The Tucker Carlson Show - Tucker Carlson - Ep. 86 Esau Cooper is an excavator and semi-professional lawn mower racer from Western Maine, and a man well worth listening to. Aired: 2024-03-29 Duration: 41:39 === Killed While Logging (06:46) === [00:00:00] This fall, during hunting season, I was getting a slice of pizza at a general store in a small town in the mountains of western Maine. [00:00:08] And I was standing in line, and I ran into a guy I know, a guy I like a lot, called Esau Cooper, who was a local excavator. [00:00:14] And he said, I've been watching you, interviewing all these people. [00:00:18] Why don't you interview me? [00:00:19] I've got interesting stuff to say. [00:00:22] And I thought, you know, I bet he does. [00:00:25] Esau Cooper is an interesting person. [00:00:27] Esau Cooper is not only... [00:00:30] A good upstanding citizen of his town, to remain unnamed, in the Western Maine Mountains, but he's also the local lawnmower racing champ. [00:00:39] Every year, this town, in August, has a lawnmower race, and Esau Cooper often wins it, sometimes at great personal risk. [00:00:49] Here's a video of it. [00:00:50] Esau is the one in the green John Deere that runs into the camera. [00:00:54] We'll be right back. [00:01:23] We'll be right back. [00:01:54] It's dangerous. [00:01:54] That video, by the way, is shot by Toby Wenzel. [00:01:57] Esau Cooper, the man on the green John Deere, joins us now in studio. [00:02:01] Esau, it's great to see you. [00:02:02] Good to be here. [00:02:03] Wasn't joking. [00:02:05] So, first lawnmower racing, how fast do those go? [00:02:10] The sky's the limit. [00:02:11] It depends on... [00:02:12] How fast you make it go. [00:02:13] Our particular track in Andover, 25-30 miles an hour is probably too fast to make turn one. [00:02:20] So not particularly fast, but because the track's small and tight, it looks like you're flying. [00:02:27] It certainly does. [00:02:28] I've seen it. [00:02:28] The straight stretch is only 100 feet long. [00:02:31] So if you gear your tractor to pull for 100 feet, you're good. [00:02:36] So how do you get a ride-on mower to go 30 miles an hour? [00:02:39] Change the pulleys. [00:02:40] And get rid of the governor. [00:02:43] How do you get rid of the governor? [00:02:44] You just unhook a few springs and pull it back. [00:02:48] And so the motor turns, pushes as fast as it can all the time. [00:02:53] It's not good for longevity of the motor, but... [00:02:56] Yeah. [00:02:58] Could you do that in any vehicle? [00:02:59] You can get rid of the governor. [00:03:00] On a lawnmower engine, yeah. [00:03:03] Wow. [00:03:04] So you do that over the where? [00:03:06] No. [00:03:07] Winter, I log, snowmobile, hunt. [00:03:09] Oh. [00:03:09] It's springtime when you can't cut wood and it's too early to start digging. [00:03:14] That's when the lawnmowers come out and we start tinkering them up. [00:03:17] For people who don't live in an area where logging's big, why can't you log in the spring? [00:03:21] It's mud season. [00:03:22] They post the roads so you can't drive big trucks on the roads and the snow melts and the ground gets really soft. [00:03:28] The frost goes out and it's just the ground is soft. [00:03:34] You can't do much other than go in the garage and fix equipment. [00:03:38] Tinker on lawnmowers. [00:03:40] How long have you been logging? [00:03:42] 30 years. [00:03:45] A guy from your town got killed last year logging. [00:03:48] Good friend of mine. [00:03:50] How'd that happen and how do people get killed logging? [00:03:54] Well, generally speaking, people get complacent. [00:03:58] He was actually taught logging and he knew how to do it. [00:04:03] He was considered a considerable logger. [00:04:08] I looked at the site. [00:04:10] Yeah. [00:04:11] He went and cut another tree while a tree got hung up. [00:04:19] Yeah. [00:04:20] And he went and cut another tree in the line of sight of that tree that was hung up, and the tree fell on him and killed him. [00:04:31] So he, I mean, by reputation was, and you just said, knew exactly what he was doing. [00:04:35] Yeah, yeah. [00:04:37] Do you ever worry about getting herd logging? [00:04:40] Yeah. [00:04:41] Yeah. [00:04:42] Yeah, you just... [00:04:44] I mean, especially after that, you just don't take those chances. [00:04:50] Yeah. [00:04:51] But this is all, you know, everybody takes chances now and then, you know. [00:04:56] So how did you end up living in a little town in western Maine? [00:05:02] Oh. [00:05:04] Well... [00:05:05] My mom is from Livermore Falls area. [00:05:08] She grew up in Maine. [00:05:09] My dad was from all over the Northeast. [00:05:14] I was born in New London, Connecticut. [00:05:17] We moved to a little trailer park in Peru when I was really young. [00:05:22] Peru, Maine. [00:05:23] Yes. [00:05:24] And then we moved to another small town in Western Maine. [00:05:29] What town? [00:05:30] Rumford Center. [00:05:31] Yep. [00:05:32] Very small town. [00:05:32] Yep. [00:05:33] And when I was 10 years old, my father died when I was 6. And shortly thereafter, my mom got remarried and we moved to Andover when I was 10. And I was disgusted. [00:05:47] I actually ran away from