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Dec. 27, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show
36:26
David Whelan - December 26th, Hour 1

David Whelan joins "The Best of Hannity" to talk about his brother Paul's unlawful imprisonment in Russia and just how difficult it has been to secure his release.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We had this report come out yesterday.
NBC reported a statement that contradicted President Biden's claim that Russia offered to free only Brittany Greiner in exchange for this, you know, merchant of death.
And they said Biden said this was not a choice.
NBC News later reported that a senior U.S. official told them that the U.S. government had sought both Greiner and, of course, the gentleman of Marine we've been talking about, Paul Whalen, and released as part of the swap with the Kremlin.
But the officials said Russia was treating Whalen differently and that the Kremlin offered either Whalen or Greiner or nothing at all.
That contradicts exactly what the Democrats said.
Anyway, here's John Kirby trying to clear this up.
It is accurate that they have set up a separate set of expectations for Mr. Whalen than what they had set for Ms. Greiner.
The deal that we got with Ms. Greiner was the only deal we could get and now was the only moment we could get it.
So we took advantage of that to get one American home.
But as the president said, we're going to stay focused on Mr. Whalen.
This was not, as the president also said, some choice between the two.
So I would push back on this notion that we deliberately, you know, we chose Brittany over Paul.
There was only one way to get one American home, and that was this particular deal.
So we're going to stay at it.
We were working on it yesterday.
We're working on it today.
And I can guarantee the Whalen family that tomorrow and every day hereafter, we're going to continue to work to bring Paul home.
So anyway, I don't understand while I'm still sitting here.
These are the words of a devastated Paul Whalen.
He broke his silence from this Russian penal colony.
His brother's slamming the catastrophic exclusion of his brother, rightly so.
I'm ready to go home, the former Marine said.
Now, he's been behind bars for four long years here.
There's no evidence at all that he committed any crime.
Greiner in her case, it was kind of a slam-dunk case, a minor issue involving marijuana, but it still broke the law.
And we have no evidence at all that what Putin is saying and Russia is saying is anything but a lie.
Congressman Mike Waltz accused the White House of putting celebrities over veterans.
Also, Saudi Arabia reportedly played a role in this.
Anyway, joining us now is David Whalen.
It's his brother Paul, who in fact is still in this Russian prison.
Sir, welcome to the program.
I'm so sorry to you, to your brother, to your family.
This has got to be pretty heart-wrenching for all of you.
It is.
Thank you for having me.
And yeah, it's a very difficult, very difficult couple of days.
I read your initial comments, and you are extraordinarily gracious, happy that Brittany Griner was released.
Then this NBC news report comes out.
I'm sure you read it.
What were your thoughts on it?
The one about that it might have been an either-or situation?
Yes.
Yes, no.
I assume that that was a misstatement.
That doesn't sound right to me.
It's not what we understood was happening, and I'm sure that it was just a misunderstanding.
We've always understood that the U.S. government had made a two-for-one offer of a concession to the Russian government.
That's what was reported back in the late summer.
And it's not surprising that they didn't go for two-to-one.
Russia always wants parity, but I don't think that there would ever have been a position where there would have been an either-or between the two Americans.
Well, if you look at, for example, your brother, I mean, he's a Marine.
He served in Iraq.
The United States gave up one of the biggest arms dealers in the world, the most notorious arms dealer in his time.
You know, he earned his name.
Victor Boot did, the merchant of death, for good reason, profiting off of weapons that fueled international conflicts, especially in Africa, the Mideast, and Asia, and accused of helping arm cartels as well.
And he previously served in the Soviet Union armed forces.
This is hardly a fair deal by any objective measure.
So I'm a little bewildered by the fact that NBC would make such a report because they did cite senior U.S. officials.
And I doubt they would have cited senior U.S. officials had they not spoken to senior U.S. officials.
So maybe I'm more suspicious because of the nature of my job, but I am suspicious nonetheless.
You have spoken to your brother.
He knows about Brittany Griner's release.
He knows about the prisoner swap.
He knows he wasn't part of it, and he has no knowledge of when he's getting out of jail, does he?
No, I think that that's the real issue we have here is that he's been there for four years, and initially, in the first couple of years, two names had been floated as possible exchange candidates for Paul, Konstantin Yarshenko and Victor Boot.
