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July 10, 2023 - Triggered - Donald Trump Jr

01:13:44

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

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	Good evening guys and welcome to another big episode of Triggered.
	Thank you for tuning in.
	Tonight we're gonna be joined by Arizona Congressman Eli Crane.
	Congressman Crane is a Navy SEAL veteran.
	He enlisted in the Navy one week
	After the 9-11 attacks, and we're honored to be joined by a true patriot.
	We'll talk about what it's like to train like a SEAL, to do all the things, how Biden is weakening our military, why he decided to run for office in the first place, and much, much more.
	He's also someone that came from a pretty significant business background, which is always nice to have people that maybe actually know what they're talking about
	For a change, come to Congress and actually make legislation.
	So make sure you guys like, subscribe, so that we can keep getting the message out because God knows no one else is going to help get it out there.
	Certainly not Big Tech or the mainstream media.
	And it's all because of you guys and some of our incredible sponsors that make this kind of programming possible.
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	But joining us now...
	Arizona Congressman Eli Crane.
	And Eli, thanks for joining us, man.
	I really appreciate it.
	I know you were going to be on on last Thursday.
	Some family stuff came up really quickly, but I appreciate you coming on now.
	What's happening, man?
	What's going on in Congress?
	Hey, Don.
	Thanks for having me.
	You know, it's an honor to be on your show.
	It's an honor to represent an amazing district in Arizona.
	And it's definitely been a wild, you know, first six months.
	I think one of the, you know, I'll be honest, I'll level set with you.
	There's still, I think, millions of things that I don't know about, you know, how the process works and all of that stuff.
	But one thing that I've learned in my short six months is the only way you make changes in that town
	Is through force.
	That's it.
	You're not going to come there with a better argument.
	You're not going to talk sense into people.
	The only language, it's kind of like some of the baddest actors around the planet, some of these dictators, terrorists, etc.
	The only language they understand is force.
	Clearly that force looks a little bit differently, but you have to be willing to stand in the pocket, take the slings and arrows, say, no, we're not doing that.
	I don't care about
	You know, this parliamentary procedure.
	I don't care about all your little, you know, regulatory rules.
	If we have a tool, we are going to use it.
	The American people are tired of what's going on up there, brother.
	And they want to see people who will use every tool necessary to get the job done.
	And you know, that's the biggest thing I've learned so far.
	Listen, I think you're 100% right and that's what so many, it feels like so many of the Republicans don't understand.
	I think the Democrats have been doing that and doing it effectively to push their bullshit for years, frankly.
	But, you know, it's interesting.
	You go to Congress and you see these weak Republicans.
	Well, these aren't the rules!
	Have the other side been playing by those rules?
	We hold ourselves to a standard while allowing them to walk all over us.
	I love that there's guys like you.
	When you weren't able to make it last week, we had Anna Paulina Luna.
	Same thing.
	She introduced articles of censure against Adam Schiff, who lied before the American people.
	You know, well, we shouldn't do that because I'm like, they would do it to you in one second.
	And until we start playing the same game, we're going to get our asses kicked.
	I mean, you sort of alluded to that's how we fight wars.
	I think that's why Trump was effective in some of his policies, whether it was towards ISIS.
	He said, hey, guys like you, Eli, you're a Navy SEAL.
	How do we kill the bad guys?
	How do?
	And we allowed them to do that.
	Rather than letting a lawyer in Washington, D.C.
	conduct our wars, we let our warriors conduct our wars.
	And it's amazing how effective that can be.
	It's almost shocking that we even have to say this or that that had to be done.
	But talk a little bit about that.
	I mean, you saw
	And I imagine if you got in right after, you know, 9-11, and then you were there for a while, I mean, you saw that shift sort of from, like, war fighting to bureaucracy taking over.
	Talk a little bit about that, because it was astonishing to me how bad it got.
	No, you're right, Don.
	When I look at the TTPs or the way that we were able to engage our enemies when I first got in in 2006 and did my first deployment, as opposed to what they were when I left my last deployment in 2010, my third.
	Deployment.
	It was night and day difference.
	And obviously the goals of what we were trying to do over there had changed as well.
	But to your point, often when you start a war, you're trying to win the war, peace through strength, be as devastating as possible.
	And one of the reasons I got out was because on my final deployment, I'd seen that, you know, how the enemy barely even respected us anymore, because it was almost as we'd become the, you know, foreign neighborhood police force.
	And it just got to be extremely dangerous.
	So a shout out to all my brothers and sisters out there that wear blue here in the United States, that thin blue line that protect us every single day.
	But that was one of the things that impressed me so much about your dad, Don, and not to blow smoke, brother, but he was an outsider.
	And that, you know, I can't believe sometimes that I was able to slip through the cracks and get in there because the longer you're in this
	Swampy cesspool of politics, the more likely you are to become corrupted.
	Clearly, I don't necessarily look like a politician or sound like one, so I didn't know that they would even let me squeak through, but we need more and more people.
	The problem up in Washington, Don, as you know, it's not an intelligence problem.
	These people have a ton of intelligence.
	It's a moral courage problem, and it's people who are outsiders, like your old man, who were able to come in there with a fresh set of eyeballs and say, why the hell are we doing it this way?
	This doesn't work.
	It never has worked.
	I'm grateful to be up here, and I'm hoping the American people send more and more outsiders
	We're good to go.
	Well, I think, listen, I'm sure you've seen some of that.
	You know, I know we have, you know, the I think a big part of the attack on Trump is that he showed, hey, you can be effective, you can be an outsider, you don't need the, you know, the foreign policy experience.
	I mean, if foreign policy experience and time in the field meant anything, we'd actually have results.
	But those people who've been there, you know, permanent Washington,
	They haven't actually done anything, but I think a big part of the attack on Trump, the attack on the outsiders, is to discourage those kinds of people from actually ever running.
	Because I think people understand, A, things would actually get done,
	And if things actually gets done, that's the biggest threat to sort of the power that they've been able to amass in Washington.
	You know, the retirement plan at Raytheon.
	Let's keep the endless wars going.
	Not because they're doing anything, but because if we don't sell more missiles, we don't get that board seat.
	That's the retirement package after being in Washington for a couple decades.
	Yeah, it's frustrating to watch, Don.
	It really is like you go into this massive grift where everybody's in on it, and you're just watching, learning, trying to figure out the system.
	It's pretty disgusting, and it's very swampy to be up there.
	I think one of the statements and sayings that I took into Washington was, show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.
	And so I picked out the most conservative people up there and I said, I'm going to roll with these guys, even though they're, you know, definitely a minority up there, because they were willing to shoot me straight.
	Even now, looking at some of the issues forward facing that we're looking at, they shoot me straight.
	They tell me
	You know, this is the chance.
	These are the odds that we can pull this off.
	This is what we just gave up in this debt ceiling fight.
	Yada, yada, yada.
	On and on and on.
	I'm grateful, man.
	And I'll tell you, Don, I'm not popular up in that town.
	I know a lot of people don't like me.
	They don't...
	They don't appreciate me up in that town.
	They don't appreciate anybody who actually wants to change that town, not just say it on the campaign trail.
