WEBVTT - Candidate Spotlight: Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:06.760 I'm thrilled today to be joined by state Representative Gloria Johnson, 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:11.880 who is running against Marshall Blackburn from the Great State 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.760 of Tennessee for the United States Senate. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:15.000 See. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:20.919 Gloria Johnson is from eastern Tennessee from the city of Knoxville, 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.200 represents that area in the state legislature. We're thrilled to 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.440 have per with us today on the warning as we 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:33.880 continue to bring unfiltered some of the leading Democrats in 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:38.040 the country who unfortunately you're not going to see much 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.360 on the Acela court or media because they are not 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.080 incumbents yet in the United States Senate. So when you're 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.800 a challenger running against an incumbent, it's a hard road. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.520 But when you're more than one hundred days out Gloria 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:02.560 Johnson in a tight race behind but in striking distance, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.319 you don't want to be like Trump in this business 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.479 where you have your best day one hundred and thirty 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.679 days before the election. You want to have it on 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.720 election Day. And you know one thing I would say, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.240 you know to Tennessee voters that are that are listening. 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.800 I said this to John McCain as he was climbing 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.600 back from being in last place and I mean dead 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.479 last in the Republican primaries in two thousand and seven 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.040 go into two thousand and eight, was that we needed 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.640 to be ahead on exactly one day, and that was 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.560 election Day, and we needed to be up on the 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.560 top of the mountain on that day. Now, election day 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:50.520 starts a little earlier these days in that there's early 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.200 voting and all of that stuff, which warning viewers are 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:59.120 familiar with. But no matter all of that, Gloria Johnson 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:04.200 has momentum them and she's running against really a person 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:11.120 that it astonishes the imagination that the very same state 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:17.000 that would send Al Gore Senior to the United States Senate, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.359 Al Gore Junior to the United States Senate, Howard Baker 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.880 to the United States Senate Lemoar Alexander to the United 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.360 States Senate Fred Thompson to the United States Senate. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.760 Bill Frist to the United States Senate. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:43.680 People of astonishing character, astonishing accomplishment, astonishing intellect both parties. 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:50.440 You get Marsha Blackburn, whose list of crazy statements is 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:56.000 longer than the Mississippi River. And with that, it's really 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:01.960 my pleasure to introduce someone who represents better for Tennessee, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.640 which is important because Tennessee is a vital state of 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.480 the Union, one of the great states of our Union, 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:16.680 a really special, vibrant, a live place in America, center 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.639 of our American culture, the beating heart in many ways 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:22.880 musically of our American civilization. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:25.440 Gloria Johnson, welcome to the warning. 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.480 Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.720 we're going to correct that mistake in the Senate this 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.280 election cycle in November. So we are excited about that. 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:36.960 Okay. 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.680 So I ran Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign in two thousand and six, 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.160 which was a terrible Republican year. We won decisively by 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:51.360 seventeen points. So you can do this in Tennessee. This 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.760 is good news for you now that Kamala Harris is 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.360 on top of the ticket. It's energized Democrats, it will 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:03.920 energize women voters, young women voters, energized black voters to 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.720 turn out. So all of these things are are good 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.760 for you at a foundation level, because you know, politics 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:12.360 isn't fair. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.640 Sometimes you have the wind with you. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.160 At your back, and other times you have the wind 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.440 blowing into you, holding you back. And and so if 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.839 it's a you're a Democrat in Tennessee right after the 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.560 after the debate, not good news. You're in a you're 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.800 in a much better position. But you're running against a 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:42.960 very polarizing, very weak, really very strange woman, a very 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:47.760 extreme woman who says a lot of crazy things, who 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.159 and so very recently in American life, right, we just 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:52.520 have been found unfit. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:54.600 Right that, Hey, we. 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.400 Want to put you know, this person into the Senate 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:00.920 in no way. But you know, she's a Marjorie Taylor 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:05.680 Green of sorts, really a predecessor, you know, but deeply 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:07.080 linked to her like jd. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:08.640 Vance is, you. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.200 Know, out there out there on the on the French 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:18.400 antithetical to kind of the tradition of statesmanship and stateswomen 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.039 out of the state of Tennessee. But how are you 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.320 going to beat her? How are you going at her? 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.760 Tell us your story, introduce yourself, and just take as 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.599 long as you as you want, because we're gonna ask 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.640 everybody watching to send money and support and get involved 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:34.440 in the campaign. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:41.320 Sure, absolutely, Well, you know, I decide I've been in 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.919 the state House for eight years. I've gone back and forth. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.120 They've redistricted my district once I want it, after it 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.680 went from a plus two d district to a plus 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.520 twelve R district. I'm one of just a handful of 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.880 folks in Tennessee who have flipped a red seat multiple times. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.680 Because this last time, they jerrymandered just my block out 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.240 of my precinct and put it into the only other 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.400 Democratic seat in Knoxville, and they thought I would run 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.880 against my colleague, which I refused to do. So I 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.200 moved six blocks back into the district I'd lived in 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.440 for thirty years that they had redrawn so I couldn't 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:27.279 win it, and I won it again. And you know, 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.520 I'd been thinking about this from January of twenty twenty three. