to stay around and you know, work in some
Speaker 1: other capacity in their unit or in the military and
Speaker 1: um kind of have that sense of brotherhood and leave
Speaker 1: the military on their own terms. I think it's good
Speaker 1: for the military, and I think it's good for them
Speaker 1: personally too. It is We've list a lot of time
Speaker 1: and money and training into our people, and we should
Speaker 1: be looking for ways to keep them. Don't I don't,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. The Navy does a great
Speaker 1: job of that. I think the Army and Marine Corps
Speaker 1: do a little bit better because I have not spot
Speaker 1: it is there's a lot of fighting on my part
Speaker 1: to stay in and they wanted to back discharge you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that they don't because they don't because you know,
Speaker 1: the Navy Seals are only very tiny part of the
Speaker 1: rest of the Navy, and so when you go up
Speaker 1: to be med, they're not They're not really accustomed to
Speaker 1: seeing kind of combat injuries and the waivers that you
Speaker 1: need in order to stay active and deployable. So it's
Speaker 1: that those those conversations are harder to have whereas you know,
Speaker 1: in they are in the Army, I've seen it a
Speaker 1: little bit easier. But it's something we we should do,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and again I did redeploy UM,
Speaker 1: but more in intel related roles, still still in a
Speaker 1: way that I felt was impactful and it's a selling
Speaker 1: So I'm very proud of that and happy to would
Speaker 1: have kept doing it UM. But eventually we got to
Speaker 1: a point where even even that was a little bit
Speaker 1: too much for the you know, the stricter rules and
Speaker 1: and and kind of maintaining the medical standards that they
Speaker 1: wanted to. So it made it made sense to medically
Speaker 1: retire me in two thous sixteen. So when you got out,
Speaker 1: you went, um back to school. Could you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about continuing your education as a as a
Speaker 1: seal veteran, because I mean there's a lot of dudes
Speaker 1: out there. Of course we are leaving the military. I
Speaker 1: was one of them in two thousand time getting out
Speaker 1: and that process of going back to school, of course, um,
Speaker 1: and you're you're looking for that transition, right and you're
Speaker 1: looking for a bridge into the civilian world because there
Speaker 1: really is no obvious way to do that, you know.
Speaker 1: So that the first thing I really thought it was, okay,
Speaker 1: like what gets me up in the morning. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like what I was talking about before, the things
Speaker 1: that get me up in the morning, or our service,
Speaker 1: the American people serving something greater than myself. And I
Speaker 1: felt that I got that out of the military. Um, worlds,
Speaker 1: can I get that, you know, world? Because I don't
Speaker 1: want a job, I want a new mission. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's harder. It really limits your choices. Um. But uh,
Speaker 1: I went to the Kennedy school, because the Kennedy School
Speaker 1: of Government, and because it's all about public service. And
Speaker 1: I was interested in polow see that just natural security
Speaker 1: policy and sort of my wheelhouse. But economic policy, healthcare policy,
Speaker 1: immigration issues, I mean, things that concern voters at a
Speaker 1: very low level, you know, at the local state level.
Speaker 1: I getting more and more interested in politics, and so
Speaker 1: that was really the natural choice for me. Now what
Speaker 1: I did with that degree, I was sure. Yet I
Speaker 1: thought that after you graduated from Harvard, they just handed
Speaker 1: you a job and on the silver platter, And turns
Speaker 1: out not that way at all. So um, you know, somebody,
Speaker 1: but after graduating and I was really looking for a
Speaker 1: way to serve again. You know, I was really only
Speaker 1: looking at either government jobs or um jobs in congress
Speaker 1: is something along those lines. Um that I would work
Speaker 1: with the Congressman P. Sessions for a while just to
Speaker 1: really wanted to reconnect with Texas. That was my goal
Speaker 1: above all else. But I'm sure all veterans have really
Speaker 1: come across this. It's just it's hard. It's hard to
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people want to meet with you.
Speaker 1: They want to they want to hear your story and
Speaker 1: tell you how great they are. And how appreciative they
Speaker 1: are of your service. But we're still going to hire
Speaker 1: the guy or gal who had been answering phones and
Speaker 1: in that industry or whatever it is for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, you know, And they don't they don't
Speaker 1: realize how quickly veterans can learn and adapt and overcome
Speaker 1: and get back on their feet. What do you think
Speaker 1: of you know today, the situation in America will not
Speaker 1: just today. It's always been like this. I think to
Speaker 1: a large extent that our politicians are largely lawyers, and
Speaker 1: you know, you're a guy who actually has real deal
Speaker 1: military experience and also majored in public policy. I mean
Speaker 1: that kind of brings a different background to the full,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. It does. It's a it's a necessary background.
Speaker 1: Um hey great. There's so many lawyers in the in
Speaker 1: the legislature, and um right, because it's a your lawmakers,
Speaker 1: So people assume that you should be a lawyer before
Speaker 1: you become a lawmaker. And it's just not that's just
Speaker 1: not truce. But you know, I think worked on the hill,
Speaker 1: like I understand how these things have it. You're a policymaker, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you're writing laws. If you're not the one physically writing
Speaker 1: the laws. Your law degree didn't help you in this,
Speaker 1: you know, unless you want to be on the judiciary
Speaker 1: committee or something like that, then this guys should probably
Speaker 1: be lawyers, but you know it's it's certainly not a requirement. Um.
Speaker 1: And actually a lot of people are running against in
Speaker 1: this primary are mainly businessmen. Only a couple of lawyers
Speaker 1: here and there. And too bad because I had all
Speaker 1: these lines about are you're sick of having lawyers? You're politicians?
Speaker 1: And hope for me? But I turned to both like
Speaker 1: a disident the lawyers. What do you Ian and I
Speaker 1: were having this conversation earlier, and I won't interject my opinion,
Speaker 1: I'd like to hear your take on it. What do
Speaker 1: you think about the notion of businessmen running for office?
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, we hope that there's a diversity
Speaker 1: of American life that ends up representing us in public life.
Speaker 1: But there's this idea out there that if you're a
Speaker 1: good businessman, you're going to make a good politician or
Speaker 1: a good public leader. What do you think of that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it should really be dependent on
Speaker 1: on the person as opposed to their necessarily their experiences so,
Speaker 1: as I said, I'm running against a lot of businessmen
Speaker 1: and they are, and we'll say things like this is
Speaker 1: how I know how to fix the economy because I'm
Speaker 1: a businessman. Well, let me guess it's lower regulations and
Speaker 1: less active I mean, these things aren't all that complex. Um.
Speaker 1: The policy prescriptions are out there. Um. You know, we
Speaker 1: differ on whether you're on the right or the left.
Speaker 1: I which probably prescription policy prescriptions you think are best
Speaker 1: for the economy. But you're not running to be CEO
Speaker 1: of the second district. You're you're running to lead people. Leader.