	But I'll tell you what, man, you get to make a choice when you go up there.
	You can either be popular when you go back home or you can be popular in Washington, D.C.
	And I'd much rather represent my constituents and fight against the Uniparty.
	Yes, I said that.
	Republicans and Democrats, because it is a big swampy grift.
	And both sides are in on it.
	Yeah, 100%.
	I mean, you recently sort of slammed, you know, the quote-unquote country club Republicans.
	And I think that's right, which is like, you know, at a small room back home, you sort of tell the people who elected you to office what they want to hear.
	But then you go to Washington, D.C.
	You want to be invited to the cool person party.
	You don't want the obligatory Washington Post hit piece.
	You know, you don't want the slings and arrows that you mentioned when you started talking about this.
	So you sort of bastardize your beliefs
	Or all of the things, you know, that elected you to office.
	Talk a little bit more about that sort of Country Club Republican mentality and how different it is than say, you know, your constituency at home in Arizona that put you into office to do a very specific task that's, you know, quite adverse to, you know, sort of the mindset and the ideological goals of the Country Club Republican.
	Yeah, absolutely, Don.
	There's a couple different, I think, you know, worldviews when going into office.
	And one of the things that I can tell you is the pressure starts coming immediately.
	Like, hey, Eli, we need you on the team.
	We need you to be on the team.
	We need everybody rowing in the same direction.
	You know, especially when we have this really thin majority.
	And so there's that pressure not to get, you know, out of sync with the people running in that direction.
	So there's that.
	And then there's also the individuals who come there and there's a little bit of strategic, you know, intelligence in their perspective.
	But they say, well, I can't make a difference in Washington, D.C.
	unless I get on this certain committee, because this committee has oversight of this issue that my constituents and me personally
	You know, find very interesting.
	And so they're like, and I'll tell you, Don, that's another carrot they dangle over your head.
	If you don't play ball, if you don't say the right things, if you don't have the right policy positions, they won't let you on certain committees or they fight you from getting on certain committees.
	And so people play this game where it's like, well, I'll play just a little ball so that I can get on this committee.
	But if I really want to make a difference, I'll become the committee chairman.
	And then I have to play ball for, you know,
	Eight to ten years.
	And before you know it, they don't even recognize themselves anymore.
	They haven't done anything for their constituents.
	And once they get that gavel or that committee chairmanship that has been their goal for so long, they're comfortable.
	And they don't want to be uncomfortable.
	None of us like to be uncomfortable.
	So yeah, one of the other rabble-rousers like, you know, Matt Gaetz is a buddy of mine.
	I've done a lot with him for over the years, and I asked him this question a couple years ago, and that was sort of the answer.
	I was like, hey man, like, why is that guy doing it?
	It's so contrary to everything he ran on and so contrary to what his constituency wants.
	He goes, well, you know, that guy, he was a
	You know, city councilman for seven years, and, you know, it's sort of like, you know, the Distinguished Gentleman movie, right?
	It was the name you know.
	The guy that was in Congress had a similar name, so he got elected to Congress, and now he's in the big leagues, and he just wants to stay there, man.
	He wants someone who will kiss his ass, and he just becomes the shell of his former self.
	It seems so obvious, like, man, you could do so much if you actually fight, and, like, who really cares what, like, someone in Washington thinks?
	I mean, I think the American public certainly doesn't, and yet it's such an influencing force on these people that they become the exact thing that they loathed when they first got in.
	No, you're right, Don, and it's been one of the hardest things for me to watch, you know, because, and I'm going to say this right now, a lot of them are good people.
	A lot of them, you know, have families, you know, they've owned or they own businesses.
	Many of them have served in the armed forces.
	They've been willing to fight and die for this country, you know.
	That being said, it's just so hard to watch, man, because, Don, we cannot continue to go on the trajectory that we're on.
	We just cannot.
	We are going to destroy ourselves.
	We're going to default, you know, added up, you know, we're being attacked so many different areas.
	We have to, we have to force change.
	And I keep, I keep using that, that one word with my colleagues, force, force.
	You have to use force up there.
	You're not going to get anything done because the establishment, the machine is so well entrenched
	And it's got so many support circles from the media, special interests, the lobbying groups, that it's so hard to break through, and you have to be willing to force it.
	You have to be willing to have the Uniparty run a primary candidate against you, or dump millions of dollars of attack ads against you.
	And that's another thing that none of these guys want, and they know that
	If they aren't willing to be co-opted by the machine, the machine only knows two moves.
	We're either going to co-opt this guy or we're going to attack him.
	It's one or the other.
	You choose, you pick.
	And most people don't want to go up against the machine.
	And I totally understand that.
	But we're losing the country, brother.
	And so my point is this.
	Be willing to go home.
	Send people up here to help us out that are willing to go home, okay?
	Because if they're not willing to go home, if they think that being called a congressman is such a big deal, we don't want them up here because they're not going to help us out.
	And that's the bottom line.
	Yeah, I mean, so much of that really, honestly, depends on us, right?
	People are like, well, how does that guy get it?
	Well, you know, Mitch McConnell finds a squish that will do whatever Mitch McConnell wants and then has the full weight and force of all of the money they've raised in the Senate to support a primary candidate against, like, an America First candidate.
	That's not easy to overcome.
	I mean, I think we have to be involved in that process to helping them out financially, helping sure they get, you know, the recognition, the press, the PR, whatever it may be against those other guys.
	Because, you know, whether we're in a primary or whether it's, you know, us versus the Democrats, like, we're not fighting a fair fight.
	I mean, they have the full weight and force of mainstream media.
	They have the full weight and force of big tech.
	And then you have sort of, again, the Uniparty, you have the Rhino Republicans taking Republican funds raised by like America First type people to fight against the American First candidate for their, you know, Uniparty squish.
	And so, you know, we are up against so much.
	We got to be playing this game smarter, harder and better than everyone else, or we don't have a chance.
	Yeah, you know, one good example right now to look at is my colleague and one of my brothers up on the hill named Matt Rosendale, who's running for Senate in Montana.
	This guy is hardcore, man.
	I can tell you I've been in some fights already with him.
	He doesn't blink.
	He doesn't back down.
	He hasn't even announced that he's running in the Senate, but everybody knows that he's eyeing the seat.
	The polling shows him up by like five points against Tester, and the Uniparty, the Republican establishment, does not want to support Matt Rosendale.
	Why?
	Because they know Matt Rosendale is not looking to play ball with them.
	Matt Rosendale is looking to make change.
	And it's one more example.
	If they get just the hint, the idea that you're not going to come up there, fall in line, and play ball, you're an enemy.
	You are an enemy.
	And, you know, Don, I'm going to tell you something, man.
	I used to get frustrated with politicians like everybody that listens to your show.
	You know, for good reason, because, you know, often they're puppets.
	They don't really mean what they say.
	They just come up here and then they kind of just go with the flow, whatever way the political winds are blowing.
	What I've learned, brother, is that I'm getting more and more frustrated with the American people.
	And why do I say that?
	Because you send us up here, especially for congressmen and women.
	You can fire me every two years.
	We have to get the American people, brother, to wake up and quit being complacent.
	Quit watching CNN, okay?
