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July 27, 2023 - Triggered - Donald Trump Jr
59:54
RISING GOP STAR REP BYRON DONALDS IS GROWING THE MAGA MOVEMENT | TRIGGERED Ep.54
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guys welcome to triggered and I'm excited about tonight's episode
We're joined by Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, and I've been wanting to interview him for quite some time.
Just a great guy, doing real things, pushing the boundaries as a newer congressman.
So this interview should be awesome.
Congressman Donalds is one of the rising Republican stars in Congress.
He's a true fighter and America first patriot.
He represents Florida's 19th congressional district.
He was a businessman before getting into Congress, unlike all the perma bureaucrats that never seem to be able to get anything done and don't understand how real things work because they've never actually functioned in the real world.
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It's always interesting when the cameras go live.
You just realize that this thing can all come crashing down in about five minutes.
It can all go. You know, listen.
Well, with that, I think we leave that in there because I think it's right.
Guys, we're here with Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida.
And, yeah, we've seen some of that.
I mean, we saw some of that last week.
Now, in the presidential debates with Tucker Carlson where it felt like the cameras went on, questions were asked, and careers were ended in seconds.
Listen, I gotta tell you, in politics, the funniest thing has come through what I think has been a true renaissance in media.
Not big media, because they're a joke and they're a mess.
I'm talking about all the different outlets, all the different voices.
Tucker is the most prominent of them all, but you got Joe Rogan, who's in this podcasting space where he's so dominant, and some people listen to him because he's not politics, he's not news, he's culture, he's life.
It's interesting people want to consume.
Yeah, and he's questioning both sides. Yes.
The dogma of both sides.
Obviously, from where I stand, I'm perhaps more one way on that than others, but I think it's actually still important to have that dialogue.
And that feels like it's missing everywhere.
I mean, it's missing in academia.
It's missing in politics until recently because of guys like that, because of alternate sources.
I mean, you see it sort of with even the mentality, kind of uniparty mentality of mainstream conservative.
We'll go somewhere, but we're not going to go there, but let's have that conversation.
So how do you think that's changing?
I think it's changing because there's just way more authenticity coming into politics.
I think you're having a breed of individuals who have done something in the world.
They failed, they won, whatever.
And they look at the country and say, I'm going in.
I think the second thing is they're not trying to go in forever.
And I think that's a very important thing because, look, I'm going to talk about me for a moment.
I've told my district, look, you got 10 years out of me.
However this thing works, however the ride goes, don't know.
You can't predict politics.
And I get it. People all have their visions of the future and what they want to see me do or whatever.
But you can't predict politics.
You do your job.
You see what's in front of you.
You climb that hill and you try to conquer it.
You have more mindsets like that in Congress and in politics now than what it used to be of, I want to go, I want to be a committee chair, I want to be a speaker, I want to do this, I want to do that.
And then I'll sit there for the rest of my life.
Yes, yes. Until dementia kicks in and that won't stop me from leaving.
Yeah, I think that's changing and I think it's the best thing for the country.
And I think also... So what's your story?
I mean, you came from Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Yeah. I mean, you're a congressman in Florida.
So how did that happen?
Sometimes I don't even know.
Look, I was a city kid.
We were poor. My mom stressed education.
I loved baseball first.
I loved basketball. Became my love.
I'm still a basketball junkie.
Loved the game. My grades were good.
I got accepted to a bunch of different colleges.
I chose Florida A&M, which was in Tallahassee.
That's how I got from New York to Florida.
Had too much fun at Florida A&M. It was a great time.
And I transferred to Florida State.
Finished my degrees at Florida State.
You know, met a girl, ended up marrying her.
We've been married 20 years. That was your boss that we heard from earlier?
She's kind of always been the boss.
Yeah, I saw that.
I was like, you get to sit up a little straighter.
And then I noticed once she left the room, you got a little bit more relaxed.
This happens a lot, actually.
But, you know, it's 23 years.
Hey, Kimberly, you're a spicy Puerto Rican woman.
I do what she says as well, so I understand.
Well, I mean, that's because you're a good man.
I'm not willing to risk my life over the way I'm sitting.
It does feel like risking it.
It's not even, yeah.
It does feel like that. But anyway, so, you know, got down, you know, she moved to Bonita Springs with her mom and I went to visit.
I'm a guy, finance degree.
9-11 had just happened.
So my choices were go back home and try to figure out my career in the aftermath of 9-11 or...
Go down here. There was a lot of uncertainty.
I graduated from Wharton in 2000.
Moved to Colorado to be a bartender, which was an incredible story.
Try to explain that one to my father.
That was less than awesome.
We might have to expound on that one off camera.
We'll come back.
I found out about 9-11.
I was coming out of the woods elk hunting.
I saw some idiot crash a Cessna into the Twin Towers.
Then it all happened. I started packing my car and drove home.
You know, that was it. So, yeah, crazy times, but you just didn't know where it was going.
No, you didn't. And so I just made a choice.
I dropped her off at our office, this Naples, and I'm like, man, there's a lot of banks and brokerage houses here.
I'm young. I think everybody here is a lot older than me.
Maybe I'll come here and get started.
And that was the decision. We got married.
We started having kids.
We're, you know, just in business.
Politics came later. This was during the financial collapse.
Yeah. Because I'm a guy who's in the financial business.
I was in banking, then I'm in insurance.
I'm in seven, eight years at this point.
The financial collapse is starting.
The owners of my company are trying to figure out, like, what's going on.
They tasked me to do it.
I started watching congressional hearings for the first time in my life.
Okay. I'm actually so glad we're going here because this was, like, the formation of a lot of my sort of political leanings.