Speaker 1: Leadership is not authority, you know. And I think sometimes
Speaker 1: when you manage in office, you might you might get
Speaker 1: confused about the difference between being a leader of being
Speaker 1: a manager and what it truly means to have authority
Speaker 1: and influence. And you know, like I was saying before,
Speaker 1: like you guys don't follow me to the heat of
Speaker 1: battle because of the bars and my color. They follow
Speaker 1: you because they believe in you and they trust you.
Speaker 1: And you need that kind of credibility in any leadership role,
Speaker 1: and especially when you're representing the American people. I think
Speaker 1: that's so important. Um. And you know I'm not saying
Speaker 1: all CEOs don't have that. I'm just saying it's certainly
Speaker 1: not a prerequisite. And in an even if you're talking
Speaker 1: economic policies, it's not a prerequisite because you know, the
Speaker 1: policy is different than managing your office and managing your business.
Speaker 1: Very pro business, don't get me wrong, and I'm very
Speaker 1: happy to see entrepreneurs creating jobs. I mean they are
Speaker 1: the drivers are our economy, especially small businesses. But policy
Speaker 1: is different, all right, Like it's you know, and you
Speaker 1: have to study in these things in a different way,
Speaker 1: like like what sort of more expensive policies, how is it?
Speaker 1: How is the regulatory policy actually written? And by what agencies?
Speaker 1: And how do they go about it? What are the
Speaker 1: cost benefit analysis they do? Those are the questions that
Speaker 1: you have to answer. Not so much. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you're managing your office as you would and you know
Speaker 1: in every quarter, you know, coming with different projections and
Speaker 1: profit gold, you know, all these things that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that go into business, is a lot
Speaker 1: of things that go into policy, and there's some overlap,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a it depends on the person. It
Speaker 1: depends on their ability to lead and make a difference
Speaker 1: in influence. And you know, again we're all me and
Speaker 1: my opponents will all probably agree on the policy prescriptions, right,
Speaker 1: we're all very conservative. Uh, what matters is who can
Speaker 1: get those things done and who can inspire more people
Speaker 1: to come to your side. That's influence, that's leadership, and
Speaker 1: that I think I've learned a lot from from the
Speaker 1: steal teams. Well, how do you think you would go
Speaker 1: about that? Considering the very divisive political atmosphere we're living
Speaker 1: in today? Wow? Yeah, I mean, you know it's a
Speaker 1: big it's a big question, but I mean you'll be
Speaker 1: in the hot seat if you get elected right right now,
Speaker 1: I mean, since you do it first by by showing
Speaker 1: credibility for what you're talking about. One of my big
Speaker 1: things is is uh speaking to the next generation, especially
Speaker 1: with respect to as being a conservative. You know, you
Speaker 1: can imagine most young people vote, you know, they're lean left,
Speaker 1: and that that worries me because I do believe that
Speaker 1: we have a lot of the right ideas. I do
Speaker 1: believe that our values are good ones, and I do
Speaker 1: believe that we truly have m the best interests of
Speaker 1: the country in mind. And I'm not so sure we're
Speaker 1: convincing people of that. And that's maybe because we're electing
Speaker 1: people to represent us as conservatives, with which just less
Speaker 1: grows a credibility than they really need to be up there.
Speaker 1: So if you're you know, you elected businessman or a lawyer,
Speaker 1: So what what is it about this person that that
Speaker 1: that proves to you that they really care about the
Speaker 1: country and then they care about their constituents like I'm
Speaker 1: not so sure. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I I'd like to think that people look
Speaker 1: at my story and they know that truly the only
Speaker 1: thing I care about is actually serving the American people. Um.
Speaker 1: And and no matter what you do to me, whether
Speaker 1: you're take my eye like I'll that's all I still
Speaker 1: want to do. Um. There's really not a whole lot
Speaker 1: you can do to get in my way. So if
Speaker 1: it comes, if you're looking for somebody to fight for
Speaker 1: your values, then you can you can be damn sure
Speaker 1: that it's going to be me. And I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty effective at it. Um. I'm also one of the
Speaker 1: few people who have actually worked in federal government and
Speaker 1: really knows the issue as well, since I of national security,
Speaker 1: intelligence related issues, defense, you name it. You truly need
Speaker 1: experience in these things to be effective. Are these are
Speaker 1: these They are not things that you can just sort
Speaker 1: of research on your own, develop your talking points and
Speaker 1: figure out because it does require years and years and
Speaker 1: classified briefings, an actual experience on the ground to understand. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm probably one of the few people in the race too,
Speaker 1: with a lot of existing relationships on the hill. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't. I haven't. I'm not a dent serve,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with actual
Speaker 1: endorsements from sitting members of Congress. Uh. You need those
Speaker 1: relationships to get things done, and people want to work
Speaker 1: with you when you have a proven track record of
Speaker 1: of serving this country. Um. And if they don't want
Speaker 1: to work with you, they at least want the you know,
Speaker 1: the publicly. I think they know that they need to. UM.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that would be the case of
Speaker 1: my opponents. I don't think that they I don't think
Speaker 1: they'll be able to inspire that kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, inspire that kind of a sense of cooperation
Speaker 1: and get things done kind of attitude that I that
Speaker 1: I believe I can and that I know I've done
Speaker 1: in the past working in the military and working across
Speaker 1: different federal agencies of State, Department, intelligence community. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: to get to get some major operations done. Hard to
Speaker 1: talk about on a podcast, but no, no, I understand,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate you gotta you know, going at length
Speaker 1: on this. UM. It is one of the benefits actually
Speaker 1: of doing a podcast and as opposed to television is
Speaker 1: you know, you can really articulate whatever it is you
Speaker 1: like to say. UM. I would like to shift over
Speaker 1: into UM national defense a little bit because I was
Speaker 1: reading you know, your policy positions on your website, you know,
Speaker 1: to prepare for this interview, and you talk about ISIS
Speaker 1: on there, and you know we can see that isis IS.
Speaker 1: I don't want to use the word defeated, but they've
Speaker 1: been crushed pretty good in Syria and Iraq. UM. There
Speaker 1: nowhere near where they were at, say, two years ago. UM.
Speaker 1: What do you see as far as being our national
Speaker 1: defense priorities in the future. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: either of us are so naive as to think that
Speaker 1: international jihad is going away. UM, how would you what
Speaker 1: would your approach to counter terrorism be, you know, say,
Speaker 1: going over the next five years, yeah, I know you're
Speaker 1: you're right, just say it's not going away anytime soon. Um,
Speaker 1: it has been nice to see this president really unleashed
Speaker 1: the general's so to speak on ISIS. And you know,
Speaker 1: because you've probably seen me talking to my friends in
Speaker 1: the soft community there there isn't uplifting in morale and
Speaker 1: the way they feel that they're they're treated and the
Speaker 1: way that the field the administration has their back. And UM,
Speaker 1: I think it's really been effective. Now that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: the ideology is going away anytime soon. If anything, it's
Speaker 1: it's still very much alive. Um. They simply don't hold territory.
