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Dec. 16, 2023 - Stew Peters Show
55:05
JESUS. GUNS. AND BABIES. w/ Dr. Kandiss Taylor ft Derrick Evans
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Hey, everybody.
Welcome to Jesus, Guns, and Babies.
I'm your host, Dr.
Candice Taylor, and I have a great guest today.
You're going to love him.
We're going to start first with a scripture, and it's a couple scriptures from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and give you a future.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.
and I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.
So he's going to go before us, He's going to go behind us.
He's going to bring us through.
And we can count on that.
Because the word of God is forever and ever and ever.
And it never changes.
And it's for today.
So, welcome to Jesus, Guns, and Babies.
Derek Evans.
He's running for U.S. House in West Virginia.
Welcome, Derek.
Hey, thank you so much for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Well, I'm so glad we finally made this work.
We've been back and forth trying to get this together.
So glad to have you on here.
And I'd like to start off by you telling us a little bit about yourself.
What got you involved in politics?
Why you're a patriot?
A little bit about your background.
And I'm going to listen while you tell me.
Awesome, awesome.
So, yeah, look, I'm married to my college sweetheart.
We've been together about 15 years now, and the Lord has blessed us with four beautiful children.
I've got two girls and two boys.
The girls are ages seven and six, and the boys are four and two.
So we have a young family.
You know, I've always been somewhat involved or interested in politics.
I was when I was younger, and then, you know, you get a little older and you don't really care.
You know, kind of go off and do your own thing.
And then as I started having kids, that's when I really started really just kind of opening my eyes and seeing everything that was really going on and really, for the first time, really started truly focusing and paying attention.
And to me, I believe that it's just one of those things I was, I don't want to say called to do, but I don't know, I just feel like in a way I was Not necessarily called to run at the time, but called to be involved in politics.
Just little things that were happening in my community.
I would go and try to speak to the local board of education or to our county commissioner or our state rep.
And it was always falling on deaf ears.
You could never get these people to even, you know, it was so hard to get a hold of them.
It was so hard to get anything done.
And so then I was like, you know what?
I'm just going to count the middleman.
I'm just going to run.
You know, so I ran.
And then I was involved in the pro-life movement here in West Virginia.
You know, I used to stand outside of our abortion clinic and offer women other options.
And it was amazing.
If a woman chose life, we'd throw her a baby shower.
If she wanted to put the baby up for adoption, we...
We had lawyers who would do the paperwork and everything pro bono.
We'd connect them with a family who wanted to adopt.
We had followers from all over the country who would get them registered online.
And then we'd throw a baby shower for the family who was adopting the baby.
So it was really amazing.
And it was through that journey that I really got really, really into politics in terms of, like, I want to run for office specifically.
Because we were trying to get a heartbeat bill passed here in West Virginia and we were supposed to have these Republicans in office and they would not even take up the bill.
They wouldn't do anything with it.
It was constantly going there to lobby them and get them to move this bill and nothing would happen.
And so that really motivated me.
People would say, why don't you just run?
And I said, sure, I'll run.
I mean, I have no chance of winning.
I mean, at this time, no Republican had been elected in my district.
And, well, put it this way.
I ended up winning.
I won in a landslide victory.
And I was the first Republican to win my district in over 98 years.
And so that kind of really got me in there.
And then I went to the Capitol on January 6th.
And the rest is kind of history from there.
So you actually won.
Which seat did you win?
Yeah, I won my seat for the West Virginia.
We call it the House of Delegates here.
Every other state outside the Virginias, it's just the state rep.
So I won my seat for the West Virginia state rep.
And I was the first Republican to win in 98 years.
I won a landslide victory.
It was absolutely amazing.
And, you know, we ran on the platform of, look, we're a conservative Christian.
If you don't like that, go vote for somebody else.
I quickly became known throughout the state of West Virginia.
I remember the media tried to.
So on my My billboards on my literature, my campaign slogan, and you've got to remember the abortion issue is really hot at this time.
The transgender issue is really just starting to pick up steam.
It's still a major issue now, but it's really just starting to pick up steam.
And my campaign slogan was fighting for Christian values.
I put it on my billboards, put it on my signs, put it everywhere.
And the media reached out and was like, how dare you do this?
There's a separation of church and state, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I just responded and said, if you, yeah, I said, bullcrap.
And if you don't like it, that's okay.
Go vote for the other guy.
This is who I am and this is what I stand for.
And it went pretty viral across the state on that alone.
So, yeah.
So when you got, when you went to January 6th and after that, were you then, are you in the House in Virginia?
Well, uh, very, very short-lived because, um, so I was arrested.
So I went to the Capitol on January 6th.
I was peaceful and nonviolent, non-destructive.
Most people probably see my video, my story by now, but if not, there's video on all my social media.
I walked through an open set of doors, thanked a police officer for his service.
He gives me a friendly fist bump, inviting me into the building.
I spent less than 10 minutes inside, walked back out.
Unfortunately, I was the only elected legislator in the entire country who had the courage to actually stand up and do something.
So, So they were really wanting to get their hands on me because I was the highest ranking government official they could get their hands on.
And so they arrested me on January 8th, two days after January 6th.
And it was a long battle, 18-month legal battle.
You know, I went to prison, the whole nine yards.
And so, yeah, it's been a long journey to get to this point.
So you actually, did you plead guilty?
Yeah, so once again, mine is so unique.
So I was originally, even for January 6th, everything with January 6th is like outside the norm.
So for me, I was originally charged with two misdemeanors.
Then they came and charged me two more misdemeanors.
Then they offered me a plea deal of choose your misdemeanor, we'll drop all the other charges.
Then, I wouldn't fully cooperate.
I can't really get into all of that on here as to what was going on.
I guess I'll speak generally.
Just say what you can say.
Yeah, don't.
Yeah, I'll speak generally.
So what we've seen in a lot of January 6th situations, I'm not specifically talking about me here.
I'm just going to clarify that.
I'm still on probation.