home. [00:05:49] Where'd you go? [00:05:50] An old Girl Scout camp on the Whip-Wool Road, me and a buddy of mine. [00:05:55] I ran away on my 10th speed and disappeared for a day or two until they finally found us, you know. [00:06:02] At that time, we were into Rambo. [00:06:05] Outdoor survivalists and stuff. [00:06:09] I don't know what we were thinking. [00:06:10] I just was making a statement, I guess. [00:06:12] This town sucks. [00:06:13] I'm from Rumpet, and I'm going back to Rumpet. [00:06:15] You thought Andover was bad. [00:06:16] Yeah, it was not. [00:06:20] I didn't know anybody. [00:06:21] Shortly thereafter, though, I met two guys that I consider brothers. [00:06:28] Now, one of them's gone to heaven. [00:06:30] Yeah. [00:06:31] But the other one I consider a brother, you know. [00:06:33] It was the three of us, me, Mike, and Mike. [00:06:36] And we grew up together, and one of the Mikes died when I was 19. Oof. [00:06:42] Died in a car accident. [00:06:44] Yeah? [00:06:45] Yeah. === Rehab and Relapse (13:14) === [00:06:46] So, yeah, that changes you. [00:06:48] Yeah, it does. [00:06:49] Yep. [00:06:49] Did you stay in the town? [00:06:51] Yep, I did, until I was 25. Where'd you go? [00:06:58] Traveled all over the country. [00:07:00] Putting in natural gas pipelines. [00:07:02] Really? [00:07:03] Yeah. [00:07:03] Running from myself. [00:07:05] What do you mean? [00:07:07] Well, I was, you know, I played too hard, you know, work hard and drink even harder on the weekends. [00:07:17] Yeah. [00:07:20] Each town, there were temporary jobs. [00:07:23] You go into a town, you lay a pipe and you leave. [00:07:24] And each time I go into a town, I say, it's going to be different this time, you know. [00:07:31] And it was never any different. [00:07:33] Just the partying? [00:07:34] Yeah, the partying and it progressed. [00:07:37] Yeah. [00:07:37] I started just drinking and then got into drugs and just, you know, it was a time in my life when at one time I was going to make a career of pipelining. [00:07:46] Yeah. [00:07:47] And then at 31 I sobered up and I tried to keep pipelining. [00:07:52] Yeah. [00:07:52] And I realized that it's just, when I quit drinking, I had to let things go. [00:07:58] How'd you sober up? [00:08:02] Well, they first tried to put me in rehab at 13, and I wouldn't go. [00:08:07] 13 years old? [00:08:08] Yes, yes. [00:08:10] They wouldn't take me up to Bangor because the doctor says, the doctor's talking to me, so I don't got a problem with alcohol. [00:08:18] I love alcohol. [00:08:19] At that time, it was just drinking at that time, I believe. [00:08:26] Yeah. [00:08:27] And then at 15, I went in and I spent... [00:08:31] Three or four days in detox because I ate too many Valiums. [00:08:37] Yeah. [00:08:37] Ended up in rehab for a month. [00:08:39] It's a 28-day program. [00:08:41] On the 21st day, I got kicked out. [00:08:45] For what? [00:08:47] Well, I had been reprimanded for something. [00:08:52] I don't remember what. [00:08:54] But one of the ways they punished you was at that time, you could smoke right in rehab. [00:08:58] Yeah. [00:09:00] No cigarettes for you. [00:09:01] So I was like, yeah, okay. [00:09:03] And so I got in the line to get my daily cigarette or whatever it was a long time ago. [00:09:10] And got up the line, got the cigarette, went back to the smoking area and had a lighter. [00:09:18] I was just about to light it. [00:09:20] And the nurse realized that I wasn't supposed to have a cigarette. [00:09:24] So she bolted over to me and took my cigarette and said, you can't have that. [00:09:30] You're being punished. [00:09:32] I said, oh, really? [00:09:33] And she's walking away. [00:09:34] I said, take your effing lighter, too. [00:09:36] And I threw it at her. [00:09:37] And had I hit her with that lighter, I would have had to go to NYC, Maine Youth Center. [00:09:43] Oh. [00:09:44] I missed. [00:09:45] Thank God. [00:09:46] And they booted me. [00:09:48] That was the end of that. [00:09:50] Damn. [00:09:51] Yeah. [00:09:51] Did you go to rehab again after that? [00:09:54] Ten years later. [00:09:55] Yeah. [00:09:56] Twenty-five. [00:09:57] And I checked myself in. [00:10:00] I had a massive cocaine problem. [00:10:02] And all I really wanted to do was quit that. [00:10:05] Yeah. [00:10:05] So when I got out of there, I stayed sober for a little while and of course started back. [00:10:11] And that's when I started Pipeline. [00:10:13] Yeah. [00:10:14] I actually got hired. [00:10:16] I got hired in the paper mill in Rumford while I was in rehab. [00:10:24] And I told them, I said, well, I'm in rehab right now because I had passed all their testing and they wanted me and they called me up and said, okay, let's come to work. [00:10:30] I said, well, small problem. [00:10:32] I'm in rehab right now. [00:10:34] Oh, that's okay when you get out. [00:10:36] Come on. [00:10:36] So I did. [00:10:36] I went to work from where I lasted 10 days and quit. [00:10:40] Why? [00:10:40] I went backlogging. [00:10:41] I couldn't stand it. [00:10:42] Yeah. [00:10:43] It was inside. [00:10:44] It was toxic. [00:10:45] Yeah. [00:10:46] All my coworkers were overweight and bald and unhappy. [00:10:50] Yeah. [00:10:51] Do