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Speaker 1: This podcast is called Battleground. It's called that because every

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Speaker 1: day our lives are filled with battles large and small.

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Speaker 1: If we want to live greatly, then we must confront

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Speaker 1: those battles head on. Sometimes we win, and that's great.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes we lose, and that's okay too, because there are

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Speaker 1: always always lessons to be learned in a loss. You see,

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Speaker 1: the key is never surrendering, be relentless in the pursuit

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Speaker 1: of what matters most to you in life. My next

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Speaker 1: guest is the embodiment of that. His name is Joe Kent.

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Speaker 1: He served twenty years in United States Special Forces.

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Speaker 2: As a Green.

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Speaker 1: Beret, he worked with the CIA. Joe tragically lost his wife,

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Speaker 1: Shannon Marie Kent, who is killed in Syria and twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: In service to our great nation. Joe Kent has made

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Speaker 1: his entire life about serving America. More recently, he ran

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Speaker 1: for congress in Washington State's third congressional district and is

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Speaker 1: running again this twenty twenty four election cycle. The truth

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Speaker 1: is Democrat, Republican, Independent, I don't care. We would all

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Speaker 1: be extremely lucky to have Joe Kent in Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: He understands the problems we face as a nation. He

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Speaker 1: understands what it means to go to war for America.

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Speaker 1: He understands what it means to lose his friends and

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Speaker 1: people that he loves and cares about. Joe Kent has

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Speaker 1: sacrificed so much for our country. Truthfully, he's overqualified for

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Speaker 1: the job of representative, but lucky for us, he wants

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Speaker 1: to do the job. He wants to represent and serve

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Speaker 1: America once more. You should let them so I will

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Speaker 1: stop talking, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoy my

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Speaker 1: conversation with former Green Beret in US congressional candidate for

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Speaker 1: Washington State's third congressional district, Joe Kent. Joe Kent, Welcome

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Speaker 1: to battleground, man, it has been far too long. I

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Speaker 1: watched your candidacy last cycle. I was paid close attention

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Speaker 1: to it.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: I love what you stand for. In twenty years in

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Speaker 1: the Special Forces and then some more time as a

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Speaker 1: CIA guy, it seems like you've been serving your country

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Speaker 1: your entire life.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I never thought of it as a job.

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Speaker 3: I thought of it as a calling, and I really

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Speaker 3: enjoyed it. I enjoyed the people I was around, and

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Speaker 3: you know, just just like you. I'm sure I considered

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Speaker 3: my jump into the political realm unexpected but also a

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Speaker 3: continuation of service.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, man, mine was real unexpected.

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Speaker 1: I was at this service dog charity that I just

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Speaker 1: threw myself into after I got out, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been doing that for a decade, and like I

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Speaker 1: wrote writing books, and like writing fiction books, like politics

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Speaker 1: was always something that I was interested in that I

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Speaker 1: paid attention to, and I helped good candidates I thought,

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Speaker 1: and was involved at the local, state, federal level. And

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Speaker 1: then Trump came along and just called me out randomly

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Speaker 1: in western Pennsylvania, and I was like, I wasn't even there,

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Speaker 1: never met him, never.

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Speaker 2: Talked to him. The guy.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's how I got into this. This craziness

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Speaker 1: is like a complete outsider. But you're an outsider too,

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Speaker 1: and I think with that, I mean, this is this

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Speaker 1: is what I loved about This is what I love

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Speaker 1: about you and your candidacy is that you bring up

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Speaker 1: perspective that many in Washington don't have, Joe. And if

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Speaker 1: you look at the state of this country with you

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Speaker 1: know what's happening on our southern border, tidal wave of

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Speaker 1: human suffering. We just learned that the FBI was colluding

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Speaker 1: with Twitter, spying like spying on the American people, censoring

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Speaker 1: the American people with our own tax dollars. Seems like

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Speaker 1: there's a war against law enforcement in this country. Our

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Speaker 1: debt and deficit are soaring, It's never seen anything like

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Speaker 1: it before in our country. It just seems like everything's

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Speaker 1: going off the rails. What the hell do you make

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Speaker 1: of all this?

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Speaker 3: Man, It's I mean, it's just so broad, and it

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Speaker 3: seems like every day we learn more and more about

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Speaker 3: how our government not just lies to us, but in

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Speaker 3: many cases, most cases, it seems they're conspiring against the

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Speaker 3: American people. They're making a mockery of everything that you

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Speaker 3: and I fought for. And so that's I mean, that's

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Speaker 3: why I got into this, because I got just so

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Speaker 3: absolutely frustrated, and since the Biden regime really took over,

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Speaker 3: we have just seen this deliberate plan. Because I don't

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Speaker 3: think it's incompetence. Biden does a very good job of

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Speaker 3: being a goofy, senile old man slash corrupt politician, and

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Speaker 3: so it's easy to say on first pass, like, oh,

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Speaker 3: this guy's just incompetent. However, if you just look at

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Speaker 3: the I mean, we're two years into this thing now.

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Speaker 3: If you just look at what they've done. You mentioned

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Speaker 3: in the southern border, what they've done to the economy,

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Speaker 3: what they've done in the energy sector. I'll tell you

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Speaker 3: you're in Pennsylvania. I mean the way that that's just

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Speaker 3: hurting people every single day, stealing a month of their wages.

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Speaker 3: Like we are in the managed decline of our nation.

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Speaker 3: And so I feel like this is from my Green

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Speaker 3: Beret perspective, this is unconventional warfare being waged against the

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Speaker 3: American people, the American sovereign nation state.

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Speaker 1: Joe, you saw it speaking of your Green Beret experience

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Speaker 1: twenty years retired, right, retired Special Forces guy? What like,

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Speaker 1: what was the catalyst for you to join the military

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Speaker 1: in the first place.

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Speaker 3: You know, that's a really good question. I think as

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Speaker 3: long as little kids can tell their parents what they

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Speaker 3: want to be when they grow up, my answer was, like,

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Speaker 3: g I, Joe, commando something I think, you KNOWO cartoons

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Speaker 3: in the A team definitely played a factor, but it's

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Speaker 3: always what I wanted to do, which you know, growing

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Speaker 3: I grew up just across the river from where I

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Speaker 3: am now in Portland, Oregon, which most people would be like,

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Speaker 3: oh my god, you grew up in Portland, Oregon. Maybe

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Speaker 3: some of it was like the easiest way to rebel

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Speaker 3: in Portland, Oregon was to enlist in the military. So

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Speaker 3: maybe there's some of that, but I always wanted to

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Speaker 3: join the military. For me. Nineteen ninety three, the Blackhawk

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Speaker 3: Down incident, the Battle of Mogadi issue, that was sort

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Speaker 3: of like a mini nine to eleven for me because

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Speaker 3: I think cable network News had just gotten real big

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Speaker 3: and so we were That was the first like real

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Speaker 3: brutal combat that I think was really just piped into

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Speaker 3: everyone's living rooms. And I saw that, and I was

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Speaker 3: thirteen years old at the time, and I was really

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Speaker 3: interested in the military. I was reading everything about, you know,

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Speaker 3: mostly Vietnam stories of Green Bereats and seals and rangers

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Speaker 3: and all that, and so I kind of knew who

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Speaker 3: was who. And I was like, Man, these are really

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Speaker 3: young guys. These guys are probably four or five years

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Speaker 3: older than me that are out there engaged in this

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Speaker 3: just absolutely savage combat, horrific scenes of Americans getting their

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Speaker 3: bodies joke the street, and I said, like, who are

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Speaker 3: those guys? Can I go join them as soon as

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Speaker 3: I graduated, and so I talked to the recruiters and

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Speaker 3: they said, well, boy, have we got a deal for

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Speaker 3: you. You can go right right if you just signed your

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Speaker 3: name right here.

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Speaker 2: And so wait, what did they tell you? What did

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Speaker 2: the recruiters tell you?