Speaker 1: And you know you fight that by really removing the
Speaker 1: conversation away from arbitrary timeline and arbitrary troop levels. You know,
Speaker 1: we have to get we have we have to have
Speaker 1: people in leadership positions who who are just honest with
Speaker 1: the American voter and say, listen, if if you wanted
Speaker 1: to feed these things, you have to maintain the presence.
Speaker 1: You cannot have UM power vacuums. And in states like
Speaker 1: Afghanistan or Iraq or Yemen, you just can't, you know,
Speaker 1: and you cannot for ten That's how we can like
Speaker 1: on Ostris, like we took our head in the stand
Speaker 1: and then and there's nothing going on out there. That's
Speaker 1: just it's unrealistic. Endless deployments, no ended site. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: at least for the foreseeable future. There might be an end.
Speaker 1: I mean, but you know, American troops have been in
Speaker 1: South Korea and Germany and Japan since you know, the
Speaker 1: Korean War and World War two, and these these things
Speaker 1: turned out well. And I'm not saying those countries are
Speaker 1: really comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan, but but we we
Speaker 1: do have pretty good evidence, very very good evidence of
Speaker 1: what happens when you do leave power vacuums. You get
Speaker 1: ISIS and you get you get nine eleven. We we
Speaker 1: know that already. Now we don't. That doesn't mean we
Speaker 1: need a hundred two hundred thousand troops nation building. I
Speaker 1: think we've we've tried that experiment and it's I don't
Speaker 1: think American people have the patience for it. But if
Speaker 1: we're not going to engage in nation building, then I mean,
Speaker 1: isn't that literally uh, you know, a sentence in a
Speaker 1: in a way, are our troops that they have to
Speaker 1: stay and occupy a country like Afghanistan indefinitely because we're
Speaker 1: not willing to invest in the infrastructure and the capacity there.
Speaker 1: That's true. I'm not saying don't invest in it. I'm
Speaker 1: saying we probably have to find the right balance. Um
Speaker 1: and again, just because of the costs and because of
Speaker 1: the the American voter is is it's not as patient
Speaker 1: we would like it. That's what I say. No, we
Speaker 1: do have to be honest with the American voters. This
Speaker 1: is this is what's needed, all right, and you know
Speaker 1: we we the new bombom of years. I don't think
Speaker 1: we had very courageous leadership on that front, right, it
Speaker 1: was just do whatever the polling says, um I stearted
Speaker 1: ghettos out of Iraq, whatever that means, And well what
Speaker 1: it meant was isis that's what it meant. We got
Speaker 1: there going right back. So yeah, I mean you're correct
Speaker 1: to a degree. You do have to do some nation
Speaker 1: building and frankly, you know, we put a lot of blood,
Speaker 1: sweat and tears into that um into Iraq, and we
Speaker 1: actually came away with what was looking to be a
Speaker 1: good product. But we we you can't just leave it
Speaker 1: for maturely and and hope it will last we fought
Speaker 1: very hard, you know, through the years, the two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, two thousand seven to really turn that war around,
Speaker 1: and it was very sad to see us just just
Speaker 1: let those games slide away. And Afghanistan is a different animal.
Speaker 1: It's I think it's uh, the nation build a country
Speaker 1: like Afghanistan is. It's a very different conversation than Iraq.
Speaker 1: You know, you can you you can control the cities,
Speaker 1: the major cities in Afghanistan, but uh, there's there's zero
Speaker 1: evidence when you look at the history. Coming back to
Speaker 1: Alexania was great that anybody can control the countryside in
Speaker 1: that in that place and people even want or desire
Speaker 1: a state. There's yeah, there's just it's just it's a
Speaker 1: very different situation than in other places in the Middle East. Um,
Speaker 1: we just need to be aware of that. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we leave, It means we continue pressure on it,
Speaker 1: um so that we don't get another nine eleven. So
Speaker 1: we've don't have elements of ol Kaid or Isis or whatever.
Speaker 1: It is just having the room, the space, and the
Speaker 1: and the and the time to really plan operations, you know.
Speaker 1: And I always want to say that there's always an
Speaker 1: argument that like, well, the more we do, the more
Speaker 1: they hate us, the more enemies we make. And you know,
Speaker 1: to an extent, you know, we have to be smart
Speaker 1: about the way we operate. But at the same time
Speaker 1: that that argument is it misunderstands how how the enemy thinks.
Speaker 1: I always ask people like, what is it we did
Speaker 1: to Asama bin Lan exactly? You know? Was it? Was
Speaker 1: it all the help we gave him and Hadean in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties against the Soviets. Is that why he
Speaker 1: hates us because we helped him so much? Or that
Speaker 1: was it us defending his home country of Saudi Arabia
Speaker 1: from Saddam Hussein? I mean, what, what is what do
Speaker 1: we do to this guy? Because you cannot you cannot win.
Speaker 1: To the other things I saw when I was reading
Speaker 1: about it shifting away from counter terrorism or counterinsurgence, s
Speaker 1: is uh. You mentioned Russia and China, and you know
Speaker 1: we've seen both of these countries involved in fairly aggressive
Speaker 1: territory expansions in recent years in the South China Sea
Speaker 1: and in Ukraine. Um, what what would your position be
Speaker 1: in regards to these two countries. I mean both seem
Speaker 1: pretty aggressive, expansionist, um and basically out foxing us, perhaps
Speaker 1: in different manners. Um, but I was wondering if you
Speaker 1: could speak a little bit to that. Of course, there
Speaker 1: you're dealing with sort of two different still, two different entities.
Speaker 1: They're kind of they're they're operating in similar ways, but
Speaker 1: one is really a rising power and one is a
Speaker 1: frustrated declining power. Right and and um, so we'll talk
Speaker 1: about China. You know, yes, they're they're, they're they're they're
Speaker 1: going to continue to test our will and see how
Speaker 1: far they can get away with. And it's our job
Speaker 1: to keep trying to shift them back into being a
Speaker 1: responsible actor. Like, listen, it's in both of our benefit.
Speaker 1: With your economy, girl, in our economy growing. That's all great,
Speaker 1: but stopped acting like you're a developing country, Um, taking
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick. It's just not true anymore.
Speaker 1: And I think that's that's a big part of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's message. Um, you know, China taken advantage of it.
