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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 1: In the description to this episode. Very pleased to be

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Speaker 1: joined by Congressman Colin Already. Congressman, welcome, Thanks, thanks for

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Speaker 1: having me. You are running for the US Senate from

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Speaker 1: the great state of Texas. If you become the Democratic nominee,

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Speaker 1: you will be facing off against Senator Ted Cruz. Why

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Speaker 1: are you the guy to beat him?

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Speaker 3: Well, listen, I think that Texans know that we can't

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Speaker 3: afford six more years Ted Cruise in the Senate, and

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Speaker 3: Americans should know that we can afford six more years

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Speaker 3: of Ted Cruise in the Senate. He's our problem, but

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Speaker 3: he's also the country's problem, and we know that he's

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Speaker 3: only looking out for himself. Here in Texas. Everybody knows

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Speaker 3: that about him. Ted Cruise is on team Seed. You know,

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Speaker 3: I have a very different story, one that's based in

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Speaker 3: being raised by a single mother who was a public

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Speaker 3: school teacher and having to rely on my community, you know,

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Speaker 3: my teachers and my coaches, my local YMCA to kind

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Speaker 3: of chase my version of the American dream, and that

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Speaker 3: led me to Baylor, where I captain the football team,

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Speaker 3: had five years in the NFL, went to law school

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Speaker 3: and started in the Obama administration, and then ran for

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Speaker 3: Congress against a twenty two year incumbent Republican who had

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Speaker 3: been unopposed in the previous election because he was considered

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Speaker 3: to be so unbeatable as a chairman of the rules committee.

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Speaker 3: We beat him by nearly seven points. So we know

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Speaker 3: how to do this. We know how to you know,

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Speaker 3: I think, appeal to folks who maybe feel like this

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Speaker 3: version of the Republican Party doesn't reflect their values anymore.

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Speaker 3: But also, you know, to make sure that we tell

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Speaker 3: kind of the story about who we are as a people.

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Speaker 3: And I think we're not who Ted Cruz says we are.

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Speaker 3: And that's what this race is going to be about, fundamentally,

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Speaker 3: is the Ted Cruz wants to divide us. He wants

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Speaker 3: to put us against each other. He's a demagogue. I'm

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Speaker 3: somebody who spent my life and career trying to bring

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Speaker 3: us together around our shared values, and I think that's

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Speaker 3: why we're going to win.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question, and I want to

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Speaker 1: frame it, not by asking you through the prism of congressmen.

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Speaker 1: Al right, I want to back up. I want back

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Speaker 1: up to the young man raised by a single mom,

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Speaker 1: supported by his community at the YMCA, who winds up

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Speaker 1: as the captain of the Baylor football team and winds

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Speaker 1: up playing in the National Football League, The values of

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Speaker 1: being on a team, leading a team, the concept of responsibility.

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Speaker 1: Where did you learn it from? Where are your seminal experiences?

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Speaker 1: What was that moment in your life where someone imparted

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Speaker 1: to you, Hey, it doesn't matter if you didn't do it.

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Speaker 1: You're in charge. It's your fault. You're responsible for what

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Speaker 1: goes on here. And then and then how do you

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Speaker 1: think about this moment You're sitting in Congress and your

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Speaker 1: state senator during a crisis in the state people have

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Speaker 1: lost their electricity, very serious set of circumstances going on,

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Speaker 1: and he goes to Cancun, and so you're sitting there thinking,

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Speaker 1: what about about this guy as a matter of characters.

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Speaker 1: So I just I'm curious about who you are, where

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Speaker 1: you come from, and how you think about what I

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Speaker 1: what I what I feel is a fundamental and elemental

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Speaker 1: issue in the in the country, which is this crisis

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Speaker 1: of character?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, I want to thank you for

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Speaker 3: that question because I think it's a it's an illuminating one.