you think it makes you bald working on a paper mill? [00:10:53] I don't know about that. [00:10:55] I probably, you know, that was probably mean, but it just didn't look happy. [00:10:59] No, I agree. [00:11:00] I was an outdoor enthusiast, you know? [00:11:03] Yeah. [00:11:04] And I just, so I left, you know, I left. [00:11:07] And I went back logging, and shortly thereafter, I jumped on. [00:11:13] They were laying a natural gas pipeline in Peru. [00:11:15] Yep. [00:11:16] And I got hired on that, and that was a godsend. [00:11:20] Yeah. [00:11:22] The wages were high. [00:11:23] The outdoor, it was grueling. [00:11:27] It was hard work and the mud and equipment and laying pipe across, like, how are we going to lay a pipe across that, you know? [00:11:36] Like a granite ledge or something? [00:11:38] Swamp, yeah, river crossings, just unreal stuff. [00:11:41] Tying crews, you know, where all the prestige is on a pipeline. [00:11:44] Tying crew. [00:11:46] They're the ones who connect the pipes. [00:11:47] Connect the pipes in the hard spots. [00:11:49] Mainline lays it in the easy spots, and the tying crews come in and connect the pipe in all the difficult areas, the swamps. [00:11:58] Yeah. [00:11:59] So, yeah, I got on that and started working that, and it was my thing. [00:12:04] I loved it. [00:12:05] I was going to make a career out of it. [00:12:06] Yeah. [00:12:07] And I did it for seven years until I realized it was killing me, you know. [00:12:12] Not so much the work, but the nightlife. [00:12:16] Because with Pipeline and in a different town every six months came bar life. [00:12:21] Yeah. [00:12:22] Living in a motel and lots of drugs. [00:12:25] Do all the guys go out together at night? [00:12:27] Not all of them. [00:12:28] Not all of them, no. [00:12:29] There was sober, good, hardworking, normal people. [00:12:33] Yeah. [00:12:33] But, you know, I wasn't one of them. [00:12:36] I was a party animal and they liked that, you know? [00:12:41] Yeah. [00:12:41] They liked you to work hard and play even harder. [00:12:46] Well, when you're working hard, you can party hard for a while. [00:12:49] How did you end up stopping? [00:12:52] It sounds like you've been trying to stop for a long time. [00:12:55] Yeah, I knew. [00:12:57] I don't know. [00:12:59] I left South Chicago on a job and I headed east to another job. [00:13:06] I quit. [00:13:07] One job was headed to another. [00:13:09] I wanted to make a change. [00:13:14] When I got to the East Coast, it was either head south to that job or head home and try to straighten my ass out. [00:13:20] And I was in trouble. [00:13:21] I was afraid my mom was going to go to my funeral. [00:13:26] Wow. [00:13:26] It was really in my mind, you know. [00:13:29] And at that time, I didn't know I had a heart condition. [00:13:32] But you could just feel there was something wrong? [00:13:34] Yeah, I was living hard, you know, doing a lot of drugs, snorting a lot of cocaine. [00:13:40] Yeah. [00:13:41] Putting chunks of, you know, graham chunks of cocaine in my coffee in the morning. [00:13:45] Does that work? [00:13:47] Party all night, smoke crack all night long, sleep for 10 minutes, go to work six days a week, sometimes seven. [00:13:54] Wow. [00:13:55] It was intense. [00:13:56] It sounds intense. [00:13:57] I made a ton of money. [00:13:58] I had, at the end of it, I had my apartment, my room would be paid, my truck would be paid. [00:14:04] I'd had top hours of working foreman. [00:14:06] Yeah. [00:14:07] And they'd just throw money at you. [00:14:10] You try real hard and I just, I didn't want to die. [00:14:13] I didn't want my mom going to my funeral because I knew it would kill her. [00:14:18] So you've been to rehab three times at this point. [00:14:20] Did you quit in rehab a fourth time? [00:14:23] No. [00:14:24] Really? [00:14:25] No. [00:14:26] By this time I had been taught enough I knew where the help was. [00:14:30] It was a 12-step program that I had been to before. [00:14:33] Yep. [00:14:34] One Monday morning I woke up and things were different. [00:14:37] I don't know. [00:14:39] To this day, I don't know what happened, but things just were different. [00:14:44] I knew I was in trouble. [00:14:49] And instead of going to the store and buying beer, because that's what I wanted to do that morning, I woke up on my stepfather's couch. [00:14:55] I was living at the time on my stepdad's couch. [00:14:58] I had a pickup, and that's it. [00:15:00] I didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out. [00:15:03] Yeah. [00:15:05] So I... I just went to a meeting. [00:15:09] I went to a meeting that Monday night, and I've been sober ever since. [00:15:13] That's amazing. [00:15:14] How long has it been? [00:15:15] It'll be 20 years in March. [00:15:18] Wow. [00:15:20] How have you been able to stay sober all that time? [00:15:23] God. [00:15:24] Yeah, I made a decision shortly after that. [00:15:30] I met a gentleman. [00:15:35] He's deceased now. [00:15:37] His name was Kip Cummings, and he became my sponsor, and he saved my life. [00:15:44] I could relate to him. [00:15:45] He was a grumpy old man, and he was black and white. [00:15:49] If you do this, you get that