I watched those same hearings.
I watched the testimonies, and I watched people in Congress, in positions like you have now, that did not understand the first thing about business or banking or how loans work.
It was like a soundbite for Twitter.
I think it was Dianne Feinstein or...
Maybe it was Maxine Waters questioning Lloyd Blankfein about how many home loans he made.
I was like, well, it's just not what Goldman Sachs does.
It's different. But it didn't matter.
It's like, oh, so you don't know.
I got you. It's like, I'm testifying before you.
You don't even know what I do? Like, what do you mean?
Well, let me just tell you, Maxine hasn't changed.
That's still the same way she questions. But how did she become the head of, like, a finance committee?
Because you're a banker.
That makes sense.
Yes. You saw the fall of, what was it, that bank out west, the woke bank that collapsed, and it was like, well, we have an improv actor on our board, we have this on our board.
We had everything except for, like, bankers.
And we're shocked, you know, we're like shocked.
Why is this blowing up? Yeah, like, I mean, it's great to have an improv actor.
I don't know what they know about banking and you're going to be on the board of a bank.
I think they had one banker of like a 15 member board.
Yeah. But how can Congress function that same way where these people are making, you know, trillion dollar decisions without an understanding of even the basics?
I mean, they couldn't explain to you how a mortgage worked, let alone...
You know, the more sophisticated stuff.
That's the thing that frustrated me because I was never a political person until this point in my life.
Didn't really watch the news.
I watched a little bit, but they didn't like follow it day in, day out.
I was frankly a normal person in America.
I got kids. I like sports.
I'm coaching. I got a job.
I'm trying to live in my career, do all that kind of stuff, right?
I turn these hearings on like you did and I'm like, who are these people?
They're running the country. No wonder this thing isn't working.
And so as I started watching those hearings and putting this information together, it really just pissed me off.
And that's what got me looking at politics and what was going on in the country.
Then I turned on cable news looking for answers.
And I got more mad because everything was just talking point, dogma, surface level stuff.
You never got the real meat of what's going on in an issue.
And it really caused me to start just...
I'm trying to understand political theory.
So reading Locke and Montesquieu, I went way into the weeds on that stuff.
But it was healthy, it was good, because I started to learn and understand Politics and the actual purpose of government and understanding the real basis in macroeconomic theory.
And because I'm an economics guy, I'm a finance guy, knowing how a market system is supposed to function really led my politics.
My politics came from my economics.
And then the rest just ran downhill.
Well, you seem to drive people on the left crazy because...
It's fun, isn't it? Yeah, well, listen, I... Hey, I was a real estate developer from New York City.
You know, I had my beliefs.
I was always conservative. I was always a big 2A guy.
Like, these are the things that I did. But, like, I didn't wear that on my sleeve in New York City because I understand there's a consequence to that.
You know, my first political fundraiser was for Andrew Cuomo.
Not because I'm a Democrat, but because he was running for attorney general.
He was going to win. And, like, if you're a real estate developer, that's the guy that signs your offering plan that allows you to sign it.
So if you could have him...
You know, working against you would take years to get something done, or you could, you know, have a relationship.
And it has nothing to do with politics.
It was about business. Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
You described it right. But, I mean, you, obviously because of the background, coming from, you know, a black man from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as a Republican.
Yeah. You seem to bring an extra level of hate because you're not allowed to do that.
Well, it's funny. What's that been like?
Well I don't really mind it.
I actually kind of enjoy it because, and I enjoy pissing them off.
I think that's just a byproduct.
For me it's about just telling the truth about what's actually happening and not being afraid of that.
You know I grew up, when I was 16 I was held up at gunpoint.
When that happens, somebody talking about you on Twitter just doesn't really matter anymore.
It changes. It doesn't matter.
You know, like, I'm going to do the thing I think is important.
If this is the way the system is supposed to work, I'm going to advocate for that.
If Democrat policy is stupid, and by the way, it is stupid, I'm going to advocate against it.
And I'm not going to be afraid to speak that because I think the country needs to hear those alternative voices and they need to hear those thought processes that don't line up with mainstream political foolishness, which has really hurt our country.
I think that, you know, being black, that's just because the Democrats understand that if there's more black men that start to take a position politically that is my position, they can't win elections.
It's over for me. Talk about that a little bit, because, you know, again, I don't know that we've seen it necessarily translate out, and yet you see all these viral clips of, you know, guys from some of those communities.
They're like, bring back Trump!
Because, like, hey man, I get...
I don't pretend I don't understand where I'm from.
I'm very self-aware. I get it.
I'm the son of a billionaire from New York City.
But if I go to the Publix with my kids, Jesus Christ, it's expensive.
If I see it, it may not change the way I function, but if I notice it, it's got to be hurting a lot of people.
And they have to see that.
And eventually, the promises that never seem to amount to anything, that never actually move the needle, that never actually change your situation, when do they say enough is enough?
I actually think that's starting to happen right now.
And, you know, you brought up your dad.
He is like a catalyst for some of this.
See, people don't really remember that.
Before the political view of Donald Trump, Donald Trump was a cultural feature in hip-hop.
Yeah, like 150 rap songs.
It was a big thing in hip-hop.
No, it was a celebrated thing.
Like even now, I forgot which one I was in.
And I walked into the Trump International somewhere and I looked at my friend.
I said, man, I'm at the Trump International.
Ask for me. That's a Jay-Z line from one of his songs.
He was a part of that, of hip hop culture for a long time.
And so I think that people see his success and that he doesn't shy away from it.
And black men in particular embrace that.
I think that with black men, we're also looking at the situation that we're dealing with Joe Biden's crazy economy.