Speaker 1: He's right, because they like to act like they're that
Speaker 1: they're like they're the underdog, and it's time to it's
Speaker 1: time to really push them back into being responsible actors
Speaker 1: that we can work with. And this North Korean issue
Speaker 1: will be a huge test of that. And i'd like
Speaker 1: to I'd like to think that it's going well because
Speaker 1: I think the Chinese realized that the President is pretty
Speaker 1: serious about it. But I mean, hasn't China already backed
Speaker 1: off and made it clear that they're not going to
Speaker 1: be our ally against North Korea? Um? I mean, the
Speaker 1: Chinese need North Korea there are in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways for a lot of different reasons. Um. Don't
Speaker 1: you think it's a little No, I'm not saying they're
Speaker 1: going to back us into an absolute overthrow the regime
Speaker 1: of North Korea. But I think what they will start
Speaker 1: doing is using their actual influence too to bring the
Speaker 1: North Korean regime back from the brink um, because they
Speaker 1: realize that the US is not playing around and that
Speaker 1: we would actually be we would have a credible threat. Um.
Speaker 1: And and I think that's part of the President's strategy
Speaker 1: to show that he is serious and to to bring
Speaker 1: the Chinese to the table, not bringing to the Chinese
Speaker 1: as an ally in an invasion against North Korea. That's
Speaker 1: not at all what I think is in the realm
Speaker 1: of the possible right right now. I understand that, um,
Speaker 1: But but I do think they might be more inclined
Speaker 1: to use their influence with the North Koreans to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to push towards the deglorization eventually. I mean
Speaker 1: that's a long ways off, I believe, but um if
Speaker 1: it's even if it's even possible at all, but I
Speaker 1: think we hopefully will see more of that. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's not a whole lot of other choices. You know, nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody has good options with North Korea. That that that
Speaker 1: is for sure. It's either the Chinese do their part
Speaker 1: and and really bring them back and uh or or
Speaker 1: the president gets and use this path right now and
Speaker 1: it needs to be credible, and I think that's what
Speaker 1: he's doing. Hey, I was gonna say, then, you sound
Speaker 1: very knowledgeable on all of this, and I also didn't
Speaker 1: know about you know, your your prior experience in politics.
Speaker 1: The one thing I wonder about is I feel like
Speaker 1: everybody who runs her office goes in there with noble
Speaker 1: intentions to help the American people, and then you know,
Speaker 1: when they get there, there's so much influence of super
Speaker 1: PACs and lobbyists and even unions, and it's like, what's
Speaker 1: your plan once you get in there to make sure
Speaker 1: that you could put forth in agenda, represent represent your constituents,
Speaker 1: um and your own values without you know, being tied
Speaker 1: to so many groups, which happens to I feel like
Speaker 1: almost anybody who goes to Washington, it certainly does. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, luckily, really unluckily, I don't don't have a
Speaker 1: whole lot of these big groups, So I don't know
Speaker 1: about to hold that anybody. But if you get if
Speaker 1: you get the Republican nomination, I would think that you'll
Speaker 1: start to see the influence of those groups, right of course, um,
Speaker 1: you know they'll they're all over watching and then they
Speaker 1: come to the office all the time. You know, these
Speaker 1: groups aren't all bad. Let's remember they provide kind of
Speaker 1: a legislative subsidy to the members. Okay, you can't possibly
Speaker 1: understand every single issue, so there's not a detail that
Speaker 1: you need to so um. My, my basic rule would
Speaker 1: be this, any time somebody comes in and and and
Speaker 1: once a policy put forth, whether I agree with it
Speaker 1: or not, especially if I agree with it, um right
Speaker 1: off the bat, just I will always demand those counter
Speaker 1: arguments because I've seen how these obvious work. I've seen
Speaker 1: how the you know, the paperwork they bring in front
Speaker 1: of you. They're not lying, you know that, But but
Speaker 1: they might share to pick some data, they might only
Speaker 1: provide one side of the argument. Always demands both sides
Speaker 1: of the argument because I might I might know ahead
Speaker 1: of time that I completely support what they want, um,
Speaker 1: just because of my own values and what my constituents want.
Speaker 1: But I will also demand that there's counter arguments to
Speaker 1: that one so I can sound credible. I think too
Speaker 1: many politicians go out there a lot, and if they
Speaker 1: really do, only have they're one or two talking points
Speaker 1: on one side of the story. It's not hard to
Speaker 1: have the other side that you can actually fight for
Speaker 1: these effectively. And the only way you fight effectively is
Speaker 1: if you know the other side. Um. So that's one way,
Speaker 1: But I mean, how do you how do you keep
Speaker 1: them at bay? I think in the end, they can't
Speaker 1: vote for you. Okay, so you know, now they can
Speaker 1: attack you, they can put out funding whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But if you're if you're in touch with your constituents,
Speaker 1: and if you've shown them ahead of time that you
Speaker 1: care and that you're courageous enough to explain why you
Speaker 1: did certain things and why you didn't do other things. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's leadership, that's accountability. If you show those things,
Speaker 1: if you demonstrate that, you know, they'll let you back
Speaker 1: and and you can and and and that's the real
Speaker 1: power is your people, through people that actually give you
Speaker 1: the gift of following you, not so much the the
Speaker 1: lobbyists and another special interests that are out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you're saying reminds me of I was about to
Speaker 1: look up where he represents, you know, justin Amash though, right,
Speaker 1: I believe he's I have to, I have to look
Speaker 1: at all you're trying to get him with a moment. Well,
Speaker 1: I think just you know, one congressman somewhere, But no,
Speaker 1: I I actually seemed I jenuor generally like his positions.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I've noticed on his Facebook that
Speaker 1: I like that I don't see any other politicians doing.