result, and I responded to that. [00:15:52] He'd say, there are clear-cut directions in this book, and you'll get this result. [00:15:58] I've always been able to read directions and do something. [00:16:02] That's how my mind works. [00:16:06] And it made sense to me. [00:16:07] And he reminded me of like my grandfather or my father. [00:16:11] Yeah. [00:16:11] I kind of, you know, I like old, mean old men who are, you know, you can tell they've worked hard. [00:16:19] Yeah. [00:16:19] And they've been through the ringer and I could relate to them. [00:16:22] Yeah. [00:16:22] I've always been around people like that. [00:16:25] So he helped me. [00:16:27] He just taught me how to become a man, how to stay sober. [00:16:33] He died a few years back, but he just taught me how to be a grown-up. [00:16:39] Was he right? [00:16:40] I mean, did your life change for the better once you got sober? [00:16:43] Well, it slowly has. [00:16:44] I'm in the process of changing my life. [00:16:48] It's been a long journey. [00:16:49] Yeah. [00:16:53] I quit drinking, doing drugs. [00:16:56] I was straight up for a year and a half. [00:16:59] And not everybody knows this. [00:17:04] But I couldn't take the pressure of life. [00:17:06] I started smoking pot. [00:17:08] Yeah. [00:17:10] So it took me a long time. [00:17:12] I didn't want to be. [00:17:13] I felt like a hypocrite trying to help people get sober. [00:17:17] You know, talk at a meeting. [00:17:20] Then get high on the ride home. [00:17:22] Yeah. [00:17:23] So I had a lot of hypocritical feelings towards myself. [00:17:27] But... [00:17:29] March 13th, 2021, I was able to kick that. [00:17:35] Shortly after they legalized it. [00:17:38] I was about to say, it's legal in your state. [00:17:40] It's the worst idea ever. [00:17:42] I voted no. [00:17:43] Why? [00:17:45] It's just not sending a good message. [00:17:48] It's just not. [00:17:50] Do we want to promote drugs? [00:17:53] Do we really want to? [00:17:54] Or do we want to just... [00:17:57] I don't know what the answer is. [00:18:01] I don't want to chase around a bunch of potheads and spend a bunch of money on it. [00:18:06] I also don't want to just have it be okay. [00:18:11] You know the tobacco campaigns that they have? [00:18:15] Why don't we have weed campaigns? [00:18:18] Well, you tell me. [00:18:19] You've used a lot of drugs. [00:18:21] You've smoked a lot of weed in your life. [00:18:23] It made me dumber. [00:18:24] It put me in a little bubble so I couldn't relate with people. [00:18:30] Instead of relying on my higher power, God, Jesus Christ, I relied on marijuana. [00:18:38] And before that it was alcohol, before that it was cocaine, all this stuff. [00:18:43] My higher power now is God. [00:18:47] God. [00:18:47] God. [00:18:51] That has evolved. [00:18:53] It started out as I wasn't a godly person when I quit drinking. [00:18:59] Yeah. [00:18:59] But I learned through a 12-step program and eventually through the Bible that that is the answer to all our problems, I believe. [00:19:11] Yes. [00:19:12] Yes. [00:19:13] I agree. [00:19:16] So, as someone who smoked a lot of marijuana, you think it is bad for people. [00:19:21] Yes, I do. [00:19:23] That's an unpopular thing to say. [00:19:25] Yeah. [00:19:25] Why? [00:19:27] Because people don't want to hear it. [00:19:29] They don't want to hear it. [00:19:33] I have a lot of successful friends that smoke daily. [00:19:37] If you don't ever see the insanity, it's like cigarettes. [00:19:42] Where's the insanity? [00:19:43] It's easy to see how bad alcohol is for you, or cocaine, or crack, or heroin. [00:19:49] But marijuana is so insidious. [00:19:53] It's so mild. [00:19:55] It's hard to see how it's holding you back. === Uncle Esau's Influence (02:56) === [00:20:00] I mean, myself personally, I became a better businessman, a better parent. [00:20:09] I can remember numbers now. [00:20:11] It's just better. [00:20:13] I'm not in that bubble. [00:20:14] I can relate to people. [00:20:16] I can see people in mills market and start up a conversation with them instead of running out the door because I smell like a skunk. [00:20:24] Yeah. [00:20:24] You know? [00:20:28] Where did you get your politics from? [00:20:32] I'd say my Uncle Esau. [00:20:34] Your Uncle Esau? [00:20:35] My Uncle Esau. [00:20:36] I think that's a song, isn't it? [00:20:38] I don't know. [00:20:39] I don't know. [00:20:40] You know, it's funny. [00:20:42] I have never met another Esau except for people in my family. [00:20:45] And then just the other day, I was listening to a podcast on the radio, and there was this dude named Esau. [00:20:52] A black guy named Esau who was a pastor, and he's in, like, Massachusetts. [00:20:55] And I was listening to Bible-thumping radio, and this dude was on there. [00:20:59] His name was Esau, and I was like, wow. [00:21:01] That was amazing. [00:21:02] The first time ever. [00:21:04] What was your Uncle Esau like? [00:21:05] He was a staunch Republican, free market guy. [00:21:10] Yeah? [00:21:10] Yeah. [00:21:11] Yeah. [00:21:12] Where is he from? [00:21:13] Auburn. [00:21:14] Maine. [00:21:14] Yeah. [00:21:15] What do you do? [00:21:15] He's still in Auburn. [00:21:17] He's