And both of those Russians have now gone home from U.S. custody to Russia.
And in this last attempt to bring Paul home, bring both Paul and Brittany home, the U.S. government appears to have gone through a long list of other concessions.
Who knows what they were, whether they were people or things or ideas like reduce sanctions on somebody.
I don't know.
And apparently Russia didn't go for any of those either.
So I think the real difficulty for us here, and probably for Paul, I'm sure he's done this math too, is, well, if they haven't gone for anything that the U.S. currently has in its control, then what does Russia want and how does the U.S. government acquire it?
David, let's talk a little bit about your brother and about his case and when this nightmare began.
I guess it was before 2018 when he was finally sentenced, correct?
He was sentenced in 2020.
He was arrested in December of 2018.
And he's being charged with being a U.S. spy, correct?
Right, yeah.
In the same way that the Russian government used to do it with paper, and they did it with American Nicholas Staniloff, and then again with Edmund Pope, they slip you information in a packet that you can't see.
And so the digital version of that is a USB stick, and they gave Paul a USB stick.
He was entrapped in a hotel and arrested, and the rest is history.
You know, it's unbelievable.
And I hope Americans are listening to this and learn.
Maybe taking a trip like Bernie Sanders did to the former Soviet Union to honeymoon is not necessarily a good idea.
How many years is your brother sentenced now?
He has served four out of a 16-year sentence.
Is there any other avenues that you've tried over the years?
Is there any third-party broker that maybe you can go to if the U.S. doesn't have anything else left in its arsenal to offer?
Are there not any other prisoners that Russia would want back besides the merchant of death?
Well, that's the trick.
I think in the past we were often looking at nation-states dealing with terrorist groups.
And so in that case, you could send in a military unit.
You had a lot more options if you wanted to retrieve your citizen.
When is another nation state, a sovereign nation, who is essentially the hostage taker in this case, and it's Russia, it's China, it's Iran, it's Syria, it's Egypt, you don't have those tools, and it becomes very difficult if those countries aren't going to be persuaded.
And they do need to be persuaded.
You have to have perhaps punishments like sanctions, or you need to have a concession that you can release.
We had thought about with Paul that it might not be people.
It might be things.
The Obama administration had taken properties from the Russian government that they had in the U.S. for their embassies and consulates, and the Russian government has wanted those back.
So we thought, well, maybe that would be a fair exchange to bring back a tourist who is kept by the Russians.
But I don't think we're there.
Was that ever offered, to your knowledge?
I don't know.
We try to send suggestions to the U.S. government.
Obviously, there are people who are far more specialized within the U.S. government who are looking at this too.
And I think Paul is unfortunately in the middle of an evolution of the U.S. government.
Certainly over the last four years, it has just changed and changed and changed.
And then with the executive order last summer, there are now people who are tasked to come up with a strategy on how to prepare for this and how to not be caught only after the detention has happened, but to be thinking about it in advance.
When you hear the reaction, the DEA agent, for example, at Hellput, Victor Boop behind bars slammed this deal, said, quote, we couldn't even get two people for the world's most notorious weapons trafficker.
Former Kremlin aides, they are saying Putin outplayed Biden on the prisoner swamp.
I think that's just stating the obvious.
Even some top Democrats are blasting Biden over releasing this guy.
Bob Menendez, for example, in New Jersey is one of them.
Senior defense officials are concerned that he's going to resume his arms trafficking.
There is a bipartisan backlash to all of this because the price was so high and Brittany Greiner's offense so minor in comparison.
Let's talk a little bit about how your brother's being treated.
Is he able to tell you in a conversation, knowing that he's probably being listened to?
Is he able to describe for you what the conditions are?
He is, and they do record a lot of his calls.
There's always a guard standing there, and he's able to speak to our parents on almost a daily basis.
And it's as bad as you probably can imagine.
It's six days of working in a sewing sweatshop.
They're long days.
There's not very much food.
There has been less food since the Russian invasion of Ukraine because the sanctions are obviously hitting the Russian economy and that trickles down to the prisoners.
So he's lost weight.
He has found an equilibrium.
He has found survival tactics that he uses.