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.680 I just thought, you know, Tennessee, which many in the 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.400 country saw a little over a year ago when we 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.520 had to go to the Well and speak to the 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.400 thousands of folks who showed up from the Covenant shooting. 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.080 After the Covenant shooting where we lost three students and 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:56.359 three staff members, the thousands just gathered at the Capitol, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.680 and it was Covenant families, but it was also families 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.200 from Boxville who were tired of gun violence, families from 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.960 Memphis who were tired of gun violence. It was students, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.880 it was parents, it was grandparents, it was teachers, and 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.040 they gathered by the thousands every day, and the legislature, 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.920 the Republicans refused to acknowledge them. They just refused to 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.320 allow us to do and we have welcoming and honoring 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.000 every morning. On that particular day, they did not have 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.400 welcoming and honoring. We had gotten there early, parents had 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.120 showed up. We started at nine. I got there about 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.360 seven thirty just to talk to the parents who were 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.960 showing up to see how they were feeling, and mothers 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:41.760 with tears in their eyes just told me I just 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.720 dropped my kids at school. I hope they're safe when 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:46.400 I go to pick them up or when I go 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.520 to meet the bus. This is a community that was 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.600 hurting so badly. And then when my Republican colleagues walked 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.120 past them onto the house floor, they wouldn't even make 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.440 eye contact with them, just not even acknowledge that they 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.040 were there. And so we felt very strongly about being 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.080 able to acknowledge, being able to tell them that we 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.880 saw them and we heard them, and we cared about 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.800 their issues, and we were going to fight for guns 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.360 since legislation, and either we were not called on or 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.520 our mics were cut every time we tried to speak 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.000 to that and just recognize that they were there. And 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.880 so finally we just decided to go to the well. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:36.800 And just the fact the way people showed up and 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:42.400 continued to show up gave us hope, really for the 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.880 first time in a really tough legislature where democratic norms 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.199 were just being just being put by the side, you know, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.880 not having debate on bills, not calling on people, cutting 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.880 people's microphone just because you didn't like what they said. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.160 This is not how the process is supposed to work. 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.080 And people all over the country, not just Tennessee, and 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.160 saw that. And so what happened in those days that 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:16.959 everyone gathered together, all the thousands of people, they turned 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.600 into a movement, or it boosted a movement that was 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:24.200 already rolling sort of under the surface, but it just 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.800 blew it up. And so all of these people that 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.040 came from all over they sang together, they chanted together, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.640 they ordered pizza and had lunch together, They talked to 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.120 each other and about the things that they cared about, 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.240 and just really committed to support each other on through 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.040 to this election. And so we've been building that movement 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.480 and building that momentum and people it's a multi racial, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:55.679 multi generational, and multipartisan movement. I had fifty Republicans at 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.800 might kickoff. That doesn't happen, and we have a lot 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:05.559 of Republicans and independence on board, and just knew that 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.680 if we wanted to fix things in Tennessee, we needed 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.280 someone running at the top of the ticket who was 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.600 going to speak to Democratic values, get that message out 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.480 statewide and help flip some of these down ballot House 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.280 and Senate seats as well as winning a US Senate 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:28.360 seat for a Democrat. And we are absolutely going to 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.960 do that. People say that a Democrat can't win in Tennessee. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.800 We are not a red state. We're a non voting state. 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.319 We are typically fiftieth or fifty first in voter turnout. 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.880 Marshall Blackburn won in twenty eighteen by two hundred thousand votes. 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.240 There are three hundred thousand Democratic voters who haven't voted 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.200 the last few cycles because they think their vote doesn't matter. 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.520 We're talking to those voters. We're not operating on the 0:10:55.520 --> 0:11:00.360 twenty eighteen maps. Demographics are changing in Tennessee and we 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.240 are going to get those three hundred thousand voters out 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.040 because they recognize how important this is we win by 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:11.000 expanding the map, getting those voters to the polls. And 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.640 when we do that, we win this US Senate race. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:19.319 Plus we flip down ballot House seats and state Senate seats. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.040 And that's what we're going to do. And they're helping 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.199 us along the way. I mean, when you look at 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.719 the top of the ticket in the Republican Party, you've 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:35.280 got an adjudicated rapist who has been convicted of thirty 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:40.120 four felonies. And then you've got and then you've got 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:46.080 a vice president christ presidential candidate who believes women should 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.640 stay with their abusers and also believes in a federal 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:54.240 abortion ban and things women without children are useless to society. 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.560 And then you've got Marsha Blackburn, who voted against the 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.240 violence against women at voted against equil pay for women, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.600 believes in a federal abortion of van and even questions 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:12.239 Griswold versus Connecticuts and the decision that gave us access 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:17.160 to birth control. It is remarkable that three that these 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.040 three folks think that women are going to vote for them, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.800 And the reality is this puts Tennessee women and girls 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.800 in grave danger. We have one of the strictest abortion 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.680 bands in the country. We only have an exception for 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:38.920 ectopic and molar pregnancies and dead fetuses. That's it. The 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:44.479 rest for life of the mother not covered. Rapid incests 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.320 not covered. Tennessee forces a ten year old girl to 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.640 carry her rapist baby. Tennessee forces a woman. They give 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.960 more rights to a violent rapist. A violent rapist has 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.400 the right to choose the mother of their child, but 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.719 a woman can't choose not have a rapist baby. This 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:03.920 is what Tennessee is like. And here in this state, 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.320 we have got more than one third of our county 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.920 of our state with no obgyn. We've got a third 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.840 to a half of the state with no delivery room. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.559 That ten year old girl could be an hour and 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.880 a half away from a hospital or an obgyn. And 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.680 we know that children in carrying a pregnancy are two 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.079 times more likely to die than adult women in a pregnancy, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.239 and in Tennessee's one of the highest states with maternal mortality. 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.400 That they're putting women and girls in danger in the state, 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.000 and they don't think we're going to get to the polls. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.480 It's going to be a different story for Tennessee this year. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:45.760 Talk to me about that. 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.960 On the ground, the extremism of all of this with 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:57.640 actual women without giving a speech about it. I did 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.720 the Ken Ryan campaign. I was deeply in It's the 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.440 best political campaign I've ever ever been involved in. It 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:11.240 was flawless campaign. The team that ran it did an 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.480 extraordinary job. Brandon Hall, the media consultant, Da've Chased, the 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:20.200 campaign manager, took the Republicans fifty seven million dollars in 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:25.680 spending to defeat Tim, who had jd Vance defeated by 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.720 August of Schumer had spent five million on the race 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.360 in that campaign, at the top of the ticket went 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:40.000 down by twenty six points and Tim went down by five. Right, 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.520 So meaning if the race goes seventeen eighteen, jd Vance 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.320 isn't isn't in the Senate and you're you're in the 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.000 You're at the top of the ticket in this race, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.720 so you can clearly talk about this. So I'm struck 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:01.920 by this, which is, and you think about this election 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.960 as somebody who's talked about these issues for nine years, 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:15.800 I can't think of an alchemy a mix of things 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:23.320 to say to the ladies to more directly and better 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.000 improve on what you said, which is that you have 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:33.280 a power that you have not used that now is 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.880 the time to use. It's the time to use this power. 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:43.280 If you can't persuade women eighteen years of age, twenty 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.960 years of age, I have a twenty year old. A 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.400 lot of the college kids making fun of Biden's age 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:55.520 on TikTok, which blurs the difference in the celebrity laden 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.160 culture between the threat and the celebrity. And it's just 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:05.880 one more kind of reality show, Michi goos as opposed 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.160 to a deep threat that you just articulated. 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.880 I just when you see women. 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:18.520 Who are undecided and confused about the race, about these 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.920 about these issues, what is it that you say to 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:28.680 them persuasively that you don't belong with this crowd in 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:34.160 a quasi religious cult, right taping pantages to the side 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:39.200 of your head, venerating this messianic figure right now, who's 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.880 a convicted felon, the worst president in American history, also 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.720 too old to be president at seventy eight to eighty two. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.400 But what do you say to them, right to women 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.560 as a as a woman, about a woman who's clearly 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:57.640 on the side of all of this insanity. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.360 Well, I think that a lot of women have made 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.640 this decision already. I mean a lot of women I 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.600 didn't have have to convince, They've already come over. That's 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.280 why I'm beating Marsha forty nine to forty three percent 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.320 with women is because they're getting it. But mostly I 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.000 have the conversation because I think of it in terms 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:22.080 as equality. Women aren't equal if we don't have bodily autonomy. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.680 And sometimes when I talk to women and make that statement, 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.080 they think, oh, I never thought of it that way. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.399 That you know, we are not equal. We are second 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.080 class citizens if we do not have autonomy over our 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.200 own body. These are decisions that need to be made 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.359 with a woman and her doctor, her family, her god, 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.240 you know, but not a legislature in the doctor's office 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.920 or the governor in the doctor's office. And they really 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.520 understand that, I mean they really understand. And you also 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.479 talk about if we want to decrease the number of 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:02.199 unwanted pregnancies, but we've got to be serious about in 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.840 this state, we have an expanded Medicaid give women access 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:11.760 to affordable health care, so they're not seeing the doctor 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.680 the first time when they find out they're pregnant. You know, 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.399 they will if they're going to a doctor throughout their life. 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.600 They're going to know more about their health. Are they 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.119 healthy enough to carry a pregnancy? All of these things. 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.080 But since we don't give all women access to health care, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.399 they're not necessarily healthy when they get pregnant. And so 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.119 if we want to be sure that we want to 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.480 make sure they have access to health care, we want 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.160 to make sure women have access to contraception. I brought 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.879 a bill this past year in the legislature which is 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.639 a right to contraception an IVF, and not a single 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.879 Republican voted for it. They say they're not trying to 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.760 take it, but we have them on tape in a 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.480 pro Publica article. They got a tape of the Right 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.760 to life folks in Tennessee legislator, and in that tape 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.240 they said, let it die down about Dobbs and then 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.959 we'll start talking about contraception, and if we don't need 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.320 to do that right now. So we've already heard them 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.639 in private saying that they were coming after it. So 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:20.760 they can lie all they want, but I'm going to 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.680 call them out on their lives. Marcia Blackburn has told 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.399 the same lot. She voted against contraception and IVF in 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.439 the Senate and said, oh, nobody's coming for it. But 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.480 then you've got her on tape questioning Griswolk. So which 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:34.760 is it? 