Speaker 1: Like every bill that he votes on, he'll put on
Speaker 1: Facebook and he'll be like, this is why this is
Speaker 1: how I voted, and this is why I voted this way,
Speaker 1: like no matter what the bill is, and I wish
Speaker 1: more politicians did that. And what you're saying reminds me
Speaker 1: of that. And as you're responding to that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look up who justin Amash is so like, you're sneaky
Speaker 1: sometimes right now. It honestly came to my head as
Speaker 1: he was speaking, just because we were talking about Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's third District of um Michigan. But I just
Speaker 1: I like that idea. I wish more congressman would do
Speaker 1: that because I think there's so many bills we you know,
Speaker 1: we don't generally look at how our congressman votes on
Speaker 1: every single bill that comes across their desk. But if
Speaker 1: you like your congressman on Facebook, which is a pretty
Speaker 1: easy thing to do, it's cool to be able to
Speaker 1: see like, hey, this is why I voted this way,
Speaker 1: and it keeps you accountable to the people. Some transparency
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. It's it's usually beneficial. It's not just good
Speaker 1: for the people. It's good for you because you're I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got a communication is everything, and it's so easy
Speaker 1: to communicate with lots of people these days with social
Speaker 1: media and another thing. So it's it just makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know, would you would you possibly do that if
Speaker 1: you become the consen? I think so. I think I
Speaker 1: do actually like that. Yeah, I think it's a great
Speaker 1: We're already we've already got We're very active on social
Speaker 1: media media as it is. And um, I mean you
Speaker 1: have to have ways to talk to your confisent. Let
Speaker 1: me look at the president Twitter all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That that that's the method. Um. I probably wouldn't use
Speaker 1: exactly that method, but I would. But with speaking to
Speaker 1: people and also just getting out there in person, I
Speaker 1: think getting out there in person is big two. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know in my district is a lot of very
Speaker 1: active Republican clubs. You just go talk to them. Let's
Speaker 1: go talk to them. Just get the word out, let them,
Speaker 1: let them vent at you. Um, if they didn't like
Speaker 1: how you voted here and there, and explain yourself, just
Speaker 1: be courageous enough to explain yourself and be honest and
Speaker 1: and go from there. And I was gonna say with
Speaker 1: us being you know, really an international podcast because the
Speaker 1: Internet is everywhere and we've listeners and you know, like
Speaker 1: the UK and Australia that I see. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not as familiar with just the second district of
Speaker 1: of Texas, but I was looking at the basics and
Speaker 1: the current congressman there, of course is Republican Ted Poe,
Speaker 1: but he's not seeking re election in ten. I believe
Speaker 1: the guy has been there, you would know better than
Speaker 1: me of like nearly fifteen years, right, right, right, let
Speaker 1: the look, I think, yeah, it's approximately from what I've see,
Speaker 1: it's it's between ten in fifteen years though, from what
Speaker 1: I saw, And I would think that you know, you
Speaker 1: were saying all these people that you're running against that
Speaker 1: it's like a highly coveted position to be the Republican
Speaker 1: nominee because I would assume district is probably going to
Speaker 1: go right again, and uh, that you're not up against
Speaker 1: a incumbent. It's it's really anyone's game. It's certainly is
Speaker 1: it's a it's a small field, only nine people in it.
Speaker 1: That's a lot, Yeah, chiefs for one congressional seat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an intense race. Isn't like that in
Speaker 1: the Democratic primary? I would assume not right, No, I'm
Speaker 1: not actually true. I think there's a few. I think
Speaker 1: there's a few in the in the Democratic primary. But
Speaker 1: you were right in that it's it's a very Republican district.
Speaker 1: There's there's very little chance of this going blue. I
Speaker 1: don't think the Democrats really going to focus their efforts
Speaker 1: on this one. Um, they're gonna look at other districts
Speaker 1: in Texas. This isn't one of them. Um. It's still
Speaker 1: a diverse district, you know. It's it's it's not old
Speaker 1: all old white people's Hispanic. It's um, it's it's only
Speaker 1: thirty seven percent life. Um. It does. It does cover
Speaker 1: large sloths of Houston. It does snake around from all
Speaker 1: the way from southwest Houston to all the way up
Speaker 1: to where I live in Spring and then all the
Speaker 1: way east to the you know, all the way to
Speaker 1: the edge of Harrick County. Um. So it's quite large
Speaker 1: and and windy. And actually I'm gonna run the entire
Speaker 1: thing on February about a hundred miles of the course
Speaker 1: of five days. And that's something I'm I like. I'm
Speaker 1: not a runner, you know. I think seals in the
Speaker 1: older days were big triathlete type guys. That that's like
Speaker 1: the younger generation of Seals we just like to pick
Speaker 1: up heavy objects and that's what I'm good at. The UM.
Speaker 1: So this will this is, this is gonna hurt. But
Speaker 1: a big, big reason we're doing is to draw attention
Speaker 1: to the neighborhoods are still affected by Hurricane Harvey. Um,
Speaker 1: it's still need reconstruction. I'm excited to do it, working
Speaker 1: with some local groups and you know, bring attention to
Speaker 1: about the campaign but also some of the issues that
Speaker 1: we need to work on here. One thing i'd assume
Speaker 1: that you have to your advantage running against eight people,
Speaker 1: like I was just thinking about it, is you have
Speaker 1: to be a pretty like big asshole to run a
Speaker 1: negative campaign against this guy, because you'd be like, you know,
Speaker 1: lost your eye and I d blast and Afghanistan because
Speaker 1: Dan could beat you former Navy seal. But I mean, like,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna say this? This man hates America? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you'd have going for you in
Speaker 1: that case. Oh yeah, and you well, we'll see. I
Speaker 1: I the people are running against, at least the ones
Speaker 1: they've hired of a history of dirty campaigning, So we'll
Speaker 1: see how this goes. Now, they are going to try
Speaker 1: and say that, you know, I haven't lived there at
Speaker 1: a lot of time. I mean that's true then that
Speaker 1: you know, I grew up in Katie, just west to Houston.
Speaker 1: My dad was in the energy industry. We moved around
Speaker 1: a lot as a result of that. You know, speaks Spanish,
Speaker 1: to go. Was in South America for a little while,
Speaker 1: and then I was in the military my my entire career.
Speaker 1: So than God, but I've got pretty good excuses for it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we're six generations of lineage here in Texas,
Speaker 1: proud of it. Uh. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be from anywhere else. But I absolutely love set its
Speaker 1: greatest nation in the country. Then, before we wrapped this up,
Speaker 1: I was wondering, if you want to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about some of the local issues, because I know
Speaker 1: I've kind of quizzed you about these like broad national
Speaker 1: and international issues. Um. You know you mentioned Houston, and
Speaker 1: I remember reading on your website about, you know, the
Speaker 1: recent flooding you had had down there. If you want
Speaker 1: to speak a little bit towards you know, the stuff
Speaker 1: that actually affects your district that you'd like to address.
Speaker 1: Hurricane Harvey is still very much on our minds. We
Speaker 1: don't want that again. Big reason I'm doing that hundred
Speaker 1: mile run is I don't want people to forget. Uh
Speaker 1: there's there's We're just touring some houses just yesterday and
Speaker 1: uh nearer I grew up and it was actually right
Speaker 1: where I was volunteering with Team Reubicon. I'm back in
Speaker 1: September Team Rebcon, Cradele and Station and they're still out
Speaker 1: here and there's just there's just so much work to
Speaker 1: be done. There's just a lot of houses still down
Speaker 1: to the studs. We can't get contractors here because there's
Speaker 1: just not enough of them. I don't think the rest
Speaker 1: of the country realizes that if are at least at
Speaker 1: least contractors in the rest of the country. If you
Speaker 1: want jobs there in Houston, um, please come down here.
Speaker 1: We're having a lot of trouble just just getting labor.
Speaker 1: That's it. We just need labor, um, you know, and money.
Speaker 1: But there's I think there's been a lot of donations.