So things like getting up in the morning and singing the U.S. national anthem is both something that helps him have a ritual or a routine.
It's something that irritates the guards and the Russians.
So he does those things to survive.
And I think he's doing the best he can.
But mentally, you've got to wonder how he's been doing this for four years, and now he's just had a huge disappointment.
How does he face to do this for another 12 years?
Is there anything that the people listening to this program can do to show support?
Is there, for example, an address?
Does he get mail?
Is he able to get food or even simple things like toiletries or anything like that?
Is that allowable?
The two best things they can do is that if they're able to financially support Paul, there's a GoFundMe at gofundme.com slash freepaul whelan.
And that money goes into a prison account that we then buy those things because you're not able to ship those to him, but we can buy those things for him in Russia and have the U.S. Embassy will then get them to him.
The other thing is, and it's much simpler.
Well, what are the things that he would be able to have, if you don't mind me asking specifically?
Oh, it's things like apples, oranges, bananas, fruits and vegetables.
Those are not supplied by the prison.
If he wants protein beyond the two inches of fish he gets a day, you know, we send him peanuts and things, but all of that has to come in Russian packaging.
So it's that sort of stuff.
And he does receive that sort of thing.
How do the other prisoners there treat him, and does he have any means of communicating with most of them?
I would assume they mostly speak Russian.
Well, the U.S. Embassy is really good.
They take a package.
He's allowed one package, which is why we ask people not to send him any packages.
He's only allowed one package every quarter, and they're really good.
So that's how we know he gets the things.
The labor colony he is in has other foreigners, and so there are two Americans there.
There are a couple of other English speakers.
And he's learned a couple of words in Tajik.
He's learned a couple of words in other languages so that he's able to communicate with other prisoners and avoid getting punished by the guards for not having his uniform shirt on or not wearing his hat right at formation and things like that.
Is there any abuse that you know has taken place?
Have they tortured him at all?
It's gotten better.
It was bad up until, what, I guess it was almost a year ago.
And then the warden then was arrested and has been charged for corruption and since been sentenced to three years to spend in another colony.
So the corruption is all the way to the top from, well, from Putin all the way down, I guess I might say.
The last year has been much better since that warden left.
Paul had been put in solitary periodically.
Obviously, the UN considers 15 days in solitary to be torture.
And so Paul has had a number of stints there.
There's theft, you know, when we've sent him medicine.
Sometimes it gets as far as the prison, and then guards will steal it.
So, you know, it's not a great existence.
We do the best we can to support him.
And he, I think, does his best to survive.
Does he have access to doctors if he gets sick?
In an emergency, there is a prison hospital.
They tend to actually send him to the prison hospital when they don't want him to see what's going on at the labor camp.
So recently, the Wagner Mercenary Group came to recruit prisoners to go to the Ukraine war, and they shipped Paul off to the hospital.
He didn't have any illnesses.
He didn't get any treatment when he was there, but that's where he went.
So in an emergency, there would be some health care nearby.
All right.
So if people want to help your brother out, he's been there now four long years, and he's got a long stint to go moving forward.
If the government's not allowed to get him out, it's got to be heartbreaking for you and your entire family.
You have a GoFundMe account.
What's that address again?
GoFundMe.com slash FreePaul Whelan.
And then the other thing you can do is to write to the State Department Consular Services.
And if you go to freepaulwheland.com, there's an address there.
A letter, a card, anything to let him know that he isn't forgotten would be a huge help.
With the war in Ukraine, mail to Russia has stopped.
The U.S. mail doesn't go to Russia.
Russia mail doesn't come back.
And so he's been cut off from a lot of the mail that we used to be able to send him.
So cards sent to that address will go to the State Department, and the State Department will then make sure that they get over to Paul.
And yeah, they're a real lifeline.
I mean, the State Department has been just such a huge help for Paul and for our family.
What I'd like to do is we're going to put this up on my website, Hannity.com, because many people might be driving and obviously can't remember that address.
But we'll put all the information if you want to help out David's brother, Paul Whalen, in this Russian prison.
And man, I feel bad for you.
I feel bad for your brother.
I feel bad for your whole family.
It's a travesty and it's got to be so disappointing in light of the magnitude of this prisoner swap and the disparity in this swap.