But in general...
They were wanting people who accepted plea deals, or the really good plea deals anyways, early on, they were really wanting people to say that they were wrong, the election wasn't stolen, and they made a mistake, and they wanted people to blame President Trump for their actions that day.
Of course they did!
Exactly.
And I've talked to Derek.
I've talked to many J6ers.
I still talk to them.
I talk to them in jail.
I talk to J6ers all the time.
I didn't go to the Capitol January 6th, thankfully, because I thought about going.
But anyway, you know, it's bad.
It's really bad.
I have J6ers that I'm personally friends with that are in prison and they literally didn't do anything wrong.
And they're in prison.
It's awful.
It's horrible.
It's despicable.
What's happening in general for January 6th right now is the greatest human rights and humanitarian violations that has taken place in our generation, as far as I'm concerned.
So, to make a long story short, we could not reach a plea agreement on that plea deal that they wanted me to agree to.
So then, that's when things got bad.
They then came and hit me with a 1512 obstruction of official proceeding, which is currently Uh, potentially being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
And I hope for everybody, it won't help me, but I hope for the people still battling that, uh, that the Supreme Court will, will rule properly on that.
That's a 20 year felony.
So all because we couldn't reach a deal on the other plea deal, they, they, they then were, in my opinion, were mad and frustrated and they hit me with a 20 year felony.
So now I'm facing 24 years in prison.
Uh, they had, they sat there and drain you financially.
We were basically bankrupted throughout this whole process.
And then they came, you know, the following January.
There were some other plea offers in there.
And when I say plea offers, I mean, we're talking three, four, five years in prison.
I've got a young family.
You know, by the time of my arrest, my oldest was five years old.
I got four kids.
My oldest is five years old.
And they came to me in January of 2022 and said, this is the final plea offer.
Take it or leave it.
It was a civil disorder, which was going to put me going to prison for zero to six months.
But at this point, we realized they would not move the trials out of D.C. There was no getting a fair trial in D.C. Depending on your judge, you could maybe try a bench trial.
I didn't have a judge that we felt was worth taking that risk.
And so we decided as a family to just go ahead and we had nothing else to fight with.
I was going to have to represent myself, basically.
We decided to just go ahead and take that, serve our time.
And then circle back and live to fight another day.
Now, in the moment, it was the hardest decision I've ever made in my entire life.
I mean, I literally cried as a sign of that thing.
But now, where I'm at now, I mean, looking back at everything, I'm kind of, in some ways, I'm grateful and thankful.
I don't know if I'm grateful and thankful for that or I'm just grateful and thankful to have that part over with to where I'm actually back in the fight now for 2024 and I'm able to be back in and fighting to save this country.
And they want you to be thankful for admitting to something you didn't do because you're trying to be able to provide for your family.
And they put you in this position of throwing you over a barrel of snakes.
Like, what do you pick your poison?
So it's awful.
They're weaponizing our judicial system against us.
And they're doing it all over.
It's not just with Jay Sixers.
They're doing it with RICO charges in Georgia.
They're doing it everywhere.
91 indictments for our president.
It's insane.
And They're getting away with it right now but you know I believe in reckoning and I believe that the Lord and this country was founded on Jesus Christ and he is king and I believe that he is not done with America and we're gonna see mass arrests of people who are the bad guys and it's gonna happen eventually I don't know when but I believe that it will happen at some point because We're good to
get to continue to do that unless we've totally lost our country and we have no law and order.
And I just don't think we're there yet, Derek.
I think that we're still, there's still hope for America and we can still save America and our constitutional republic.
And so I just really, I think that they're scrambling right now because the people that are bad actors and then really bad things, they don't want to go to prison.
They're not going to go to prison.
They're not going to They'd rather send me and you.
They don't want to go because they know how bad it is.
So they're trying right now to just keep their head above water.
And that's a lot of flailing is what I think.
It just seems like every day a lot of flailing is going on.
So anyway, but I'm so thankful.
So you're running now for U.S. House.
Is it the same district?
And I know it'll be a bigger district than what you ran for your state house, but talk about the districting and how West Virginia works, because people may not understand.
We have 14 districts in Georgia, 159 counties.
So in my district, one, there's 15 counties that my Congressman Betty Carter represents.
So let's talk about how your layout is in West Virginia.
Yeah, yeah.
First, I just want to say I agree with you.
I think there's hope still for this country.
I mean, if I didn't believe That there was still hope to save this country.
I wouldn't be running for office right now, you know, so I agree 100%.
It's a sacrifice.
Right sacrifice.
Right sacrifice.
And just look at it.
And every day, like you're running, you know, it's a sacrifice from your family.
It's a sacrifice from death threats.
It's a sacrifice for your time and your finances, your sanity.
Everything is a sacrifice.
And it's something you're doing for our country.
And we thank you.
Well, I appreciate that.
And I tell everybody, look, people ask, are you not afraid?
I mean, no, not really.
I'm not afraid.
They've already done everything they can do to me at this point.
My biggest fear, believe it or not, my biggest fear is that we don't do anything right now.
And we kick this can down the road and force our children and grandchildren to pick up this fight and fight themselves.
So my biggest fear is being 70 to 80 years old.
Not being able to do anything and watching my children and grandchildren having to pick up the fight, to fight the battle that I didn't have the courage to do.
So I do it every single day for them.
When I put them down every single night, I can look them in the eye.
I can look myself in the mirror and know that I'm doing everything I can to save this country.
And that's really important to me.
In terms of our district, West Virginia's only got two congressional districts.
We had three and we lost one in the last census go around.
So I have the whole entire southern half Of the state of West Virginia.
It's, I think, 27 counties.
It's huge geographically speaking.
And so it's a very rural district.
It's one of the reddest districts in the entire country.
That's one of the things I'm very blessed and fortunate about.
Not only during my time of fighting the January 6th battles, having community support, but even now, you know, this is a district where it's not just a red district, it's a Trump district.
It's a very Trump heavy district, MAGA district.