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Speaker 3: You know. So I grew up I never met my father, uh,

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Speaker 3: and I had to find you male role models h

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Speaker 3: and also find you know, some of the values that

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Speaker 3: I think, uh, you know, young man in particular and

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Speaker 3: this time are looking for. And I think we're in

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Speaker 3: a difficult time, you know, as a country, as you said,

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Speaker 3: around accountability and around responsibility and leadership. We're also in

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Speaker 3: a really strong time around you know, masculinity and where

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Speaker 3: I think young men are learning their lessons from. And

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Speaker 3: I was fortunate because I had so many men who

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Speaker 3: stepped up in my life. From my uncle who is

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Speaker 3: my mom's sister's husband, who raised me like a father

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Speaker 3: and was you know, the guy who was at every

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Speaker 3: game of mine. I didn't meet him til I was

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Speaker 3: seven years old, but after that he was always there

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Speaker 3: and he's been a huge part of my life to

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Speaker 3: you know, YMC a counselor named Derek Smith who is

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Speaker 3: a former college basketball player who was in my launch

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Speaker 3: video when I ran for Congress. We've been friends since

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Speaker 3: I was seven years old. You know, to the coaches

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Speaker 3: who I think went above and beyond to kind of

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Speaker 3: recognize that there might be some potential in me and

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Speaker 3: to try and bring it out. But I wouldn't be

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Speaker 3: who I am were not for football. And I say

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Speaker 3: that as somebody who understands better than anyone some of

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Speaker 3: the downsides of football. I mean, I was severely injured.

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Speaker 3: That's why my career ended, is that I had to

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Speaker 3: have next surgery. I have a plate and two screws

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Speaker 3: in my neck. So I understand on the downside of football,

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Speaker 3: but I also understand the upside, uh and and what

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Speaker 3: it teaches you about accountability, which is a word that

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Speaker 3: is just foreign to Washington right now but also to

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Speaker 3: our politics. I mean, you want to talk about accountability

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Speaker 3: in a football game. We know, we used to always

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Speaker 3: say the eye in the sky doesn't lie. The next morning,

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Speaker 3: we're gonna watch the tape, we're gonna roll it back,

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Speaker 3: we're gonna do it in slaw motion. We're gonna talk

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Speaker 3: about who did what, who didn't do what, and we're

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Speaker 3: gonna hold people accountable and and so in that moment,

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Speaker 3: because you know that there's no there's none of this

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Speaker 3: kind of like boasting and lying and this idea that

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Speaker 3: you know, you would just sort of try and get

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Speaker 3: by on what people can't prove because it's all right there.

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Speaker 3: And I came from that that kind of a world

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Speaker 3: where uh, you know you're gonna be held accountable, but

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Speaker 3: also where particularly you're in a position of leadership. And

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Speaker 3: I was a captain of my high school team and

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Speaker 3: my college team. I became a leader in the NFL

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Speaker 3: before my career ended, where you have other talented young

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Speaker 3: man looking to you for leadership. And what, in my experience,

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Speaker 3: what they're looking for, you know, isn't the most blusterous person,

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Speaker 3: isn't the person who takes all the credit but doesn't

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Speaker 3: put in the work. What they're looking for, particularly in football,

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Speaker 3: is somebody who's accountable, who holds them self accountable first

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Speaker 3: before they hold anyone else accountable, who is the hardest

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Speaker 3: worker in the room, and who you're following them in

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Speaker 3: part because you want to be like them, You want

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Speaker 3: to take that work ethic they have and apply it

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Speaker 3: and learn how to use it yourself. But also, you know,

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Speaker 3: I think it's somebody who can understand the differences in

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Speaker 3: people and appeal to people in different ways at different times.

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Speaker 3: You know, in a football team, we come from so

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Speaker 3: many different backgrounds. The NFL was hilariou to me. You'd

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Speaker 3: have a kid, you know, from the most country kid

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Speaker 3: in the world, who'd never really set foot inside of

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Speaker 3: a city, almost sitting right next to and being brothers

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Speaker 3: with somebody who had never left the inner city, right,

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Speaker 3: and it's happens. It happens every day in a football

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Speaker 3: locker room. And we don't see that in the outside

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Speaker 3: world too much, unfortunately, because we have, you know, so

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Speaker 3: many of these narratives about the differences that we have,

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Speaker 3: whereas I've seen the similarities that we have kind of

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Speaker 3: outweigh them. And I think when I think about tech cruise,