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Speaker 3: I mean, at first they were just like, I mean,

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Speaker 3: they were really excited that someone. I mean, because it's

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Speaker 3: not easy someone in Portland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're

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Speaker 3: used to having, I think, to roll out the whole like, hey,

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Speaker 3: here's all the free college and you can go learn

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Speaker 3: a language and all this other stuff. And I was like, hey,

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Speaker 3: can I be an Infantry airborne Ranger? And you know,

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Speaker 3: they were like, get this kid a contract right now.

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Speaker 3: So at first they kind of tried to talk me

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Speaker 3: out of it because I think some of my uh my,

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Speaker 3: my recruiter is actually a really good guy. He was

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Speaker 3: like a hospital service guy, and he was like, hey,

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Speaker 3: do you know what you're what you're asking for? And

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Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, okay, here you go, man, before

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Speaker 3: you change your mind, let's uh, let's get you to

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Speaker 3: sign this thing.

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Speaker 1: They probably have a quota of one out in Portland.

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Speaker 1: He probably hit his quota with you yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he probably got promoted off the whole thing, you know. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well so so okay, so you sign up, you said

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Speaker 1: you want to go into the infantry, you want to

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Speaker 1: go to Airborne school, you want to go to ranger school.

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Speaker 1: You do you hit all those schools?

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Speaker 2: Did you go to? Did you go to basic at

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Speaker 2: Fort Betting?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Had the whole enlisted as an eleven Bravo with

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Speaker 3: a ranger contract. So did the Fort Benning Once they

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Speaker 3: unit training thing, went to Airborne School and then Ranger

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Speaker 3: and doctrination RIP at the time, I think it's called

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Speaker 3: rafts now did three years out of the Second Range

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Speaker 3: of Battalion Fort Lewis and then went to Special Forces

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Speaker 3: selection from there.

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Speaker 1: So you actually got stationed in Washington at Fort Lewis

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Speaker 1: with Second Rangers.

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Speaker 3: I did. Yeah. I mean, as you know, there's not

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Speaker 3: the Army's funny because I don't think the Army heavily

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Speaker 3: recruits out of like the West Coast or the Pacific

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Speaker 3: Northwest that much. So when I was in Ranger in

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Speaker 3: Doctor Nation in Fort Benning, Georgia, at the end of it,

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Speaker 3: when they said hey, you graduated, you made it. You're

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Speaker 3: gonna go to Ranger Regiment. There's three battalions. You can

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Speaker 3: stay here at Fort Benning, or you can go to

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Speaker 3: the beach, first Ranger Battalion, or you can go to

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Speaker 3: someplace called Fort Lewis, Washington where it rains all the time.

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Speaker 2: And so I.

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Speaker 3: Guess I just loved down a bunch of kids in

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Speaker 3: my class who were I think there was two of

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Speaker 3: us maybe that were from the West Coast, and so

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Speaker 3: we got our number one draft pick while everybody else

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Speaker 3: fought over going to the beach.

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Speaker 2: So would you so you could stay out to Fort Louisa?

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Speaker 2: Do you employ with the Rangers?

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Speaker 3: So this is pre nine to eleven. So I did

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Speaker 3: a lot of training. It's a great It's like, I

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Speaker 3: think Ranger Battalion is the best place in the in

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Speaker 3: the Army to grow up. So no, I was there

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Speaker 3: from ninety eight to oh one. I was actually in

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Speaker 3: Special Forces selection when the attacks nine to eleven happened.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, what was that?

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Speaker 3: Like? It's pretty wild, man. I mean, I you know,

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Speaker 3: I was an E four and so I thought I

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Speaker 3: knew everything, and so we were on like day two

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Speaker 3: or three selection.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm I'm the smartest guy in the world.

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Speaker 3: I've been in Ranger of Battalion for you know, in

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Speaker 3: the cadre at that Special Forces selection or they're very stoic.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of like the hallmark of that program. They

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Speaker 3: don't yell at you like they do in Ranger school

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Speaker 3: and all that. And they came into the classroom one

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Speaker 3: day after we did a ruck or a run and

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Speaker 3: they said, hey, America is under attack. And you know, me,

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Speaker 3: kind of being a smart act I'm thinking to myself,

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Speaker 3: I'm like, is there like a scenario for Special Forces Selection?

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Speaker 3: Like I thought we were just like you know, rucking

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Speaker 3: and stuff. I didn't think there was some form of

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Speaker 3: a mind game. And so they're explaining what's happening, and

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Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know, man, this seems like it's

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Speaker 3: part of the game. And then they said, hey, if

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Speaker 3: you're from Washington, DC, or you're from New York City,

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Speaker 3: you need to go into one of these offices and

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Speaker 3: call your family. And I was like, okay, this is

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Speaker 3: this is probably real. And then they let us watch

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Speaker 3: the They brought in TVs and they let us watch

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Speaker 3: the news. We had an idea of what was happening,

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Speaker 3: but the course kept rolling. So every day or every

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Speaker 3: couple of days when we were done, especially during land

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Speaker 3: nav the instructors would bring out newspapers and they were

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Speaker 3: just like, you guys, don't understand what's going on here.

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Speaker 3: You're here trying to get through this, but America has changed,

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Speaker 3: and you're gonna you're gonna when you leave Camp McCall,

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Speaker 3: you're going to enter in America that's drastically changed forever.

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Speaker 1: You know, Joe, I was. Yeah, I wasn't in the

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Speaker 1: military at the time. I was a sophomore in college,

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Speaker 1: and I think it woke up on nine to eleven

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Speaker 1: with a wicked hangover, never certain anything in my life,

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Speaker 1: didn't even know what the hell I wanted to do

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Speaker 1: with my life. And I remember seeing that and have

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Speaker 1: any special military training. I remember being afraid. I also

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Speaker 1: remember being really really angry because having grown up, grown

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Speaker 1: up in the eighties and nineties, I never thought that

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Speaker 1: anything like that could happen to our country. And even

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Speaker 1: as I lived through that as a sophomore in college,

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Speaker 1: there was an overwhelming sense of foreboding in me in

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Speaker 1: that thinking to myself that America has changed forever.

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Speaker 2: Were never going back?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, absolutely, you know, it's funny because I think

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Speaker 3: maybe just from being in the army in the late nineties,

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Speaker 3: I was actually kind of skeptical that we were going

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Speaker 3: to strike back and even do anything, because I came

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Speaker 3: in in ninety eight. I was in basic training when

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Speaker 3: Ben Laden and al Qaeda hit the embassies in Kenya

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Speaker 3: in Tanzania, and then I was in battalion when the

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Speaker 3: coal was attacked, and so I got out and then

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Speaker 3: especially we it's kind of funny. I got back from selection.

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Speaker 3: My battalion was forward deployed on training and they read

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Speaker 3: us that were on rear detachment. They read us the

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Speaker 3: op order for Objective Rhino for the jump into Afghanistan,

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Speaker 3: and so we loaded up war palettes and we all

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Speaker 3: thought we were going. And then within like a couple hours,

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Speaker 3: we heard that third Battalion, third Ranger Battalion was was

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Speaker 3: going to go to the Deed. And then we saw

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Speaker 3: it like I think a couple of days later, we

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Speaker 3: saw it on the news. And so for me, coming

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Speaker 3: out of the late nineties military, I was like, oh,

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Speaker 3: crap man, that was it. I just I missed the

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Speaker 3: Desert storm where I missed the Grenader or the Panama

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Speaker 3: of my generation, which is funny to say now that

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Speaker 3: we we just got done with twenty years of as

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Speaker 3: much war he wanted. But that was my like, my

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Speaker 3: initial thought.

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Speaker 2: I know, I was just thinking that, like, boy, boy

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Speaker 2: was that? Boy? Were you wrong about that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Because I mean, I mean, not only did you come

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Speaker 1: up during some of those crazy terrorist attacks, you lived

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Speaker 1: and served in a post nine to eleven America, and

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Speaker 1: it seems like you were part of, and I know

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Speaker 1: I was the evolution of the army from a force

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Speaker 1: that was largely structured to facing you know, conventional threats

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Speaker 1: Soviet Russia, to transition to brigade combat teams and counterinsurgency.