And look, these people here, we don't want our money going to Ukraine.
We want our borders secure.
Quite frankly, we don't want the government, you know, sticking their nose in our business.
We just want to live our lives.
We choose to live up a holler in West Virginia on family, you know, land.
For a reason.
We want to be left alone.
We don't want the government coming and telling us how we can live our lives.
And so I always tell everyone one of the ways we save this country is we flip the red districts red.
And what I mean by that is we got to get the rhinos out of these very red districts.
And right now we have a rhino representing one of the reddest districts in the country, which is my district.
And we deserve a...
Who are you running against?
Her name is Carol Miller.
She's a nice lady.
Look, I have nothing against her as a person, but...
Look, she's voted...
She sent billions of our tax dollars to Ukraine.
She has voted to force our military members to receive the COVID vaccine in order to continue their career in the military.
No, no, no, Carol.
No, no, no, Carol.
No.
Yep.
Yep.
She voted to...
She supported all the lockdowns and the mandates.
She took out a $3.1 million PPP loan And then had it forgiven, which is the largest of anyone in Congress, and she's a multimillionaire.
Imagine that.
Yeah, imagine that, exactly.
So there's a lot to unpack there.
And look, this is a district that I think the people here are hungry and want someone who's going to stand on the national stage beside of President Trump, not behind him, being a coward.
Huh?
How old is she?
She's in her 70s.
Yeah, it's time to go home, Carol.
You're time to retire.
So we want somebody who's going to stand not behind President Trump like a coward.
We want people who's going to stand beside of President Trump and beat the drum of freedom, not only for West Virginia, but for every single God-fearing American conservative across this country.
And that's what I'm going to do.
Do you know her voting score?
I'm trying to pull up her score.
Oh, she's got a D rating as a Liberty score in one of the reddest districts in the entire country.
So last time I checked, and I'm a public school educator, so last time I checked, a D is failure.
Yes.
They say C's get degrees, which I believe in A's, but a D is definitely a failure.
Look, if you're in New York City and it's a very purple district, you can get by with being a D. You might have to do that to get a Republican in the office, okay?
I get there's some politics involved.
This is literally one of the reddest districts in the entire country.
Our representatives should not have a D rating.
Our representatives should be in the Freedom Caucus leading the charge.
99 to 100% voting record in terms of conservative voting record.
That's what I'm going to bring to the table.
Yeah, we need some fresh new blood.
So this is the thing.
You know, I understand what you're saying.
And I'm on the executive team of the GOP because I'm first district chair now over 15 counties.
And so I get all the politics stuff.
And I probably drive on crazy because I'm like a grassroots ninja because that's what I care about is the grassroots.
But it's all like wrangling cats.
So you got establishment politicians or establishment people who And you've got fake Republicans and you've got rhino Republicans and you've got Patriots and you've got MAGA who are mostly all the Patriots and then you've got grassroots people.
So it's all these people and we're all Republicans.
I get it.
Bottom line, our country is going to no longer exist.
Like we are losing our country.
We have to have a moral Christian person who is not scared, who will hold the line in every single seat.
All this pandering and gaslighting and political correctness has got to stop.
And so if you've been in Congress for more than two terms, it's time to go.
Every single person should be primaried in Congress, at Senate and House.
Every single governor.
You know what?
Heck, I think every school board member, every city council member, every commissioner, every single person that is in a seat, clerk of court, sheriff, I don't care.
You should be primary.
It keeps you honest.
Nobody's seat is safe.
You work for the people, you're a public servant, and you need to be primary.
And the people want that.
And you know what's amazing, Candace, is we haven't spent a single dollar in our campaign yet, and we're polling at 45% right now against her.
And she's been in there for, she was in a state house for years, and now she's been in Congress for six years.
And we're polling at 45% and haven't spent a single dollar yet.
So is she a Christian?
Because you said that she supported abortion.
Well, you know, I don't know her faith.
It's not for me to really speak on that.
Okay, so if you don't know, there's my answer.
So if you don't know, she's not out saying, like, I love Jesus.
I want to represent you.
I want to represent the Holy Spirit.
I want to make sure that we're moral and we're not...
Pushing transgenderism on our kids and we're not killing babies and sucking their brains out.
Let's do the right moral thing.
So if you're telling me you're not sure then that's a problem.
That means that she's not out forthright with that.
And we need people who are going to tell us who they are and stop the political mess.
I'm tired of all that political mess.
Talk to me straight.
That's what the people want.
They're sick of that.
Well to your point I mean Look, we're right now, as you said, we're in a battle for the future of this country right now.
This is not a time to elect weak politicians who want to go play patty cake politics.
I tell everyone all the time, I'm not running to make friends.
I'm not going there to go sing kumbaya.
I'm going to kick in the door and we're going to expose corruption in D.C. Amen.
And we're ready.
And we're ready for you to take the spotlight, Derek, and tell us what everything that's going on that's corrupt so we can get behind you and put pressure.
So we're really good at grassroots at applying pressure.
And they hate it.
They don't want us to be organized.
But I'm really good.
Like I had 60,000 volunteers in Georgia.
That's awesome.
Yeah, like you get real organized and you just rally the people.
The people want normalcy.
They're tired of being told lies.
They just want somebody to be honest.
Even if they don't agree with me, They respect me because I tell them the truth.
That's exactly right.
Whether you agree or not, this is how I feel about it.
I'm going to tell you how I feel.
I can change my mind as long as it lines up with the Word of God, but we have to stop compromising on everything.
Just stop it.
I agree.
There's two things I won't compromise on, and I've been very open about this as well.
The first thing is I'll never vote for anything that goes against my Christian faith.
I don't care about how good it sounds or I don't care.
How good this bill is or how well it sounds or how well-intentioned it is, if it's going to give the government more power over the people, I will vote no every single time.
I don't care if it's 434 to 1, I will be the one who votes no.
Praise the Lord.
We want you to vote no.
We don't care.
Like, we want, if you're the only one, be the only one.