a paver. [00:21:18] Yep. [00:21:19] Yep. [00:21:20] My whole father's side of the family were all pavers. [00:21:23] Really? [00:21:24] Asphalt pavers. [00:21:25] Yep. [00:21:25] Cooper Paving. [00:21:26] There's a whole bunch of them. [00:21:28] Yep. [00:21:29] Bred to pave. [00:21:30] Pave driveways, paved roads, paved parking lots. [00:21:32] Yep. [00:21:33] Pave. [00:21:33] Pave, pave, pave. [00:21:35] I worked for them for two years out of us. [00:21:38] When I first got sober, I went to work for my cousin, Cooper Paving, LLC. And I lasted a couple years and had to move on. [00:21:48] Well, what happened, I bought an excavator to fix up a piece of land of mine, and it kind of evolved, and I started getting side jobs, and I finally said, you know what? [00:21:57] Screw it. [00:21:58] I'm going on my own. [00:21:59] That's how I became, that's how I got into the business. [00:22:02] Do you like it? [00:22:03] The business I'm in? [00:22:05] Yeah. [00:22:06] I love what I do. [00:22:08] I don't necessarily like the business aspect of it. [00:22:11] But you like excavating? [00:22:12] Yeah. [00:22:13] Why? [00:22:14] I like taking raw land. [00:22:17] And creating something out of it. [00:22:18] Yeah. [00:22:19] I can stand on the side of a road and look at the contour of the land and some folks want it cleared and they want to put a house and I can see, you know, you can see, you know, how it should be and you get a vision and you do it and it's awesome. [00:22:37] It's very rewarding. [00:22:38] I believe that. [00:22:39] Yeah. [00:22:39] It's kind of artistic. [00:22:43] Do you... [00:22:46] Do you notice the difference between the town you grew up in, which you still live in, the way it was when you were a kid and it is now? [00:22:54] Other than there's a lot of people I don't know now. === Why the Country Feels Different (05:27) === [00:22:57] As far as the politics goes, it's basically the same. [00:23:00] What about the country you grew up in? [00:23:01] and how is it different? - Ugh. [00:23:03] I'm distraught about my country. [00:23:11] Why? [00:23:13] Because... [00:23:13] Our freedoms are just being taken away from us daily. [00:23:20] What the federal government is doing to Mr. Trump with the political persecution and what is it called? [00:23:28] Lawfare. [00:23:29] Yeah. [00:23:30] It's just gross. [00:23:32] It's gross. [00:23:33] It's gross. [00:23:34] And I believe that this is what happened. [00:23:39] This country has turned from God and now we're cursed. [00:23:45] And this is what we got. [00:23:47] That's my theory. [00:23:50] Do most people you know like Trump? [00:23:53] Most people I know? [00:23:54] Yeah. [00:23:55] Why is Trump so popular in rural America? [00:23:58] Because of blue-collar workers. [00:24:00] Yeah. [00:24:02] There's very few educated elites. [00:24:06] And actually, there's a couple in our town, and they don't like Trump. [00:24:10] Really? [00:24:11] Yeah. [00:24:12] So it's a class thing, as far as you can tell. [00:24:14] Yeah, yeah. [00:24:16] I have a friend. [00:24:17] She's a lady. [00:24:18] She's a liberal, you know. [00:24:23] She's a progressive. [00:24:25] She loathes Trump. [00:24:27] And that's cool. [00:24:29] We're still friends. [00:24:30] You know, I don't talk politics with her. [00:24:32] Except sometimes I just kind of throw in a little jab, like, you know, just to get her goat. [00:24:39] What do you say? [00:24:41] Oh, she might try being... [00:24:45] She may try to express... [00:24:49] How do I put it? [00:24:56] A desire to be compassionate of the gender baloney and stuff like that. [00:25:03] And I'll totally state where I am. [00:25:07] I guess I recent... [00:25:09] She accused me of being a sexist, and I was like, yeah, I am, I guess, a sexist. [00:25:15] Sorry. [00:25:17] What did she say? [00:25:18] She laughed, you know, she knows me. [00:25:21] It's all good. [00:25:22] You sure she wasn't trying to say sexy? [00:25:25] No, I don't think so, because she's like 70-something. [00:25:32] I don't think so. [00:25:35] But she's... [00:25:37] Yeah, I just think she's crazier than the shithouse rat. [00:25:40] Yeah. [00:25:40] And it's okay. [00:25:42] There's a lot of crazy people in Andover. [00:25:44] You know what I mean? [00:25:45] I weren't supposed to use that name. [00:25:47] What percentage of your town do you think will vote for Trump? [00:25:50] I don't know. [00:25:51] 50, 60. Yeah. [00:25:53] Yeah. [00:25:54] I mean, there's a bunch of people that just refuse to see the truth. [00:26:01] I have a... [00:26:02] Someone in my family is all... [00:26:06] H-Trump, gonna vote Democratic, and he just... [00:26:10] I'm not gonna say his name, but it just... [00:26:13] It's like... [00:26:13] If you go principle, if you stand there and you talk on principle, okay, we believe in this, we believe in this, we believe in this, we're just the same. [00:26:23] Yeah. [00:26:23] But when it comes voting day, check the Democratic box. [00:26:29] How do you... [00:26:30] So a lot... [00:26:31] You live in Maine, which is run by... [00:26:36] Socialists. [00:26:38] Oh, you don't like the leadership of the state? [00:26:42] I don't like our current Secretary of State. [00:26:45] He