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Speaker 1: And that's what we did in Afghanistan and Iraq for

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Speaker 1: twenty freaking years.

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Speaker 2: And you know.

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Speaker 1: So so okay, so you're in you're in s Fas

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Speaker 1: you graduate, what Special Forces team were you assigned to?

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Speaker 3: So I went to fifth Group. I was lucky enough

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Speaker 3: to go to a dive team right away, So yeah,

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Speaker 3: really lucked out there. I actually went to pre scoop

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Speaker 3: and when I was still in Ranger Battalion, so I

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Speaker 3: kind of had that little leg up coming out of

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Speaker 3: the Q course to get me on a dive team.

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Speaker 3: Right away. But you know, it's funny because I was

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Speaker 3: at the Special Forces course takes so long. I was

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Speaker 3: a weapons guy. I didn't recycle, and it was still

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Speaker 3: and I had a six month language so it was

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Speaker 3: a year and a half, and I missed the initial

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Speaker 3: kickoff of the Iraq War, and so I was I

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Speaker 3: was certain. I was like, dude, I just I missed

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Speaker 3: the jump into Afghanistan. I missed the ground war. Like

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Speaker 3: I'm a loser, I'm never going to combat. But that

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Speaker 3: was quickly right when I got back to fifth Right

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Speaker 3: when I got to fifth Group, and these guys had

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Speaker 3: just gotten done. You know, these are the men on

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Speaker 3: horseback in Afghanistan. They just did the ground invasion of Iraq.

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Speaker 3: But right when I got there, my team sergeant was like, hey,

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Speaker 3: this is not going to be done any time soon.

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Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, we're going back in a

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Speaker 3: couple of months and we're going to go after all

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Speaker 3: these hvts. But then we're also going to have to

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Speaker 3: do probably some unconventional warfare starts standing up the new

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Speaker 3: Iraqi military. So I as much as at the time

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Speaker 3: I thought I had missed it, I got there at

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Speaker 3: a perfect time.

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Speaker 2: What year did you end up going.

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Speaker 3: I got there in two thousand and three and then

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Speaker 3: deployed right afterwards. So by the summer of O three,

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Speaker 3: I was over in Iraq.

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Speaker 1: So when you were in Iraq in those early days,

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Speaker 1: was your mission largely kinetic? Were you largely going after

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Speaker 1: high value targets?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I had an amazing mix. So my team and

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Speaker 3: I went to We were a direct action team. That's

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Speaker 3: because like the typical Special Forces configuration, there's a company

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Speaker 3: that specializes in direct action. Those guys got put on

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Speaker 3: a reserve status for some reason the sentcom commander, I

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Speaker 3: don't know why. He wanted them to go sit I

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Speaker 3: think somewhere in the Gulf. And so my team and

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Speaker 3: another team got the minute for I go that, Hey,

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Speaker 3: you guys are kicking indoors until otherwise notified, which was

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Speaker 3: a good deal for me coming out of Ranger Battalion

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Speaker 3: because I was like, actually, I could do that, so cool.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, we initially got a sign to go after

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Speaker 3: the famous Deck of Cards and we did that for

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Speaker 3: the first couple of months. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 3: when I was flying over to Iraq, the team that

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Speaker 3: we were going to replace, they went after the un bombers.

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Speaker 3: So its oar Cowie's debut when he blew up the

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Speaker 3: UN headquarters. I got there and literally the team that

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Speaker 3: were replacing it, and they lost two guys tragically, Bill

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Speaker 3: Bennett and Kevin moorehead and they're they're washing the blood

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Speaker 3: out of the trucks they're handing to us as they

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Speaker 3: as they take off and head home.

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Speaker 2: What was that like? It was wild?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I was lucky because I had trained for

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Speaker 3: combat for so long in Ranger BATTALN what felt like

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Speaker 3: so long to me as a twenty three year old,

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Speaker 3: but I felt like I was I was ready. But

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Speaker 3: it was still pretty surreal. I mean, especially arriving and

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Speaker 3: relieving a team that had just lost two very senior

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Speaker 3: members in a very bloody gunfight. It was like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: this is this is real, and we're going back out

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Speaker 3: there and we're going to get our piece of this

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Speaker 3: and we better be on our a game or they're

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Speaker 3: going to get us.

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Speaker 1: I mean, did you get a sense that the enemy

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Speaker 1: had evolved to your tactics, techniques and procedures almost immediately

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Speaker 1: as you were operating. Did you have to evolve those

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Speaker 1: as the fight wre on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we certainly did three and O four. I think

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Speaker 3: the especially the Iraqi insurgency, they really showed how adaptive

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Speaker 3: they are. At first, I mean there was the old

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Speaker 3: Saddam pulledouts, and there was some you know, initial al

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Speaker 3: Qaeda guys, and it wasn't very organized, but in very

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Speaker 3: short order they realized that, hey, we don't want to

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Speaker 3: stand and fight the Americans. However, these guys are driving

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Speaker 3: everywhere because Iraq, you know, you can drive on the

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Speaker 3: roads in Iraq, and so their ied game. I just

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Speaker 3: remember watching that thing evolve. I mean, initially, some of

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Speaker 3: the IED's that we were facing they were just not

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Speaker 3: very well shaped and so they would just kind of

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Speaker 3: blow up and they wouldn't really hit anybody. We were

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Speaker 3: lucky because we were using a lot of non standard vehicles,

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Speaker 3: so we would blend in with a lot of the

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Speaker 3: Iraqi traffic. And unfortunately the conventional guys in the massive

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Speaker 3: convoys they were they seemed to be the testing bed

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Speaker 3: for the Iraqi i ed e FP machine. So watching

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Speaker 3: them involved in that. But then they also really dangerously

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Speaker 3: adapted to the way that we did our raids. They

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Speaker 3: knew that we were aggressive and we liked to go

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Speaker 3: in and kick indoors and get after them. And it

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Speaker 3: wasn't too long before they were luring us into into

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Speaker 3: houses and then you know, blowing up the house on us.

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Speaker 2: So did that ever happen to you?

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Speaker 3: That never? Luckily never happened to me. We avoided it

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Speaker 3: a couple of times because of really spot on intelligence,

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Speaker 3: because we knew what to look for. But yeah, I

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Speaker 3: lost friends that way, just going out. I mean, they

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Speaker 3: were doing what we were trained to do, which is

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Speaker 3: go be aggressive, you know, eliminate, dominate, control, get in there,

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Speaker 3: you know, but the the the insurgents really adapted to that.

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Speaker 3: So I lost two really good friends essentially in you know,

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Speaker 3: house born I ed, as we'd call them, or a

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Speaker 3: suicide bomber, just deliberately waiting to bait an assault force

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Speaker 3: into a room to blow himself up.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so I'm sitting here thinking, having had similar

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Speaker 1: experiences in my life, you know, these are the experiences

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Speaker 1: that shaped you as essentially a young American.

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Speaker 2: I lived through the Iraq War. When did you meet Shannon?

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Speaker 3: We didn't meet until much later. So we met initially

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Speaker 3: for ten minutes in two thousand and seven at the

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Speaker 3: at the embassy in Baghdad, and then I didn't see

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Speaker 3: her again until twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 2: So so did she.

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Speaker 1: Was she deploying at the same time, like in two

401
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Speaker 1: thousand and three, round the same time that you were,

402
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Speaker 1: and you were just deployed to the same areas of

403
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Speaker 1: operation but just never crossed paths.

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Speaker 3: She joined the military in three. I'm like three or

405
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Speaker 3: four years older than she was, so she joined in three.