And maybe somebody will have to be brave enough next time to join you, right?
So, let's talk about your endorsements, because you have some pretty big endorsements.
And talk about the campaign and how that's going, and for your family, and just any stories you want to tell.
Yeah, yeah.
So, well, I'm endorsed by General Flynn, Mike Lindell, Veterans for Trump, We're really blessed, really fortunate.
We've got some others we're working on right now.
It's unofficial yet.
We can't really announce those.
But yeah, we've got some endorsements coming in.
And I think in terms of a story to share, it was a couple weeks ago, maybe a month or so ago now, I was at Mar-a-Lago for the premiere of the police state movie with Dinesh D'Souza.
Right.
I think that's when it was really hitting me and kind of sinking in a little bit.
I was sitting there thinking, I was like, you know, this time last year, you were sitting in prison in solitary confinement.
And now you're at Mar-a-Lago.
And it's just amazing.
It was so clear to me.
I can't really put it into words.
It was so clear to me that God was like speaking to me in that moment at Mar-a-Lago.
And he was just kind of saying, like, I always have a plan.
I've always got something, you know, in the works for you if you keep your faith in me type of thing.
And so I use that not only for myself, but for anyone who's watching.
There's, you know, look, there's times are rough.
It's not, you know, life's not always easy.
I just want people to know and remember and understand that no matter what you're going through right now, you're not going through it alone.
God is with you and God does have a plan for you.
You just got to keep your faith in him and keep remaining positive through everything.
So, you know, I'm glad you said that.
I want you to talk for a minute about when you're in solitary confinement, what were you thinking about?
Because For me, I know the power of life is in our tongue.
I know what we think on gets bigger.
So were you thinking about being out?
Were you remembering Bible verses or were you reliving things, experiences in your life?
What did you do there that kept you going in your sanity and then were you able to get free again?
I've got chills just thinking about it, honestly, when you say all that.
Because honestly, all those things went through my mind at some point or another.
You know, the first five days were the hardest.
The first few days, honestly, were the hardest.
So there's no concept of time in there.
Like, there's no clock or anything like that.
But I've always been taught to find the blessings in everything that you're surrounded by or every moment or every situation you find yourself in.
It was by the grace of God, I was on the third floor of this Shawshank Redemption-style looking building.
No joke.
And I was facing west.
And I say all that because if I went over to a certain part of my cell, I could look out and across this walkway, there's a big, I don't want to say a window because it has bars and a cage and everything over, but I could see outside.
And outside and to my left, I could see a fire hydrant and a tree.
I was facing west so I could watch those shadows.
When that shadow got to a very distinct spot, I would ask the guard when they walked by and most of them would tell you, some of them wouldn't, but I'd say, hey, what time is it?
And they would tell me.
So by the end of day two, beginning of day three, I could pretty much tell what time it was by looking at the shadows outside, which really helped me in terms of just, you know, having some time structure.
Once again, that was hard.
Like a touchstone.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, look, I've spent days out in the woods by myself hunting and everything, and that's enjoyable.
Like, that's fun.
This was...
Totally different.
Your mind is so, so powerful.
It is amazing.
To your point, not only did I start remembering Bible verses and Bible scriptures, I didn't have a book or anything for five days, so literally just you and your mind, and it's so powerful.
But more importantly, I started remembering so many childhood memories that, for whatever reason, I just hadn't ever remembered or thought about.
One of my earliest memories, I have such a vivid memory of that because of solitary confinement.
I'm out in the garden with my grandparents.
I want to cry thinking about it.
Hoeing potatoes in the garden.
You let me cry.
It was just so amazing.
I finally got a book on day five.
Of course, I got a Bible.
That whole ordeal...
Honestly, I'm not even just saying this.
I'm thankful for that experience.
They tried to break me, and I'm actually thankful for that experience because that time in solitary confinement is by far the closest I've ever been to God in any way possible.
When you think you're at your lowest point, sometimes God...
It puts us in situations or oscillates us from everything.
And it's at your lowest point when you actually have, you look around, there's no other distractions.
There's nothing to turn to.
There's no TV to turn on.
There's no friend to talk to.
There's nothing to read.
There's nothing to do.
You are left what you think is alone.
In reality, you're not alone.
You are there.
It's a perfect opportunity to lean on God and to get closer to God.
And something else is, I never really thought about, I didn't think about politics.
I didn't think about I thought about my family.
Specifically, I thought about my grandparents.
My mom died when I was 21 years old, so she's been gone for a long time.
My grandparents have been very instrumental in my life.
I thought about them more than I can imagine.
I thought about my kids.
It's made me a better husband and a better father.
And what I mean by that is, just like everybody else, we live busy lives.
And, you know, my kids, I have four of them.
And, hey, color with me or play cars with me or snuggle with me.
And before that, before all this, I mean, I've always been a good dad.
Don't get me wrong.
But, you know, they say, hey, I'll do that later.
You know, sometimes later never comes.
Sometimes it does.
Now, I can tell you right now that I don't care what I'm doing.
If my kids say, hey, will you color?
I might be really busy.
I might only spend 30 seconds to color with my little girls or 30 seconds playing cards with my little boys.
I'm going to spend those 30 seconds.
I'm going to capture that moment because when I was in there, when I was sitting there, all I could think about was them.
I didn't care if they were fussy.
I didn't care if they were fighting with each other.
I didn't care if they were pestering, you know, whatever.
All I wanted was to hold my kids and to let them know that I love them and be there for them.
It's made me a much better person in that regard.
And I'm thankful for that.
I really am.
You know, I have a PhD in counseling.
So the counselor in me, you know, when you were talking about that before, it was like, what did you think about?
Because Captivity shrinks your brain if you're there for a standard period of time.
And it actually can bring up traumatic things.
And so...
Because it's trauma.
Like being locked up is traumatic.
And then trauma triggers other trauma.
So it's kind of interesting.
Like you started remembering childhood memories.
And maybe they were good memories.