Certainly, your brother should have been included, in my view.
Anyway, we'll put that up on Hannity.com.
David, our prayers are with you and your family and your brother.
Thank you for being with us.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
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We've been in political media for a long time.
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Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Pointing out that oil analysts are saying even with the new licenses to Chevron in this case, with Venezuela and Venezuelan output, it's unlikely to increase by more than 0.2% of the world's demand in the next year or two.
So the administration now says that the sanctions relief for Caracas is unrelated to oil and instead is a carrot for talking with the opposition about returning to democracy.
Now, remember, they're doing this, and America does not even recognize this murdering dictator, Thug Maduro, as a duly elected leader in Venezuela.
It doesn't get any more insane.
Anyway, Congressman Jimenez is with Florida's 26th congressional district, and he represents the largest constituency of Venezuelans in the U.S.
And he's outraged at what Biden is doing here.
He put out that Biden will do anything to crush American energy independence, including giving in to dictators, which is exactly what's happening.
Anyway, Congressman Carlos Jimenez is with us now.
Congressman, thanks for being here.
My pleasure, Sean.
How are you doing?
I'm good, my friend.
I can't believe it.
We have more energy resources in this country that we would never need to import any energy for hundreds of years, and yet Joe Biden and the Democratic Party steadfastly refuse the production of the lifeblood of the world's economy here.
Why is that?
Your guess is as good as mine, Sean.
It's probably because it's good for America, and everything that this president does is not good for America.
He wakes up every morning and says, how can I work against America's interests?
And here's another example of it.
You go to a foreign dictator of Venezuela who is an ally of Russia, of China, of Iran, who is suppressing his people.
And then you're asking him, please give us more oil and we will try to lift some of these sanctions that we've had in place for the last four years.
Oh, by the way, all you got to do is promise that you're going to talk to the opposition.
And the opposition happens to be the government that we recognize.
I mean, it's foolish, it's ridiculous, and it makes absolutely no sense, Sean.
Oh, I mean, it makes no sense.
Explain to me, this is the one question no liberal can answer.
How is it any different if you drill for a barrel of oil in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, any of the OPEC-plus countries, Russia, Iran?
How is it any different in terms of the impact on Mother Earth than if we produce that barrel of oil here in America?
Because I would argue that we do it cleaner, we do it faster, we do it cheaper, and it's in our best foreign policy interest to do so.
It creates high-paying career jobs.
It would go a long way to reducing the price of oil at the pump and heating our homes this winter.
It would be good for inflation.
Why don't we do it here?
Well, that's a great question.
Actually, it is better for us to use it to get American oil because we produce it cleaner than anybody else in the world, probably 20 to 30 percent cleaner.
So, even for the environment, it's good for have American oil and also for our foreign policy.
And look, it helps our economy.
It'll reduce the price of oil.
It'll reduce the inflation.
It will also give us leverage on the world market to use energy as we should as a weapon, just like the Russians are using energy as a weapon.
Now, we can help our allies and hurt our adversaries.
By the way, could you imagine if we were still energy independent and we ratcheted up production and we sold it to our Western European allies, how much money we would make as a country, how rich we would become as a country?
We would definitely help America, but also we'd be helping our allies because they could then say to Putin, you're going to need your oil.
We're going to buy American oil and we'll have energy independence from you.
That's why we need to produce more energy here in the United States.
Go ahead and drill for oil, more natural gas, all those things that are good for America are also good for our allies.
Yet, this administration is doing everything in its power to destroy the oil and gas industry here in the United States.
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
There's nothing that they can say to me that's going to explain to me why this makes sense.
Why are you going to Venezuela, for God's sakes?
You know, look what they're doing to their people.
No flea elections.
Their allies of Russia and China and Iran are our major enemies, and you want them to produce the oil?
Are you out of your mind?
Yeah, yeah, he is.
He's absolutely out of his mind.
He's out of his mind.
What if people tell you, I know you have the highest Venezuelan population or constituency in the U.S. What are they saying?
Those people, refugees from Venezuela, to you about life in Venezuela today because they could be one of the richest countries on earth themselves, but because of all the political corruption and this murdering thug dictator in charge, the people are suffering mightily there.