Man, their pockets are hurting.
Things are not working out.
And so we remember, listen, When he was president, I was making money.
I was getting ahead in life.
Can we have that again? Because I think that is the thing that black men are looking at politically.
Especially when you look into the fact that Democrat policy hasn't worked for them.
I think there's also... I can't remember who the comedian was, but black comedian was like, hey man, like...
You've got to stop this, like, arresting Trump stuff.
Like, you're giving him—you're making him straight.
And it was sort of interesting to hear that.
Like, I mean, obviously, you know, Hollywood liberal sort of, you know, mindset.
But, I mean, is there something to that?
Because, I mean, obviously there's sort of been, you know, historically—I think it's different now, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
It's just not— As prevalent as the left would love you to believe it is, where it's, you know, racism is the cause of and solution for all of life's problems, right?
It's different. But, you know, it seems like there is a component of that from a community that has been oftentimes throughout history sort of treated unfairly or poorly by a justice system.
Look, I mean, I'm going to be very clear with you on this one.
I think that our justice system, is it the best in the world?
Yes. But has it been fair to marginalized communities?
No. And a lot of that started in prosecutors' offices in a lot of different jurisdictions around the country.
Those are the facts. It has happened.
Like Kamala Harris. Or you like Kamala Harris.
But it's happened.
And so you would have a situation where, yeah, you have a prosecutor who would say, I'm not going to prosecute you.
I'm not going to prosecute you.
You're an easy conviction.
I'm going to take yours. And then they would go through that process.
Now you're seeing it in a political vein.
And here's what I think has really occurred.
You had the crazy liberal view of we have to change the criminal justice system in order to bring equity.
This is all the George Soros funded DAs.
So their view of justice is to completely turn the system in a 180 degree flip.
So now I'm going to target this guy and I'm not going to prosecute this crime.
When you bring that into the political realm, Everybody sees that it's political.
Everybody sees it's not fair.
Everybody sees it's a two-tier system.
And whether you like Republicans or don't like Republicans, you recognize just basic fairness.
And I think that's what's driving the support for 45, in part.
Because people see, like, you're just going after him for politics.
That's BS. They don't want a country like that.
Yeah, that's 100% clear.
So you mentioned... Perhaps specifically there was an impact with black men.
Yeah. But what about the women?
You know, what about the women when they're looking at what's going on to their kids in the inner cities, whether it's just rampant crime, whether it's murder, whether it's drugs, what's going on?
When do they say, hey, you know, maybe this isn't working either?
Because, you know, that's such a, you know, I don't even want to stereotype it, but, you know, a fundamental part of that household.
You obviously have a lot of, you know, sort of single mothers raising children.
Right. When do they see that?
Because you're right. It is pretty clear in the thing where that hasn't necessarily resonated as well with the women as it has with the men.
No, it hasn't resonated as well.
And I think that this is where, you know, the Democrats with their constant pushing right, wrong or indifferent of black women is going to be a harder thing to overcome.
But I think the key in that Is this radical agenda around transgenderism.
When you have Democrat policies that are pushing for puberty blockers who will tell a child, hey, if you want to change your gender, okay, we're just not going to tell your parents.
Listen, I know my mom...
Man, there's no way PS235 in Brooklyn, New York could have tried to help me change my gender around my mother's knowledge and been okay.
She'd have beat everyone in that school to ask.
She'd have burnt the school to the ground.
Because I'm her son.
You're not going to separate and put a wedge between me and my child.
And I think that black women are very concerned about that.
We're already seeing that with Islamic households in our country.
They're furious about this.
You see it with Colombians and Peruvians and Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans.
I hate to just say Hispanic because all the cultures are different.
Yeah, no, it's all different. But in Florida you have the Nazar more because they're Cuban-Venezuelan.
They escaped some of this crap.
And so they're perhaps earlier adapters to more the conservative mindset because they've seen the alternative.
But when you drive away, and this is a key point, when Democrat policy in schools is to allow for a wedge between parent and child, that is the state, and now you're trying to talk about the very identity of the child and the ideology of the child and the parents aren't allowed to know.
That's a major issue.
I think Republicans, we should be talking about that significantly.
Well, can you get that message out?
Because, you know, that's still, you know, where the mass populations are.
It's going to be in those cities. They're, you know, the church leaders sort of on the DNC payroll.
Maybe great, but he's on the payroll.
He's on the team. They're taking care of him.
How do you break that message out?
I mean, you said an interesting thing when you talk about some of the Muslim communities sort of being aligned with the conservatives.
That was probably, at least according to the media, that would have been unlikely bedfellows.
And yet you have sort of evangelical Christians protesting alongside fairly religious Muslims.
About this sort of things.
I mean, the left is, you know, again, if you don't buy into 100% of their stuff, you're out.
And I think people are seeing that and hopefully fighting back.
I think they are. And I think this is also indicative of that.
Now you have Republicans, not just party apparatus, but elected members, engage in these culture wars.
And now the media is trying to accuse us of starting culture wars.
No, we're not. We're engaging in the culture wars that the left has already started.
We're playing the game that they've been doing.
Like, we just... Rather than playing t-ball while they're playing hardball, we're actually just playing the same game.
And I don't care if you're playing t-ball or hardball, but you've got to be playing the same game.
Play the same game. And now we're engaged in that game.
And now you're starting to see those divides in some of these ethnic demographics that historically would have just been almost universally Democrat now saying, wait a minute.
I don't agree with that either.
Maybe I should listen to these guys over here.
And I think it's very effective for us.
Well, and I've seen that.