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Speaker 3: the world that does come to mind is accountability. It's

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Speaker 3: completely unaccountable from as you said, as you mentioned when

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Speaker 3: we had a state wide freeze here in Texas where

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Speaker 3: you know, Texans were under boil water advisories because they

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Speaker 3: couldn't trust the water and their sinks to drink, whether

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Speaker 3: they were literally trying to take pieces of wood and

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Speaker 3: burn it for warmth, where people were dying from carbon

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Speaker 3: monoxide poisoning because they're bringing generators inside indoors and they

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Speaker 3: were going to sleep and waking up and not waking

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Speaker 3: up from that. And that happened to folks in my

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Speaker 3: district at that time when we needed you know, FEMA,

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Speaker 3: our state agencies. I remember I was on the phone

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Speaker 3: with our county folks trying to find warming centers, which

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Speaker 3: is just you know, big buildings that had the keat on.

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Speaker 3: But that's when Ted Cruz decided to go on vacation

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Speaker 3: to Cancun and he only came back. You know, Steven,

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Speaker 3: we don't remember this. He only came back because he

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Speaker 3: was caught. Somebody took a picture of him and put

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Speaker 3: it on Twitter. That's why he came back. And when

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Speaker 3: he did, he blamed his daughter. And you know, as

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Speaker 3: a football player, I'm sitting thinking, no, no, no, you're

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Speaker 3: accountable for this. This was your decision, right, And of

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Speaker 3: course I think, I'm sure we'll talk about it. But

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Speaker 3: he also had a role in January sixth that we

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Speaker 3: needed to talk about and I think that he has

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Speaker 3: to be held accountable for. And that's what the selection

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Speaker 3: is going to be about. In a lot of ways.

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Speaker 1: Do you do you consider yourself an optimist?

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Speaker 3: I do, Yeah, I'm an incurable optimist genetically speak. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I think so. Yeah, I come by it naturally.

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Speaker 1: Do you do you recall the moment being conscious of

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Speaker 1: the play that ended your career, that you were hurt,

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Speaker 1: that this is it, I'm not playing football anymore at

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Speaker 1: the moment when it happened.

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Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Yeah. So for me, Uh, it was a

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Speaker 3: big deal because I'm a Dallas kid, born and raised

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Speaker 3: in Dallas, and I was playing the Cowboys in Dallas,

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Speaker 3: you know, for the Titans, and my mom and my

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Speaker 3: aunt and uncle were in the stands. Uh. And I

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Speaker 3: got hit the wrong way power running play by Marion Barber,

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Speaker 3: who was the Cowboys running back at the time. And

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Speaker 3: it wasn't like a big hit. It just I had

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Speaker 3: a I had been dealing with neck issues and if

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Speaker 3: I could hit a certain way then I was getting

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Speaker 3: these really severe what we call stingers. But this one

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Speaker 3: was was the worst one I'd had in my right

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Speaker 3: arm was was useless. Uh. And I was lying on

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Speaker 3: the turf and UH, tell us Bennett, actually it was

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Speaker 3: a tight end was on top of me, and he

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Speaker 3: could tell there's something wrong, and he asked me if

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Speaker 3: I was okay, and I told him, I don't think

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Speaker 3: I am, but I was honestly lying there and I

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Speaker 3: think this is the first time this has ever happened.

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Speaker 3: I was lying on the turf there in Cowboys City

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Speaker 3: and thinking, uh, you know, I'm so ready to go

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Speaker 3: to law school, you know, like I've this is, We've

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Speaker 3: reached the end of this stage. I could. I had

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Speaker 3: an offer to keep playing after my next surgery from

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Speaker 3: the Vikings to come and basically a one year deal,

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Speaker 3: see if you can make the team. But I decided

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Speaker 3: that it was time to hang it up and go

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Speaker 3: to law school. And I knew in that, you know,

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Speaker 3: from the time I was lying there on the turf

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Speaker 3: and it was my last play. After the game, my

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Speaker 3: mom asked me about next week and I told her, Mom,

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Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to be next week, and

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Speaker 3: that was it.

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Speaker 1: Were you sad about it?