	Quit watching MSNBC.
	And by all means, there's establishment networks on the right, too, that don't do us a lot of help, all right?
	Start getting a variety of different news, educating yourself, and sending real fighters up here who don't want to be career politicians.
	So how do you make that happen?
	Again, I say this all the time.
	I mean, it's a key tenet of this show, you know, about that.
	And I get it.
	You know, man, dude, it's especially in the Biden economy.
	It's not easy to support your family.
	It's not easy to pay for groceries.
	It's not easy to pay for gas.
	You're bombarded.
	You know, people are so busy just trying to live their lives and get by.
	Understanding that's not easy, that they're not
	Paying attention to what's really going on.
	They're believing that narrative, you know?
	They listen to five minutes of news a day and, you know, it's CNN telling you that, you know, Russia, Russia, Russia is still a thing.
	You know, it's why I tell people like, you know, like, share, subscribe to this kind of programming.
	So hopefully people, whether it's watching it or listening to it in your car or whatever it is, like, hopefully they see what's really going on because I imagine there's a big portion of the population that doesn't.
	There was revelations that
	17% of Americans, I think it was, or Democrat voters during the election, had they known about the Hunter Biden laptop, would not have voted for Joe Biden.
	Like, we wouldn't have been on the brink of World War III, we wouldn't have had the economic collapse, banks wouldn't be failing because Joe Biden is an abject failure pushing those Democrat policies, and yet
	They didn't even know about it.
	And I mean, even just the cover up of it, even that big social was covering it and big tech and mainstream media was lying.
	Like, if you paid a little bit attention, you'd be like, wait a minute, is there something here?
	There's got to be something here.
	It could have woken up a portion of those people and made a difference.
	And yet, I don't, I don't know how much worse it has to get to finally get those people, you know, sort of that sleeping giant to wake up.
	Yeah, I don't know either, but what I do know, Don, is that people don't typically, humans don't like confrontation, right?
	We just don't.
	We try and avoid it, and I understand that.
	I'm built the same way that a lot of folks out there who don't typically like confrontation.
	I don't know about that, Eli.
	You were a SEAL.
	I have a feeling you weren't exactly built the same way.
	Okay, alright.
	You're being a little overly humble there, buddy.
	If I can go through my day and not get into a political argument with somebody, I would rather my day go that way.
	My point, Don, is this, man.
	We're losing this country.
	And a lot of people have checked out because the news and the headlines, it's all doom and gloom.
	It's not good.
	It makes them feel uncomfortable.
	It doesn't make them feel warm and fuzzy.
	And we're so lazy.
	You know, we're such a, you know, instant gratitude culture that anything that doesn't make us feel warm and fuzzy, we turn it out, we cut it out of our lives.
	My point is this, and I know that the listeners to Don Jr's show, you guys are wired a different way, probably similar to me and Don, alright?
	But what I'm saying is, we gotta be willing to have these conversations with our neighbors, people at the store, whatever, because
	We're losing this country.
	And the bottom line is like Don just said, you know, a lot of people, if they, I think if they knew better, if they actually got some of these stories or got some of this news, it might affect how they behave, how they vote, where they spend their money, et cetera.
	And so we have to, we have to quit being complacent.
	We have to be willing to engage and often engage in conversations that might not be pleasant with those that we love, care about, and even sometimes strangers.
	Well, listen, you're a SEAL, you're a businessman, you're now in Congress, so, you know, you've gotten comfortable being in uncomfortable situations.
	I think we all have to do that.
	I know for me, God knows I've been blessed, but I've learned so much more in life
	From the bad stuff that actually happens to me.
	I think our children could learn from that, but we protect them from everything that could possibly be imaginable, even the truth, because we're so worried.
	To your point, the instant gratification society, anything that doesn't give you that, we gotta cut it out.
	Through your career, whether it was in the military or otherwise, how were you able to get comfortable in those uncomfortable positions?
	Because for me, it was just either just,
	Having it be so extreme, you know, being, you know, tried for treason by, you know, Adam Schiff and the clowns and the Intelligence Committee.
	You know, a crime punishable by death.
	It just sort of changes that mentality.
	If you sort of back off into a corner, they're not going to go any lighter on you, but...
	Man, if you're not fighting, you have no chance whatsoever.
	What are the things that you've learned, the lessons in life, to help people get to that place?
	Because you're right, it doesn't have to be physical confrontation, but to be able to be comfortable having an intelligent, fact-based conversation with your neighbors who maybe aren't
	Paying as much attention, who maybe are just blinded by, you know, the CNN headlines.
	I mean, Adam Schiff was there talking about Russia, Russia, Russia in Congress last week as though it was real.
	He was criticizing me, and yet he forgets to mention that he literally was duped by Ukrainian shock jocks
	To get information on Trump, like the head of an intelligence committee in America.
	But, you know, that doesn't matter.
	That's never gonna make the news.
	No one will actually talk about it.
	It's, you know, how can we make Orange Man bad?
	How do you get comfortable in that mindset?
	Well, I think a couple things.
	One, I think we've all been blessed with skills, talents, and abilities.
	And for myself, my message to your viewers would be this.
	Take what God gave you, your skills, talents, and abilities, and use them to get in the fight.
	A mission that's bigger than yourself.
	And right now, you know, I don't care what you're into, but if we lose this country, a lot of people are going to get really uncomfortable really, really quick.
	And you know, my mom was really tough on me and my brothers, Don.
	You know, so that's kind of where it started for, you know, she was all about tough love.
	She was an amazing mom.
	But I went from that to working for Chris Kyle and the SEAL teams, and he loved to beat the snot out of us new guys.
	And then I went into entrepreneurship, where it was full of adversity.
	And now I'm in, you know, Congress, which is also full of adversity.
	And, you know, one of my favorite scriptures, and I think it's James 1 to Don, it says, Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, for it's a testing of your faith that breeds perseverance.
	Let perseverance continue so that you may be mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.
	We all want that little line at the end.
	We all want to be mature, complete, and lacking in nothing, but none of us want the trials of many kinds.
	And I don't care what movie you watch, whether it's Rambo, Rocky, pick your favorite epic thriller of all time.
	Every single hero has to go through that adversity, that training period,
	And we need more and more men and women looking to be forged through adversity so that they can help us in this fight to save our country.
	Yeah, I've noticed it for myself.
	As uncomfortable as some of those things are, the more you do it, you know, just get yourself out of that comfort zone a little bit, it just becomes that much easier to do it.
	Then take it a little bit further and a little bit further.
	No different than, you know, lifting or working out, whatever it may be.
	The more you find yourself in that position, the more you try, even if it's just, you know, incrementally,
	The easier it becomes and you know everyone's just got to take that initial step and once you realize that it makes a huge difference in everything that you do in life.
	No, I couldn't agree more.
	You know, and we need more of it from the American people.
	We need more of it from our leaders and representatives.
	And another thing that I think that we need to do, Don, I believe that a lot of what we see, you know, has spiritual foundations to it.
	We need to continue to pray for this country, brother.
	Yeah.
	We really do.
	Yeah, there's a reason there's such an attack on that, right?
	You know, the left, you know, they sort of create their
	New religions every couple of years, you know.