I mean, I remember in the last week or two, numerous articles have been written about the rise of Hindu white supremacy.
Yes, Latino white supremacy.
I'm like, wait a second.
So the white supremacy thing is this big thing that it's being seemingly dominated by people who aren't actually white.
I'm sure you've been called white.
All sorts of things. And they've attacked you for that because you're a conservative.
And, you know, it's an interesting attack.
Have you seen those articles? I haven't seen those.
I'll flash them up on here. I haven't seen those, but I've got to read that.
I did a post about it. It's a lunacy.
Asian... White supremacy because they were aligned with, you know, there were some of the people that started the battle against some of the affirmative action because kids that were overperforming were being discriminated against.
And it's like, well, that's white supremacy too, even if they're Asian and not white.
And it doesn't seem to matter, I guess, if you're going against that Democrat apparatus, they'll call you whatever it is.
Look, the Democrats have been weaponizing race in our country for a long time.
And at the end of the day, it is, in my view, the number one hold that they push.
And look, you can see it like clockwork.
You know, you notice there haven't been really a lot of stories about race the last two years.
Wait until next year.
They're going to start firing it up again.
We're going to go back through this thing again.
And my hope is that voters will listen to it.
And I think this is the power. And let's be very clear.
People like myself, like Ana Polina, like Wesley Hunt.
When I was on the show? Yeah.
You guys are actually making an impact.
You're young, you're new, but you're also not ascribing to the...
You sit in line and wait.
In 15 years, you can start voicing your opinion when you have some seniority, Byron.
Oh, no, I'm not doing that. You're out there on the front lines.
To me, I didn't run for office to wait in line.
I came to do effective things for the country.
And actually what I told my district was, I'm going to push the vision and the policies and the idea of conservatism.
And I'm pushing it everywhere.
I'm going to take it to all corners of the country because we've got to have that in order to be successful.
Well, you're doing that well. I mean, you're playing, you know, the away game.
I mean, you'll go on CNN. You'll go, you know, and there's plenty, and I get it.
In 16, I used to do that, too.
Now, it's not even for me.
Well, they let you on the door now?
They won't even let me on Fox anymore, so don't worry about it.
Like, I can't go anywhere.
That's why I do this, because I'm like, you know, I'm apparently too good.
You know, you are going into the lion's den and fighting back there.
And I think that's important, especially with your background and where you come from.
As much as they'll have an old white dude talk to you about...
I mean, it's insane, but I guess when you're on their side and you control that kind of power and you control the narrative and you control the mainstream media and you control big tech, it doesn't matter.
They can get away with that. I mean, you can be lectured about race by an old white dude, but you can't fight back, but you are.
And you're doing it, and you're doing it effectively.
I enjoy it. And I think, you know, I look at it like sports.
Like there's nothing better than shutting up the home team when you're in their building.
Yeah. Because, you know, you just knock down three shots in a row and they got to quiet down because they feel like they're going to lose the game.
I think being willing to go into those studios, knowing that you're going to get the pushback, and just going and trying to make key points is critical.
Some of my colleagues, you know, they asked me about it.
They're like, man, how is it going on there?
I said, listen, As long as you go in there, you did your homework, and you have the courage of your convictions, go do it.
They need to hear it.
The producers, by the way, they actually like it because they're like, oh, shoot, ratings are going up.
This is interesting. Yeah, ratings are good. You need that.
But you've got to engage.
And I think the one thing where Republicans have not been successful is we were terrible at messaging, awful at it.
Yes. And we wouldn't take messages other places.
We would say we don't have to worry about that vote.
We can't go and capture that person.
No, I won every vote.
Mm-hmm. I want every vote.
I want every American to hear what I believe and what our party believes in and make a real decision.
If you still decide to follow Democrat policy, you're an American, do what you do.
I don't agree. God bless you.
Live your life. I think the results speak for themselves.
But I want you to make a decision.
That's your right. That's your right.
But it doesn't seem like the Democrats believe that anymore.
No, they don't believe that. They want you to bend the knee.
Everything is systemic racism.
That's where everything comes from.
What are your thoughts on that? How do you get through that?
It's dominated in academia.
I saw that having kids in New York City before we moved to Florida.
It's like everything, just day in and day out.
How do you get back someone who's been programmed to think that way from leftists for the first 20 years of their lives?
Well, I think the first thing is you got to acknowledge some certain realities.
Was there systemic racism in the country?
Yes. Of course. Jim Crow eras is indicative of that and so many other eras.
But what's the solution?
Is the solution now to say that I've got to hold everybody else back in order for me to get ahead?
No. All that is going to do is breed envy and breed division.
Oh, I think you're creating a whole problem.
You're going to create another problem and try to replace the former one.
And I think that's where people who go down this woke critical race theory vision of America are getting it wrong.
If you want a young black kid to get ahead in this country, the number one thing you got to do is open up his opportunities, but you can't open up his opportunities and limit other people because that's not going to help him get ahead.
You don't get better as an athlete with everybody else still sitting on the bench and you're the only one on the field.
You get better in competition, in activity.
That's how it works.
So in our country, you gotta have a system where obviously access is open, people have an opportunity to step into that space, and then the animal spirits of just human nature and human ability, human intellect, human innovation, that stuff takes over.
That's the pathway for success in the future of our country.
Not limiting other people because of the sins of the past.
So you've been named, I guess, the chairman of the Black Conservative Federation.
Yeah. And so how do you get that message out there, right?
You have sort of what you're saying, which I agree with.
It seems actually logical, which is contrary to everything else that we see out there on a daily basis.
But, you know, you have...
Two weeks ago, you had the striking down of the affirmative action at the Supreme Court.