406
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Speaker 3: She was Arabic linguist, so it took her a while

407
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Speaker 3: to get through training and learn the Arabic language. Her

408
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Speaker 3: first deployment, I think was about two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 3: I met her on her first deployment real briefly. I

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Speaker 3: sat it in on a briefing she was giving on

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Speaker 3: you know, where some bad guys were located. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: we were in the same area as we were in

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Speaker 3: Baghdad a lot at the same times. Together. We knew

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Speaker 3: a lot of the same same people throughout the years.

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Speaker 2: That's that's crazy. That's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel like now, looking back, I mean, hindsight's

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Speaker 1: always twenty twenty. Do you feel like your time in

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Speaker 1: Iraq or deployed all around the world, really do you

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Speaker 1: feel like it was worth it?

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Speaker 3: I mean, for me, personally, like I wouldn't have done

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Speaker 3: anything different as a young man, Like our country was

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Speaker 3: going to send somebody off to war. I'm sure you

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Speaker 3: probably feel the same way, like if someone's going like

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Speaker 3: we're going. You know, however, looking back, like objectively, when

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Speaker 3: you step out and you say, was this worth it

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Speaker 3: for America to spend you know, I think eight trillion

427
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Speaker 3: dollars and for us to lose you know, probably about

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Speaker 3: eight thousand lives and then just just to have catastrophic

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Speaker 3: results throughout the region, was it worth it? Absolutely not.

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Speaker 3: I Mean, this is why I'm so adamant that we

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Speaker 3: have responsible, sober leadership in Washington, DC, especially when it

432
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Speaker 3: comes to how our nation uses force and like if

433
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Speaker 3: are we going to go to war, what is the

434
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Speaker 3: actual goal? I don't know how you feel, but when

435
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Speaker 3: when I was over there, I had even as a

436
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Speaker 3: very young guy. I remember on my first deployment, we

437
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Speaker 3: did the kinetic direct action thing for a while, and

438
00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:25,040
Speaker 3: then we got tasked with standing up the Iraqi military,

439
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 3: and so we took a bunch of the anti Saddam

440
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 3: militias and we essentially demobilized them and formed them into

441
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,679
Speaker 3: one force. The Kurds were kind of the backbone of that.

442
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,040
Speaker 3: But I remember demobilizing some of the Shia militias and

443
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,320
Speaker 3: these guys had blatant ties to Iran, and I was like, man,

444
00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:41,479
Speaker 3: this doesn't seem like the greatest idea. And then we

445
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,879
Speaker 3: heard that Paul Brimmer put out CPA Order one and

446
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 3: he fired all the soonies. Basically he said, if you

447
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 3: had anything to do with the Bath Party, you're fired.

448
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:50,280
Speaker 3: You can never work again. And I remember like my

449
00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:53,240
Speaker 3: team talking about this, and my captain at the time,

450
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 3: who was the most senior guy, he sent up a

451
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,399
Speaker 3: report that was like, we think this is a terrible idea,

452
00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:00,360
Speaker 3: just common sense wise, if you fired all of us

453
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,880
Speaker 3: back home, you know, and that's kind of a dangerous

454
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,159
Speaker 3: thing to do. But you know, at the time, in

455
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:06,560
Speaker 3: the back of my head, I was like, you know,

456
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,080
Speaker 3: I bet there's some generals or there's some like CIA

457
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,920
Speaker 3: guys that have like a plan that just doesn't make

458
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 3: sense to twenty three year old sergeant.

459
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:14,480
Speaker 2: Can't down here.

460
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 3: I'm just do my thing. And you know, the more

461
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,719
Speaker 3: I tried to do that as the years went on,

462
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,399
Speaker 3: I was like, this is ridiculous, Like we need sober

463
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:23,399
Speaker 3: leadership in Washington.

464
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:23,639
Speaker 1: D c.

465
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:25,720
Speaker 3: I need someone to come explain to me what the

466
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:26,920
Speaker 3: actual goal is here.

467
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,679
Speaker 1: And that's the thing that drives me crazy about the wars.

468
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: And by the way, I agree with you. I look

469
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 1: back at my time in Afghanistan. I mean I wasn't

470
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,919
Speaker 1: a Special Forces guy, didn't have multiple deployment. It's just

471
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,080
Speaker 1: one really, really long, horrible deployment and that was enough

472
00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:42,359
Speaker 1: for me.

473
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:42,919
Speaker 2: I was.

474
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing about it, Joe is, I intended

475
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: to go in and make it a career. And my

476
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,040
Speaker 1: path was I wanted to be a young light Infantry lieutenant.

477
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,880
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to Special Forces assessment in selection,

478
00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:57,960
Speaker 1: be a Special Forces guy, do all that stuff. I

479
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 1: year and a half sixteen on of combat, I was like, yeah,

480
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 1: well my nine lives are up, Like.

481
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 2: I kind of find something else to do.

482
00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 1: And the reality was, Joe Is, I felt like I

483
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 1: came back from Afghanistan it was just I mean, one

484
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 1: direct fire after the next, it just it was emotionally

485
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: physically exhausting. And I remember talking to my commander about

486
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: it and just said, I just can't do it. I

487
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: don't think that I have what it takes anymore to lead,

488
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,480
Speaker 1: you know. I had gotten back home. I had had

489
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 1: a taste of what being home meant, and I just

490
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: didn't think I could ever go back. And so that's

491
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 1: why guys like you never ceased to amaze me, because

492
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,160
Speaker 1: you did. You did go back, and you went back

493
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,040
Speaker 1: multiple times. And the fact of the matter is is

494
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 1: that a very small percentage of Americans, like what is

495
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 1: a point four percent, had less than half of one percent,

496
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:48,880
Speaker 1: have served this country during the longest period of war

497
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 1: in our nation's history. And that's half of one percent

498
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:58,919
Speaker 1: bore a very very heavy burden, and you know, sacrificed

499
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 1: for the country in ways of which most Americans can

500
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:07,439
Speaker 1: never fully and truly understand. And looking back on the

501
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,919
Speaker 1: war and the fight, am I proud of my service. Absolutely.

502
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 1: I volunteered to do it. I would do it again

503
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,960
Speaker 1: in a heartbeat. I am not a victim of my

504
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 1: service in any way.

505
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:17,239
Speaker 2: I loved it.

506
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 1: But we did lots of great things in Afghanistan. Taught

507
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,879
Speaker 1: little girls how to read, great lots of humanitarian assistants,

508
00:23:25,119 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: you know, built wells and schools, and killed lots of

509
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: bad guys too.

510
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 2: But how could.

511
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:37,119
Speaker 1: We possibly say that our time in Afghanistan was was

512
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,439
Speaker 1: well spent? After twenty plus years after the withdrawal that

513
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: we saw last year. I mean, to your point, to

514
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: your point, there's got to be some somebody that's way

515
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 1: smarter than me, some general somewhere that that's thinking about.

516
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:52,120
Speaker 2: All this stuff.

517
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna focus on kicking doors, but I know

518
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: that there's somebody out there thinking about this stuff.

519
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,560
Speaker 2: But clearly they weren't. They weren't.

520
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 3: No, they weren't. I mean that was for me. I

521
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,920
Speaker 3: always kind of wondered my you know, I wondered why

522
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,160
Speaker 3: we fired all the Suniors in Iraq. But I also

523
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,439
Speaker 3: thought it was weird that we kept building these bigger bases.

524
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,160
Speaker 3: I remember thinking at three and four because our team

525
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 3: house was, you know, fairly austere. We weren't like building

526
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,360
Speaker 3: it out constantly. We worried about security. But I looked

527
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 3: at like all the megaf fobs, the forward operating bases

528
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 3: and the garrisons that we were building there, and I

529
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,680
Speaker 3: was like, hmm, that's really weird, Like what's going on here?

530
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:28,920
Speaker 3: I thought we were just going to get in, take

531
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 3: out Saddam, give the Iraqis their freedom and kind of

532
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:33,200
Speaker 3: get out of here, Like what are we in the

533
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 3: same thing in Afghanistan, like what are we doing here?

534
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 3: And after a while I was like, oh, wait a sec.