	It was the religion of climate change as led by Greta Thunberg, high lordess of the movement.
	Then there was the religion of COVID as led by Lord Fauci.
	Now it's Ukraine as led by Zelensky.
	You know, they always change while simply, you know, attacking the basis of our faith and religion.
	And man, I think we'd be in a lot better place if a lot more people had that faith.
	I couldn't agree more, Don, and that's why, you know, I think it's in 2 Chronicles.
	There's a scripture that talks about, you know, if my people would repent and turn back to me, I would restore their land.
	And I think a lot of, when I look at American culture right now, I don't see repentance at all.
	I see just a complete wayward culture that if God says, I created you male and female, this culture says, nope, there's 3,000 genders now.
	And I think that, you know, that's a big part of where we're at.
	And so, you know, I'm just calling on Americans to continue to pray, ask God for protection for this country, and, you know, pray that this country would repent as a whole, and that we would turn back to Him.
	I think that's one of the number one things that we can do outside of putting God-fearing
	Men and women in office and as representatives to represent us, you know, in our national and local and state politics.
	Listen, man, I'm with you 100% on that.
	I mean, you're involved in this.
	You've been one of the people very vocal about having Congress do its damn job and everything like that.
	But given the recent sort of revelations on the Biden bribery scandal, misconduct within the Hunter Biden investigation, sort of the plea deal that it seems like no one other than someone with the last name Biden would get.
	Where do you think the Biden presidency stands today?
	What's the agenda of the House GOP?
	And, you know, is impeachment of Joe Biden on the table for you and for the others?
	Where do you think you are with all that?
	It's 100% on the table for me, Don.
	One of the things I said to you when I got on your program, that keyword, force.
	We have to move in lockstep.
	We have to be willing to be forceful.
	We have to start punching back that's that's the thing that that's one of the only reasons I feel like I'm up in Washington DC.
	It's one of the only reasons I feel like God opened this door so I could be up here is to, you know, just bring a little bit more courage and strength to some of my colleagues.
	Because courage is contagious, and oftentimes, you know, it's like putting weights on a scale.
	You put enough weights on the scale, and sooner or later, it just tips.
	But I am absolutely in favor of impeaching Secretary Mayorkas, impeaching President Biden.
	Matter of fact, when Lauren Boebert was putting her articles of impeachment
	Or to, you know, to be referred back to the Homeland Security Committee.
	You know, I spoke right after her to, you know, support that motion just because, I mean, it's unbelievable.
	The American people are looking at us like, what are you guys doing?
	What's it going to take to impeach Secretary Mayorkas?
	What's it going to take to impeach Joe Biden?
	I mean, when you look at these issues, right?
	If this was Trump, it would have been over and we'd all be in Gitmo by now, you know?
	No, 100%.
	I got a chance to question a high-ranking official with the FBI about a month ago.
	I brought you and your brother up.
	I said, if this were Eric and Don Jr., we wouldn't even be having this committee hearing.
	These guys would be in jail.
	They'd be locked up already.
	Everybody knows it.
	Everybody knows it's a two-tier justice system up there.
	It's sad, Don, because the fact of the matter is,
	As an American citizen, your innocence or guilt often isn't about whether you did the crime or not, it's about what jurisdiction you're being tried in.
	Is it a blue?
	Is it a radical leftist district that you're being tried in?
	Or is it still a freedom-loving, patriotic, justice-blind state, county, district?
	And that's just the fact of the matter.
	A hundred percent.
	Now, I mean, you started off your political career the first couple of days with the speakership race.
	You're one of the 20 holdouts on that.
	I think you guys got some amazing stuff.
	Obviously, you started off in that adversarial position, but how do you judge what's happening in the GOP today versus what would have been maybe a GOP two years ago, before you had guys like you or Ana Paulina Luna or other people
	Being vocal to that strong sort of America First position.
	How do you guys judge how that worked out, what it's getting you, and are you good with where we are or do you want more from the leadership in charge right now?
	Well, to answer your last question first, I'm not even close to happy with where things are at, because we're losing the country.
	This isn't about Republicans, Democrats, the Freedom Caucus versus the Squad.
	It's so much bigger than any of these little people, any of these caucuses.
	We are losing this country, Don, and that's not hyperbole.
	No.
	We cannot continue on this trajectory.
	We are destroying the country, and who knows how much longer it has.
	And so, I am not even close to happy with where things are at.
	I want to be a part of helping us turn this fiscal titanic around.
	I want to be a part of securing our southern border.
	I want to be a part of
	You know, kicking out individuals who have gone woke out of our law enforcement, our DOJ, our military, the administrative state, etc.
	You know, have we done some good things in this, you know, 118th Congress?
	Absolutely.
	But we have so much work to do.
	And, you know, when I look at the Uniparty goes back to what it knows every single time.
	And you know, I've been critical of Kevin McCarthy, you know, not because I think he's a bad guy.
	People think I hate Kevin McCarthy.
	I don't hate Kevin McCarthy at all.
	He's actually a nice, funny, intelligent, extremely hardworking guy.
	Do I agree with him on worldview and politics?
	Absolutely not.
	And I will fight him tooth and nail if I feel like he is not driving this ship in a way that's going to help us save this country.
	Why?
	Because I have kids, Don.
	I have kids who have to grow up here, okay?
	That's why I didn't vote for Kevin McCarthy.
	That's why I will continue to fight the Uniparty, Republicans included, because this ain't about me.
	I've got to live an amazing life, Don.
	I'm 43 years old.
	I don't know how old you are.
	You
	You've got to live an amazing life.
	If my kids don't get to live an amazing life, guess who's?
	That's on me and you, because we dropped the ball, because we didn't fight hard enough.
	I refuse to let it happen.
	I refuse to sit by idly, regardless of whether I like you individually or personally.
	It's not about personalities.
	This is about we're losing this country, and there's a lot of people that have blood on their hands, and they're people that we like, and that's not okay with me.
	Yeah, listen, I get it.
	I'm two years older than you.
	I'm 45.
	I also have five young kids and I want them to grow up in a country that we recognize.
	And I think, you know, I see that slipping away.
	I see how, you know, even functioning at a high business level prior to politics and all these things, the things that I assumed, you know, the FBI, they're just trying to do the right thing, but that's bullshit.
	Leadership is so corrupted and so broken.
	They're the CIA, the DOJ.
	You know, it's taking all of this to see it, but I can assure you, it was a shitload easier to be a real estate developer from New York City, even as a Republican, even as a conservative, than it is to take on D.C., to take on the Uniparty, and I've seen what they've tried to do to me, but that's exactly why we need a fight, because we have no choice, because we are going to lose our country.
	We're at that point where, man, if these lunatics win a couple more of these cycles,
	I mean, it's over.
	I mean, they're not even pretending anymore.
	They're saying the quiet parts out loud.
	They're indoctrinating our children.
	They want to take away children from parents who are just like, I don't want my child going through gender reassignment surgery at three years old because they're a teacher.
	How dare you?
	I mean, it's fucking crazy, man.
	Like, we're at a point, like,
	Five years ago, if you would have talked about the things that are actually happening on a daily basis in America, the things that are, you know, fundamental, you know, parts of the Democrat Party platform, you'd think that you were being punked.