You had Joy Reid losing her mind on MSDNC or wherever she is.
I got into Harvard, and I would have never gotten into Harvard if it weren't for...
My academics weren't...
I mean, I'm like, but aren't you just sort of proving the point?
Meaning, you didn't belong there.
You got there only because of this system.
It was essentially reverse racism, I guess, right?
But how do you...
It's a hard message to sell, right?
Because some people, especially in a society like today, where I think I see it with kids, you know, we're much more of an instant gratification society today than we were.
So it's like, well, if I could skip that, this is going to work against me.
I'm never going to be for something where I could get sort of the upper hand or that free upper hand.
How do you combat that? I think the way I look at it is that the stain of racism in America is not something you can get rid of.
It is what it is.
It's a part of our fabric.
It's a terrible part of our fabric, but it's there.
The question really is, are we 2023 America or 1923 America?
We're not 1923 America.
Let's be very clear. We're not.
We're not even 1983 America.
And as far as the world goes, I'd also say we're...
We're probably overperforming because this is not an issue that's exclusive to America.
Yes. I mean, this is a thing all over the world.
I mean, ask, you know, how do the Chinese feel about the Japanese?
How do, you know... How do the Chinese feel about the Uyghurs?
There is... Oh, yes, this is happening around...
If you persecuted Muslims like that in America, people would be in jail, rightfully so, and people...
And yet... Our corporate America is really silent about that.
They'd be protesting, you know, the rise of, you know, black-white supremacy.
It's like, reminds me of the Chappelle skit.
You know what I mean? It's like...
That was a good skit.
How much time you got? But listen, man, here's the thing.
Corporate America, we'll put them to a side.
We've got to come back and talk about them.
But I think if you're talking about the trajectory of race in our country, we get better every generation.
Every generation we get better.
You know, I think, like, and my story personally, or not even my story, right now we have four black members of Congress on the Republican side of the aisle.
That hasn't happened since Reconstruction.
Yeah. That happens since Reconstruction.
And you have leaders in all...
You get guys like you, Wesley, certainly, like, quite vocal.
Yes. And, like, and totally embraced.
Yes. You know, frankly, much more so than some on the other side, where you just almost feel like, okay, well, it's a checkbox, and, you know...
I think Wesley's crushing it. I mean, he's a funny guy, man.
He's doing a great job.
You're doing that. Don't tell Wesley he's not funny.
Wesley and I are friends. He's pretty funny, man.
He's pretty funny. He's good.
I was like, I almost wish when he did the show, I almost wish we got the backstory of him and I joking around.
I'd have probably been thrown to jail for like...
But that's the difference. That's why I feel like we have gone so far, because if he, with his background, and me with my background, and frankly everything that he called me, can have that kind of conversation, that's where we need to be.
I think we're actually in a really good spot in our country, Joe Biden notwithstanding.
Culturally, I think we're in a better spot than I think people realize.
And the only thing that's really hurting us is media, big media, and these narratives that somehow a black man or a black woman can't get ahead today.
I think that's just wrong and it's a foul.
Okay, so they keep saying it.
But there's no evidence.
They just say it. No, of course not. But there's no evidence to that.
But what does that say? I mean, what should that say to your son or daughter if they were watching that?
I mean, they're literally out there.
How are they possibly—you know, you can't—I mean, Byron, you couldn't possibly get a driver's license to vote.
I mean, like, that's not capable of that.
But I mean, it's insane because it's so insulting.
Right. And yet, it's like, they're saying it's just common vernacular.
It's fine. What do you mean? They do it every day.
Every week there's a new example of them essentially spitting into the face of some minority group as to their competence to do basic shit that basically anyone in America could do.
I don't even let my sons worry about that.
I want my sons to take their cues from me and I think this is the power of families.
And this is actually the power of, you know, father figures and all of that and strong mothers.
My mother in the 90s, in the 80s and 90s in New York, she didn't want me to think less.
She always challenged me and pushed me.
It didn't matter what media was saying.
She challenged me to be my best self.
My sons and I, we spent some time together last week, not last week, the week before.
And I told my older two sons, I'm like, you guys are better than me.
You know, they're 15 and 19 years old.
I'm like, you guys are better than your father at 15 and 19.
Yeah. And I just want them to continue to be their best version of themselves.
And don't let anybody tell them otherwise.
And the last thing I always tell them, I'm like, son, if you want something, you have to go work for it.
Nobody's going to give it to you. If you think somebody's going to give you something, then you're going to be a bum.
And I'm not raising you to be a bum.
I'm raising you to be a man. It's funny.
Listen, again, I... I'm hypercritically aware of where I come from, but my dad was kind of the same way.
My first job was in ninth grade working at a marina as a dock attendant doing this stuff.
I did that for two summers, and I got another job working in landscaping.
The marina job was minimum wage plus tips, but you could make the tips.
Then I got into landscaping, and I'm like, wait a minute.
I'm making minimum wage. I'm not making any tips.
About three-quarters of the way through the summer, I go to my dad and I'm like, How come I'm not getting more money?
I'm working much harder. There's not chicks around.
I'm not getting invited on boats after work and stuff like that.
This sucks. Why didn't I get more money?
You didn't ask me. Why would I give you more than you're willing to work for?
I was like, oh shit. It's nothing.
You've got to go out there and get it yourself.
And again, I understand how blessed I've been and fortunate I've been.
I don't want to even compare that to anything else.
But there was still that understanding.
And my mom was that same sort of Eastern European like, hey, I escaped communism.
Get your shit together. There's a toughness there that unfortunately doesn't seem to exist too often here in America where everyone's helicoptering and everyone's so soft and everyone's Trying to coddle everything for feelings as opposed to reality.