Yeah, well, Venezuela is actually, you know, probably could be the richest country in South America.
They're full of natural resources.
They used to pump about 2 million gallons of oil a day, and because of the corruption and incompetence, they can only do about 700,000 now.
And so even that's hurting their economy.
And so the people of Venezuela are flocking to, you know, our flock in the United States.
A lot of them end up in Miami.
They're good, hardworking people.
They wish they could go back to their country, but they can't because of this corrupt regime that they have, this oppressive regime that they have, lack of basic rights.
And so, you know, again, that the Biden administration would even be talking to these people is, you know, is beyond the realm of, I mean, of why you would do that, I don't know.
And then my constituents in South Florida are looking at it very closely.
That's why in the last election, it swung so far to the right, swung in our direction.
What part of Florida are you representing?
I represent what's Southwest Miami-Dade and all of Monroe County.
And so, you know, I've got a good, about 70% of my constituents are Hispanic.
Many of them came from either Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, you know, those countries that have been oppressed.
And they understand what socialism is about, and they want no part of it.
And they understand what this administration is doing.
And they're doing nothing to help the cause of freedom in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
And they're doing everything.
And this administration apparently is doing everything in its power to prop up those regimes that are oppressing their people.
So many of the counties in deep South Florida that had historically voted blue, they went red this time.
What happened?
What happened is we've got, again, we've got an influx of people that come from these countries that understand exactly what socialism is about.
They understand what censorship is all about, the lack of basic freedoms, and they understand that what the Biden administration is doing is not helping our cause for freedom in any way, shape, or form.
They've seen this movie before, and they don't want to repeat it again.
That's why they've gone to the Republican side.
That's why we had such a sweeping win in Florida.
Look, in my own district, my district voted 16% for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In 2020, they voted about 4% for President Trump.
And in this election, I won that election by 28 points, Sean.
So you can see how it swung to the right.
Miami-Dade County.
You're really underperforming.
I think you should be really ashamed by those numbers.
That's awful.
Yeah.
And then look, what happened with the governor, right?
I mean, Miami-Dade County voted for Biden in 2020 by seven points.
And we voted for DeSantis this time.
So you can see the shift is not only in my district in Miami-Dade County, but all of Miami-Dade County is now turned red.
And that's all due to these policies.
It's all due to the fact that we Republicans have a better solution.
We really represent the working man and women, and we represent the values that the citizens of Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida really want.
So I'm talking a lot about what I'm calling accelerated migration, and that it's a combination of baby boomers hitting retirement age and also people that are fed up with high taxes, incredible, burdensome bureaucracy, people fed up with COVID shutdowns.
They want their kids to have in-person learning, et cetera.
But they're leaving states like Pennsylvania and states like Wisconsin and states like Michigan.
And those states, the people that are leaving and going to Florida, the Carolinas or Texas or Tennessee, most of them are going to Florida.
You're taking in about 800 new residents a day.
How is Florida dealing with this mass migration?
I think we're dealing with it fine, right?
Most of those people are hardworking people.
They're coming down to the state of Florida to find opportunity, and they do find opportunity.
You know, Florida is growing.
It's a pro-business state.
We have no state income tax.
We have a great governor.
Legislature is controlled by the Republican Party, so it's very, very much pro-business.
And also, we kind of adhere to the values of the people that are coming down to South Florida.
Look, one of the things I was afraid of is that, yeah, we had all these people coming from New York and all those other blue states, and were they bringing their politics with them?
Well, apparently they are, but they happen to be Republicans for the most part.
So I think they're the ones likely to get out of there because they've had it and they want to get in.
They want to live in a free state like Florida.
I don't blame them.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
So, you know, I was afraid that it was, you know, that some of the folks that are more liberal leanings were coming down to Florida to escape and then bring their politics down, but I don't think it's happening.
I think they're actually, we, for the first time, have more Republicans registered in the state of Florida than Democrats.
That's never happened in Florida history.
It was a turnaround of about 500,000 from the election in 2018.
So from 2018 to 2022, we had about 300,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
And now we, you know, that's flipped over.
So I think it's about 200,000 or 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats.
That's not good news for the Democrats.
Well, we appreciate you and what you're doing.
Congressman Carlos Jimenez, thank you so much.