	You'd be waiting for, like, Ashton Kutcher to jump out of a fucking birthday cake or something and be like, I'm just messing with you.
	But it's happening every day, and that's why you're right.
	You do have to be engaged.
	You do have to be forceful.
	You do have to make sure that you have actual fighters.
	If you're not doing it yourself,
	Or involved in some way, shape, or form that you're putting people in there who are comfortable being uncomfortable, who are willing to be out there and to fight, because otherwise it's over.
	No, it is, and it's funny, Don, because this is some little inside baseball for your listeners, but a couple weeks ago, I was up in Washington, and we decided right after the debt ceiling vote that more Democrats voted for than Republicans.
	165 Democrats voted for, 149 Republicans voted for, which many of us believe is a completely disastrous bill.
	And what did we do?
	We came back the next week and we took down the House rule on gas stoves, which ended up just probably being a messaging bill because it's dead on arrival in the Senate after the Republican Party
	Basically sold the country out for another two years.
	And I'm just going to be honest with you.
	And here's the deal.
	When we took down the rule, it shut down the House floor for about a week.
	And people are saying, oh my God, you guys are terrorists.
	We knew you guys were terrorists.
	You know, this hasn't happened since 2002.
	A reporter came up to me, you know, after we had a, you know, meeting with the Speaker, and he said, you know, Congressman Crane, don't you care about the procedure and the tradition of this House?
	And I said, are you kidding me?
	Are you kidding me right now?
	First of all, my voters don't know what these, they don't know about these rules.
	They don't care about these rules.
	They expect me to use every tool in my arsenal to try and turn this
	You know, this this ship around.
	I said, you know, and furthermore, if you want to talk about tradition, the only tradition I really care about is the tradition of this this town and the people in it to sell the American people out day after day after day.
	And it's like that's the type of questions you get up there, man.
	It's like the American people don't care about these parliamentary procedural rules.
	They don't.
	They don't.
	Beyond that, there's always the Democrat side of it.
	Well, we're not really taking away your stoves.
	I'm like, well, two weeks later, there's legislation.
	Well, if we were, it's good, and here's why.
	I mean, everything's based on a lie.
	Everything, you know, the same thing with the, you know, well, we're not trying to groom our kids.
	It's like, oh, really?
	Like, then you see their accent.
	Well, it's not that bad.
	They should be exposed to these kinds of things at three years old.
	What difference does it make?
	You know, you see that day in and day out.
	I mean, you've been very critical, and this is a big one for me because, you know, I see a lot of the Rhino Republicans, you know,
	Ukraine is the number one issue for Republicans across America.
	I assure you that very few people have spent more time with Republicans across a broad swath of America than me, and it's not a top 10 issue for anyone I've spoken to.
	What's your reaction to the news that the Pentagon made a $6.2 billion accounting error in overpayment to Ukraine?
	My initial reaction is how convenient because we know... It only goes one way, right?
	Just like everything else.
	It only breaks towards Democrats.
	It only breaks towards spending more money for Ukraine.
	There's never like a break that actually helps conservatives or America First or the American people.
	It's always the way of DC, magically.
	It's incredible.
	It's a statistical anomaly like we've never seen before.
	No, absolutely, Don.
	When I saw that, I kind of chuckled a little.
	That's how cynical I've become.
	Just another $6.2 billion of the American taxpayer's money, or I should say, more likely, money that we don't have, that we have to print off.
	It's going to go over to, you know, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
	To secure our border, to stop a scourge of sex trafficking, human trafficking, a fentanyl crisis that's made every state a border state, killing indiscriminately tens of thousands of Americans a year.
	But 6.2 billion for Ukraine?
	I mean, what difference does it make, right?
	No, exactly, Don.
	And this is one of the things, even for myself, if, you know, I air some of my own personal dirty laundry for a second.
	This is one of the things I was so appreciative of what your old man did, you know, President Trump.
	He actually made guys like me question, you know, some of our own policies, some of our own agenda.
	Because I think, you know, for many years, I would have fallen into the typical, you know, more hawkish
	You know, Republican little groups.
	And when your dad started, you know, with his make America great again, America first, is this policy the best thing for Americans in America?
	I, you know, I wanted to be the few one of the few people or one of the many people that was willing to even question my own politics and my own, you know, worldview and say, hey, Eli, are you
	Are the policies that you support, are they the best thing for Americans?
	Are they the best things for America?
	And when you say, Don, that you travel around the country and you talk to Americans and, you know, the Ukrainian war and whether we spend money there doesn't rank in the top 10, I agree with you.
	In my district, you know, people are way more concerned about not having a southern border.
	They're way more concerned about the fentanyl killing 70,000 Americans in this country.
	The MS-13 gang members that come over there, they ask me, hey Eli, how many
	How many more people are we going to encounter on the terrorist watch list before we do something about the border, right?
	And meanwhile, you know, we still have this contingent, you know, up in Washington, the Uniparty, both sides, they continue to escalate, you know, another, you know, monstrosity that could turn into World War III.
	And for what?
	You know, that's the that's the crazy one.
	It's like how you can see them.
	They're not even like pretending anymore.
	They're egging on a war you saw last weekend.
	It was like, oh, the Wagner battalion.
	He's going to go take it.
	You know, he's going to take out Putin and like, yeah, like.
	How much more, again, I'm not saying Putin's a good guy, I'm not saying anything like that, but how much more can we instigate, right?
	We've been sending military aid and missiles out the wazoo.
	I mean, we thought we were fighting a proxy war.
	Turns out we actually had boots on the ground as evidenced by the leak that now magically just disappears because we can't talk about that because it's actually happening.
	So we're in a ground war with Russia?
	What could possibly go wrong?
	I mean, they only have 6,000 and something nuclear missiles, you know, nuclear warheads.
	I mean, it doesn't take much to say that the megalomaniac that they've been talking about is Putin would decide, you know what, I've had enough of this, and escalate to a point where, let's just say, global warming
	Uh, the problems that they talk about on a daily basis will be nothing compared to what happens when a couple nukes go off simultaneously because a sicko has had enough.
	No, you're right, Don.
	You know, it just, it boggles my mind, man.
	You know, it just, I just can't, I can't understand why these guys would think that this is a, this is a great idea.
	I've heard the argument say, if we can, if we can defeat Russia without spilling a drop of US blood, you know, that's, that's in our national security interest.
	Okay.
	You know, I hear, I hear their arguments, but to your point,
	We are fighting this proxy war and pushing a possible nuclear war with Vladimir Putin.
	It doesn't make sense to me.
	Meanwhile, we have Americans who, like you said, are struggling with inflation.
	We keep sending money we don't have over there, and I think it's reckless, and I think it's foolish, and I think the American people want to get back to an agenda that your dad was pushing where we make sure that we're putting Americans first.
	And Don, I know for a fact that you and I and people in our camp on this one don't want to see innocent Ukrainians
	Get killed or anybody around the world getting killed.
	But the fact of the matter is, you know, when your situation change, sometimes your tactics have to change as well.
	This isn't the United States of 1980 or 1990.