But the reason why they're so vivid is because you're in trauma.
So everything is heightened in your body.
Oh, yeah.
I can smell the dirt hoeing those potatoes on my grandparents.
I mean, I can't even put that into words.
I could never...
Do that again, I don't think.
Like, I mean, there's no...
The vividness is just unbelievable.
Yeah, it does that.
It's crazy how our bodies do that.
Our senses.
It's like a spotty sense.
But then when you have memories that you haven't retrieved...
So we store things in our long-term memory.
If you think about it going in a file folder and it goes backwards, when you retrieve it and you think about it, every time you pull that folder out and you open it up and you have the memory...
Before you file it back, you kind of adjust it.
You kind of taint it with where you are present day and put it back.
I mean, bring it up into this where that you are now.
And so it's like you have all these times you've brought it out, but it's maybe not as sharp.
So if you have a memory that you've never thought of since it happened, and then you're already in this place of, you know, super heightened trauma, then I'm sure it was very overwhelming.
I did not know all that.
That's so fascinating.
I'm so glad you shared that with me because it's something I have wondered.
It's like, why was it that way?
And so it kind of helps me in that regard.
And not only on day five did I get a book, I got letters.
I have mail.
And so I received letters from American patriots all across the country.
And then I was like, you know, then it kept me occupied.
I was like, oh my gosh, I gotta get my hands on a pencil or something.
I wish I had my pen.
I usually keep it out here.
There's a little rubber pen that they give you in solitary confinement.
I got my hands on a piece of paper.
But yeah, I mean, I received a letter from some random person who just happened to see online that I was in prison, and he decided to write me a letter.
And there was others who did as well, but there's nothing like that first one that you receive.
And I actually, believe it or not, I wrote him back.
We kind of became...
Pen pals, if you will.
And I still actually, believe it or not, I still speak to that guy from time to time now, even though I'm home.
And so it's amazing.
And I remember I laid down and you don't really have a bed.
I mean, all I had was a pair of orange government boxers.
That was all I had.
I didn't have a mattress or a blanket or anything the first night.
I was just in there.
I finally got a, if you want to call it a mattress, I guess, but it's a solid sheet of metal that's welded into the wall.
There's no pillows or anything like that.
So I laid down on that, I'll never forget, and wrote my grandmother probably the most thankful letter,
like that moment where Trying to think even how do you explain this, but I laid there and just thought of everything she's ever done for me, her and my grandfather, and just poured my heart out to them, thanking them for everything they'd ever done for me.
It's one of those things, you couldn't have that conversation in person because you just break down and start crying.
And I was able to do that.
And I'm really thankful I was able to do that.
And so she, you know, not that she doesn't know, but sometimes it's good to let people know how much you love and appreciate them.
And I was able to do that.
Yeah, and you know what, too, Derek, it's like when you, the Bible talks about coming to the Lord and His court and thanksgiving.
So you felt really close to God and then you're thankful and that's stirring in you and it's because you're in His presence.
You probably were able to get things out that you couldn't get out otherwise because we're all busy.
We're all distracted.
Just like you and I trying to have this interview.
I wanted to help you.
Yes, I'll have you on.
And then we're back and forth and you're busy.
I've got three kids.
You've got four kids.
It's just hard to carve out 52 minutes so we can talk.
And so when you get in those quiet moments, that's why it's so important for us to find time for our secret place.
So whether the government knew it or not, they were giving you a secret place.
A period of time that you can grow and God can heal you.
Absolutely.
And I'll tell you something else that we take for granted every single day.
I would never have imagined this, especially someone who hunts and fishes out in the woods and stuff.
I remember when I got out on the 8th or 9th day or whatever it was, and I finally got to go outside.
And just the grass was so green.
The fill of the sun on my skin for the first time in over a week.
The feeling the wind, listening to the birds chirp.
The sky was so blue.
These things are all around us every single day.
And we never take the time to stop and just appreciate what God has given us.
Yeah, we're too busy.
You know, we're on our phone and we're, you know...
Just too busy.
It's sad, really, that we don't stop and appreciate more than what we do.
So how long did you end up staying?
Yeah, so I'm so blessed and fortunate, once again, compared to so many other J6ers.
I had an 18-month legal battle.
I did three months in federal prison, and the eight days of solitary confinement was the craziest.
But, you know, honestly, prison...
I kind of used that as a, I wanted to go in with the mindset of this as a mission trip, and I wanted to share the Word of God with people who was open to doing that.
And one of the craziest, coolest places I've ever attended church was in prison.
I mean, honestly, there were roughly 100 guys in there who were, you know, all in there for who knows what.
I mean, rape, murder, I mean, everything you can think of.
And these people are here, you know, worshiping and praising God.
And it was very amazing to see that and experience that.
That's cool.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, like you said, whenever you get your lowest, it's whenever God can move the most in your life.
So, that's awesome.
But three months is a long time.
It was.
Especially when you have kids, you know, it was an eternity to my children.
That was a thing, like, you know, to my wife and my kids, I'm sure, honestly, in a lot of ways, I'd say the time went by slower for them than it did for me.
You know, they were having to worry about me every single day, which my kids didn't know where I was.
They just knew I was out of town for work or whatever.
We didn't tell them what I was necessarily, because my oldest at the time when I went in was six years old, seven years old.
They don't really know.
You can't really have that conversation with them.
So we just, since it was only three months, we decided to just go that route.
But, you know, my poor wife, rock star, keystone to our family, such an amazing woman.
And she held it all together, you know, throughout the whole ordeal.
And so, yeah, it was fascinating, though.
Like, so prison is, you know, it's their world.
You're just living in it.
You're not going to make any changes or anything.
It was crazy how, like, I don't want to say that the prisons are racist.
But it's segregated.
And the reason I would make that distinction is I never really felt got the feeling that either ethnicity necessarily hated the other one, but it was 100% segregated.
So there's only certain places that I was able to sit down to eat, or only certain picnic tables I was allowed to sit at out on the yard, you know, different things as a white person that was the only ones.