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:40.119 Marcia dreamism is well documented? How do you think about 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:45.119 these national security issues where she has adopted a position 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.920 that is contrary to everybody before now that has represented 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.200 Tennessee in the United States Senate. They'd all be appalled. 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.560 Fred Thompson, who I knew well, would be appalled. Lamar 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:03.400 Alexander is on the other side of these issues. Vice 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:11.200 President Gore is a generator, Howard Baker. And so I 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:15.879 think about when I whenever I see you know, anybody 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.639 who remembers the nineteen eighties, right. 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.720 This is this is the most astonishing thing. 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:28.080 Howard Baker was obviously a legendary Tennessee senator, statesman, chief 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:34.000 of staff to President Reagan, and they're negotiating the end 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:41.280 of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan very tough on the Russians, 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:46.360 and Marshall Blackburn, when you look at the world, has 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:53.840 seemed to embrace this philosophy of Trumpian appeasement and isolation. 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.639 And I don't know how you think about it, but 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.840 I want to give you a chance to talk about 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.760 her on these views, these issues in a in a 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.800 very dangerous, dangerous world. But I'll just say before before 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.280 I turn it over to you, I mean this is 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.119 this is a person who doesn't know what she's talking about, 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:23.320 isn't confident about the issues in the world. And when 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.520 you see the things that come out of her mouth, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:30.920 I think it's really demonstrative of how cooned and bubbled 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:38.320 this club is. Because any person who's anywhere for as 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.160 long as she's been there. Now, right, we can train 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.760 you to be a brain surgeon in six years from right, 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:50.280 you know, from never having cut into anything but an apple, right, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.360 you would think you would pick up some of this stuff. 0:21:55.240 --> 0:22:00.000 But she seems immunized to knowledge about how the world 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.359 world works and its interconnectedness. 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.360 And it's silly. And I don't mean. 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.120 This in a chauvinistic way, but I say this as 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:15.520 someone who's lived in California for decades and somebody who 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.359 grew up on the East coast. Everybody on the coast. 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.720 Tennessee is a mega state with some of the best 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:29.119 universities in the country, big thriving cities, Nashville's and American megacity. 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:33.840 This is a giant economy in the world, in the 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:38.439 in the in the country, and this is a backwards, 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:44.080 ignorant know nothing. Who's the United States senator that you're 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.399 that you're challenging. And I'd just like you to talk 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.560 about her from the prism of wow, you know, this 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.240 is one of one hundred people in the world making 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:58.000 life and death votes and decisions about our national security. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.920 And how far afield she has gone from the tradition 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:08.000 of moderation in Tennessee and the tradition of common sense 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:08.760 in Tennessee. 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:13.920 Oh absolutely, she's just nowhere close to where the average 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.359 Tennessee and is because I mean, she has been in 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:21.240 DC for twenty one years, and like you say, hasn't 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.680 learned a thing. That's one of one thing I hear 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.760 a lot from the Republicans. She's been there twenty one years, 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.720 has the same talking points and hasn't done a thing. 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.560 And she doesn't talk to the people either. She hasn't 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.000 had a town hall in seven and a half years. 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.320 The last one she had was pretty disastrous. And so 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.160 this on this tour, I'm going to all ninety five counties. 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:50.840 My tour dates are posted on my website. Anyone who 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:53.600 wants to show up can show up and ask questions 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.960 and talk with us. And she's had only closed door 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.640 meetings with county officials that I have heard of. There 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:05.720 was one event she was supposed to do a couple 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:11.240 of weeks ago that was publicized with Republicans at a 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.880 VFW hall, and she didn't show up for that. That's 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.600 the only one I know that was actually out published 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:21.760 at all where people could come, and she didn't show up, 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.720 and they said she had struck throat. So I don't 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:27.879 know where she is. I don't know what she's doing, 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:31.240 but she's not talking to the people. And yesterday I 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:36.399 was in four different counties. I started. I started in 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.000 Overton County, then I went to White County, and then 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.840 Cannon County and then Rutherford County and talked well over 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:48.520 one hundred people yesterday in all of those counties about 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:50.840 the things that concern them and about the things that 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:54.560 they care about. And she just hasn't been seen, Like 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:57.760 you say, she's in a bubble. I find out with 0:24:57.800 --> 0:25:02.119 my colleagues in my Republican college in the legislature, I 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:05.120 think they go to Republican meetings and church and that's it. 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:08.320 In my whole day, I talked to Republicans all day long. 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:10.679 Because I live in East Tennessee. If I'm talking to 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:14.360 my family or if I'm talking to folks in East Tennessee, 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:17.280 I'm spending a lot of my time talking to Republicans. 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:21.560 So I listen to people. I want to listen to 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:24.120 what people have to say. But here's the interesting thing. 