	We were not operating through the position of strength that we were though, because I think a lot of it is honestly, you know, a facade.
	I really do.
	When you look at where we're at economically, look at the group that just pulled us out of Afghanistan.
	I mean, look at how disastrous that pullout was.
	That was because of poor leadership.
	You want this leadership to push and escalate a war where we could actually go into a real war with Russia, maybe Iran, China, because those guys are allied up.
	They're allied up.
	Part of all of this is creating that, right?
	I agree with you.
	My father said this very clearly.
	He would put a stop to this in moment number one because he's sick of bloodshed on both sides.
	I mean, Ukraine's being decimated and we feel terrible for those people, but guess what?
	That's not stopping until the money stops.
	If the money keeps going, you know, the future oligarchs of Ukraine, whether it's Zelensky or others, they're saying, hey, we'll make billions on this and the corrupt policies.
	Our military is not tracking it.
	They're not following their, like, congressionally mandated obligations to see where this money is going.
	No one knows.
	Again, they misplaced, you know, six point something billion dollars just now in Ukraine.
	The Pentagon lost another 220 billion in the last couple of months.
	I have a feeling if you or I did that, the IRS would be all over us.
	But I mean,
	They lost $220 billion recently, and I'm sure that's going there, but that bloodshed on either side is never stopping if there's no incentive for those decision-makers to stop the war.
	And as long as we're giving them billions, and as long as we continue to fund this, yeah, the day-to-day citizen, it's exactly the case and point of America, right?
	There's Washington, D.C., and then there's Americans.
	As long as Washington, D.C.
	is doing well, they'll shit all over the Americans.
	They don't care about that.
	That's what's enabling it.
	So we're never stopping the bloodshed, in my opinion.
	And I think the opinion of my father, which is what he wanted to do, that's what he sort of owned CNN during the CNN town hall, is like, I don't want any bloodshed.
	It's not about winning the war.
	We got to stop the bloodshed.
	But that's never going to happen as long as we're creating the next billionaire oligarch class in Ukraine, giving them all the aid in the world.
	Because why would they stop?
	No, you're right, Don.
	And that's why many of us have been saying from the beginning, you know, our, I think our focus needs to be ushering in peace talks, honestly.
	That's what we should be sending over there is envoys, you know, diplomats to actually bring this thing to an end.
	I think that'd be the most responsible thing.
	I think it'd be the best thing for the Ukrainian people.
	And I just think that's the wisest thing we can do.
	Yeah, well, especially when you think about, you know, hey, I'm not saying Putin may not have done this anyway, but when we decided to talk about bringing Ukraine into NATO and having those serious talks, I mean, it was a pretty solid, let's call it 500, maybe longer, it's a big country, you know, mile buffer between NATO and Russia's border.
	I mean, you know, you gave him every excuse you needed and maybe he was going to do it anyway.
	But I sort of doubt it.
	When you took that buffer, that no man's land and said, hey, now we're moving, we're encroaching on the no man's land to your border.
	You know, this is a creation, you know, of our fault, in my opinion.
	And again, I'm not saying that's not being a Putin apologist.
	It's saying that you couldn't leave.
	A 60-year-old buffer zone B. You had to encroach on that, which gave him the precipice to actually do all of this.
	So, again, we're not...
	Absolved of any blame in any of this process, and then we're just perpetuating and making it worse.
	Now, I like where you're going in terms of trying to get to peace, but I think if we send the traditional, you know, bureaucrats that couldn't deal with North Korea and couldn't do anything and haven't made any progress in decades to Ukraine, I don't think we're getting peace.
	I think you actually need a guy like Donald Trump who has balls and resolve to actually make these things happen, or you're just gonna have the stalemates that we've watched
	You know, really, for the last few decades, all the people that said Trump couldn't do anything with North Korea or, you know, there's no way you can get peace deals done in the Middle East were sadly mistaken, but it's only because...
	They couldn't do it.
	They've been doing it for 50 years.
	They talk shit from the sidelines.
	But meanwhile, they were the guys tasked to do something and got nothing done.
	Trump comes in, changes the game plan.
	They laugh in their little social circles and talk about it.
	But he actually got stuff done.
	I don't think we can do it with the bureaucrats we have in place.
	We saw Blinken.
	He got a 45-minute session with Xi last week in China.
	It was like an insult.
	It was a joke, and he's there, you know, begging for cents.
	It's embarrassing.
	Well, when I said, you know, diplomats, I wasn't talking about the traditional diplomats.
	I think my plan is to send Dennis Rodman and Sean Penn over there.
	They do better than our guys, there's no question.
	I mean, who wouldn't do better than our diplomats?
	Diplomatic establishment.
	Like, I don't know of any successes that they've had before you had guys like Trump again come in there and change the game.
	I used to laugh, you know, when at first, Trump's doing it all wrong in North Korea.
	Okay, I'm watching, I'll watch, you know.
	CNN or MSDNC to see what the other side is saying.
	And I'm like, well, why, why do you think, why is he doing it all wrong?
	Well, because I've been in charge of the delegation for 27 years.
	Like, well, what have you done in that 27 years?
	Jack shit.
	You got nothing done.
	You just, you, you didn't even have a meeting with the counterparties.
	But you're going to sit there and throw stones when someone changes that leave well enough alone because it was never well enough.
	It was always a disaster.
	But that's how D.C.
	works.
	No one has the guts to actually change that system.
	And there's no consequence to getting nothing done.
	And so they just you keep perpetual, you know, perpetually failing because it doesn't matter.
	No, you're right, and you see it across the board, Don.
	I was in a Homeland Security Committee meeting, I think it was last week or the week before, and I was talking to a couple of our quote-unquote experts, panelists, and we were talking about everything that the Chinese, the Iranians, and the Russians are doing down in South America.
	And, you know, one of the things, you know, when you look at what they're really doing down there, it definitely raises some alarms and makes any of us with common sense recognize that, hey, we better start doing something about this, you know, southern border and our homeland security really quickly.
	And I was asking some of the panelists, I was like, you know, just basics.
	What do you think about us finishing the wall on the southern border?
	And, you know, two of the three panelists were like, well, that's not really in my area of expertise.
	And I was like, well, do you have any common sense?
	Because the American people are so sick of this, Don.
	Most of these people up here who are considered experts or have their own think tanks, they're actually more interested in protecting their own careers than the American people.
	If they say something that asinine and foolish and stupid that, you know, hey, that's not my area of expertise.
	And I asked him, well, do you have a wall around your house?
	Do you know why your kids have walls around their schools?
	Do you understand why walls are around castles and prisons, etc.? ?
	It's because they work, and they've worked since the beginning of time, yet you guys can't even answer a simple question because you're so concerned about your own personal careers and whether or not that one remark that might possibly tie you to Donald Trump and Orange Man Bad is going to go bad for you, and somebody's going to tie that to you not getting a promotion or getting a client.
	It's up there, it's across the board, Don.
	It's unbelievable, but I get to see every day why this country is in the spot that it is.
	Yeah.
	So, let's talk about that.
	Before Congress, you served as a SEAL.
	Talk about what made you decide to join up and do that kind of, you know, not just join the military, but go that far.