got on the bad side of me with the whole trying to take Mr. Trump off the primary ballot. [00:26:54] But it seems like that's very far away from where you live. [00:26:58] It's a totally different world. [00:27:01] Well, not if you... [00:27:02] I watch the news. [00:27:04] Yeah? [00:27:04] Yeah. [00:27:05] I mean, if you watch the news, I'm kind of a news junkie. [00:27:10] So where do you get your news? [00:27:13] Like what? [00:27:14] Yeah. [00:27:14] I mean, you live hours from the nearest airport, so it's pretty far away, right? [00:27:20] Mm-hmm. [00:27:21] How do you find out what's going on in the world? [00:27:24] What do you read? [00:27:25] What do you watch? [00:27:26] TV. Yeah. [00:27:27] I used to watch a lot of Fox News. [00:27:32] Yeah. [00:27:32] As a matter of fact, I watched it as often as my family would let me. [00:27:37] Yep. [00:27:38] You know, I'd turn Fox on and my wife and my kids would be like, oh, here we go again! [00:27:43] You know, because they just had it. [00:27:45] They don't want it. [00:27:45] But I listened to the news two, three nights a week, maybe four. [00:27:52] So the day they fired your ass was the last day I have not watched. [00:27:59] Ten seconds of Fox since they fired you. [00:28:02] Have you caught your way for kids watching? [00:28:04] Nope. [00:28:04] Just on principle. [00:28:05] Well, thank you. [00:28:06] Just on principle. [00:28:07] Just because I just think it was wrong. [00:28:11] Because it was obvious that they were putting pressure. [00:28:15] You were telling the truth. [00:28:16] In my opinion, you were telling the truth about a bunch of stuff, and you got too close to the truth, and they got rid of you. [00:28:21] So that's just my thing on that. === Embarrassing Crash in Canada (09:25) === [00:28:24] So where do you go? [00:28:25] Now I'm watching Newsmax. [00:28:26] Now I'm a Newsmax guy. [00:28:28] What do you think? [00:28:29] Well, it's alright. [00:28:31] It's grown on me. [00:28:33] You go on the internet? [00:28:34] No. [00:28:35] Not for news. [00:28:36] No. [00:28:36] What's your shirt mean? [00:28:40] This is a direct retort to Joe Biden's speech that he gave last week where he basically called all Trump supporters domestic terrorists. [00:28:51] Yeah. [00:28:51] Okay. [00:28:53] Let's brand domestic terrorism as cool. [00:29:00] Huh? [00:29:00] That's what I'm saying. [00:29:02] Because I'm a Bible-thumping, hard-working, blue-collar, you know, I got a few guns. [00:29:09] I'm no gun expert, but I got a few. [00:29:13] You know, I hunt fish. [00:29:14] I will die for my country. [00:29:16] Oh, that's a good story. [00:29:17] I tried to go into the service. [00:29:20] Yeah. [00:29:20] I scored, like, in the 99 percentile of my ASVABs. [00:29:24] I believe it. [00:29:24] My junior year. [00:29:26] So my senior year, and I was all advanced entry or whatever you call it, right there in Desert Storm. [00:29:33] So I was all enlisted my junior year. [00:29:36] My senior year, this general... [00:29:38] Where'd you go to high school? [00:29:39] Telstra. [00:29:40] Yep. [00:29:41] Bethel, Maine. [00:29:42] My senior year, this general comes in, and he wants to get inside my head and see what I'm good at. [00:29:49] I'm like, yeah. [00:29:50] So I get in the room with him, and I start being honest with the guy. [00:29:55] I told him what I had going. [00:29:57] I wanted to get out of here. [00:29:59] I want to change my life. [00:30:01] I told him I had, you know, I was partying and, you know, I was honest with him. [00:30:07] And at the end of that meeting, he's like, we don't want you. [00:30:11] Why? [00:30:12] You know, the partying, the drugs, the drama, you know, yeah. [00:30:18] It wouldn't take me. [00:30:21] So... [00:30:24] Their loss. [00:30:25] Maybe that was God. [00:30:30] Maybe he didn't want me to go because I might have popped. [00:30:33] You know what I mean? [00:30:34] I might have got in there and tried too hard and just exploded on the thing and I wouldn't be here sitting with you, talking with you, embarrassing my kids. [00:30:46] Wow. [00:30:47] So you partied too hard for the U.S. Army? [00:30:50] Yes. [00:30:52] Yeah, they wouldn't take it. [00:30:53] I was honest. [00:30:56] I didn't realize I was supposed to lie. [00:30:59] If someone would have said, don't tell the guy that you, don't tell him about your personal things. [00:31:06] Just say yes or no, sir. [00:31:08] No one told me. [00:31:10] I just, I told him what I had going on. [00:31:12] It was my ticket to ride. [00:31:14] I'm getting out of here. [00:31:15] I'm going to go straighten my life out and be somebody. [00:31:18] And he's like, no, we don't want you. [00:31:22] So obviously you changed your view, though, because you did leave for a while in the pipeline, but then you came back to your town. [00:31:29] Are you happy that you did that? [00:31:31] Yeah. [00:31:31] Well, mainly because my mom, she's aging. [00:31:34] Yeah. [00:31:34] And I live a thousand feet from her now. [00:31:36] And that's why I live in Andover. [00:31:38] Yeah. [00:31:39] Yeah. [00:31:39] I found a few cool places in the country that I could have stayed at, you know. [00:31:46] But I basically came and lived