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:28.879 They want to paint me as this extremist. But the 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:33.080 reality is, eighty percent of tennesseean's urban, rural, and suburban 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:37.720 want to do something about gun sense legislation. They want 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:41.080 universal background checks, they want safe storage laws, and they 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:45.000 want red flag laws. Eighty percent of Tennesseeans agree on 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:48.760 that you couldn't talk about guns in Tennessee, but now 0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:53.159 you better talk about gun sense legislation. And then with 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:56.879 women with abortion, the same thing. Eighty percent of people 0:25:56.920 --> 0:26:01.680 in Tennessee, urban, rural, suburban, all parties want abortion care 0:26:01.760 --> 0:26:04.600 at some level. We don't all agree on where the 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:08.960 line may be, but eighty percent want that care at 0:26:09.000 --> 0:26:12.560 some level. And she does not, and neither do the 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:18.240 supermajority in the state legislature. They are the extremists. Sixty 0:26:18.440 --> 0:26:22.480 eighty one percent want cannabis medical cannabis. Sixty percent want 0:26:22.520 --> 0:26:27.400 recreational cannabis. They won't even discuss it. Marcia Blackburn gets 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:32.200 more money from the NRA than I think anybody you know, 0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:35.159 certainly from Tennessee, ever did, But she's one of the 0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:39.920 top receivers of those dollars. She also voted against capping 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:42.400 insulin at thirty five dollars in the state with one 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:46.119 of the highest numbers of diabetics per capita. She voted 0:26:46.160 --> 0:26:51.880 against negotiating drug prices for seniors. Tennesseeans have not expanded Medicaid. 0:26:52.240 --> 0:26:55.600 People are struggling with their health care. She voted to 0:26:55.680 --> 0:27:00.439 repeal the ACA multiple times. She is not she is 0:27:00.480 --> 0:27:04.959 the extremists, She is not on board, and she is 0:27:05.040 --> 0:27:08.399 not even trying, it seems, to get out and talk 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:13.959 to the regular folks that she's supposed to represent. She lies, consistently, 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:21.280 makes horrible, this de bigoted statements with no facts whatsoever 0:27:21.359 --> 0:27:23.480 to back it up. Somebody said, Gloria, you need to 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:25.679 counter every one of our lives. I said, good grief, 0:27:25.720 --> 0:27:29.360 we'd have to add three people to our staff. I mean, 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:33.080 it's remarkable. I talk to people. Old politicians lie. We 0:27:33.119 --> 0:27:38.640 should not expect our expect politicians to lie, our elected 0:27:38.640 --> 0:27:41.159 officials to lie. We should be held to a higher 0:27:41.240 --> 0:27:46.080 standard of telling the truth, having integrity, and being transparent 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:51.040 about what we're doing. But in Tennessee men they want 0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:57.639 to do everything behind closed doors. Well that's the question. 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:03.520 Our primary is August first, so we will see after 0:28:03.560 --> 0:28:07.240 the primary if she is going to debate me, and 0:28:08.640 --> 0:28:11.560 certainly we're going to be asking for debates. We will 0:28:11.680 --> 0:28:16.280 drag her if she won't debate, because it just it 0:28:16.359 --> 0:28:19.880 has to be done. She should be able to get 0:28:19.960 --> 0:28:23.679 before the people and answer some tough questions. I'm ready 0:28:23.720 --> 0:28:26.360 to do it. She's been there twenty one years. If 0:28:26.400 --> 0:28:31.040 she can't answer these questions, she doesn't need to be there. 0:28:31.920 --> 0:28:34.000 I say that all the time about the State House 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:39.400 where I serve, and when we had orientation, the leader 0:28:39.440 --> 0:28:42.800 of the Republican Party actually told us, well, you can 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:47.120 use your badge to get into the secret hallways so 0:28:47.160 --> 0:28:50.200 you don't have to talk to press and constituents who 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:53.080 are in the hallways if you don't want to. And 0:28:53.160 --> 0:28:56.080 all I could think was, I'm not using some secret 0:28:56.120 --> 0:29:01.120 hallway working around behind the scenes. I came there, I 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:04.320 was elected by the people. They need to know what 0:29:04.400 --> 0:29:07.479 I'm doing. I need to talk about what I'm bringing, 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:11.000 the legislation I'm bringing, I need to answer questions about it, 0:29:11.680 --> 0:29:13.440 And how are they going to know what I'm doing 0:29:13.480 --> 0:29:16.240 if I refuse to talk to the press, or if 0:29:16.240 --> 0:29:20.240 I refuse to talk to constituents. It's remarkable to me 0:29:21.080 --> 0:29:23.840 that everything they want to do, they want to hide 0:29:23.880 --> 0:29:26.560 from the press, and they want to hide from the people. 0:29:27.760 --> 0:29:30.080 I guess if I had the policy and brought the 0:29:30.120 --> 0:29:33.000 policy they did, I'd want to hide to But we 0:29:33.040 --> 0:29:37.200 should expect our elected officials to be upfront, to answer 0:29:37.280 --> 0:29:40.200 questions and be transparent about what they are doing. 0:29:40.600 --> 0:29:44.560 Representative Johnson, have you ever used the secret passage? 0:29:44.640 --> 0:29:45.880 I would use it all the time. 0:29:47.880 --> 0:29:50.360 I would still talk to the people, but I would 0:29:50.440 --> 0:29:51.360 use it all the time. 0:29:51.720 --> 0:29:55.840 I've just shown it to people and I one time 0:29:55.920 --> 0:29:58.000 there was a voucher vote and there was somebody back 0:29:58.040 --> 0:30:00.720 in those hallways pulling the strings. I went back to 0:30:00.760 --> 0:30:02.720 see who was full of the strengths. 0:30:04.560 --> 0:30:04.920 I would. 0:30:04.960 --> 0:30:08.560 I would do a hybrid approach. I would let me 0:30:08.920 --> 0:30:12.680 let me ask you this question. So the Republican high 0:30:12.680 --> 0:30:16.560 card right as far as an issue where they are 0:30:16.600 --> 0:30:21.400 on the right side of majority opinion in the country 0:30:21.720 --> 0:30:25.560 is on the question of the border, and I had 0:30:25.600 --> 0:30:31.600 a I had a consistent position on this personally, going 0:30:31.640 --> 0:30:34.000 back to the nineties, right, I was always a very 0:30:34.040 --> 0:30:40.480 pro immigration Republican and the deal that I always supported 0:30:40.640 --> 0:30:46.240 Bush McCain, the Kennedy compromise, you know, was that you 0:30:46.320 --> 0:30:50.280 had a population in the country illegally. They were here 0:30:50.520 --> 0:30:55.479 illegally because they were let in without much difficulty, and 0:30:55.520 --> 0:31:02.040 everybody understood that the labor market required this workforce that 0:31:02.200 --> 0:31:07.200 was there. People wanted the border secured, they didn't want 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:09.440 anyone punished, and. 0:31:09.560 --> 0:31:11.400 They just couldn't get it done in Washington. 0:31:14.160 --> 0:31:20.200 You have, whatever the number may be, the biggest issue 0:31:20.520 --> 0:31:26.240 that the Republicans have to go at a Democrat in 0:31:26.320 --> 0:31:31.560 a red state, right in terms of its most recent 0:31:31.720 --> 0:31:37.920 dispositions electorally, is immigration. So what do you say about 0:31:38.080 --> 0:31:44.160 immigration about the border, and do you recognize as a 0:31:44.200 --> 0:31:50.000 Democrat how important honesty is as an issue. And I'll 0:31:50.000 --> 0:31:56.560 give you two examples. When Senator Menandez is arrested gold 0:31:56.600 --> 0:32:01.160 Barson in the jacket, Chuck Schumer responds, he's been a 0:32:01.200 --> 0:32:04.720 great representative for the people in New Jersey, Right, you know, 0:32:04.960 --> 0:32:10.320 say that it's a native New Jersey. And when when 0:32:10.520 --> 0:32:16.560 Alexander Myorci says border's never been more secure, you understand, 0:32:16.800 --> 0:32:19.720 Or you're a center on TV who was looking at 0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:22.560 Biden the aftermath of debate, usually now he's the wisest 0:32:22.600 --> 0:32:27.000 guy in the land. He's never looked better. That you 0:32:27.160 --> 0:32:34.480 lose honesty as an issue to a side filled with 0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:39.120 extreme fascists who run on an architecture of LIFs. How 0:32:39.320 --> 0:32:41.720 how important that is? And I just I just wanted 0:32:41.720 --> 0:32:42.800 to ask you about that. 0:32:43.280 --> 0:32:46.000 Yeah, No, I think that I would I would not 0:32:46.080 --> 0:32:50.360 feel the same development in this, you know. I think 0:32:50.440 --> 0:32:53.520 that it doesn't matter when our guys break the law. 0:32:53.560 --> 0:32:55.840 Their guys break the law. You've broken the law, and 0:32:56.200 --> 0:32:57.920 that's the way it is. I think we do need 0:32:58.280 --> 0:33:01.400 to definitely be honest about that. I think that that's 0:33:01.400 --> 0:33:04.160 critically important, and to be honest about the fact that 0:33:05.080 --> 0:33:08.880 we do have a serious situation at the border and 0:33:09.040 --> 0:33:11.040 we do need to fix it. But the thing is 0:33:11.120 --> 0:33:11.600 we can't. 0:33:12.480 --> 0:33:14.480 And there, like you. 0:33:14.480 --> 0:33:17.200 Talked about, there have been deals in the past, it 0:33:17.240 --> 0:33:21.040 always breaks down, and right now we know that it's 0:33:21.040 --> 0:33:25.160 broken down because they need to use it in this campaign. 