And so that was that was a little weird for me, you know, it's almost I got never really experienced anything like that.
So it was just kind of crazy.
Yeah, that is.
That's interesting.
Well, my brother is a drug addict, so he's been in and out of jail a lot, and he's been in prison before, and he's going to prison.
Actually, he's going to go back to prison, just petty stuff with drugs.
But he has talked about that, too.
And he joined a gang last time because he had to survive.
You have to.
There's no options.
It's just, it's crazy.
I mean, I hate it.
In Georgia, we have a really bad prison system here.
We have a lot of people that have died.
I feel like it's a lot.
I mean, one's too many, but, you know, inmates and guards and a lot of drugs and cell phones and all those things.
And we need some major prison reform in Georgia.
I don't know how it, and I don't know where you went.
Were you in West Virginia?
Yeah.
No, they, so they send, um, this government has literally labeled myself and all the J6ers as domestic terrorists.
And that's not like hyperbole or like an exaggeration.
Uh, and so because of that, they don't allow us to go to prison near our home.
I had to go to prison in Michigan, which is six hours away.
Um, and upon my release, I had to, uh, some paperwork for the prison to, uh, notify the CTU and they didn't know what it was.
We didn't know what it was and had to do research.
It was the counter-terrorism unit.
Um, And so then afterwards, and this whole other thing, they literally have put me on the Quiet Skies list for FLOTS, which is the highest classification you can have and still fly on an airplane.
It was originally intended for international terrorists who maybe are potential terrorists who are traveling internationally.
You're like Osama bin Laden.
Honestly, yeah.
I mean, they've now weaponized that against not just J6ers, against conservatives in general across this country.
Saddam Hussein are like...
It's just crazy.
It's absolutely insane.
And if people cannot see that, I don't, you know, even people who hate President Trump and they worship Joe Biden, who is a fraudulent pedophile, whatever.
If you are that person, how do you think it's okay for our...
Americans to be treated this way.
Like any American.
Because I would be the first person to tell you it was wrong if it was being done to somebody that I disagreed with.
I don't understand.
And on Twitter especially, it's constant, just this outrageous 1% ideology that they just...
We spew this hatred on you about anything to do with President Trump.
It's crazy because the majority of people in this country want him because they know that we were safe and secure and prosperous under his leadership.
And so, I don't know.
I mean, it's nuts how people can think that way.
Like, it's okay.
This country should be so outraged, and most people are, but you have these other people that are just so...
They're nuts.
Any time I encounter a left-wing extremist, as soon as I've realized, because I travel across the country and share my story and answer questions and warn people about the weaponization of government.
So every now and then you run into some left-wing extremists in that regard.
And so I always start that conversation with, look, I'm okay.
I'm okay if you think that the election wasn't stolen.
I'm not going to debate that with you.
I'm okay if you think that I'm an idiot for going to the Capitol on January 6th.
I'm okay if you think that I'm a moron for walking into the building on January 6th.
I'm okay with all that.
Can you at least, though, agree that as an American citizen, I have constitutional rights and natural rights, and I deserve due process in this country?
And if they cannot agree to that, then I don't waste my time speaking with them.
What I found when they actually say yes and they agree with that, I can usually walk them back over and make them realize, you know, they're actually open-minded enough to hear the truth about January 6th and the weaponization of government that's taking place, and I can have a conversation with them.
So that's kind of how I approach it, because I'm like, look, I'm willing to move 99% over to you right now if you just come 1% to agree that we deserve due process.
And if they can't do that, then They're just full of hate.
There's no reason to have a conversation with them.
Yeah, I mean, due process and that you can't be on the same level as a terrorist.
Yes, exactly.
That's completely insane.
And, you know, when we come down to it, the U.S. Capitol building is our building.
Yes.
Like, we paid for it with our tax money, and just the whole thing just seems so crazy.
It doesn't even make sense, you know?
Yeah.
Well, everything that we're experiencing right now as a culture specifically is our education system.
They've turned them into liberal indoctrination camps.
And so the majority of the people in this country truly believe that we get our rights from the government.
I mean, you and I know that this is wrong.
We have natural, God-given rights.
And the Constitution was really written for one reason.
It was written to prevent the government from infringing on our natural, God-given rights.
But there's so many people who believe that the government is granting us and allowing us to do these things via the Constitution.
I'm like, no, no, no, no.
The Constitution is written to prevent the government from infringing on our natural, God-given rights.
Those are the people that say we are in a democracy and they don't know the Constitution.
Constitutional Republic, and they're the ones that say, well, the government says, the government says, and they're the ones that think we need the federal government to give us direction, and that the federal government's more important or a higher government than our state government, which is bullcrap.
We're ran bottom-up.
Yes.
And we have state rights.
It's supposed to be.
And we have county rights.
We're ran bottom-up.
That's the way it's...
That's what was created.
So our federal government's got way too big.
Way too big.
That's why I always say, look, one of the things I want to do, it's everyone to pass.
I want to make that clear.
I'm not trying to use this, but this is what I believe.
And it's what I'm going to push for.
And I'm going to propose this and we can make the other people vote against if they want to.
I want to abolish every single three letter agency in existence.
They're all unconstitutional.
Abolish them.
Not just defund them, but completely abolish them.
Return the power back to the states, back to the local communities, back to you and me and we the people.
That's the only way we save this country.
We can't save this country if we continue to fund the unelected bureaucrats who are running this country behind the scenes and putting their boots on our necks.
We can't save our country that way.
We've got to get rid of those agencies and return the power back to the states and the communities.
Absolutely, because people are intimidated by them.
When you hear that they're calling a three-letter agency, it's like, oh gosh, it must be really bad then.
It was a really bad murder.
It was a really bad burglary.
It was really bad if they're calling them.
If the sheriff's office can't take care of it, then it's really bad.
I'm like, you know what?
They're nothing.
They're nothing.
The sheriff is constitutionally the highest officer.