where I live because my mom. [00:31:52] I have two sisters. [00:31:53] Yeah. [00:31:54] One's deceased. [00:31:56] One's still with us. [00:31:57] But they had moved away. [00:31:59] One lived in New York. [00:32:00] One lived in Virginia. [00:32:03] And she, you know, my mom and my stepdad were getting age, up there in the age, and I felt obligated to come home and help them live out the rest of the years. [00:32:14] Are you glad you did? [00:32:15] Oh, absolutely. [00:32:17] Absolutely. [00:32:18] Yeah. [00:32:19] What do you think of the cities now? [00:32:22] Well, it's atrocious. [00:32:25] It's atrocious. [00:32:26] I don't even know what to say about it. [00:32:31] They've gone so far crazy town that, you know, the real estate prices in our town are stupid now because everybody wants to get out of the city. [00:32:45] Yeah. [00:32:46] They're all moving up this way. [00:32:48] And, you know, that's good for business, but don't bring your friggin' laws with you. [00:32:53] You know what I mean? [00:32:54] Yeah. [00:32:55] I don't mind people. [00:32:57] I like people. [00:32:58] I actually do like people. [00:32:59] Yeah. [00:33:00] But I don't like their rules and regulations and all that. [00:33:04] It creeps me out. [00:33:06] It does. [00:33:07] Do you think they'll bring them? [00:33:08] Oh, most likely. [00:33:09] You know. [00:33:12] One thing you can count on in life and then it's gonna change. [00:33:15] Yeah. [00:33:16] And that liberals are going to show up and wreck everything. [00:33:18] Yep, yep. [00:33:19] Maybe we'll have to move north. [00:33:21] You know, maybe we'll have to. [00:33:23] You live pretty close to Canada already. [00:33:26] Yeah. [00:33:30] I had a cool story about Canada. [00:33:31] What is it? [00:33:33] I went to Canada on my 18th birthday. [00:33:36] Yeah. [00:33:36] We went to Shabrook. [00:33:37] Yeah. [00:33:38] Went to the, yeah. [00:33:39] And had a really good time. [00:33:41] That's all I'm going to. [00:33:42] Did you wind up in jail? [00:33:43] Can you go back to Canada? [00:33:44] No, but I should have gone to jail, but I didn't get caught. [00:33:48] Anything related to cows, or what did you do? [00:33:50] No, no, no. [00:33:51] No, just a bad parallel parking job and intoxicated behind the wheel. [00:33:57] Nothing too serious. [00:33:59] I think you can parallel park any way you want in Canada, I think. [00:34:02] Is it okay to move the vehicle and take the spot? [00:34:07] Not if it's not your vehicle, it's not. [00:34:10] No. [00:34:11] Yeah. [00:34:13] There's just been so many things that have... [00:34:20] I have a lot of lives. [00:34:23] Not so much now, but back in the day, I am lucky to be alive. [00:34:28] Well, now, though, too, though you're sober and you're going to church and you've got a family and thriving business and everything, ride-on-mower racing and then stock car racing? [00:34:40] Yeah, yeah. [00:34:41] So have you... [00:34:43] You've had, like, just let's start with the ride of mowers. [00:34:46] You've had mishaps, right? [00:34:48] Yeah. [00:34:48] What happened? [00:34:50] Crashed, got hurt a little bit, and just kept doing it. [00:34:55] You know what I mean? [00:34:55] You just make pretend it don't hurt. [00:34:57] Yeah. [00:34:58] I don't know what happened. [00:35:01] I mean, I got bum knee, bum arm, bum neck. [00:35:05] But that's not just from that. [00:35:08] I've crashed and smashed a lot on a lot of stuff. [00:35:12] Like what? [00:35:13] Snowmobiles. [00:35:13] Back when I used to drink, I'd wreck a snowmobile every winter, just basically every winter, and have to get another one. [00:35:20] On trees? [00:35:22] Trees and rocks and brooks. [00:35:23] A lot of people in Maine died in snowmobiles. [00:35:26] People die on snowmobiles, yeah. [00:35:27] I can't believe I'm not one of those people, actually. [00:35:31] So, now you race at a big track in Oxford, Maine. [00:35:35] Well, I used to. [00:35:37] I did it for two years. [00:35:39] They got rid of the trucks this year. [00:35:41] They canned them. [00:35:42] No more trucks racing at Oxford this year. [00:35:45] Why? [00:35:46] I don't know. [00:35:48] My wife never really liked it, so I'm just kind of going to back away from it. [00:35:55] You had a pretty bad crash, though, didn't you? [00:35:58] Yeah, but it didn't hurt. [00:36:00] It was really cool. [00:36:01] I got out of the truck and did a bow, and the crowd loved it. [00:36:05] What happened to your truck? [00:36:06] Nothing. [00:36:07] I mean, it dented it, but... [00:36:11] Broke some bent spindles and broke a few rims and smashed a windshield. [00:36:17] But my stepdad, in his garage, with one leg, fixed it in a week. [00:36:23] We raced the following week. [00:36:25] Really? [00:36:25] Yeah. [00:36:26] Yeah, while I worked. [00:36:28] Yeah. [00:36:29] At the end of the day, I'd go there in the evening. [00:36:30] He'd be pounding and smashing on. [00:36:31] He'd be all bloody knuckled. [00:36:34] Got it ready. [00:36:35] And we went and we raced again. [00:36:37] And the following week, I did it again in practice. [00:36:41] And that was embarrassing. [00:36:42] That wasn't cool like the first time. [00:36:44] The second time was