0:33:26.040 --> 0:33:30.600 I firmly believe that it is something that gens up 0:33:30.680 --> 0:33:35.440 Tennessee Republicans, but we have to be honest about you know, 0:33:35.640 --> 0:33:38.680 what's really happening. Do we need more security, yes, Have 0:33:38.720 --> 0:33:42.400 we tried to put more security? Yes. I think that 0:33:42.480 --> 0:33:46.240 the last bill that was offered had pretty much everything 0:33:46.280 --> 0:33:49.840 in it the Republican wanted. They had a problem with 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:54.080 one piece of it, and they were misinterpreting that piece 0:33:54.720 --> 0:33:59.200 as I understand it. But it seems like we can 0:34:00.360 --> 0:34:03.280 at least get some measures going so we can get 0:34:03.280 --> 0:34:10.680 the work started, having to pass the citizenship and also 0:34:10.920 --> 0:34:14.479 making things more secure at the border. And I think 0:34:14.520 --> 0:34:18.319 that there are enough people that should be able to 0:34:18.320 --> 0:34:20.520 come to agreement. Sadly, it may not be you know, 0:34:20.680 --> 0:34:24.160 or it will be after the election. But that's why 0:34:24.200 --> 0:34:27.600 this election is so important. Let's get people in believe 0:34:27.719 --> 0:34:30.719 who believe it actually doing the work and not just 0:34:30.880 --> 0:34:33.000 keeping it out there as an issue to run for 0:34:33.120 --> 0:34:38.920 office on. But we're supposed to be doing the work 0:34:38.920 --> 0:34:44.480 of the people, and the people want solutions. But this idea, oh, 0:34:44.480 --> 0:34:48.000 they're taking our jobs. It's just not true because there 0:34:48.040 --> 0:34:50.400 are so many jobs out there, there are not enough people. 0:34:50.920 --> 0:34:53.360 When on my ninety five County tour. I was just 0:34:53.440 --> 0:34:56.960 in Granger County, Tennessee, and Granger County is famous for tomatoes. 0:34:57.719 --> 0:35:03.920 And three year old immigrant came to my event and 0:35:04.280 --> 0:35:08.760 I asked her what her day was like, and twenty 0:35:08.800 --> 0:35:12.200 three year old young woman, she said, well, she has 0:35:12.239 --> 0:35:14.759 to get her mother to work at the far more. 0:35:14.800 --> 0:35:17.440 She works at six am and then she goes to 0:35:17.480 --> 0:35:20.399 work and then she works until the sun goes down 0:35:20.400 --> 0:35:25.640 at nine o'clock. And I thought, who in Granger County 0:35:26.080 --> 0:35:30.360 wanted that job? You know, I don't think that most people, 0:35:31.080 --> 0:35:35.320 most Americans, would take that job. And there are plenty 0:35:35.360 --> 0:35:38.360 of those jobs to have if they wanted them. The 0:35:38.480 --> 0:35:42.080 reality is folks are coming here, they're working really hard 0:35:43.520 --> 0:35:46.799 at jobs that we desperately need. We don't need our 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:50.799 plants and our food to die on the vine. And 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:53.600 so we've got to create that path for folks who 0:35:53.640 --> 0:35:56.680 come in here, come here and are doing everything right. 0:35:57.080 --> 0:35:59.600 But we can also secure the border and do all 0:35:59.600 --> 0:36:04.120 of those things. And that's the type of legislation we 0:36:04.200 --> 0:36:09.279 need to see to solve this problem. But to dehumanize 0:36:09.760 --> 0:36:13.279 and not respect the human dignity of these folks are 0:36:13.320 --> 0:36:16.360 coming over here to improve their lives and work hard 0:36:16.719 --> 0:36:21.880 and love this country, and we have to do better. 0:36:22.239 --> 0:36:24.480 We have to do better for us and for them. 0:36:24.520 --> 0:36:28.160 Because I live I think about growing up. I think 0:36:28.160 --> 0:36:31.320 about even fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. In Tennessee, 0:36:31.920 --> 0:36:34.200 we didn't ask where you came from, We didn't ask 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:36.800 how you worshiped it, we didn't ask who you loved. 0:36:37.680 --> 0:36:41.600 We just pitched in with our community and helped everybody together, 0:36:42.000 --> 0:36:46.360 working together. It didn't matter if you were different religion, 0:36:46.400 --> 0:36:48.839 it didn't matter if you were a different race. I'm 0:36:48.880 --> 0:36:54.160 not saying there has an in bigotry and racism. There 0:36:54.200 --> 0:36:58.359 has been, but it's been. It was a shameful thing 0:36:58.400 --> 0:37:02.080 to be, you know. But most people just work together 0:37:02.200 --> 0:37:06.160 and didn't care if the fact that two women down 0:37:06.160 --> 0:37:10.319 the street are married has absolutely nothing to do with 0:37:10.440 --> 0:37:13.920 how your family is doing. If your family is struggling, 0:37:14.200 --> 0:37:16.880 it's not because two women down the street are married. 0:37:17.160 --> 0:37:19.920 Your family is struggling because you live an hour and 0:37:19.960 --> 0:37:22.960 a half from a hospital, you don't have access to 0:37:23.040 --> 0:37:27.480 affordable healthcare and affordable prescription drugs, you don't have a 0:37:27.520 --> 0:37:31.319 well resourced classroom from child for your child, and you're 0:37:31.400 --> 0:37:34.040 making minimum wage. In Tennessee, which is the federal bent 0:37:34.120 --> 0:37:37.319 On wage, which is seven twenty five an hour. You're 0:37:37.360 --> 0:37:39.840 working two and three jobs to try to keep food 0:37:39.880 --> 0:37:43.160 on the table. Those folks don't have time to follow politics. 0:37:43.640 --> 0:37:45.799 They're trying to stay alive. They're trying to keep the 0:37:45.920 --> 0:37:49.800 lights on and food on the table. And Marsha Blackburn 0:37:49.880 --> 0:37:52.839 doesn't believe in raising the wage. How do you make 0:37:53.280 --> 0:37:56.160 seven dollars an hour or ten dollars an hour even 0:37:56.840 --> 0:38:00.799 and paid chalk care fifteen dollars an hour hour? The 0:38:00.840 --> 0:38:05.880 math does not work. They have no concern for regular families. 0:38:06.280 --> 0:38:12.160 Marsha Blackburn works for lobbyists in corporations. We just finished 0:38:12.160 --> 0:38:15.279 a quarter of fundraising. More than seventy percent of the 0:38:15.320 --> 0:38:18.880 money I raised comes from Tennessee. Only forty percent of 0:38:18.920 --> 0:38:21.799 the money she raises comes from Tennessee. Much of it 0:38:21.840 --> 0:38:27.040 comes from Texas. Who does she represent? Tennessee Families need help, 0:38:27.719 --> 0:38:31.360 They need someone working for them, not for lobbyists, not 0:38:31.480 --> 0:38:35.200 for big Pharma in the NRA and big oil. That's 0:38:35.200 --> 0:38:36.239 who she's working for. 0:38:36.719 --> 0:38:43.319 I can't imagine that. People who spend forty years in 0:38:43.360 --> 0:38:46.520 the United States Senate, and I've been around it as 0:38:46.560 --> 0:38:50.400 an institution, right It's mind blowing. And you know, I 0:38:50.440 --> 0:38:52.399 think about it, right, you know, if it was something 0:38:52.440 --> 0:38:54.520 if I wound up in the US Senate, you think 0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:58.000 about even three terms, right, eighteen years is a long time, right, 0:38:58.040 --> 0:39:03.120 but like you know, twelve years whatever. As you point out, right, 0:39:03.160 --> 0:39:06.759 she's been there for twenty years. She hasn't done the 0:39:06.800 --> 0:39:08.239 town hall in seven and. 0:39:08.120 --> 0:39:11.360 A half years. Why does she do this? Like do 0:39:11.400 --> 0:39:14.359 you ever think about that? Like? What do I can 0:39:14.400 --> 0:39:18.360 tell you that she makes? She makes one hundred sixty 0:39:18.440 --> 0:39:22.480 seven thousand dollars a year. What a what a what 0:39:22.520 --> 0:39:23.640 a senator makes? 0:39:23.719 --> 0:39:23.919 Right? 0:39:24.040 --> 0:39:27.759 She would she would make more as a lobbyist. It's 0:39:27.800 --> 0:39:32.640 a what does she? What does she dig about this? 0:39:33.120 --> 0:39:34.359 What's so great about it? 0:39:35.040 --> 0:39:38.839 You know, I don't she I think you mentioned she's 0:39:38.880 --> 0:39:43.759 an odd person. I mean, we were on we were 0:39:43.800 --> 0:39:46.520 on the same airplane. I had already been seated, and 0:39:46.560 --> 0:39:48.600 I saw this woman walking past, and I was like, 0:39:49.560 --> 0:39:51.440 who is that. I was like, oh, my goodness, that 0:39:51.680 --> 0:39:55.480 is Marsha. And so I thought, well, it's stupid for 0:39:55.600 --> 0:39:57.640 us to be on the same plane and not to 0:39:57.719 --> 0:40:01.719 say hello or anything like that. So as we were 0:40:03.080 --> 0:40:06.680 getting off the plane, I waited at the top of 0:40:06.680 --> 0:40:11.399 the jetway, and you know, she came up and I said, high, 0:40:11.440 --> 0:40:14.200 Senator Blackbird. I just wanted we're running against each other. 0:40:15.520 --> 0:40:18.720 Just wanted to said my name, I said, just wanted 0:40:18.760 --> 0:40:20.440 to say hello. It would be silly for us not 0:40:20.560 --> 0:40:22.880 to say hello when we're sitting on the same plane. 0:40:23.120 --> 0:40:27.960 And she just dared at me and just like, and 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:31.120 I mean, how do you just not say hello? But 0:40:31.200 --> 0:40:33.239 it was as if she had no idea what to do. 0:40:34.719 --> 0:40:38.000 And I'm thinking, you're a US senator, you meet constituents 0:40:38.040 --> 0:40:41.560 all the time. Technically I'm a constituent of hers, and 0:40:42.160 --> 0:40:45.080 she couldn't even say hello, and then she felt so awkward. 0:40:45.400 --> 0:40:48.960 I tried to make light of the situation, and I said, hey, 0:40:48.960 --> 0:40:51.399 why don't we take a picture together and we can 0:40:51.480 --> 0:40:54.320 both both post look who I met on the plane. 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:58.680 And then she looked at me and she said, oh, 0:40:58.719 --> 0:41:01.680 I can't do that, and start walking away. 0:41:02.719 --> 0:41:07.839 It was just the strangest interaction, you know, and I 0:41:07.920 --> 0:41:10.320 just don't I don't know how you couldn't just stop 0:41:10.360 --> 0:41:14.040 and say hello and make you know, pleasantryce with somebody. 0:41:16.000 --> 0:41:16.800 It was weird to me. 0:41:17.320 --> 0:41:20.840 The answer to that question, I can answer this question, 0:41:22.000 --> 0:41:25.400 answer the why now that I have that information, is 0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:27.920 that people would come up to me during like the 0:41:27.920 --> 0:41:31.720 peak of House of Cards, and a friend of mine, 0:41:31.920 --> 0:41:36.279 Guyam J. Carson, was like really involved and conceiving of 0:41:36.320 --> 0:41:39.960 the show and you know, helping make it realistic. But 0:41:40.000 --> 0:41:43.760 people would be like, is all this like House of Cards? 