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Speaker 3: Yes? And no. I felt like I had accomplished what

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Speaker 3: I wanted to accomplish, which I wanted to prove that

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Speaker 3: I could play in the NFL because I had been

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Speaker 3: an undrafted free agent and if anybody knows anything about

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Speaker 3: the fil you know that, you know there's seven rounds

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Speaker 3: of the draft, I mean, you know, thirty two teams

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Speaker 3: to look at me seven times and said no at least,

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Speaker 3: although some of them had more than seven picks in

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Speaker 3: that draft. And you come into the training camp and

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Speaker 3: there's ten, twelve, thirteen linebackers ahead of you in the queue,

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Speaker 3: and you're going to keep six. And you know, it's

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Speaker 3: an incredibly you know, cutthroat league in terms of the

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Speaker 3: business decisions that are made when it comes to cut time,

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Speaker 3: and the way you make it is by showing value.

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Speaker 3: If you're not somebody who has value because they put

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Speaker 3: so much money into you, which is one thing, then

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Speaker 3: you have to show value by doing things that no

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Speaker 3: one else can do, or doing more than anyone else

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Speaker 3: can do. And so the way I made it was,

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Speaker 3: you know, I played all the special teams. I was

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Speaker 3: a special teams ace. I was one of our best

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Speaker 3: special teams players. But I also learned every linebacker position.

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Speaker 3: I could be a sub for every linebacker position. I

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Speaker 3: came in on every package that required it an extra linebacker,

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Speaker 3: or if anybody got hurt, I came in for them.

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Speaker 3: So we had a four or three defense with three linebackers.

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Speaker 3: I played all three, and I was I was the

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Speaker 3: number four basically in that three person rotation. If anybody

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Speaker 3: needed a breather, I came in. But that made me valuable.

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Speaker 3: I was like a Swiss army knife. I could do

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Speaker 3: a lot of things, and I learned the whole defense.

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Speaker 3: I could. I could be a coach on the sideline.

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Speaker 3: In fact, I helped call play sometimes. So uh, that

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Speaker 3: was that was what I learned. So I had proven that.

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Speaker 3: But then I was gonna I knew I was gonna miss, uh,

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Speaker 3: the locker room. And I still missed the locker room,

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Speaker 3: and I still miss the interaction with the guys. Because

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Speaker 3: the thing that everybody always asked me, what do you

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Speaker 3: miss about the NFL. I think they're probably thinking I'm

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Speaker 3: going to say, you know, the big hits or the

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Speaker 3: crowd or whatever, But no, I means it's it's like

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Speaker 3: the comedy that is a locker room. Like yeah, the brotherhood,

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Speaker 3: like the making fun of each other for stupid things

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Speaker 3: like relieving tension, you know by goofing off. You know, uh,

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Speaker 3: that that's the thing. I think. You know, you you

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Speaker 3: sometimes see it if you watch like Hard Knocks or

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Speaker 3: something like that. But man, I miss those days.

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Speaker 1: So you go to law school, you graduate law school,

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Speaker 1: and you do some government service, and not to hit

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Speaker 1: the fast forward track too much. But you wind up

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Speaker 1: in the United States Congress elected, and there's an apocryphal story,

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Speaker 1: I suspect about a new member of Congress who gets there,

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Speaker 1: takes the oath, looks around in complete awe, wondering how

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Speaker 1: is it that I got here? And after a couple

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Speaker 1: of months, secure in their presence, they look around and think,

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Speaker 1: how did all these other people? And so what is

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Speaker 1: your version of that of that story as a new

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Speaker 1: congressman sitting there taking it all in the proverbial, I suspect, Houston,

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Speaker 1: we have a problem here in the institution.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, that's such a good question. I think it's

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Speaker 3: funny that you say that, because actually, when I came in,

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Speaker 3: I thought that the quality, the level of quality I

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Speaker 3: thought was was pretty high in the Congress, and I

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Speaker 3: actually think that in my time it's gone down. You know.