Oh, because we're not requiring it.
And this is a key thing. Listen, my mother, Jamaican, tough lady.
She wasn't really concerned about my feelings.
She wanted execution.
Yeah. My mom was the disciplinary.
She beat my ass. Yeah, I agree.
And I hated it. I agree.
And, I mean, so for me, like with my sons...
I care about your feelings, but no, no.
I need execution.
You have to get the thing done.
You have to accomplish the mission.
You have to accomplish the goal.
One of my sons, my 15-year-old son, he was mad about something.
And I go, son, don't nobody care about your feelings?
And I don't care about your feelings right now.
I want you to succeed.
Guess what? When you leave my house, the world is not going to care about your feelings.
They're going to want to know did you do it or not?
Did you show up or not?
Did you execute or not?
Did you win or not?
That's the world. Your feelings come third.
The only people who care about your feelings are your family.
And nobody else cares.
So go out and win and go and execute.
We don't require that of our children.
We're not demanding it of them.
It's one of the things that's happening in school culture where now they're so consumed.
It's this social emotional learning.
They're consumed about the emotional makeup of the child.
They're not demanding excellence of the child.
And then when the child comes into the working world, now it's a problem.
No, and it's a tough thing.
I learned, I felt, so much more in life from getting my ass kicked.
You know what I mean? I went to boarding school, but when I went there as an eighth grader with a loud mouth from New York City, I got my ass kicked.
And it was actually, I learned much more from that.
You're not allowed to say that these days, right?
Because that's like, oh, you were bullied.
I understand there's a point where it's too far.
But I also understand that for me, Sometimes you needed that to actually drive a point.
I'll get in a lot of trouble for saying it, but I feel like without any adversity, with everything having a cushion, there's always a fucking excuse, right?
You can't have excuses in life.
That's, I think, the point, but that's not where we are today as a society.
I think we're certainly not there in our education system, so how do you break through?
I think that's coming back through families starting to really take stock of where we are as a country and looking at their kids and their grandkids and saying, man, you know what?
Yeah, I got to take your phone.
You got to earn your phone.
You just don't get your phone.
There's things you have to do in order to excel.
And making those demands, I think some of that is coming back in schools because I think we've seen the fallacy of trying to coddle everybody and be concerned about everybody's feelings as opposed to demanding it.
And I think what's happening on sports fields, I think the kids who are going to really dominate our country are going to be kids who play competitive sports.
Because they're accustomed to having a grind.
Well, it's a meritocracy, right?
It's all merit. Hey, I'd love to play in the NBA, but it ain't going to happen, right?
You've got to sort of earn that.
So it's sort of interesting when I see, I mean, maybe the NBA is the right example, right?
Where it's like, politically, they're almost saying the opposite.
And yet, There's no chance I'd ever play in the NBA. But then outside of that, it's like, no, well, everyone's the same and everyone's going to get it.
It's like, well, it's not the case.
Everyone has that chance. Everyone was created equal, but then things start separating, right?
Things start separating based on work ethic, based on talent, based on ability, based on luck.
So how do you overcome that, though, in society?
We talked about corporate America.
Oh, yeah, we've got to come back to that.
What's your thoughts on what's going on there?
Because that, too, seems to be an attack on the family, an attack on everything these days.
They don't even hide it anymore, even with the...
The pushing of the stuff that would break up families or the pushing of the nonsense and the trans thing these days seems to me like that's almost the ultimate form of privilege these days.
If you're trans, you're untouchable.
You can just do whatever you want, at least based on those notions from corporate America or wherever it may be.
What do you think is going on there?
Oh, I'll tell you what's going on.
You have activist shareholders that are being put forward by left-leaning groups.
They are. You have some of the employees who now are bringing their politics into the company.
And then you have, like, the corporate manager, the CEO, whatever.
They're between a rock and a higher place.
They might have that political view, but they're trying to run the company.
And so you have these shareholders who are bringing these crazy shareholder positions that are being voted up.
By the shareholders.
Mostly because the advisory firms, the Black Rocks, the Vanguards, are just saying, yeah, we'll support that.
And they voted through. But what's in it for them?
What is it actually accomplished, meaning their shareholders and maybe their activism overrides their capitalism, where they just believe that, you know, there's 9,476 genders and we'll lose money to accomplish that, right?
No, I think that's exactly the point.
And maybe it is, right? That's exactly the point.
You know, when you look at these boards and you see the decisions they're making, you've got to wonder when the other shareholders start suing them because they're not acting as fiduciaries.
Because, you know, ESG is not proven to be an effective methodology for investing your retirement fund.
No, it's not. And yet, it dominates.
You know, you see the boycotts, I think, you know, have been effective in dropping billions of dollars in market cap.
But, like, they're still doubling down.
They're still, you know, you, corporate America, oh, well, you know, those guys lost $10 billion.
Like, we're going to go all in with the same thing.
It's like, what is going on?
Well, I think what you're starting to see now is more companies are staying private.
They don't want to go public because they don't want to deal with this.
Because if you created a company or you run a company, you don't want to have to deal with all of this silly stuff coming in from these activist shareholders.
You just want to run your company.
In Congress, we're trying to create some rules to try to tamp this down and kind of get things focused back on business being the main thing.
Are you doing that in oversight?
No, financial services.
Financial services, I've got zero above.
Financial services is working at that.
But one of the big things that's occurred politically and culturally in our country is our economy is so dynamic,
it's so good that you got time to argue about all this other stuff.
As opposed to keeping the main thing the main thing.