0:41:44.440 --> 0:41:47.080 And I'd be like, no, it's like Veep. 0:41:50.000 --> 0:41:53.920 It's like Veep. Right, National politics is. 0:41:53.920 --> 0:41:57.680 Like a giant deep episode, right if you detach and 0:41:57.920 --> 0:42:00.200 sit back and watch it. And she's like a us, 0:42:00.239 --> 0:42:06.640 like a character Inveep, you know, cloistered voting against the 0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:10.399 interests of the state, which is a gigantic state. And 0:42:10.640 --> 0:42:13.120 let me just say again, right for people who haven't 0:42:13.160 --> 0:42:16.319 spent time in Tennessee that will watch this, uh, you 0:42:16.320 --> 0:42:20.280 know from around the around the country. Big distance between 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:26.279 Knoxville where you're from, and the Mississippi River and Memphis, 0:42:26.320 --> 0:42:30.080 and so you need to tie a ribbon right across 0:42:30.160 --> 0:42:34.080 the state to a different part of the state. About 0:42:34.239 --> 0:42:37.759 about these ideas, Why do you talk about that? Just 0:42:38.040 --> 0:42:42.560 what it's like to campaign? What is your day? Like 0:42:43.719 --> 0:42:46.920 how many hours a day are they torturing you with 0:42:47.280 --> 0:42:51.080 fundraising calls? That will increase you know, if you become 0:42:51.120 --> 0:42:56.200 the nominee here of course, and what is that? 0:42:56.320 --> 0:42:57.759 What is that day like? 0:42:57.960 --> 0:43:02.080 Getting around, doing the doing of things you need to do. 0:43:02.800 --> 0:43:06.239 And as you as you look at this from a 0:43:06.360 --> 0:43:09.880 forward basis, you know, if you're the nominee and you 0:43:10.000 --> 0:43:12.959 have you know about you know, let's you know, three 0:43:13.000 --> 0:43:15.920 months or so, you know, in real time to to 0:43:16.000 --> 0:43:19.600 run the campaign about her, just talk about how you're 0:43:19.600 --> 0:43:22.320 gonna how you're gonna build on what you've been doing 0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:25.200 in order to bring that, in order to bring that home, 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:31.319 how to embrace the underdog, you know, status capitalize it 0:43:31.560 --> 0:43:35.560 against somebody who's been there too long, who's become too 0:43:35.680 --> 0:43:40.720 strange by their time and power, that you know, lives 0:43:40.800 --> 0:43:44.600 like they're a character in the Hunger Games. Often panem 0:43:44.640 --> 0:43:49.040 completely walled off from the from the regular people. And 0:43:49.800 --> 0:43:52.640 you know, I I just think that that's such a 0:43:52.800 --> 0:43:58.400 huge part of this is her aloofness from reality, from normalcy, 0:43:59.440 --> 0:44:04.480 from unity, as she lives in this terrarium, you know, 0:44:04.719 --> 0:44:05.960 under the capitol though. 0:44:06.280 --> 0:44:09.880 Yeah, you know absolutely, And it's gonna make a difference 0:44:09.880 --> 0:44:12.439 because what people know about me is I get out 0:44:12.480 --> 0:44:16.680 and talk to folks. I've flipped red districts multiple times, 0:44:16.800 --> 0:44:19.960 because I'm not afraid to talk to people and talk 0:44:20.000 --> 0:44:22.840 to people across the AIP. I have talked to so 0:44:22.920 --> 0:44:25.839 many people in this trail who wanted to see her 0:44:25.920 --> 0:44:28.640 were in DC, but she wouldn't see them because of 0:44:29.280 --> 0:44:32.839 whatever their belief if it was Mom's demand action or 0:44:33.280 --> 0:44:36.080 some of these folks that she just refused to see. 0:44:36.760 --> 0:44:39.960 And I don't do that in my office in Nashville. 0:44:40.080 --> 0:44:42.960 I don't refuse anyone if we can't sit down and 0:44:43.000 --> 0:44:46.160 have a conversation and disagree, and I can tell you 0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:49.480 what my position is and I can listen to your position. 0:44:49.960 --> 0:44:52.880 I mean, I think that's what it's about. And people, 0:44:53.040 --> 0:44:55.480 certainly the people in my district in Knox will know 0:44:55.560 --> 0:44:57.520 that's who I am. I have people all the time 0:44:57.560 --> 0:45:00.560 tell me, Gloria, we don't agree on much, but I 0:45:00.680 --> 0:45:02.960 do trust you and I know that you will listen 0:45:03.000 --> 0:45:07.200 to me, and so that goes a long way. But 0:45:07.320 --> 0:45:11.400 she has no revertoire like that with the people. And 0:45:11.440 --> 0:45:15.480 so my day, you know, yesterday, it started at seven o'clock. 0:45:15.560 --> 0:45:17.960 We had to be in Overton County, which is for 0:45:19.520 --> 0:45:21.960 two hours from where I am, so we had to 0:45:22.120 --> 0:45:25.399 we had to get up and be there by ten 0:45:25.440 --> 0:45:30.760 o'clock and then we spent an hour and fifteen minutes, 0:45:30.840 --> 0:45:33.480 hour and a half with those folks. Then we drove 0:45:33.560 --> 0:45:37.520 forty minutes to the next county and spent an hour 0:45:37.600 --> 0:45:40.080 to hour and a half with those folks, talking to them, 0:45:40.280 --> 0:45:43.239 asking questions, finding out what, you know, what were the 0:45:43.239 --> 0:45:46.400 biggest issues in their community that they felt like. And 0:45:46.440 --> 0:45:49.239 then I got in the car, drove another hour to 0:45:49.640 --> 0:45:53.520 our next stop in Cannon County and met with folks 0:45:53.560 --> 0:45:59.120 there and did the same thing. Talked again about everything 0:45:59.160 --> 0:46:03.000 in their particular were community, what they saw. And then 0:46:03.040 --> 0:46:06.320 of course our last stop was at five point thirty 0:46:06.480 --> 0:46:11.080 last night in Rutherford County and spend an hour and 0:46:11.120 --> 0:46:13.560 a half there talking to folks, and it was really great. 0:46:13.600 --> 0:46:16.360 There were so many young people there and one of 0:46:16.360 --> 0:46:19.719 the fascinating things that I find as young people. Most 0:46:19.760 --> 0:46:22.839 of these meetings are very often senior citizens, but we've 0:46:22.840 --> 0:46:25.400 got a lot of young people showing up as well, 0:46:26.040 --> 0:46:30.360 and the young people are engaged, they're paying attention, and 0:46:30.640 --> 0:46:33.840 so I love it when they come. And people always 0:46:33.840 --> 0:46:38.520 get excited when the young folks are there. But they're 0:46:38.600 --> 0:46:43.520 excited about this race, and I'm seeing more excitement about 0:46:43.680 --> 0:46:46.680 this race than I have seen across the state of 0:46:46.680 --> 0:46:50.319 Tennessee in a long time. I go around. I'm not 0:46:50.640 --> 0:46:54.080 new to visiting counties across the state. It's five and 0:46:54.120 --> 0:46:57.760 a half hours to Memphis from Knoxville, and it's three 0:46:57.840 --> 0:46:59.759 hours or two and a half hours up to Upper 0:46:59.800 --> 0:47:02.960 each corner, so eight hours or you know, eight or 0:47:03.040 --> 0:47:06.000 nine hours across the whole state. And we've been traveling 0:47:06.040 --> 0:47:10.760 the whole thing. But really it's about listening to people 0:47:11.480 --> 0:47:15.759 and trying to to educate them on some of the 0:47:15.800 --> 0:47:20.600 issues that they don't quite completely understand. Legislation that's been 0:47:20.680 --> 0:47:24.319 passed that that they rarely get to hear about. They 0:47:24.440 --> 0:47:27.520 pass bills so quickly here in the Tennessee State legislature. 0:47:28.600 --> 0:47:31.440 No one knows about them until it affects them. And 0:47:31.520 --> 0:47:34.200 they don't want to debate these bills. They've they've almost 0:47:34.239 --> 0:47:38.880 gotten rid of debate on legislation. I guess it's because 0:47:38.920 --> 0:47:43.520 they are ashamed to really hash out their ideas because 0:47:43.560 --> 0:47:47.200 they're not. It's mostly hate legislation and it doesn't help 0:47:47.320 --> 0:47:52.640 regular families. But you know, Marcia is not getting this 0:47:52.840 --> 0:47:55.640 experience and talking to this people that she thinks she 0:47:55.680 --> 0:47:58.759 can show up with an arb Besider name and win 0:47:58.800 --> 0:48:01.239 this election. And it's not going to be like that 0:48:01.440 --> 0:48:06.799 this year because people are not happy with what she 0:48:06.960 --> 0:48:10.480 is doing and they're paying more attention than ever. And 0:48:10.560 --> 0:48:13.480 so I'm making sure that I'm talking to as many 0:48:13.520 --> 0:48:17.680 people as possible, listening to as many people as possible, 0:48:17.719 --> 0:48:21.319 and I won't ever stop doing that. Every year i 0:48:21.360 --> 0:48:25.080 am in DC, I will continue to visit every county. 0:48:25.760 --> 0:48:30.239 I can't tell you how appreciative people are when they say, 0:48:30.280 --> 0:48:33.680 thank you so much for coming to our county. Nobody's 0:48:33.719 --> 0:48:37.400 been to our county in years. No one has done 0:48:37.600 --> 0:48:41.040 a nine five, a true ninety five county tour that's 0:48:41.200 --> 0:48:46.800 posted that anyone can come to. And it's sad because 0:48:46.880 --> 0:48:50.960 these rural counties have needs and everybody when they're running 0:48:50.960 --> 0:48:53.440 for office, oh, we're going to help the rural counties, 0:48:53.920 --> 0:48:56.680 but they never do. And if you don't know the 0:48:56.719 --> 0:49:00.279 faces and you don't have conversations with those people, you 0:49:00.320 --> 0:49:03.560 know what they need. She doesn't get to tell people 0:49:03.800 --> 0:49:08.240 what they need. She doesn't get to listen to lobbyists 0:49:08.280 --> 0:49:13.279 and corporations that fund her campaign, and she doesn't learn 0:49:13.360 --> 0:49:18.239 from them. But the Tennessee, hard working Tennessee families in 0:49:18.280 --> 0:49:23.239 her district need. She has no idea. She hasn't had 0:49:23.239 --> 0:49:26.719 to struggle to make a light bill, she hasn't had 0:49:26.760 --> 0:49:30.120 to struggle to put food on the table. And if 0:49:30.200 --> 0:49:34.120 you don't listen to folks, how do you even understand 0:49:34.200 --> 0:49:37.359 that I've struggled to pay a light build. I mean, 0:49:37.600 --> 0:49:40.319 that's just a fact, and I'm not ashamed of that. 0:49:41.680 --> 0:49:45.680 I am in the same category as far as you know, 0:49:45.800 --> 0:49:50.520 earning as the majority of Tennesseeans. She's far and above 0:49:50.880 --> 0:49:54.879 that and doesn't understand how the majority of Tennesseeans live. 0:49:55.440 --> 0:49:57.440 You know, in all these politicians, well I'm going to 0:49:57.480 --> 0:49:59.719 cut taxes, Well, what they need to ask her is 0:49:59.760 --> 0:50:03.400 who whose taxes are you going to cut? Marsha, Because 0:50:03.440 --> 0:50:07.320 she's gonna cut taxes for the wealthy incorporations. It's exactly 0:50:07.360 --> 0:50:09.520 what they're doing here, and we've seen her do it there. 