Why are we worried about these three-letter agencies?
It's because they've been given so much power.
And it's the perception is reality to people.
And actually, it's funny.
I just realized I got my shirt on to defund the FBI. Yeah, I love it.
I wear that when I fly and everything.
So I wear that when I travel so that they have to see how I feel about it.
They're like, this is why he's on this list.
This is why he's on this list.
Jesus Guns and Babies, that's Candace Taylor.
She's crazy.
Yeah.
That's what, you know, it's okay.
They can say all the things they want to say about us.
It's okay.
Say all the things.
They're still putting us in Rolling Stones.
I was on Howard Stern's show a couple days ago.
I'm like, really?
Howard Stern?
Really?
So, you know, just whatever.
I've been there.
I guess, you know, they say that no publicity is bad publicity.
If the left's not attacking you at this point, then you're doing something wrong.
If you're not on a list at some point, you're doing something wrong.
Because goodness gracious, they literally just came out and admitted that the FBI requested a list of everyone who followed President Trump on Twitter and liked or engaged with his tweets.
Retweeting.
And this is back, you know, surrounding January 6th.
So if you're not on a list by now, like, you know, I hate it.
I travel and I speak out and share this story, and then people are like, I want to do something, but I'm afraid to be put on a list.
I just laugh.
I'm like, you're already on a list.
Do you attend church?
You're on a list.
I do this, I travel and everything, because I want people to understand, like, one of their goals with how they treated myself and other people on January 6th, one of their goals was to use me as an example to put fear into the American people and say, look, if you want to stand up and speak out, that's what's going to happen to you, so sit down, shut up, and accept the tyranny you find yourselves living under.
I'm just an average guy from southern West Virginia.
I took one on the chin from those powerful, corrupt government in the history of the world.
I got up.
I dusted my britches off.
I'm still standing, and I'm still fighting to save this country.
And if I can do that, anyone can do that.
That's exactly right.
And all that you've been through, you're not scared and you're not carrying down.
You know, it's hard.
I was swatted and they attempted murder on my family.
And when that happened, and it was before Marjorie and everybody else was swatted, I was swatted.
I was actually the reason why I knew what to do is because my friend, Stu Peters, he was swatted.
And I was on the phone like the third time he was swatted.
And I heard him.
He's like, hold on, Candace.
And he's like, I'll call you right back.
And I was like, he called back and he's like, I had to call 911 and explain to them, like, I've been swatted.
This is fake.
You know, my kids aren't here.
Call my wife, whatever.
And so because I had been on the phone with him, I knew what to do when they swatted me.
And I called and I didn't walk outside with my gun, which is what they wanted me to do so they could lay me down.
Or if I just walk outside and they think I have a gun, they made me down.
But my daughter was upstairs in her bedroom and she looks just like me.
She's 15 and she opens her window and they have a red dot on her chest.
And I know because later I have, you know, 15 cameras around my house and I have video footage of it.
And so they weaponized my law enforcement, who I love, against me in my little small town.
And so...
It makes you want to not ever get out of the house again.
It makes you want to be a mama hen and protect your kids.
And then I'm like, you know what?
This is the enemy.
Because I'm over the target.
And I'm speaking the truth.
And they want to destroy America.
And they're not going to destroy America and me sit around and not talk about it.
And me not push.
I may not apply pressure.
I have a gift of motivating people and rallying people together.
And I have...
I have authority and dominion and I know the power I have in the Holy Spirit and I'm going to take that and they're not going to stop me and I'm not going to cower down and I'm not scared.
And you're right, Derek.
You have to get over this fear of being attacked because you're going to be attacked.
Well, this whole thing is spiritual warfare.
This is a battle of good versus evil.
And I think when people understand that and accept that, I think it's a little bit easier to not be fearful and to continue standing up and speaking out and fighting back.
And you know, look, if people are going to willingly give up their First Amendment, then we've already lost this battle.
Our Founding Fathers were genius.
I mean, they put the First Amendment first for a reason.
It's the most powerful, peaceful way that we can redress our grievances.
And we need to exercise that to the fullest extent.
If we willingly give that up out of fear, then we've already lost.
I mean, there's no point even...
I mean, that's just all there is to it.
So we've got to be bold.
We've got to be courageous.
I think it's important for people to understand it's normal to be fearful.
Look, Jesus was fearful.
Jesus said, Lord, let this cup pass me over if it's your will.
You know, I mean, he was human.
He's the greatest person to ever walk the face of this earth.
And he experienced that, you know, that fear or whatever, like anybody else.
So it's normal, but it's what you do in the face of that fear that really determines you.
That is where courage is found and courage is determined.
And we got to be courageous.
That's right.
You're exactly right.
And courage is something that, you know, it's hard whenever you're watching people who are innocent be prosecuted for prison.
It's hard.
It's hard.
It's hard to do that.
When my dear friends was arrested in Atlanta for, you know, being in this Rico mess, and it's hard to watch.
It's painful when you know they didn't do anything wrong and you know their heart and you know that, you know, it's just, it's wrong.
It's a witch hunt.
It's wrong.
It is.
It's sad what's happening there.
It is very sad.
So we have probably about seven minutes.
And so what else do you want to share?
I mean, do you want to share anything that's going on with you?
I know we'll tell everybody how to reach you and how to donate and help your campaign.
But what else do you need, volunteers?
Like, what do you need, Derek?
Yeah, we always need volunteers.
I don't think people who volunteer for campaigns or people, you know, thinking about doing it, I don't think they realize the value that they really have To a campaign.
So first of all, anybody can go to my website.
It's evans4wv.com.
You can go over there on the homepage.
You can click on issues and learn more about us, what we believe in and stuff as well.
But on the homepage, there's a button you can click to donate if you want to donate.
We are not backed by Big Pharma.
We are not backed by the military industrial complex or in those places.
We are backed by American patriots across this country.
We've had over 4000 people who have contributed our campaign across this country.
You know, average donation, I don't know, 50-something dollars.