535
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 3: The only place where there's any kind of plan is

536
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,479
Speaker 3: to stay and to always apply more and more and

537
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 3: more and more and more. And that to me, after

538
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 3: a while, that seemed to be the only consistent theme.

539
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,440
Speaker 3: The consistent theme was continue to pour more resources into

540
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 3: these places. Don't worry about what we the people, what

541
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 3: America is getting back in return. And I just I

542
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 3: just found that absolutely disgraceful. And you know, we saw

543
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 3: it all come imploding the way that we left Afghanistan.

544
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,440
Speaker 3: We kind of got off easy. We got a little

545
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 3: bit lucky in Iraq, I think as far as politically

546
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 3: because the surge. I don't I could go on about

547
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 3: the surge for quite a while, but the Iraqis had

548
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 3: kind of in their civil war, had really kind of

549
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 3: warn each other out. But the Shias with Iran, they

550
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,399
Speaker 3: had gained such an advantage that they let us just

551
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 3: sort of leave without a bloody nose in twenty eleven.

552
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 3: Now we all watched it implode a couple years later,

553
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 3: and we had to come riding back in to save

554
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 3: this government that didn't really even exist because they all

555
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 3: surrender their weapons to ISIS. We had to come back,

556
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:35,400
Speaker 3: and we're still over there, and then we just watched

557
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 3: Afghanistan implode, and it's like we're still trusting the exact

558
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:44,480
Speaker 3: same cadre of people in Washington, DC to regulate foreign policy,

559
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 3: and now they're telling us that, hey, we need to

560
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,199
Speaker 3: go provoke Russia in Ukraine. Like it's just it's kind

561
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 3: of like when does the madness actually end?

562
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 2: Oh?

563
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 1: I mean, look, so you have first so you're absolutely right.

564
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: Let me talk about the surge for.

565
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 2: A second year.

566
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: So just to give you a perspective of what was

567
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: happening for me, Like I was in Afghanistan in two

568
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: thousand and six to two thousands, We're supposed to go

569
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,879
Speaker 1: home in January two thousand and seven, surge happened. We

570
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:10,159
Speaker 1: actually were replaced. I had many of my soldiers in

571
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 1: various stages of redeployment. So I ended up being the

572
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: last guy with Michaeltoon, sergeant on the base in Afghanistan

573
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:17,920
Speaker 1: for the rip the relief in place of the eighty

574
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: second Airborne who were coming in to replace us in

575
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 1: Regional Command East and Burmel Afghanistan and FAB Burmel and

576
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: two days before we were supposed to come home, we

577
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: got extended I don't know where. And again my men

578
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 1: had already deployed home, they had already linked up with

579
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: their with their spouses, their children, reunited with families, and

580
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: we got hey, four months are until mission complete.

581
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 2: And of course the private mafia.

582
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 1: They get they see the until mission complete and they're like,

583
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: oh God, we're gonna be here forever. They're gonna leave

584
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: us here for a year. And I have to admit,

585
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: as a young first lieutenant who really didn't know a

586
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: whole hell of a lot about the military, I started

587
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:00,639
Speaker 1: thinking like, well, the until mission can pleet thing is

588
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: kind of scary, and come to find out later, come

589
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: to find out later, So we did have to stay

590
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 1: for four months, and we had to go through a

591
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: whole nother spring offensive and ended up being there for

592
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: sixteen months in in RC East Afghanistan. But I say

593
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,880
Speaker 1: that to say, like they there was simply no one

594
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: to replace us, because they had sent all of our

595
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: replacements to Iraq and support of the surge. And I

596
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:26,199
Speaker 1: mean literally, we did not have the troops to replace

597
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 1: us in Afghanistan. So to you, to your point, no

598
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: one's thinking about this stuff man, and like you look

599
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: at what's happening. We still have Americans on the ground

600
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan right now that are probably trapped, can't get

601
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:44,640
Speaker 1: out yet. The war. These these warmongers in Washington, these

602
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:50,919
Speaker 1: politicians who who think about sending America's sons and daughters

603
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:53,239
Speaker 1: into the fight first without thinking of, you know, the

604
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: consequences of what that will look like, what the mission is,

605
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: what the end state is, what does victory look like,

606
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,199
Speaker 1: how is victory defined? And when do we leave? And

607
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: what does that look like for America? Or even just

608
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: the overall question, Joe of is this in America's best interest?

609
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,640
Speaker 1: Does this actually protect us? And you talked about Ukraine.

610
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: This is what obsessed it. Like here we are already

611
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 1: ready to transition to another fight, another war, only this

612
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 1: time it's it's in many ways, it's vastly different than

613
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,120
Speaker 1: Iraq in Afghanistan, but similar in a lot of ways too.

614
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: But you add to the fact that Russia is a

615
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: nuclear power. The Biden's had this weird, strange relationship with Ukraine.

616
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 1: It frankly feels like a money moneylaundering operation. And we're

617
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: just coming off twenty years of war and it feels

618
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: like to me, Joe, that we're just making the same mistakes,

619
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: rushing headlong into the fight with actually thinking it through.

620
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: And so, Joe, this is like getting to this is

621
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: why it's so important for guys like you to run,

622
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: you know, It's why it's so important for guys who've

623
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 1: seen the horror of war up close and personal and

624
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: sacrificed to get an office and help make these decisions.

625
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 2: Yeah.

626
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean, especially with Congress. I mean, I think

627
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 3: over the global War on tear, Congress did a very

628
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 3: terrible job of providing any kind of oversight or real

629
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 3: even following in the Constitution. Yeah, there was the initial

630
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 3: authorization use of military forces at the very beginning, but

631
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 3: then we just let the warrantary expand to include you know,

632
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 3: expanding back here at home with the Patriot Act. But

633
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 3: just exactly we would continue to let the president choose

634
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 3: a new war and use the same old, tired authorization

635
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 3: use of military force and not make the president come

636
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 3: to the table and say, hey, guys, this is why

637
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 3: we need to go to Libya, this is why we

638
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 3: need to go to right do you agree? How do

639
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 3: your constituents feel about it? Congress? I mean the founders

640
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 3: were geniuses. The founders didn't want the executive branch to

641
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 3: have control over war. They wanted the representatives to go

642
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 3: back and say, hey, are you guys in for this?

643
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 3: Are you going to send your sons and daughters? Are

644
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 3: you going to send your taxpayer dollars over to country

645
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 3: X to fight a war? And we're not doing that,

646
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,000
Speaker 3: We're not learning from the last twenty years. And like

647
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 3: you said, we got out of Afghanistan in a disastrous

648
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 3: way in August of twenty one, and within a month

649
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 3: or two we are being told that, hey, like things

650
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 3: are getting bad over in Ukraine, like we really need

651
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 3: to pay attention to that. And then sure enough, you know,

652
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 3: Russia tragically invades Ukraine and the exact same tired lines

653
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 3: to justify war escalation or being used like this is

654
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 3: an existential threat to the whole world. If you're not,

655
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 3: if you're not with the war party, then you're with Putin.

656
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 3: It's the exact same thing they were saying in the

657
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 3: lead up to the Iraq war. You're either with us

658
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 3: or you're with the terrorists. It's like we got to

659
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 3: have some pattern recognition and say, hey, the last time Washington,

660
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 3: DC came to us and just told us to blindly

661
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 3: sign off on the checks. What happened. I mean, it's

662
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 3: a very fair question for people to ask. And this

663
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 3: is where I think we need representatives and to include

664
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,959
Speaker 3: I know, I have some friends that are Republicans that say, hey,

665
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 3: we do need to be all in, you know, standing

666
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 3: up to putin. That's fine, Let's have that debate on

667
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 3: the floor of Congress. Let's go back and have to

668
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 3: stand in town halls before our people and say like,

669
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 3: how do you guys feel about this right now? State

670
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 3: of our country with us going over there and potentially,

671
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 3: like you said, I mean, yeah, it's a war. It's

672
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 3: a fight. We're kind of doing it through proxies. But

673
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 3: if things go wrong, it's not going to be just

674
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 3: an Afghan collapse. It's not going to be Isis rolling

675
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 3: across the burm and taking back you know, over Iraq.