Speaker 1: We need labor badly. A lot of people are waiting
Speaker 1: months and months to get contractors into their house to
Speaker 1: get some of the work done. A lot of churches
Speaker 1: are having to just train people up, and churches and
Speaker 1: other nonprofits just training people up on you know, how
Speaker 1: to put in flooring and drywall, just just to get
Speaker 1: some of these things done. So that's you just who
Speaker 1: Another really big local issues border security, you know, border
Speaker 1: security times with thousands um Texans are really tired of
Speaker 1: being on the front lines of this and and not
Speaker 1: having the backing from the federal government. Obviously that's changed,
Speaker 1: and I will be a huge proponent of supporting the
Speaker 1: presidents and his push for better border security. Just finally
Speaker 1: just putting the issue to rest. And once you put
Speaker 1: that issue to rest, we can really fix the immigration system, um,
Speaker 1: and in ways that I think benefit everybody. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it's whether it's moving forward on fixing DOCCA, having
Speaker 1: honest conversations about what doc actually is and uh, and
Speaker 1: just fixing the immigration system towards a more merit based system,
Speaker 1: getting the right people in this country. We're not an
Speaker 1: time or grant, never have been. I grew up in
Speaker 1: Latin America, you know, for many years. Like I, I
Speaker 1: understand it very well. And you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: big issue for us in Texas is getting these things
Speaker 1: sorted out. Well. There's a ton of people who listening
Speaker 1: to the podcast or in Texas and then even more
Speaker 1: who probably just want to donate to a special operations
Speaker 1: VET who's running. Uh. You know, we get so many emails.
Speaker 1: Let's say we need more vets running for office. You
Speaker 1: have more special operations guys, will you know, here's a
Speaker 1: guy doing it, so it's and and has the chance honestly,
Speaker 1: because there's been other people who have been on the
Speaker 1: podcast before who have run and honestly had very little chance.
Speaker 1: I mean, like Kristen Beck ran against some incumbent as
Speaker 1: a Democrat, Like I didn't think that was gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and it didn't. I mean, it's great that you know
Speaker 1: Kristin ran, but like you, you sound like a friend.
Speaker 1: I could win this, my friend. And uh he's written
Speaker 1: for us before. Um fattest. He's a former CIA officer.
Speaker 1: He ran in Maryland and fortunately he didn't get elected. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'd love to see more people in office, and then,
Speaker 1: you know, from running for Congress and hopefully winning, it
Speaker 1: could just go up from there and look at Ryan
Speaker 1: Zinky who's now in the administration. Uh. So it's Crunchhaw
Speaker 1: for Congress dot Com on Twitter Dan Crunchshaw t X
Speaker 1: and then on Instagram Crunshaw for Congress. Uh And I'm
Speaker 1: assuming people to donate right through the website, right crunched
Speaker 1: Off for Congress dot Com. Absolutely, that's the best way
Speaker 1: to donate. And we need the help and we've got
Speaker 1: We've got every advantage you can think of in this
Speaker 1: race except funding, going up against completely self funded millionaires,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I don't think that's what had
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what our country needs. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's what Texas needs. So I truly every little
Speaker 1: bit helps. Please crunch out for Congress dot com. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: So yeah, any of those people who ever get in
Speaker 1: touch with us and say there's not enough you know
Speaker 1: that's running for office, here's your chance to put your
Speaker 1: money where your mouth is. There you go, Well, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for that, guys, I really appreciate that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, Dan. Good luck with the election,
Speaker 1: and hopefully we can have you back on in the future.
Speaker 1: I hope so absolutely. I'm always I'm always open to
Speaker 1: the software podcast. Um, I love you guys. Thanks Dan, alright,
Speaker 1: talk to um. Yeah, great having day on. I could
Speaker 1: tell you he just really knows his stuff. And uh,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of guys who just run in general, right,
Speaker 1: who don't have the background that he does. And he
Speaker 1: seems like he's like working his way up and and
Speaker 1: it's just knowledge about a whole lot of things from
Speaker 1: what you're talking about with that, you know, he he
Speaker 1: clearly is educated on you know, the subject matter, and
Speaker 1: you know, we see people running for office all the
Speaker 1: time who don't have a clue. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: I don't agree with every single thing Dan said, but
Speaker 1: I think he's clearly educated. Um, he's not an ignorant person,
Speaker 1: and he's obviously studied these issues in depth. So you know,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I agree, man Um. So wrapping things
Speaker 1: up here, I was thinking throat puncture the week right
Speaker 1: before I was prepping for the show. I saw Joe R. Pile,
Speaker 1: your favorite guy, trending on Twitter who was pardoned by
Speaker 1: the way, Yeah, it was pardoned, And I was like,
Speaker 1: why is he running? Why is he trending on Twitter?
Speaker 1: And it's he's officially running for Senate. It looks like
Speaker 1: in Arizona for Jeff Flake seat. Um. For those don't know,
Speaker 1: because it's been a couple of years at this point,
Speaker 1: do you want to go back into your history when
Speaker 1: you bring it up all the time, Well, there's people,
Speaker 1: there's new people listening every show, and you haven't been
Speaker 1: here in four months. So our paloe uh. He once
Speaker 1: referred to me as a renowned anti government author. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't really know why who or who on his
Speaker 1: staff holding they say that. Um, I thought that was
Speaker 1: pretty funny. Yeah, but yeah, Suriff Joe, he's a piece
Speaker 1: of work. So when yeah, when I was thinking of
Speaker 1: throat punch of the week, there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: nut jobs out there running for political officers. So there's him,
Speaker 1: and then there's also Jan Morrigan, who people have seen
Speaker 1: on the news and and she's most known for having
Speaker 1: a gun range in Arkansas and making it a Muslim
Speaker 1: free zone. And I've even seen articles about people like
Speaker 1: that we're almost you know, just darker skin that she
Speaker 1: heavily questioned before allowing them to shoot at their range.
Speaker 1: We're not Muslims. She sounds like a nice woman. I
Speaker 1: you know, have her over for dinner. Yeah, so, uh,
Speaker 1: Jan Morgan running for governor in Arkansas. So I didn't
Speaker 1: even really discuss the see you before we did the podcast.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, it's like throw a punch worthy
Speaker 1: in your opinion, Yeah, they're both throw it punch worthy.
Speaker 1: I mean it seems like racism is like the new
Speaker 1: like cheap heat, Like you know, you throw that out
Speaker 1: there and like people will you know, some of the
Speaker 1: worst elements in society will love you for it. The
Speaker 1: thing is running like a Muslim free gun range in Arkansas.
Speaker 1: How many Muslims are there? Even in Arkansas? How many?
Speaker 1: How many Muslims has this woman ever met an entire life?
Speaker 1: Probably it reminds me of like people in Arkansas or
Speaker 1: just let's just it doesn't have to be Arkansas anywhere.
Speaker 1: You know, let's say in Middle America. People who hate Jews.
Speaker 1: How many Jews have you met in your life? You know?