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Speaker 3: We came in where, you know, Liz Cheney was the

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Speaker 3: Conference chair of the Republican Congress, and you know, I

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Speaker 3: respected her. I had friends on the Republican side who

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Speaker 3: I knew were you know, conservative, but you could work with,

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Speaker 3: and I kind of knew where they were coming from.

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Speaker 3: And you know, and as you go around, particularly in

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Speaker 3: our class, the class of twenty eighteen on the Democratic side,

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Speaker 3: we had a tremendous number of people who came in

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Speaker 3: who had come from a service background of some kind,

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Speaker 3: whether it's military service or serving in the intelligence agencies,

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Speaker 3: or serving in the previous administrations like I had, or

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Speaker 3: you know, and I think we all came in because

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Speaker 3: we thought that the country was at risk from a

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Speaker 3: out of control president and an administration that had to

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Speaker 3: have at least one check in place. And at the

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Speaker 3: time we had a Republican Senate with Mitch McConnell and

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Speaker 3: the leadership we had of course President Trump, and so

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Speaker 3: we had to have at least one of the levers

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Speaker 3: of power that was able to check what they were

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Speaker 3: what he was doing. But I was sworn in during

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Speaker 3: the longest shut down in our history. We had u

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Speaker 3: you know, a pandemic, we had two impeachments, you know.

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Speaker 3: It just it was a very chaotic in the first

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Speaker 3: few years. And and I'm very concerned about the incentive

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Speaker 3: structure that I've seen in the Congress, which is, you know,

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Speaker 3: if you're the Matt Gates or Marjorie Taylor Greens of

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Speaker 3: the world or the tech cruises of the world. Uh.

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Speaker 3: You know, you can make a lot of money in

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Speaker 3: terms of fundraising and get a lot of attention by

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Speaker 3: doing things that are the worst for the country, that

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Speaker 3: are just destroying the country, that are pitting people against

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Speaker 3: each other, you know, that are not based in fact either,

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Speaker 3: which I know is an issue that you've talked a

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Speaker 3: lot about. And when you get that kind of positive reinforcement,

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Speaker 3: as you know, in this business, which is different from

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Speaker 3: football with there's that accountability element, then get you see

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Speaker 3: that that it's helping you, and then you get more

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Speaker 3: of it. You get more of it, and it starts

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Speaker 3: to build and it becomes something that other people see

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Speaker 3: you succeeding with that, and then they want to be

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Speaker 3: like that because they don't want to be left out

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Speaker 3: on kind of the gravy train. And so you get

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Speaker 3: this kind of really negative positive reinforcement from it. And

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Speaker 3: that's where I think we are right now, where you know,

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Speaker 3: doing the right thing. And I think of the eleven

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Speaker 3: Republicans who joined us on the second impeachment vote in

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Speaker 3: the House for after January sixth, you know, I think

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Speaker 3: you know, they're all gone with a few exceptions, they

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Speaker 3: were primaried or they decided not to run for reelection

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Speaker 3: because they, like in the case of my friend Anthony Gonzalez,

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Speaker 3: who I played with in the NFL. You know, his

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Speaker 3: family was receiving threats. He felt like it was unsafe

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Speaker 3: for him in some ways to remain in the United

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Speaker 3: States Congress. You know, then you get this also, this

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Speaker 3: cycle where then they're replaced by work members and worse members,

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Speaker 3: and it gets worse and worse and worse. And that's

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Speaker 3: what I've been seeing, and I think Ted Cruz in

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Speaker 3: many ways was part of the vanguard of doing that

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Speaker 3: to the United States Senate. He has made the Senate

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Speaker 3: a much worse place and that's part of why we

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Speaker 3: need to replace him.

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Speaker 1: Ron DeSantis this weekend, and it is August sixth, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, he finally said it, and you said it.

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Speaker 1: Matter of fact, Trump lost the election. Could have saved

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Speaker 1: a lot of pain and a lot of trouble if

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Speaker 1: if he had come to that conclusion like I did

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Speaker 1: at about eleven fifteen on election night.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I think I've heard this before, and I

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Speaker 3: think it's true. I recognize that it takes individual bravery

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Speaker 3: at this point to come forward in the Republican Party

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Speaker 3: and say the facts, which is that you know, Donald

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Speaker 3: Trump lost the last election, that it was an affair

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Speaker 3: and free election, and that it was you know, in

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Speaker 3: some cases he was lost narrowly, but he did lose,

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Speaker 3: and that Joe Biden is legitimate president the United States.