676
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 3: This isn't the Middle East, this is Europe. This is

677
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 3: a nuclear power. We haven't dealt with this since the

678
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 3: Cold War. It's very dangerous.

679
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you talk about you know, first of all,

680
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: that debate on the House floor about about the conflict

681
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: and how whether or not America should fight it in

682
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: the first place, and what the mission is and all

683
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 1: of that. The American people deserve that dialogue. And I

684
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: don't care what political party you're in, Republican, Democrat, Independent,

685
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 1: are there. I don't care if we're going to send

686
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 1: America's sons and daughters to go fight, bleed and die

687
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: in a fight, and then, by the way, come home

688
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: and struggle, because as you and I both know, the

689
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: war doesn't end when you're over there and when you

690
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: come home. There are long standing consequences to sending our

691
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 1: citizens to fight. And the American people deserve that debate.

692
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: And it's you you have all you understand because you've

693
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 1: been You've seen the horrors of war personally. And Joe,

694
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: you lost your spouse, Shannon, who who also volunteered to

695
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: serve this country after nine to eleven, loved this country.

696
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: You celebrate her legacy all the time, but you lost

697
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 1: her as part of this fight. And I know for me,

698
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: you know, when I came back from Afghanistan, I was wounded,

699
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: and so I began the medical retirement process, but they

700
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 1: made me the rear detachment commander of second Battalion, eighty

701
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: seventh the Viture Regiment and it was. It was by

702
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 1: far one hundred times worse than combat because I had

703
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 1: to take care of wounded guys coming home. I had

704
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: to train up young soldiers to go over there, and

705
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: I also had to be that knock on the door

706
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: when families lost loved ones, and it was the worst.

707
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 2: It was. It was.

708
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: It was an extraordinarily tough job. But Joe, you you

709
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: lived through that too. You've seen both sides of this fight.

710
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: I what was help the people that are watching this understand,

711
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: you know what that knock on the door was like

712
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: for you.

713
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of had an unconventional knock on the door.

714
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 3: I was actually deployed at the same time. I wasn't

715
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 3: Shannon was deployed to Syria. I was on a shorter

716
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,479
Speaker 3: trip over to Africa. I had retired from the military.

717
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 3: I was in the CIA at the time, but I

718
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 3: actually had been out, you know, doing some stuff. That day.

719
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 3: I came back and a good friend of mine who

720
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 3: I was in Special Forces with and he had made

721
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:34,239
Speaker 3: the transition over to the CIA as well, he said, Hey,

722
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 3: I need to talk to you and kind of like

723
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 3: had everybody leave the room. So I, you know, I

724
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 3: didn't know what it was about, and he said, Hey,

725
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 3: I'm just going to tell you exactly what I know

726
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 3: right now. And we there was a suicide bomber in

727
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 3: man Badge, Syria, and there's two US females that are

728
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 3: that are killed in action, and so we don't know

729
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 3: their names yet. And I was like, okay, well, I

730
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 3: knew Shannon was in man Bidge, and there's not a

731
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 3: lot of women in this occupation. So I spent the

732
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 3: next couple hours just trying to get a hold of her.

733
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 3: But by you know, by the time I realized that

734
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 3: she wasn't answering, we had confirmation that she was, you know,

735
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:11,920
Speaker 3: killed in action. So then I, unfortunately I had to

736
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 3: make some really hard phone calls. I had to. I

737
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,280
Speaker 3: wanted to tell her parents before the Navy drove somebody

738
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 3: out to knock on on their door as well. So

739
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 3: I called Shannon's mom to let her know what was

740
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 3: what happened and what was about to happen, that that

741
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 3: Shannon had been killed and that someone was going to

742
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,160
Speaker 3: come and knock on her door and formally tell her.

743
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 3: And then from there it was a I got got

744
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 3: on an airplane the next morning and flew home so

745
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:39,760
Speaker 3: that I could be at Dover in time to receive

746
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:40,400
Speaker 3: her remains.

747
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 2: So what was that like to have to have that

748
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 2: conversation with her parents?

749
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:50,360
Speaker 3: Hard? It's I mean, I was still processing what happened.

750
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 3: I think just the training and the conditioning of having

751
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,719
Speaker 3: to deal with casualties for at that point, you know,

752
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 3: almost twenty years kind of took over and so I

753
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 3: really didn't process a lot of it until days later.

754
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 3: But it was very difficult. I knew. I remember sitting there,

755
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,359
Speaker 3: like looking at my phone. I'm like, Okay, I can

756
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 3: call her and I can tell her over the phone,

757
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 3: which is probably one of the worst ways she can

758
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 3: find out about this, or she can get blindsided by

759
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 3: they live kind of out and rule New York, New

760
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 3: York State. I'm like, or whatever Navy guy gets tasked

761
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 3: to drive from I don't know, New York City from

762
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:26,800
Speaker 3: Albany out there to go knock on her door is

763
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 3: going to be a stranger is going to have to

764
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 3: tell her. And so for me, I was like, it's

765
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 3: it's best that I give her a call and let

766
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,240
Speaker 3: her know personally. But yeah, it was. It was probably

767
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 3: the hardest phone call I'll ever have to make.

768
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,879
Speaker 1: I can't imagine Joe, and I'm sorry that you even

769
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: had to make it. How how'd your I mean, of course,

770
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: how have your children been able to process this?

771
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's hard. I mean they were one

772
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 3: in three when they're five and seven now, they were

773
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 3: one in three when she was killed. So, you know,

774
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 3: I came home and I actually talked to some child psychologists,

775
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,360
Speaker 3: some grief specialists, just just to good advice because I

776
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 3: didn't the only training I had was how to tell

777
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 3: you know, a soldier or a spouse, you know, like

778
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 3: that their loved one had been killed. I had no

779
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 3: idea how to deliver that news relate to my kids.

780
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 3: And you know, they gave me some pretty good advice

781
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 3: about just hey, kids, there's not a lot left for

782
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 3: any window of children, so you actually have to be

783
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,360
Speaker 3: pretty blunt with them. And so I just had to

784
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 3: tell them that, you know, their mom was killed and

785
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 3: she's not coming home, which you know, they they didn't obviously,

786
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 3: they are one in three of The one year old

787
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 3: especially didn't. He couldn't fully process any of that. The

788
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 3: three year old, he you know, he didn't quite understand

789
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 3: that either. So we kind of go through that, you know,

790
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,319
Speaker 3: sort of continuously that she's she's still with us, she's

791
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 3: in heaven, she loves us, you can see us, You're

792
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 3: going to see her again, but she's not here. And

793
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 3: so I think that they, now that they're getting older,

794
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:54,879
Speaker 3: they understand the permanence of death, and in a way

795
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 3: that I think most adults don't fully understand until they're

796
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:58,800
Speaker 3: until they're much older.

797
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 1: Joe, you've just been through so much, you know, serving

798
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:11,879
Speaker 1: this country and losing your spouse in support of this

799
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 1: great country, and in the service of this great country,

800
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 1: and lost friends obviously over twenty years of war. So

801
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:24,320
Speaker 1: why serve again?

802
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 2: Why?

803
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:26,719
Speaker 3: Yeah?

804
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 2: Why you went for Congress?

805
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that. That's that's the question. I mean. I

806
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 3: I thought, once I was out of the military, and

807
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:35,839
Speaker 3: once I was out of the CIAF for Sham was killed,

808
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,919
Speaker 3: that was I was going to need to take a really,

809
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,919
Speaker 3: really long pause and just really focus on the kids.

810
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 3: So I was living we were living on the East

811
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 3: coast in the DC area. I moved back here to

812
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 3: the Pacific Northwest, and I kind of thought that'd be it.