	What was that process like?
	And what's the state of our military readiness now under Joe Biden?
	So what if I could sum it up into one word what what got me to run for Congress was concern.
	I am so concerned about the trajectory of this country.
	I've been watching for many years.
	I think I told you a second ago.
	I don't think that what we lack up there is intelligence.
	I'm not downplaying intelligence.
	I think it's very important.
	You know, wisdom, discernment, all of those things are very important.
	But what I what I see is smart individuals, you know, using their intellect to choose their own career, to choose their own, you know, exit from Congress, to pad their retirement.
	Instead of actually using their intelligence to figure out what is the best thing I can do for the American people, what is the best thing I can do to fight back against this uniparty, this corruption that continues to promote itself, defend itself, as opposed to defending the American people.
	That is why I ran.
	Like I said, I'm grateful to be up there.
	There's many people like me up there.
	And, you know, I hope I can be a part of turning this aircraft carrier around.
	And I want to, you know, level set, and expectation management is important to me, Don.
	You know, when you're turning something this big, man, you turn it a couple degrees at a time.
	You don't get a 180 degree turn right off the bat.
	And so, for all of you out there watching, you know, expectation management, you know, and I'm not going to tell you to be patient.
	Don't be patient.
	We're good to go.
	Yeah, so what did you learn about your constituency?
	You ran, you came in from the outside.
	What did you learn about your district that sort of surprised you?
	Were there any sort of just incredible standout stories that make it all worthwhile?
	I know for me, generally, when people are like, I'd say, listen, it was a lot easier being a real estate developer.
	You could do a lot.
	But, you know, I hear some of the stories from people that come up to me like, hey, thanks for what you're doing.
	You're giving them it makes all the grueling bullshit and the never ending indictments and the lies.
	And it makes that all worth it.
	What did you learn about sort of maybe the American people or certainly the people of your district that sort of surprised you when you went through the process of running for Congress?
	You know, I think the thing that I learned about them is they're a lot smarter and more intuitive than, you know, a lot of people give them credit for it.
	They might not, you know, be able to tell you, you know, who the minority whip is or, you know, certain things about what's going on in Washington, but they have an instinct about what's going on.
	They have an instinct about what needs to happen and that we actually need people who are willing to, you know, punch back.
	One of the things that surprised me the most, though,
	Don is that they're actually very reasonable people as well.
	I'll give you one one example that really surprised me.
	We voted for, you know, a debt debt.
	We took a debt ceiling vote, you know, as Republicans a little while ago.
	The Limit Save Grow Act.
	I was a no on it, you know, and the reason I was a no on it was because I was like, we can't keep spending money we don't have.
	And so all that week, you know, I was getting whipped by leadership.
	Hey Eli, are you on the team?
	Are you not?
	And I was, you know,
	Pretty sure I was going to be a no vote.
	And then I did a town hall the night before the vote.
	And the majority, it was a very small number of people on that.
	It was just an impromptu town hall because I wanted to find out where these guys were, where my voters were on this issue.
	I tried to put them in the room and I said, hey, this is my perspective on this Limit Save Grow bill.
	You know, it does raise the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion, which is an astronomical amount of money, but these are the things we're getting in it.
	I think 80% of the bill was a Freedom Caucus design, so it was one of the most conservative debt ceiling bills we'd ever had.
	Even that being said, I felt like we could do better.
	But on that town hall, Don, I found out that, you know, the majority of people on that call wanted me to take the deal.
	I was like,
	That's weird.
	I didn't, I didn't think that my voters would, I thought they'd want me to take the hardest line possible.
	And so I was, you know, I was like, man, I need to cast a wider net.
	I sent out an email, you know, to everybody.
	I started making phone calls to all the county chairman.
	Hey guys, I need, I need numbers.
	I need polling.
	I need to figure out if the rest of the district feels the same way that little town hall went last night.
	And sure enough, you know, the day that we're voting on it,
	Hours before I got back, you know, the polling from my district, and I think it was, you know, the people that responded, 79.6% of them wanted me to vote for the deal.
	And so I was in a bind, because my gut and my instinct was telling me, don't vote for it.
	But my voters, 80% of them were telling me, we want you to vote for it, or at least the ones that responded.
	And so I ended up going with my voters on that one.
	And so not only have I learned that they're a lot smarter than we think,
	That a lot of people think they are, but they're also willing to be reasonable, and they're also willing to, you know, I think, turn the aircraft carrier a couple degrees at a time.
	And so I try and stay, especially on the
	Close or tough votes on I try and you know reach back out and get their input because I want I remember that my title up there outside of just being a congressman is being a representative and I cannot represent them well if I don't know what they want and so you know that means a lot to me and it definitely that specific one surprised me.
	Yeah, you know, it's an interesting one, because I had a couple people, some of your colleagues even call me, what do you think?
	And I go, listen, I see both sides of it.
	And I think the American people did.
	Like, there is something nice about like the sort of giving them the finger and blowing it all up.
	But there's also consequences to that.
	And so, you know, the consequences, you know, sort of like,
	Hey, let's put sanctions on Russia.
	That's great.
	Guess what?
	They go over, they avoid the sanctions by staying on their currency, effectively putting a nail in the coffin of the U.S.
	petrodollar, which has allowed us to do all the things that we've done, which has allowed us to spend past our means.
	You know, they understood that, you know, the consequence of that one, yeah, you blow it up.
	But if you actually do default on some of these things, like that borrowing ability goes bye bye.
	The interest rate on the bonds that are out there in the 30 trillion, 32 trillion dollars that's outstanding goes through the roof.
	A lot of things can go wrong really quickly that we don't necessarily control.
	And so it's interesting to me when, you know, I love the idea in general of blowing it up, but then you get into the details of that and it's like,
	It's not that simple.
	And they understood that better than most, certainly better than a lot of the pundits on TV who just wanted to say the Republicans are being difficult.
	No, no, no.
	The American populace, who those people despise, they think they're idiots.
	They got it better than most, which was really interesting.
	No, you're right.
	And that's why I choose, you know, you can listen to a lot of people up here, Don.
	That's one thing that I'm sure that you saw when, you know, you were helping your dad out.
	One thing I've seen running for Congress, there's no shortages of opinions and advice up here.
	You better pick really wisely and smartly about who you're taking counsel from, who you're taking advice from.
	And like I said earlier, show me your friends.
	I'll show you your future.
	I'm glad to be in the House Freedom Caucus.
	I'm going to keep, you know, trying to put my shoulder to the wheel every single day and continue to be mentored and listen to, you know, men and women who have been there longer than me, are wiser than me, have more experience than me, and also humble myself and continually remind myself that I don't know
	We're good to go.
	Liz, I think that's huge.
	I love that you're going back to your people also, not just going from a gut, not just being influenced by D.C., but what is the number one issue out there right now for your constituency?
	What is the thing that you hear most from them?
	Where's their biggest concern?
	You know, and some of them are state issues, some of them are federal issues, but Arizonans are really concerned, as you know, about elections.
	They're really concerned about elections.
	They don't think that these are the freest, tightest, most secure elections that we've ever had.
	I agree with them.
	Because they're smart.
	Yeah, they also are very concerned, obviously, about the border.