And if we stay focused on business and our economy growing and thriving,
you can have these conversations, but the company cannot become the vehicle
for pushing this stuff.
And the left has now used the agencies of our federal government and they're using the corporations in our economy to drive their agenda that they can never get voted on by Congress, that they can never win an election on.
They're pushing that through finance and they're pushing it through culture, they're pushing it obviously through entertainment, and they're trying to push it through government.
And they're trying to have their way in all these areas.
But that's why you can't just have the old tried and true Republican mantra of less taxes, less government, more freedom.
You've got to engage in all these sectors.
So how are you doing that? I think how we're doing it is a couple of things.
One, we're bringing it to light.
Two, in financial services, some of the stuff on proxy advisor reform is really, really important.
Three, we're going to have to clean house in these agencies.
And I mean, at the political branch levels, we've got to clean house.
Four, we've got to have some reforms around employees in the federal level.
And then five, and this is where we started, not being afraid to go into the big media shows and tell them that they're wrong, having alternative sources, expressing those viewpoints, having rallies, having meetings, having coffees.
I just told the lady on the convention floor, Our country only survives with the activism of the American people.
Not the passiveness of the American people.
People got to be active.
And that's what we've done badly as conservatives.
We've done that badly. Live and let live. We turn the other cheek and the other side's like, I'll take the win.
I'll take the win. And that's changing.
That is changing. I agree. Like Bud Light, goodbye.
Target, what's happening to them, you've got to deal with that too.
And even when they tried to go after Chick-fil-A years ago, and when it ended up happening, you had Christians, you had Americans come out, and they bought more Chick-fil-A. You know, I probably had too much Chick-fil-A at the time, but those waffle fries, man.
They get you in trouble. Waffle fries are good.
But when people support Companies just doing their job.
And when they decide not to do business with a company that actively is going after them and their way of life, that's fine.
If it was good enough for the left, it's good enough for us.
And to your point, if we're going to play t-ball, then we should play t-ball.
If they're going to play hardball, we've got to play hardball.
When you go back to your district around Naples, really, I guess, you know, southwest Florida, What are the issues that stand out to the people there?
You have sort of national issues, but what are the things that concerns them the most going forward?
Number one is water policy.
Because, you know, we're sitting right on the edge of the Everglades system.
Blue-green algae is a big thing.
So what we're doing is making sure that we get the necessary projects done to clean up our water systems.
Because now we have, what, 20 million people living south of I-4 in Florida, and we're going to have more people coming in.
So what we want to be able to do is have that water system be cleaned out.
That's, like, the big issue at home.
But other than that, a lot of my voters, they just want to be left alone.
They just want the country to work.
Leave me alone. I've done well in my life.
I'm building my family if I'm young and I'm working like I was, or they retire there.
They just want competent government.
They just want clean streets, which they have, safe community, which they have, and a government that works.
So when will the people that don't have those things start really wanting them?
Because it seems like if you look at all these Democrat-controlled cities that are supposed to be these great utopian places, they're anything but, and yet it continues to happen, and they replace one disastrous mayor with someone who's worse, and it continues.
I mean, it feels like it's a perpetual cycle in an adverse way that never seems to be remedied, and yet nothing ever changes.
Well I think this is one of the reasons why as a Republican I was always pissed with the party and pissed with consultants because they would ignore these communities because they didn't feel that they can win votes there in a meaningful way or that's a waste of money let's not campaign in those areas.
So when you don't have local elected officials with the right policy set get elected These cities, you know, when you have Democrat control 30, 40, 50 years, what you end up with is a current Chicago, which is not safe at all, and businesses are fleeing.
Conversely, Florida is the test case.
When you have consistent Republican-slash-conservative policy for a generation, you get Florida.
And that's what we have. If you don't do it, you go the opposite way, you get California and everybody's leaving.
But from a political standpoint, you can't abandon these areas.
And we have done that.
So even if you have a Republican candidate, good candidate, you know, gonna fight hard, gonna do the right thing, gonna really get into the fight, not gonna just say it on TV and then go home and have a scotch or something like that.
Or do nothing. Or do nothing.
It's hard to get them elected now because the entire trajectory of politics in those areas is one way.
We've got to start going into those communities and fighting for those communities.
And it can't just be a thing of, oh, well, we can't win there, so we're going to turn the blind eyes.
So how do we do that? I think the first thing you do is, and me and my friends, we talk about this a lot, you start going into black churches.
And into Hispanic churches in these communities.
Because they're there. And you just sit down and just talk to them.
And not come in there saying, let me introduce you.
Let me tell you who I am.
I just want to listen to you.
What's going on in your world?
You start building those relationships.
You start organizing on small levels.
I mean, that's what the left is trying to do to us in Texas.
Small organizations slowly building them up until they get critical mass and then they move somebody into elective space.
We've got to do that and bring that information.
And then you start building it very, very slowly.
You start electing people to school boards.
Elect somebody on a city council slot.
I think the school board stuff is more important probably than anything.
And that's how it begins. So, you know, in talking about it, I think you're right.
We've started doing some of that.
There seems to be, you know, at least to me, you know, more of an early adaption from the Hispanic community.
And again, I don't mean to generalize that because that's sort of all over the place, but you see that over the African-American community.
Yes. Why do you think that is?
I think because the weaponization of race in our politics has been specifically targeted to black Americans.
To have them feel that they cannot support Republicans because Republicans want to hold them back.
I mean, it is the biggest lie in politics.
And they still go out there and just tell it.
There's people that just aren't into it.
They tell it every four years. They believe it and they just vote accordingly?
Well, most people, and listen, most people are not political animals.