813
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 3: I had an opportunity to meet President Trump at Dover,

814
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 3: and I was a pretty early supporter of President Trump

815
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 3: because of his foreign policy stances. He won me over

816
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,720
Speaker 3: when he went after the Republican establishment, because after Bush

817
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 3: and Obama, I was like, man, the UNI Party is

818
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 3: a very real thing and it doesn't really matter for

819
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 3: Republican or a Democrat.

820
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:05,279
Speaker 2: And I do set with you.

821
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I didn't know anything about Trump other than

822
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:09,880
Speaker 3: like he was on a TV show or whatever, and

823
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,000
Speaker 3: so I didn't take him very seriously. I told the debates,

824
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:13,839
Speaker 3: and when he went after Jeb Bush and he went

825
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:15,759
Speaker 3: after the Iraq War, I was like, I'm voting for

826
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:17,719
Speaker 3: this guy. He's got me one hundred percent. And then

827
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 3: deploying with him as commander in chief and so and

828
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,320
Speaker 3: you know that for folks who don't know. Shannon was

829
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 3: killed a month after Trump attempted to get our troops

830
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,239
Speaker 3: out of Syria the first time. So we met our

831
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 3: mission objective. The stated objective of our troops being in

832
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 3: Syria was to eliminate the Islamic Caliphate. We took out

833
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,720
Speaker 3: the last scrap of ground that isis controlled in December

834
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 3: of twenty eighteen, and that's when Trump famously, you know,

835
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 3: he tweeted it, but he also put out orders saying

836
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 3: we're getting our troops out of Syria because he ran

837
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 3: on this. He was like, Hey, I'm going to crush Isis,

838
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 3: but then we're not staying, We're getting out of the

839
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 3: Middle East. And that's when Secretary of Defense Mattis Brett

840
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 3: mcgrig and the State Department did their public resignations. And

841
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:57,319
Speaker 3: I was talking with Shannon this entire time. They had

842
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 3: orders to be out of Syria by Christmas Eve of eighteen.

843
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 3: They were going to fly to reveal Iraq, a much

844
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 3: safer location and kind of start to retrograde from there. However,

845
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 3: I was very skeptical. I was like, the machinery, the apparatus,

846
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 3: They're going to do everything they can to have us

847
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 3: stay in Syria and expand the war. And sure enough,

848
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 3: you know that that date came and went, and then

849
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:23,479
Speaker 3: a month later they were in Syria, out there in Harmon.

850
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,879
Speaker 3: Look serious, that part of series is probably always going

851
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 3: to be dangerous, and so they were out there, I think,

852
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 3: doing a mission they didn't need to be doing. They

853
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 3: were they were doing their duty as soldiers, sailors, airmen,

854
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,719
Speaker 3: and marines, and they were they were killed doing it.

855
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 3: And so it had the unelected bureaucrats actually listened to

856
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 3: President Trump, my wife and the three other Americans that

857
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 3: she was killed with. She was killed with three other

858
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 3: Americans that day, John Farmer, a Green Beret father of four,

859
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:52,839
Speaker 3: Scott Wartz, a former Navy seal, gadirta Syrian American. Like these,

860
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 3: it's four lives that were absolutely unnecessarily lost had Trump's

861
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 3: orders been followed. And so when I got the opportunity

862
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 3: to meet Trump at Dope over, I just said, hey,

863
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 3: look you, mister President, I appreciate being here. You don't

864
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 3: know me, but I've been fighting these worse for twenty years.

865
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 3: You're getting it right, but you're being undermined at the

866
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 3: mid to senior levels in ways that I've never seen before.

867
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 3: And I just want you to know that your gut

868
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 3: instincts are right and we appreciate what you're doing, but

869
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 3: don't trust the people around you.

870
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 1: And that was kind of the beginning of what did

871
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: President Trump say to you?

872
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,280
Speaker 3: You know, he's you've met with President Trump? And he

873
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 3: kind of he looked at me and he was like,

874
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 3: what do you do again? And I told him, I

875
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 3: was like, hey, you know, I work over at the CIA.

876
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 3: I'm working at the CIA, but I'm resigning. I was

877
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 3: a Green Beret for twenty plus years, and he just

878
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 3: kind of nodded his head. I mean, he was very,

879
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 3: very compassionate. He had done research on Shannon, he knew

880
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,879
Speaker 3: who she was. And then his folks reached back out

881
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 3: to be Trump's national security team reached out to me

882
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:48,839
Speaker 3: about two weeks later, and they said, Hey, we don't

883
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 3: know exactly what you said to the Boss, but he

884
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 3: wants to hear more. Will you come back out and

885
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 3: talk with us? And I said yeah, I mean, if

886
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 3: you guys want to hear what I had to say, sure, absolutely,

887
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 3: And so I kind of started a relationship with the

888
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,839
Speaker 3: Trump administration, got to speak quite a bit of Jared

889
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 3: Kushner about foreign policy, and so I was going to

890
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 3: go back and work in a second Trump admin worked

891
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:11,000
Speaker 3: a little bit on the Trump campaign. So my view

892
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 3: at the time was like, Hey, if these guys think

893
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 3: I can be value added and they're trying to do

894
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 3: things differently, I'm all in. I'll do whatever I can.

895
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 3: And then obviously the twenty twenty election went the way

896
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 3: went the way that it did, and then the district

897
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 3: that I was living in, we had the whole Antifa thing,

898
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 3: the rioting going on, It just seemed like the world

899
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 3: was imploding, COVID lockdowns, and so I was like, I'm

900
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 3: going to step forward and try and provide some leadership

901
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 3: right now, because for me, it's like the stakes are

902
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 3: too high. My family, my kids have already lost so

903
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 3: much that if we lose the country in this process,

904
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be able to look my kids

905
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,160
Speaker 3: in the eye and say like, hey, America used to

906
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 3: be pretty great, but then we all kind of got

907
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 3: tired and we stopped fighting for it and we let

908
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,919
Speaker 3: these people take over. So we're not going down without

909
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:52,800
Speaker 3: a fight. And I think the country is one hundred

910
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 3: percent still. We're the last salvation for humanity, and so

911
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 3: we have to continue this fight. That's the way I

912
00:41:58,360 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 3: look at it.

913
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:03,959
Speaker 1: There's nowhere to go. Freedom's last stand has to happen here.

914
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,800
Speaker 1: And you know what I admired about President Trump is

915
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,959
Speaker 1: his ability to resist Washington group think.

916
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,240
Speaker 2: And it amazes me when you're in.

917
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,759
Speaker 1: That town how people on either side of the aisle.

918
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,359
Speaker 1: The Union Party is really a thing. And you hear

919
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 1: people talk about the deep state and whatever, but there

920
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:30,120
Speaker 1: are unelected bureaucrats that, especially during President Trump's administration who

921
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:34,080
Speaker 1: worked at every every step of the way, worked at

922
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: every step of the way to undermine his agenda, you know,

923
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:42,720
Speaker 1: And that's why this country needs people like you, Joe,

924
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 1: and the really and when you stood back up to

925
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:54,920
Speaker 1: run again. Obviously, twenty twenty two was a tough cycle.

926
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to lose a congressional campaign,

927
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: lose a congressional cam pagn with air quotes because you know,

928
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:05,760
Speaker 1: the reality is our elections in this country are a disaster.

929
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 1: And I don't care how much media pressure is on

930
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 1: me or I've received for talking about stuff like this,

931
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,760
Speaker 1: but the reality is when you have mail in ballots

932
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,839
Speaker 1: with no date, no signature, verification, could be dropped off

933
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: in a drop box, you don't know the person that

934
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 1: is who's actually casting that vote.

935
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 2: Is that person? You just don't know.