	And they're also, I think, as much concerned about the weaponization of our federal government, you know, the very government that's supposed to be protecting their God-given unalienable rights, actually being turned against them.
	And they see it every day, whether you're talking about the EPA,
	The ATF, FBI, etc.
	They just know that it's not working the way it's supposed to work, and so I think that's one of the only reasons they let a guy that looks like me and talks like me go up to the Hill and represent them, Don.
	I'm happy to do it, but those are some of the big issues for my voters.
	Well, listen, I think you also have the worldly experience for that.
	I mean, you joined the military after 9-11.
	You had some incredible people signing up to fight for the country.
	I mean, when you see what's going on right now, are you concerned about the military recruiting?
	Uh, you know, and that a lot of the best candidates would no longer even consider or be interested in serving, you know, sort of due to the direction.
	I mean, I imagine a huge part of the patriotism that would be involved in going to serve your country and possibly die for your country is actually
	Believing in the things that are the issues, you know, believing in the direction in which that country is going.
	You know, what do you see there right now?
	I imagine when you were doing SEAL training, there wasn't a lot of, you know, drag queen story hour in the Navy.
	And yet it's going on right now.
	And, you know, it's amazing to me that the brightest minds in the military are not like, huh, maybe we should take it a different direction.
	Instead, they're doubling down that, you know, we have drag influencers now doing recruitment
	It feels like they're perpetuating the problem, not solving it.
	I completely agree.
	I see it.
	I'm definitely concerned about it.
	I can tell you there was an incident probably about three months ago.
	Several of us were in a briefing with some of the Navy's top leaders, and they were talking to us about China and how they're expanding and some of the things that they're doing with their Navy.
	And how we need to, you know, counter and keep pace.
	There were three members of the Freedom Caucus in there.
	All three of us, you know, two of us were actually former Navy individuals.
	And three of us, you know, we all asked,
	Admiral, hey, we hear what you're saying, sir.
	We understand that this is a real issue and could turn into a real problem in the future.
	One of the things that we're concerned about, though, if we give you this money, if we appropriate this money that you're asking for, how do we know that it's not going to be used to continue some of these DEI programs?
	You know, some of this, you know, just wokeness that we see going on in the Department of Defense, in the military, in the Navy,
	And he wouldn't even acknowledge it, Don.
	He looked, you know, and when I took a run at him, he said, you know, his answer has come back to me was, I think, you know, diversity is a strength.
	And so this guy, a very, very intelligent guy who wears the uniform, who has served this country for a long time.
	And I can just tell these guys are wearing the rank that they are, many of them.
	Because they're willing to drink the Kool-Aid.
	They're willing to parrot the party line.
	And it's just, it's sad to me, and I don't blame young men and women for not wanting to go fight for these individuals who don't have the courage to stand up to this backwards narrative that is doing nothing, and leadership that's doing nothing to increase the strength of our military and prepare us for, you know, the wars that are coming down the pipe.
	You know, and it's just it's it's it's terrifying, brother, because I've always been focused on, hey, the internal battles and struggles, because I know that a house divided cannot stand.
	That's the number one threat as far as I'm concerned is, you know, what's going on within our own house.
	But that being said, a hundred percent, a hundred percent, like I'm far more concerned that whatever is going to take down the republic is going to come from within.
	It's not Vladimir Putin.
	Or in Ayatollah in Iran, it's these lunatics in charge that are willing to say that.
	I'm sure for you, you know, as a SEAL, when you're fighting battles, you know, you didn't want your air cover.
	The guys either flying the helicopters or planes or artillery, you know, decided on like a diversity quota.
	You wanted the best guy there so they don't drop a bomb on your head.
	So they take out the bad guys, not allies.
	And yet that seems like it's a totally foreign concept right now.
	No it is and like you brought up these these drag shows and whatnot and it's like what what is going how does that make us a better force how does that how is that going to help us fight against you know China it's not and it's just I mean it's like this backwards world we live in but you know that
	That's why I said, Don, early in the program, I do see a lot of this having spiritual foundations.
	I see a lot of the headlines we see, in my opinion, are a byproduct of this good versus evil fight that has been, you know,
	Here since the beginning of time, it will continue to be here.
	And that's why I call on Americans again to continue to pray for this country, pray for our representatives, our leaders, and pray that God will, you know, bless this country, even though I know that, you know, I think you could make an argument that, you know, we don't deserve it.
	Listen, you know, seeing where we are, seeing the priorities of a vast, you know, a good part of the country, certainly a vast majority of our leadership, yeah, it's hard to justify.
	I mean, I imagine that's reflected in, you know, the recruitment numbers and stuff.
	As a last question to kind of finish up, you know, what does America First mean to you?
	And then, you know, how do you combine that to assess the state of the 2024 race so that we can finally maybe fix these things?
	You know, American first is the plumb line, right?
	Carpenters use them to make sure that they're going straight, make sure that they have a goal that they can actually not get sidetracked from.
	I think that it has to be the plumb line that we have right now because like you and I just discussed, I don't think that if America works in cohesion and unity and utilizes
	The resources, the talents, the individuals that we have, I don't think anybody can stop us.
	I think we can continue to be, you know, a beacon of hope, prosperity, and even resources for the rest of the world.
	As far as the 2024, you know, election, you know, election, I endorsed your dad.
	I think it was day one, maybe day two.
	I can't, I can't even remember.
	If it was day two, Eli, what took you that long?
	Come on, man.
	What's going on?
	I know, I know.
	I know exactly.
	And the reason I did, Don, was, and it's not, I don't think Ron, I think Ron DeSantis, you know, I think he's a good guy.
	I think he's done a lot of good things in Florida.
	I'm not going to sit here and beat him up.
	But the reason I, the reason that I endorsed your old man was because I think we need the strongest,
	Dude out there to come back and lead.
	In times of chaos, you want ironclad, just tough leadership because that's what it's going to take.
	When you look at what any leader that steps into that office is going to be up against, it's like nothing any human being has ever experienced before.
	From the adversity you're going to face from the Democrat Party,
	From the administrative state, the DOJ, and even individuals within our own party who just want the status quo.
	And that's just one ring of it.
	Then you look at the ring from the globalists on the outside, dictators all around the world who don't want a Donald Trump in office.
	They don't want a strong American leader.
	Matter of fact, they don't even want us to have a Constitution or a Bill of Rights.
	Many of these people don't want borders.
	They don't want American individuality at all.
	And so, the amount that that leader, whoever it ends up being, is going to face is tremendous.
	You need somebody who has the strength to stand up to all of it, which your old man has already proved that he does.
	And has a track record of actually executing on the promises that he made, which is very rare up in that town.
	Well, I appreciate it, Ben, and really appreciate what you're doing there.
	You know, one of the freshmen really making a difference, not just towing the line, not just waiting for, you know, seven terms to be able to speak up.
	And, you know, it's all about action.
	Listen, words are cheap.
	Talk is cheap.
	Action is very telling.
	So I just appreciate everything that you're doing down there, guys.
	So, guys, make sure to go check out Eli on social.
	Watch what he's doing.
	You know, support candidates like this.
	Really appreciate it.
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