0:50:10.239 --> 0:50:17.040 Nobody's helping hard working families with their taxes. Democrats want 0:50:17.080 --> 0:50:22.279 to do that, and people need to understand that, need 0:50:22.280 --> 0:50:26.440 to understand that raising the wage and giving people access 0:50:26.480 --> 0:50:29.960 to health care lifts up your state, lifts up your economy. 0:50:30.960 --> 0:50:36.320 And if you don't understand simple economics, you can't help 0:50:36.400 --> 0:50:39.160 the people that need it the most, and we have 0:50:39.239 --> 0:50:42.640 a lot of vulnerable people in Tennessee. She wants to 0:50:42.680 --> 0:50:46.400 get rid of the federal Department of Education. What are 0:50:46.440 --> 0:50:50.640 they fund in Tennessee. They fund free and reduced lunches 0:50:51.200 --> 0:50:54.120 for so many children in Tennessee that go to bed Hungary. 0:50:54.960 --> 0:50:58.200 They fund special education. I taught special ed for twenty 0:50:58.239 --> 0:51:03.839 seven years. My students, because of federal programs, got the 0:51:03.880 --> 0:51:07.759 services they needed. My special ed students, I had a 0:51:07.840 --> 0:51:12.040 higher graduation. Ninety five percent of my special ed students 0:51:12.200 --> 0:51:15.319 graduated because they got the services they need. That's a 0:51:15.400 --> 0:51:19.200 higher graduation rate than the whole high school with regular kids. 0:51:19.400 --> 0:51:22.160 And so when we provide these services for kids, they 0:51:22.200 --> 0:51:24.640 get what they need. I had kids going to college 0:51:25.080 --> 0:51:27.880 going straight into careers because we did work study their 0:51:27.960 --> 0:51:33.720 last semester. And you can't say that about the entire school. 0:51:34.360 --> 0:51:37.160 So and then that money also, the third pot of 0:51:37.200 --> 0:51:41.320 that money goes to fund Title I, which is making 0:51:41.360 --> 0:51:45.439 sure we have equity in our under resource schools, to 0:51:45.480 --> 0:51:50.359 make sure that those under resource schools have the resources 0:51:50.400 --> 0:51:53.000 they need to have a well resourced classroom, to have 0:51:53.080 --> 0:51:56.680 more social workers because they need more of those services. 0:51:57.360 --> 0:52:00.080 That's what those federal dollars do, and she wants to 0:52:00.120 --> 0:52:03.560 shut it down. The Speaker of our House, Cameron Sexton, 0:52:03.719 --> 0:52:08.360 in Tennessee, wanted to refuse the federal funding. It basically 0:52:08.440 --> 0:52:10.600 came down to, if you don't take the federal dollars, 0:52:10.640 --> 0:52:14.239 you don't have to follow civil rights guidelines. This is 0:52:14.239 --> 0:52:19.440 who they are. It's it is remarkable they do not 0:52:19.680 --> 0:52:22.120 care about the average family in Tennessee. 0:52:22.520 --> 0:52:25.880 I had a visit to Washington a couple months back, 0:52:26.200 --> 0:52:29.400 and I was at this premiere and I sat next 0:52:29.400 --> 0:52:33.719 to a Democratic congressman and he was sitting next to 0:52:33.760 --> 0:52:35.360 another Democratic congressman. 0:52:35.440 --> 0:52:36.479 I was like, how you doing. 0:52:37.600 --> 0:52:39.239 He was like, good he is, but you know he 0:52:39.320 --> 0:52:42.520 is I'm much better than than than his colleague. And 0:52:43.160 --> 0:52:46.719 he is this guy, this impressive guy he is, you know, 0:52:47.520 --> 0:52:52.520 Rhodes scholar, Harvard put himself through, came up from nothing. 0:52:52.840 --> 0:52:55.400 He goes he's got the same job as Lauren Bobert. 0:52:55.600 --> 0:53:05.120 And a few months ago I spent time with Keem 0:53:05.280 --> 0:53:10.120 Jefferies and Tim Ryan, who was in the Congress for 0:53:10.200 --> 0:53:13.799 twenty years. A lot of like in terms of just 0:53:14.000 --> 0:53:19.640 absolutely unflappable, like the like like the Yoda, right you know, 0:53:19.840 --> 0:53:26.120 like the Buddha calm temperaments. And I thought about myself right, 0:53:26.280 --> 0:53:30.120 like in the house and the day that I broke 0:53:30.200 --> 0:53:32.080 a board over like. 0:53:32.120 --> 0:53:33.279 Mac Gates's head. 0:53:33.520 --> 0:53:38.120 Right, It's not like the media would be that I'm 0:53:38.160 --> 0:53:41.839 going to get a riven or something for restraining myself 0:53:42.480 --> 0:53:45.880 for like eight hundred days, right until like I finally 0:53:45.960 --> 0:53:49.799 did it. And the reason I asked the question is 0:53:49.880 --> 0:53:58.520 you're subjecting yourself to a level of self abuse, right 0:53:58.600 --> 0:54:02.759 by doing this, Right, That victory means, right, you're gonna 0:54:02.760 --> 0:54:08.080 be like hanging out with Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, 0:54:08.320 --> 0:54:12.200 that your colleagues will be some of the worst Americans 0:54:12.239 --> 0:54:15.240 out of three hundred and thirty million people, right, which 0:54:15.280 --> 0:54:19.600 is like really bad people who aren't currently incarcerated for 0:54:19.760 --> 0:54:25.600 violent crimes, right, some of the wackiest, most hypocritical Americans. 0:54:25.760 --> 0:54:29.080 Right that there are amongst all of us villainous characters, 0:54:29.200 --> 0:54:31.799 some of them. And I just wonder, you know, you 0:54:31.840 --> 0:54:37.520 seem like a perfectly normal person right about this on earth? 0:54:38.239 --> 0:54:41.279 Why on earth would you want to do it to yourself? Right? 0:54:41.360 --> 0:54:42.640 And then we'll leave it there. 0:54:42.880 --> 0:54:46.480 But it's been a real, a real pleasure hosting you 0:54:46.600 --> 0:54:50.840 Representative Gloria Johnson. We'll put up all your information to 0:54:50.920 --> 0:54:54.160 get involved and be involved in your campaign. Real pleasure 0:54:54.200 --> 0:54:54.680 hosting you. 0:54:55.400 --> 0:54:57.880 Well, thank you. And I do have to say twenty 0:54:57.920 --> 0:55:03.680 seven years teaching me most behavior disordered teenagers has prepared 0:55:03.719 --> 0:55:04.560 me for this work. 0:55:06.000 --> 0:55:08.240 Yeah. Well, I was just talking to my daughter. 0:55:08.320 --> 0:55:10.520 We're on a long road trip, and we're talking about 0:55:10.560 --> 0:55:12.680 the days when I was a kid. You know, there 0:55:12.680 --> 0:55:16.520 were no seatbelts, no shoulder straps, right front seat, right 0:55:16.719 --> 0:55:20.040 middle seat, laying down in the back. We were talking 0:55:20.080 --> 0:55:23.920 about school, right, and we were talking about emotionally disturbed 0:55:24.600 --> 0:55:28.440 right out of fashion today. But like the problem kid 0:55:28.760 --> 0:55:33.120 of that era was called the emotionally disturbed kid, right 0:55:33.160 --> 0:55:35.239 that you know, that would be the threat. You know, 0:55:35.320 --> 0:55:39.600 if you misbehaved or go to the emotionally disturbed classroom, right, 0:55:39.600 --> 0:55:41.920 it would hang over You'd be like, oh my goodness. 0:55:42.239 --> 0:55:48.600 But that is America's epicenter of emotional disturbance, Right, is 0:55:48.680 --> 0:55:54.040 the United States Senate Josh Holly right, frauds of such 0:55:54.160 --> 0:56:02.640 epic titanic dimensions. Right, They're they're almost fictional characters. But 0:56:02.640 --> 0:56:04.959 but but this is this way you'd be signing. 0:56:04.680 --> 0:56:07.239 Up for well and it's it's it's pretty much what 0:56:07.320 --> 0:56:10.760 I'm doing here, and and and the meanness is something. 0:56:10.840 --> 0:56:15.520 You know, we have a seventy four Republicans and twenty 0:56:15.520 --> 0:56:20.600 five Democrats, and uh in addition to being drunk with 0:56:20.719 --> 0:56:30.680 power and authoritarians there, they're just mean their retaliatory. You know. 0:56:31.320 --> 0:56:34.920 The first the first year that Cameron Sexton was up 0:56:34.960 --> 0:56:37.319 for Speaker, I said, I refused to vote for him. 0:56:38.640 --> 0:56:41.800 You know, I'm not voting for a Republican speaker. And 0:56:41.840 --> 0:56:45.960 I'm certainly not voting for the Republican speaker who was 0:56:46.120 --> 0:56:50.879 instrumental in stopping medicaid expansion in Tennessee, who also fought 0:56:51.239 --> 0:56:54.280 tooth and nail to keep the bust of Nathan Bedford 0:56:54.320 --> 0:56:57.120 forrest in a place of honor in our capital. Said 0:56:57.120 --> 0:56:58.000 I'm not doing it. 0:56:58.600 --> 0:57:02.800 And one founder of the ku Klux Klan yes. 0:57:02.920 --> 0:57:07.920 And slaughtered three hundred folks who were surrendering at Fort Pillow. 0:57:08.760 --> 0:57:12.680 So I was the only one out of ninety nine 0:57:12.920 --> 0:57:15.600 to vote against him for speaker. And I was giving 0:57:15.880 --> 0:57:19.120 given a closet for an office. And then not only 0:57:19.200 --> 0:57:21.560 was I given a closet for an office, but across 0:57:21.560 --> 0:57:24.400 the hall outside my door, I look outside my door 0:57:24.480 --> 0:57:28.080 and I see the empty member office across the hall. 0:57:28.280 --> 0:57:31.240 And that was intentional, and that was all all about 0:57:31.320 --> 0:57:35.200 punishment and retaliation because I didn't step in line with 0:57:35.320 --> 0:57:38.960 what they wanted. And guess what, I'm never going to 0:57:39.200 --> 0:57:42.040 unless what they want is right, and most often it 0:57:42.160 --> 0:57:46.120 is not. And that's why it's so important that we 0:57:46.240 --> 0:57:49.760 stand up and that we push back against these extremists 0:57:49.760 --> 0:57:53.240 and against this hate. And that's why we have to 0:57:53.280 --> 0:57:55.400 win this US Senate seat in Tennessee. 0:57:55.200 --> 0:57:57.240 Perfect place stand it. Thank you for your time. 0:57:57.400 --> 0:58:00.560 Thank you so much. I appreciate you have me on. 0:58:01.400 --> 0:58:04.160 I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning and I invite 0:58:04.200 --> 0:58:07.960 you to join. Subscribe on our substack, on our YouTube 0:58:08.040 --> 0:58:10.600 channel follow us. Welcome to the community.