Yeah. I said it like this, like, I'm not a car guy.
My biggest thing is what color is it?
Does it drive fast? You know, does it have peanut interior?
I like that. That's cool. Let's roll.
Where do I put the gas in and who do I take it to to get it fixed?
If you pop the hood and try to show me what a carburetor, what a spark plugs are, don't even use spark plugs.
I don't know. I'm not a car guy.
For a lot of Americans, they're not political guys.
They don't know the ins and outs.
It's not because they're not intelligent and they can't process it.
It's not their thing. Yeah, well, they're busy trying to feed their families.
Yeah, exactly. So, as a Republican, if I'm trying to get you who typically have gone the other way, I want you to see my kind of way.
I've got to be appealing.
I can't be boring.
I've got to be appealing.
I've got to be outgoing. I've got to be interesting.
I've got to know policy, but I've also got to know life.
I've got to be able to engage in all of that.
And listen, to be clear, this started with your dad.
Because of his... The most electrifying man in politics.
Take a phrase from The Rock.
But when you brought that energy into politics, what it showed a lot of other people is, oh man, you know what?
I can bring a similar level of energy.
You can't replicate it and don't even try because that's not successful.
But bring your own energy and be who you are.
I get stopped more.
By black guys in airports and sometimes on the street.
And they'll say to me, they'll be like, hey, you buying McDonald's?
I'm like, yeah. Hey, man, I saw this video of you.
I mean, I really liked that. I really agreed with it.
But you've got to bring that energy.
And you have to be undaunting and unafraid to step into these battles.
And I think the more we do that, the more you're going to see that.
Unafraid is the right word. That's the word I use always on this show.
Because, again, there's a consequence to being a conservative, right?
You will be branded a racist.
Even if you're not talking about race, it doesn't matter.
Like, they'll call me a racist for asking you the questions that we're talking about today.
Like, it's just...
And unfortunately, I think that does actually a major disservice.
Because I agree with you. I think... You know, whether it's, you know, foundationally in our country, there's problems.
I think there are still some.
It's just not everything.
And I think what the left has done is actually by, you know, every time, you know, sort of the easy button of the radical left to just call you a racist, they've actually diminished the instance of actual racism.
Because now when people hear it, they're like, eh, roll your eyes, move on.
You know, it used to be the worst thing you could possibly be called, but once they've called everyone that they disagree with the same thing, It sort of leaves people in the dust.
You know one of my favorite guys we still have not met and it's just crazy and it's busy is Mark Robinson in North Carolina.
This guy!
Oh my gosh! I love Mark and I've spent some time with him.
He's a wild man. And I love it in a great way because...
There's like zero F's given.
You know what I mean? He says what needs to be said.
It's amazing. And he does it, to your point, in an electrifying way.
There may only be one Trump, but you can bring a different energy and get that attention and garner that thing and highlight an issue.
Look, I'm a big pro wrestling fan.
I love pro wrestling. I love the showmanship.
He'd be awesome on that.
I love it. It's great.
There is one Hulk Hogan, but there is still room for Ric Flair.
There was still room for John Cena, The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, and all these guys.
It's about your ability to engage with people.
I think the toughest part of politics, and not even a congressional or local, when you start talking about governor, presidential level politics, Eh, we're all raising money.
Do you come across on a TV screen?
Do people look at you and they get captured by you?
Can that translate into multiple communities?
That's the real power in presidential level politics, gubernatorial level politics right now.
And I think the fact, and this kind of goes back to where we started with media outlets.
The small clips, the people on Twitter, the Twitter guys, Instagram, and all these different modes of information sharing.
They're moving a needle much more. It's moving that needle.
It's one of the reasons why the big papers can't even sell papers anymore.
Well, you endorsed Trump back in April.
Talk a little bit about that. I mean, I assume that's a component of it because he has some of that ability.
Oh, he's got these. It's no question.
To me, modern politics and, you know, the left will go crazy, but there are two real standard bearers in modern politics.
And it's Trump and Obama.
They set the standard of what it is to bring a level of charisma and connection and energy and electricity into what was normally just a boring old fuddy-duddy, let me tell you about my 10-point plan on trade policy, Jim, and eh, okay, whatever.
I think that endorsing him is for multiple reasons.
One, on the world stage, we need a guy who can walk into the room with our adversaries and be like, all right, look, enough.
You're done. That was cute.
We're not doing that anymore. That's a big thing for us, for America, on multiple levels.
Number two, we need somebody who has been there, they've done this job, and they know and they're mission-focused on cleaning out this bureaucracy.
And I think with all that they've done to him, He's going to be mission-focused on cleaning out this bureaucracy.
Trump, his pitch seems to be to get revenge on the government.
I'm like, I don't know. That's good enough for me.
Good. I'm fine with this.
How about good? That's all?
That's plenty. Sign me up.
There's more, but that's great.
And it's not revenge, but I've been saying it here or there.
We're the ones who are really fighting for the soul of America and fighting for American democracy because you can't have institutions weaponized against your people.
It's not going to go well for our country.
And it might be cool for you to maintain power, but there's going to be a response to that.
And we got to clean it up.
We got to clean it up now. We don't have time to waste.
I think he's the man to do it.
He's going to be our nominee.
We are going to beat Joe Biden because, I mean, just good gosh, the man is terrible.
But we're going to beat him.
100%. That's it. Byron, I know you're speaking at Turning Point.
I look forward to checking that out. Thanks for doing this, and I really look forward to having you back and really seeing the other things that you're doing, because I think you've been an amazing voice, an unafraid voice in Congress, and I think we need a lot more of that.
So thanks for being here. I appreciate it.
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