We're so honored and privileged and so proud of that, that we're backed by the American people.
So we'd love to, if you wanted to do that, and if not, you can click join our team, fill that out, and it doesn't matter where you live.
You can live in Georgia or Florida or anywhere else, and you can This is truly a race that is winnable.
And it would be a major upgrade for American patriots, American Christians across this country.
And, you know, I think we're going to go make everybody proud.
I mean, that's what we want to do.
I tell everyone this is not just my campaign.
This is, if you are frustrated with the do-nothing Republicans, who, quite frankly, have done very little as a whole, You're frustrated with that, and you're frustrated with the establishment, all these things.
I'm not asking anyone to go to prison for what they believe in the way that I had to, but I am asking you to support our campaign so my family and I and all of us, we can continue this fight not only for ourselves, but for you as well.
And so we're going to stand on the national stage, as I said earlier, and beat the drum of freedom for every single American across this country, not just those here in West Virginia.
So $25, guys.
If we go to the fast food restaurants, you're going to spend $25.
So y'all can just donate $25 and it'll be a Christmas present and it'll be a way that Derek can buy signs and he can do, you know, gas because it's so expensive to travel around and speak in engagement.
Buy pizza for the volunteers.
Right.
And pay for door knockers, gas.
There's so much.
And so, maybe some billboards and maybe some radio time, which I advise billboards because I see them.
But, you know, the texting apps cost money and putting your stuff on, you know, the geo mapping where it will come up on all the YouTube and Facebook and all that.
All that's expensive.
And so, $25.
Y'all can do it.
And I hope everybody watching this will go to this website and do that.
And we'll put your website at the bottom of the screen.
So I want to know, what are you going to do?
When you win, Derek, what are you going to do on the first day when you get there and they put you on a committee or they say you're not going to be on committees or whatever?
What are you going to do?
What do you mean if they try to tell me I'm not going to be on a committee?
Yeah, or if you get on a committee, what do you want to do there?
Committee or no committee, the very first day in office, I'm going to file articles of impeachment on these corrupt Federal judges that have been weaponized against President Trump, the J6ers, the pro-life activists, the guy who made the memes, all these weaponized judges.
I'm going to file articles of impeachment against him on day one.
That's the first thing that I'm going to do.
And I think that's important to do that.
Whether that goes to the Senate or not is irrelevant.
I think it would be a It's important to get the truth on the record as to who they are, what they stand for, and if nothing else, it'd prevent them from moving on up.
We don't want weaponized judges from, you know, we want to keep them from getting to become Supreme Court justices and everything, and so that's what I'm going to do on day one, absolutely.
Well, you know, we're going to take the Senate back, so maybe we'll just go ahead and pass the Senate as well, and you're exactly correct because these judges are shooting down cases that people should be, come on, indictments?
Yes, indicted and handcuffed and Constitutional says hung, I don't know, for treason.
And so we can't even get cases heard with all the evidence we have in all these states.
And here we've done 2022 and had major more issues.
And we're going to 2024 and we're expecting to have a fair legal vote.
And so everybody's paying attention.
We're all working.
We're all watching.
We're not going to stop.
In fact, we're going to be more hands on deck than we ever have been.
And we're watching this election like...
Because in Georgia, we have to have our 16-elect votes or we don't win the White House.
And we're fully aware of that.
And, you know, Pennsylvania and Arizona and Michigan and Wisconsin, we have all these places that we have to have their votes.
And they're going to try to steal it again, of course.
And so we have this little window of time to apply pressure.
And then when we get it back, they're terrified.
That's why they're already coming out and saying, oh, Well, President Trump, when he gets in, he's going to be out for revenge.
He doesn't have to be out for revenge.
He can just do justice.
Absolutely.
This isn't revenge.
The wrath of God is His.
The Bible says the revenge is mine, says the Lord.
He'll have revenge.
We just want justice.
That's it.
Justice.
We're not asking for much, you know, honestly.
And honestly, one of the other things I'm going to do on the first day is I'm going to ask, because I don't know exactly how you go about that, but I'm going to ask, what do I need to do to open up an investigation into Liz Cheney and these people who were set on the January 6th Shams Select Committee Who suppressed, knowingly suppressed information and evidence around that day and then have destroyed that evidence.
I think they need to be held accountable for that.
And I want to figure out how we go about doing that.
And that's something else I'm going to do.
So like I said, I'm not going there to make friends.
If they threaten me and say you're not going to be on any committees, so be it.
I won't be on any committees.
If they want to threaten and say you can't caucus with us, fine.
I'll caucus in the hallway by myself.
I don't really care.
I'm going to stand for my beliefs and what I believe in.
And whatever happens from there happens.
You know what?
If I did the things they did, I would be in prison.
Absolutely.
You didn't do anything and went to prison.
So if we did the things they're doing, we would definitely be held accountable.
They're not above reproach.
In fact, they're more accountable because they swore to God an oath of office to do the will of the people.
And so we just want justice.
That's it.
So, Derek, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for running and being wheeling.
It's a huge sacrifice.
It's a sacrifice of a lifetime.
I know I ran statewide.
It's wonderful in so many ways.
So, like, focus on the wonderful.
Focus on the people.
Focus on their faces and those relationships.
Like you're talking about the writing the letters, you know, back and forth and the guy that you're still friends with.
I have people that are in New Jersey and Iowa and different places, Texas and Arizona and all over this country and then all over the state of Georgia that supported me and helped me and sent me messages and sent me letters and sent me $100.
And those people I will never forget and have a relationship with forever.
That's the invaluable stuff.
But it is a sacrifice.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
More than you'll ever know.
Looking forward to keeping in touch with you as well.
And God bless you and all your listeners.
Well, come to Georgia.
You better let me know.
I definitely will.
All right.
Y'all tune in next week.
And when Jesus comes in babies, I will see you at 8 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time on the Studio Peter Network.
God bless you.
I love you.
God bless America.
Hey, everybody.
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