936
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: That's why the Carter administration said, hey, wait a second,

937
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:33,799
Speaker 1: mail in ballots aren't secure. That's why the New York

938
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 1: Times in twenty twelve said, hey, mail in ballots and

939
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:38,800
Speaker 1: you know, probably aren't the best thing in the world

940
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 1: for election integrity or security. And that's why almost all

941
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:45,800
Speaker 1: of Europe banned mail in ballots. So but that Notwithstanding, Joe,

942
00:43:46,719 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 1: the fact that you're back in the fight is inspirational

943
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:53,799
Speaker 1: to me, and I know it's inspirational to a lot

944
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 1: of people. Joe and this country. You know, I know

945
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 1: when people watch this, they they've got to give money

946
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 1: to your campaign. They've got where where can people find you?

947
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: Where can people give money to support your race?

948
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, Joe Kent for Congress foor. Congress dot com is

949
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 3: the place to do that is where you can take donations.

950
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 3: There's links to all my social media on there. So

951
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:19,319
Speaker 3: Joe Kent for Congress dot com.

952
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:24,399
Speaker 1: And let me let me explain something to the people

953
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:26,319
Speaker 1: that are watching, not to you, Joe, because you know

954
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 1: this you've already run a campaign, but fundraising is at

955
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 1: is critically important, and I think, having run two campaigns myself,

956
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:33,239
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people on our side of

957
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: the aisle that don't understand how it works. If you're

958
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:38,359
Speaker 1: a federal candidate and you're running for Congress, you can

959
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: take max contributions. I think it's twenty nine hundred dollars

960
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,480
Speaker 1: for the primary in the general double that for a

961
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 1: married couple. Right, But you look at how much money

962
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: some of these races costs, like in the state of Pennsylvania,

963
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 1: for example, you saw how many tens of millions of

964
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,399
Speaker 1: dollars are spent on a statewide race. For a run

965
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 1: in Congress, you need several million dollars to run a

966
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 1: successful campaign, especially in a battleground district like yours, Joe.

967
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,399
Speaker 1: So there are only so many people who can swing

968
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,360
Speaker 1: a twenty nine hundred dollars campaign contribution for the primary

969
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 1: and the generals. So the life I mean, of course,

970
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 1: any any and every candidate needs as many of those

971
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 1: as humanly possible. But the lifeblood of campaigns are small

972
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: dollar donors. And not just small dollar donors, but the

973
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 1: people who say, I'm going to give Joe Kent five

974
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,560
Speaker 1: bucks a month for the next twelve months. Now you get,

975
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: you know, five hundred thousand people from all across the

976
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 1: country doing that. Now you're talking, and that's how the

977
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:35,839
Speaker 1: Democrats fundraise, and that's how Republicans need to start thinking

978
00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 1: about fundraising. Is giving money directly to candidates like you.

979
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,480
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, giving money to the party is important

980
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 1: because you want them to be able to defend candidates

981
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,960
Speaker 1: and incumbents and all that stuff. But money is always

982
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 1: best spent when it goes directly to the candidates who

983
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: in your case is running for Congress in Washington III,

984
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:58,280
Speaker 1: in Washington's third congressional district. Or you can spend that money.

985
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 1: You know your constituents, you know what's import You can

986
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: message to them and make the case to them. But

987
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 1: in order to do that you need fundraising dollars. And

988
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:07,759
Speaker 1: I always liking it to the fundraising dollars or like

989
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 1: bullets in your gun in combat, you run out of

990
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,719
Speaker 1: AMMO when you're surrounded by the enemy and getting attacked,

991
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 1: you can't fight back.

992
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 2: You die.

993
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 1: Well, if you run out of fundraising dollars here in

994
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 1: this country, when you're running a campaign, you're going to

995
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 1: get attacked relentlessly because the Left never wants for fundraising dollars,

996
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 1: and they'll just pound you on TV and make up

997
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 1: lies about you, and people like you Joe won't be

998
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 1: able to respond.

999
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, with the exception of like podcasts like yours,

1000
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,800
Speaker 3: Tucker Carlson and a few others, we have to basically

1001
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 3: pay for all of our media. Whereas the Democrats have

1002
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:43,399
Speaker 3: the New York Times, they have the corporate media. Their

1003
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 3: fundraising mechanisms are very very efficient. We raised three million

1004
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 3: dollars last cycle, and grateful for all my max contribution donors. However,

1005
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 3: we raise the vast majority of that off of like

1006
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:58,839
Speaker 3: you said, the small dollar donors raise three million are

1007
00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:02,319
Speaker 3: average contribution average out even with the max donors to

1008
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:05,400
Speaker 3: be about fifty two dollars, which is pretty amazing when

1009
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 3: you think of it. And we went from zero to

1010
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,359
Speaker 3: three million to actually have our to actually be able

1011
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 3: to take out a twelve year incumbent.

1012
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:13,879
Speaker 1: That's the way that you have to do it, Joe.

1013
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: And you're an inspirational candidate. And I know that you

1014
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 1: know President Trump supports you and loves you, and really,

1015
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 1: to me, you're once in a generation type of candidate

1016
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:26,840
Speaker 1: who who who? You've seen combat, you know what that's like.

1017
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: You've lost loved ones, you've lost friends. This country needs

1018
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:36,720
Speaker 1: people like you in Congress. And so, Man, I appreciate

1019
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 1: you joining me. I don't want to keep you for

1020
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:39,600
Speaker 1: too long. I could talk to you for hours, man,

1021
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: but you are welcome to come back on this show anytime,

1022
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: and you don't need my support, but I'm gonna do

1023
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:46,600
Speaker 1: everything that I can to help you because we need

1024
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: guys like you to win.

1025
00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 3: No, I really appreciate it. Man. Getting the endorsement from

1026
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,399
Speaker 3: my fellow warfighters, I really appreciate it. And I got

1027
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 3: to say something else. Man, you're very humble about your service,

1028
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 3: as most regular army guys are. However, when I talk

1029
00:47:57,480 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 3: about all the tours I did, my tours were somewhere

1030
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:02,360
Speaker 3: between six months. My longest one was about eight months.

1031
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:04,000
Speaker 3: You guys that say, like, oh, I just did one

1032
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 3: tour that we're over there for sixteen months, you guys

1033
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 3: are always way too humble about that, So it's always

1034
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:12,879
Speaker 3: good to caveat what tours really are. So you did

1035
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 3: more than your fair share, and I'd love to see

1036
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 3: you in office somewhere. But I appreciate you having me

1037
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:18,719
Speaker 3: on man, I really do well.

1038
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 2: Thanks brother. You know what I'm gonna do.

1039
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,440
Speaker 1: I might just start mailing ballots to Afghanistan. I was

1040
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: over there for so long I probably legally do that,

1041
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 1: you know. And oh, but that's right, Afghanistan doesn't allow

1042
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: mail in ballots because they're not secure. But anyway, Joe,

1043
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: thank you for joining.

1044
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:36,800
Speaker 2: Man. You're welcome back anytime.

1045
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: God bless you, and God bless your campaign and your

1046
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: family and your kids, and you know, God bless this

1047
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:44,560
Speaker 1: great country that we get to call home.

1048
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 3: Thanks brother, I really appreciate it, all.

1049
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 2: Right, Thanks Joe.

1050
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:48,080
Speaker 3: Take care.

1051
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 1: Okay, everyone that is a rap. Joe Kent is the man.

1052
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: If you liked what you heard from him, you should

1053
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: consider contributing directly to his campaign. That is by far

1054
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 1: the best way you all can support him in his

1055
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 1: run for Congress, and in the meantime, subscribe to Battleground podcast,

1056
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 1: leave reviews, check out my brand new website, Official Seanparnell

1057
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 1: dot com, and check out the brand new Battleground apparel.

1058
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:22,160
Speaker 1: Also also keep an eye out for the Battleground Newsletter.

1059
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: We have so much cool stuff coming, don't miss any

1060
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:29,400
Speaker 1: of it. I want you on this journey. Let's save

1061
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:34,160
Speaker 1: America together, and as always, thank you so much for

1062
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:38,760
Speaker 1: standing with me. God bless you all, and may God

1063
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: bless this exceptional.

1064
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 2: Nation that we live in. Take care,