Speaker 1: I remember learning about David Duke's campaign when he ran
Speaker 1: for Congress, and uh, like a huge part of his
Speaker 1: platform was going again to Jewish people and black people.
Speaker 1: And I think there was someone on his campaign they
Speaker 1: were like, you know, David sho focus more on the
Speaker 1: black people because there's no Jews like you gets. So
Speaker 1: it's like, how can you really blame these local problems?
Speaker 1: We don't have any any people we can blame for
Speaker 1: our problems. Uh, we don't have any Jews here to blame,
Speaker 1: so let's focus on the other minorities. Yeah, it's I
Speaker 1: think it just kind of said state of affairs man,
Speaker 1: And I think that that it it. Uh, it appeals
Speaker 1: to people who just their their lives are not going
Speaker 1: the way that they wanted to, so they need to
Speaker 1: have someone to shift to blame to. Just the xenophobia
Speaker 1: works for him. Yeah, and I think that seems to
Speaker 1: be a big part of Sheriff Jose appeal. I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of people do like him. But yeah, well
Speaker 1: you see these sheriffs where sheriffs are an elected position,
Speaker 1: and they cut these populist figures, you know, and they
Speaker 1: go and say they'll we're gonna get tough. And that's
Speaker 1: why you see those I laugh at them all the time.
Speaker 1: You know those videos that the sheriff's make where it's
Speaker 1: like they have all their guys that wearing like bala
Speaker 1: clavas and they have the dude in the gilly suit
Speaker 1: and they're like listen and the thirteen, we're gonna come
Speaker 1: and get you. We're coming to your house. We're gonna arrestue.
Speaker 1: Not my county, it's not gonna have It's like the cheesiest,
Speaker 1: stupidest thing. It's like, why are all these cops playing
Speaker 1: dress up wearing multi cam with like a R fifteen?
Speaker 1: So what's the point, Like, who do they think they're
Speaker 1: scaring but it's because they're in an elected position, Like
Speaker 1: it's not it's not for criminals, it's for voters. It's
Speaker 1: probably there's like scared white people who watched that and
Speaker 1: they're like, Oh, we need to elect him because he's
Speaker 1: going to crack down on the gangs. I would think
Speaker 1: it does. Uh. I don't know it could be effective
Speaker 1: on some level, right because where where we live, it's
Speaker 1: the whole like sanctuary city thing, and they don't do
Speaker 1: anything about illegal immigration where you know, if you live
Speaker 1: probably were like Dan Crenshaw's running for in Texas, I
Speaker 1: would assume that they probably cracked down in that a
Speaker 1: little harder. I can tell you right now, I live
Speaker 1: in Port Washington, New York, Long Island. The house next
Speaker 1: to me is like over a dozen illegal immigrants in
Speaker 1: the house, and I'm positive, you know, a ton of
Speaker 1: them don't speak English. Um, And I could assure they're
Speaker 1: not gonna do anything about that type of thing. If
Speaker 1: that same situation was in another state, yeah, they they'd
Speaker 1: be you know, reporting that, would they? I think would
Speaker 1: they spare the policeman power? I mean, I think if
Speaker 1: you lived near honestly and like Arizona under like a
Speaker 1: Sheriff JR. R. Pyle area. They would they would look
Speaker 1: into that type of thing. I don't know, maybe, I
Speaker 1: mean I would like to see some kind of like
Speaker 1: actual like data on on these things. But this is
Speaker 1: true anyway. Great having Dan Crunchhaw on UM. I really
Speaker 1: do hope he does well. And the guys who have
Speaker 1: met him from the site seemed to speak really highly
Speaker 1: of him just as a person. And that makes sense
Speaker 1: that there's the Oakley connection because Jason Cannets are Drew
Speaker 1: Wallace both worked at Oakley prior. Yeah. No, Dan seems
Speaker 1: like a cool guy. UM, so let's see, let's see
Speaker 1: where he goes with his campaign. Sure, man, any any
Speaker 1: other stuff you're working on. I mean you just put
Speaker 1: out put out this article, So any other pieces and
Speaker 1: just wrap this up. I have another one, another story
Speaker 1: of mind um actually kind of a spinoff from my
Speaker 1: work on the TV show. UM. I want to write
Speaker 1: a little bit about Serbia UM, kind of like a
Speaker 1: retrospective on it. UM. So I think I'll probably start
Speaker 1: working on that. And I gotta start writing more on
Speaker 1: my book. I actually have to write that damn thing.
Speaker 1: Get it out there. Yeah, I got like twenty words
Speaker 1: and I need to crank that thing out and this
Speaker 1: will be up tomorrow from what I'm speaking. But tonight
Speaker 1: is the second episode of your show. Correct? Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Um, yeah, tonight is. It's Tuesday night, so
Speaker 1: it'll be on tonight at tent on the Discovery Channel. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you're listening on Wednesday, I'm sure you could
Speaker 1: check it out on the app on demand. UM. I
Speaker 1: hope it continues to grow. Man, are you Are you
Speaker 1: still seeing more people checking you out who aren't familiar
Speaker 1: with software. Yeah, and I'm starting to get the emails
Speaker 1: from people that, like Jack, that is not how you
Speaker 1: build a death ray, Like you're doing it all wrong. Bro.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, man, thank you. Well that's an interesting
Speaker 1: thing too, because when you got put on this show,
Speaker 1: I think there was some response of like what is uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Tesla have to do with Special Forces or
Speaker 1: me Rangers, And they were wondering why you were a
Speaker 1: part of a show like this because my background, well
Speaker 1: I think they liked my military background. That's something they
Speaker 1: can kind of use to sell the show and sell
Speaker 1: me as a character on the show. But um, my
Speaker 1: role on the show is to be an investigator, so
Speaker 1: they tap into my background working as a journalist. I
Speaker 1: dig it man and uh, yeah, if you haven't checked
Speaker 1: it out yet, it's Tesla's death ray checking out on
Speaker 1: the app on Discovery and yeah, that's it. Has always
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter and Instagram at soft Rep Radio.
Speaker 1: You could email us Softwrep dot Radio at soft rep
Speaker 1: dot com. And then, as we're getting out of here, uh,
Speaker 1: as a reminder for all of those who are listening,
Speaker 1: for a limited time you can receive a fifty percent
Speaker 1: discounted membership to soft Rep TV, our channel that offers
Speaker 1: the most exclusive shows, documentaries and interviews covering the most
Speaker 1: exciting military content today. Softwarep TVs premier show Training Cell
Speaker 1: follows former Special Operations forces as they participate in the
Speaker 1: most advanced training in the country, everything from shooting schools,
Speaker 1: defensive driving, jungle and winter warfare, climbing and much more. Again,
Speaker 1: you can watch this content by subscribing to softwarep TV
Speaker 1: that's a softwarep TV dot us and take advantage of
Speaker 1: a limited time offer of fifty off your membership. It's
Speaker 1: only four a month. We're just talking about Drew Wallace
Speaker 1: and he's put putting out some kick ass content on
Speaker 1: there for all of you to check out. And if
Speaker 1: you haven't gotten a chance to check out the softwarep
Speaker 1: Crate Club, you're definitely gonna want to do that asap.