embarrassing. [00:36:45] What did you do the second time? [00:36:46] We were in practice and a guy came underneath me and poked me. [00:36:49] And I spun sideways and rolled like four times. [00:36:53] Did an endo and crashed. [00:36:55] You did an end over end? [00:36:57] Yeah, I don't know. [00:36:57] I didn't see it. [00:36:58] But they told me if last week's crash was an 8.5, this week's was a 10. That's what one guy told me. [00:37:06] So I was like, oh, alright, yeah. [00:37:08] But it was embarrassing. [00:37:09] This time it was embarrassing. [00:37:11] So when you're in a vehicle on a track at high speed and it's going end over end or side over side, what are you thinking? [00:37:19] Please stop before I run into something. [00:37:22] That's what I was thinking the first time. [00:37:23] When I was barrel rolling, I was barrel rolling down Victory Lane. [00:37:26] Yeah. [00:37:27] I was like, it took forever. [00:37:31] You know what I mean? [00:37:32] And then when I came to stop, I was on my roof. [00:37:36] And I'm like, oh, okay. [00:37:39] So... [00:37:39] The lady come over and she said, you alright? [00:37:41] I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. [00:37:42] So I put my hand down. [00:37:43] I could smell gas. [00:37:44] I put my hand down and it was all wet with gas. [00:37:46] So then I'm like trying to freak me out. [00:37:48] Were you smoking? === Press Influence Matters (03:50) === [00:37:49] No, no. [00:37:51] But I was afraid, you know, one little spark. [00:37:53] You know, the truck's hot. [00:37:54] You've been racing. [00:37:55] Oh, yeah. [00:37:55] There's a chance of fire. [00:37:57] So I kind of got a little nerfed up. [00:37:59] And I couldn't get my belt undone because I was kind of tripping out a little bit. [00:38:02] And finally when I got done, I went smash down on the roof. [00:38:05] And I got out and I was all covered with gas, but there was no fire and it was all good. [00:38:08] And I got out. [00:38:09] And I was a little discombobulated, and I turned towards the crowd, and I did a bow, and they just went nuts, and they loved it, and it was awesome. [00:38:17] Was your wife there? [00:38:18] Nope. [00:38:19] She wasn't. [00:38:22] So let me just ask you finally about Trump, a little more specifically. [00:38:27] Okay. [00:38:28] So I asked you what you were mad about in America, and the second thing you said was they're persecuting Trump on political grounds. [00:38:36] What do you like about Trump? [00:38:39] He tells it how it is. [00:38:41] He's pro-business and he's anti-swamp. [00:38:46] What do you mean anti-swamp? [00:38:52] In our government, there's a bunch of people that all they do is keep making the government bigger and bigger and bigger to give themselves jobs. [00:39:03] They have a budget and they make sure they spend every penny of it. [00:39:08] So that they can get more. [00:39:10] Instead of trying to save some money. [00:39:11] Because they're all worried that they won't get as much in the next year's budget. [00:39:16] So they spend every dime. [00:39:17] Every year. [00:39:18] All the time. [00:39:19] And that's what happens to bureaucracy. [00:39:22] Job one of a bureaucracy is to make itself bigger. [00:39:25] And Trump recognized that. [00:39:28] And he tried cleaning it out. [00:39:31] Tried making it work right. [00:39:33] Work like a decent business. [00:39:34] And they... [00:39:38] That's why they hate him so much. [00:39:40] That's why the left hates Trump is because he was trying to make our government honest and work for the people. [00:39:51] Beneficial to you and I. He wanted to do that and he exposed the lies. [00:40:00] You know what I mean? [00:40:01] He exposed the corruption and That's why they're doing what they're doing to him. [00:40:09] Could you imagine how successful his presidency had been if he hadn't had all the pushback by the left, by the powers that be, by the press? [00:40:25] Imagine what we could have gotten done in the past, because it would have been eight years. [00:40:29] He would have got elected the second time if it weren't for the press. [00:40:33] And that's another thing. [00:40:35] I lay blame to them. [00:40:37] There's no free press anymore. [00:40:39] They're not... [00:40:40] They used to be... [00:40:42] They used to hold the politicians accountable. [00:40:44] Now, only if you're a Republican do you get held accountable. [00:40:49] If you're a Democrat, they just ignore you. [00:40:53] Only talk about... [00:40:54] It's so... [00:40:57] It drives me up a wall. [00:40:59] If Trump was here, what would you say to him? [00:41:03] I'd shake his hand. [00:41:06] I'd ask him if he was looking for any help. [00:41:10] And then I'd tell him he's got my vote in the fall. [00:41:16] I wouldn't bother making any suggestions on what I think he should do to win because I know he wouldn't listen. [00:41:25] That's about it. [00:41:28] Isak Cooper. [00:41:30] It was great to see you at lunch. [00:41:31] Yeah. [00:41:32] And I'm glad you came. [00:41:33] Thank you. [00:41:33] Thanks for having me. [00:41:34] I'm humbled. [00:41:35] Well, I'm humbled that you will come. [00:41:36] Yeah, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.