Florida's 26th district.
Thank you.
It's my pleasure, Sean.
Have a good one.
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Come on, man.
It's taken me 47 years to perfect doing nothing.
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This is the Sean Hannity Show.
All right, as we get to our busy phones, Russ, Nebraska, you're next on the Sean Hannity Show.
Hi.
Hey, Sean Hannity.
How are you doing this afternoon?
I'm good, my friend.
What's going on?
Well, I want to talk to you a little bit about what's going on with the rail unions and what's going on in Washington, D.C. and stuff with the boats and everything, because, you know, I've kind of been with them for a major railroad here in the United States for about almost 24 years.
But first off, I got to give a shout out to my dad because he told us one time, he says, man, if I could, he just turned an 80.
He says, man, if I could have another kid at the Christmas table, it sure would be Sean Hannity.
Oh, man, what a compliment.
That is.
Well, if your dad's listening, tell your dad I said thank you.
And hi, Dad, how are you?
And you may, well, be careful what you wish for.
I was a pretty incorrigible kid growing up.
Oh, yeah.
Well, you know, he's ex-Navy vet.
You know, he survived pancreatic cancer.
And, you know, so he's a fighter and he's a good guy.
And he just wrote.
By the way, surviving pancreatic cancer is no easy feat.
My dad died from that.
Yeah.
Well, he had a doctor that was young and ambitious and said he could go in and get it and he got it and he's doing great.
Oh, that's great news.
Well, tell your dad I said hi.
I will.
I will.
Sean, just wanted to let you know a little bit about what's, you know, the union and things of that nature.
I've been working for the railroad for almost 24 years and seen a lot of changes coming, you know, down the pike over the years.
And, you know, we've had different union agreements anywhere from 5% raise to 8% raise to 9% raises.
And this is the first time in a long time I've seen anything this huge come down the pike as far as a 24% raise.
24% raise, average worker will get, and I'm sure that includes you, $11,000 in a bonus check.
Sounds like a pretty good offer to me.
Doesn't sound like an unfair offer.
No, I don't think it's unfair at all.
So, you know, it'll be interesting to see what the vote comes down to as far as what they do in Washington.
But I think what a lot of your people don't understand is that, you know, even though we're a union shop, I don't think people quite understand that a lot of the guys that I work with, we're more conservative and independent than we are Democrats anymore because we kind of feel like we've been left behind as far as you know, workers and unions and things like that, just for the simple fact that, you know, with guys like Biden and Obama and people like that, we feel like we've been left behind.
And, you know, they always say we're the party for the worker.
We do this and that.
And honestly, I just honestly believe that that is dead and buried.
I don't think that's even an issue anymore.
They don't, you know, they're not for the worker anymore.
You know, I look at the Democratic Party as the party of coastal elites and Republican, the Republican Party needs to be the party for working men and women in this country.
The people that really do make America great.
I'll put it to you this way, too, Sean.
You know, as a railway company, our job is to ship fossil fuels all over the country, potentially to be shipped all over the world.
We have the cleanest coal that has ever been burned.
We have enough in the Powder River Basin for anywhere from 150 to 200 years of consistent use for us to be able to use to send to our coal-fired power plants.
We ship it to China.
We ship it all over the world.
So what our members are wondering is why would we consistently vote for people that want to get rid of all fossil fuels so that we don't haul oil out of the Balkans anymore, out of North Dakota?
We don't bring any more coal out of the Powder River basin.
And that's what we do for a living and that's what our jobs are.
And that's where they're kind of losing this, if you know what I mean.
Does that make any sense?
That's where the rank and file are out of touch with and not in agreement with union leadership.
You raise a great point.
And I'll tell you, this is why if Herschel Walker can win this race, and it's not going to be easy in Georgia, and I know there's a heavy turnout, there is a chance, I believe, to make a run at Joe Manchin because Joe Manchin has been screwed over by his own party.
And if Joe Biden and the Democrats have their way, they will destroy the economy of West Virginia.
I got to run.
Say hi to all our fellow railroad workers.
I hope it works out for everybody.
I want you to get your raise.
If, in fact, this strike goes on, we're all going to feel it badly.
That's how important the job is that all of you do every day.
So thank you for what you do.
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