Speaker 1: It's a subscription to get a box of badass, tactical
Speaker 1: and survival gear delivered to your door every month. Here's
Speaker 1: the kicker. All of the gear is handpicked and tested
Speaker 1: by former special ops guys, so you know you're getting
Speaker 1: quality gear that's gonna work when you need it to.
Speaker 1: Creates we're set in the past have included gear like
Speaker 1: custom knives, multi tools, fire starters, E d C med kits,
Speaker 1: and other kick ass stuff. You don't just get great
Speaker 1: gear with your subscription, you're also supporting a veteran owned
Speaker 1: and run company to start getting your gear. To subscribe,
Speaker 1: visit Create club dot us. We also have gift options available.
Speaker 1: That's great Club dot us and I should point out
Speaker 1: there for a team or members of the site also
Speaker 1: um premium Create Club members. Our team room party is happening.
Speaker 1: I know it's later than usual that we've announced it,
Speaker 1: but January two in Las Vegas six pm. Uh, the
Speaker 1: location will be announced If you're a member and all that,
Speaker 1: and I know there's like a sign up on the
Speaker 1: website rs VP. If you haven't seen that yet, Um,
Speaker 1: the Odissean put it up, so yeah, check that out.
Speaker 1: It's on software dot com. If you're a team, remember,
Speaker 1: we hope to see you there. Uh, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're in the area, even if you're not in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas and you can make the drive out, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great time. I'll be there. Uh, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be there, right, Jack, Yeah, I'll be there. The Odissan
Speaker 1: will be there, maybe with the Luculire mask on. Um,
Speaker 1: I think got I think maybe b K right, James Powell,
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys. Yeah, James will be there. Who else,
Speaker 1: Scott Whittner, Steve from Special Operations, Mark Miller, he'll be there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: um so yeah, it should be a good group of guys,
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of guys. And I always love seeing
Speaker 1: the people who check out the website. And I'm used
Speaker 1: to seeing kind of the East Coast people, uh, you
Speaker 1: know when we have these events at Olney's, but it's
Speaker 1: it's cool to see the West Coast people. If you're
Speaker 1: out there for Shot Show, or even if you're not
Speaker 1: out there for Shot Show, and you can make the
Speaker 1: drive out or you can take the flight. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: definitely worth it. And you know, I think it's open bar. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so check it out. And if you haven't seen this
Speaker 1: stuff on soft Rep, you should be getting an email.
Speaker 1: But if you are a team remember Premium Craig Club member,
Speaker 1: you can email us uh soft rep dot Radio at
Speaker 1: soft rep dot com and I'll shoot you over the link. Um.
Speaker 1: You know you have to be a member, which we
Speaker 1: check and all that. But yeah, that's really it, man. Um.
Speaker 1: Next episode, we're gonna James Powell in studio. Oh, and
Speaker 1: then I'm excited for next week. Andrew Wilka will be here.
Speaker 1: I want to hear his take on Oprah wanting running
Speaker 1: for president. I'm sure he'll have a lot to say
Speaker 1: on that, Andrew will Yeah, he'll go ballistic. It's it's weird, man.
Speaker 1: I'm not for since May. I've been working here full time,
Speaker 1: so I don't get like Andrew's day. And I haven't
Speaker 1: seen Andrew in a while. Yeah, every now and again,
Speaker 1: I do tune in and hear what he's up to,
Speaker 1: but I don't get his daily anger about what's going
Speaker 1: on in the world, and and he's also gonna be
Speaker 1: promoting he's back on TV, so he's he's really yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be on Conservative Review TV. That's why I
Speaker 1: figured we'd have him on UM, which has a really
Speaker 1: cool line up. Dan Bongino's on there too, who's been
Speaker 1: on the podcast. Uh. And Andrew was kind of joking
Speaker 1: around on Twitter about a CRTV like bench press who
Speaker 1: could bench the most if they would have a contest,
Speaker 1: because he was like, between me, Stephen Crowder, and Dan Mongino,
Speaker 1: He's like, I think I would place third because crowd
Speaker 1: is pretty jack too, and Bongino is like huge, well no,
Speaker 1: not huge, but he's he's like a yeah, he's pretty ripped, dude. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, and also being a Secret Service, so assume
Speaker 1: it's like a benefit to be in really good shape.
Speaker 1: So the last I would have loved to get him
Speaker 1: back on the last time we were on with him.
Speaker 1: He gets very political, and I do like hearing about politics,
Speaker 1: but I would I would like to hear more about
Speaker 1: his experience as being former Secret Service. Yeah, me too,
Speaker 1: because I think that's got to be an interesting job.
Speaker 1: Speaking of which I don't want I'm not going to
Speaker 1: say who it was, but there was another guy, not um,
Speaker 1: not Dan, who was at one of will Cow's events
Speaker 1: who was former Secret Service. Um, you know, he was
Speaker 1: just there as an event. He's at the event. He's
Speaker 1: a friend of Andrews and people at the site or
Speaker 1: people at uh from his radio show on our site
Speaker 1: and your friend, um, well, I'm not forgetting his last name,
Speaker 1: Army Ranger, Matt Sanders. Yeah. Man, he went up to
Speaker 1: him and like he didn't want to. He was a
Speaker 1: former Secret Service but he wasn't like announcing this to
Speaker 1: everybody and where he ran up to him and he
Speaker 1: was like, dude, you guarded Bill Clinton. You were secrets
Speaker 1: serve with your Bill Clinton. And I can tell this
Speaker 1: guy was just like, dude, I'm I'm not in the
Speaker 1: mood for this right now. It was pretty funny, cool alright,
Speaker 1: So unless there's anything else, As always, thanks for checking
Speaker 1: this out. Yeah, we'll do it again next week. Right,
Speaker 1: We'll do it on Thursday. That's the beauty of doing
Speaker 1: twice a week. So you'll see this up again on
Speaker 1: on Friday, and then I also do the Power I
Speaker 1: thought with Brandon Webb. Will have um legendary music engineer
Speaker 1: John King in studiosite for that sweet cool man you've
Speaker 1: been listening to Self Rep Radio. New episodes up every
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday for all of the great content from
Speaker 1: our veteran journalists. Join us and become a team new
Speaker 1: member today at self rep dot com. Follow the show
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio, and be
Speaker 1: sure to also check out the Power of Thought podcast
Speaker 1: hosted by Hurricane Group CEO and Navy Seal Sniper instructor
Speaker 1: Brandon Webb, M