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Speaker 3: That we should move on from there. But I do

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Speaker 3: think that if there had been a critical mass around it,

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Speaker 3: or if a few leaders had stepped forward and been

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Speaker 3: more vocal, then that bravery would have been a lot less.

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Speaker 3: And so I'm glad to see someone saying it now, honestly,

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Speaker 3: because I think as I think you do as well. See,

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Speaker 3: I think about the long scope of American history, and

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Speaker 3: I think about where we're going, and I think about

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Speaker 3: where we've been, and I'm extremely concerned about, you know,

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Speaker 3: where we're going. And so we have to have this

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Speaker 3: kind of bipartisan rejection of the first time in our

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Speaker 3: history we didn't have a peaceful transfer of power. And

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Speaker 3: in the days after January sixth, I thought we were

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Speaker 3: going to have that. You know, Kevin McCarthy gave a

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Speaker 3: solid speech, you know, in many ways where he said

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Speaker 3: that the president, you know, bore the responsibility for the

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Speaker 3: attack on the Capitol. Mitch McConnell, I think it also

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Speaker 3: was saying and speaking from the same hymn book, maybe

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Speaker 3: even being more forceful. Uh And and I thought that

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Speaker 3: in those those short few days afterwards. But then we

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Speaker 3: saw the shift. And what has set in is something

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Speaker 3: that if it were happening in another country, you know,

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Speaker 3: we would say, you know that their democracy is in

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Speaker 3: serious peril. And and so you know, I think it's

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Speaker 3: I'm glad to hear Ronis said to say it now.

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Speaker 3: I wish that more Republican leaders had said it from

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Speaker 3: the very beginning. Like you said, I have.

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Speaker 1: A I think, like most people in politics, I have

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Speaker 1: boxes where I've accumulated all sorts of nick knacks and

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Speaker 1: photographs and everything else over the years. And I was

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Speaker 1: going through one of those boxes and in it I

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Speaker 1: found an old BlackBerry and and I picked it up

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Speaker 1: and I said, huh, I said, this is the BlackBerry

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Speaker 1: that I used, And it's the one I handed John

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Speaker 1: McCain that he used to place his concession phone call

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Speaker 1: to Barack Obama. And it was on this phone that

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Speaker 1: he became the first person really who mattered who addressed

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Speaker 1: Senator Obama by what we now know him as as

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Speaker 1: President Obama, and he addressed him and congratulated him as

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Speaker 1: mister President elect. And when you look at the conspiracy

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Speaker 1: of lies that has stripped faith and belief in the

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Speaker 1: outcome of what was the freest and most fair election

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Speaker 1: in American history. As a matter of fact, there is nobody,

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Speaker 1: with the exception of Donald True Trump, who did more

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Speaker 1: to undermine that reality, that truth, than Ted Cruz's right.

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Speaker 1: And so there are two parts to the American crisis

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Speaker 1: that we that we face in my estimation, the first

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Speaker 1: is the crisis of lying and liars and the inability

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Speaker 1: as a result to be able to differentiate between what's

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Speaker 1: real and what's false. And the second issue is a

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Speaker 1: crisis of cowardice. And that is emblematic of what you

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Speaker 1: described in Kevin McCarthy, who we know, through his own

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Speaker 1: words and his own responses, judging incorrectly that his party

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Speaker 1: would have no tolerance for an insurrection, when in fact

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Speaker 1: it turned out that it did, but that he knew

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Speaker 1: it was wrong what he was watching, and in the

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Speaker 1: end he cowtout to the worst impulses out of expediency.

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Speaker 1: And he's certainly not alone but a top of the

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Speaker 1: pyramid when it comes to dishonesty, pre meditated, absolute dishonesty,

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Speaker 1: lying at a pathological level. And then the cowardice defined

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Speaker 1: as accommodating and accepting everything that you once denounced as

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Speaker 1: wrong and is manifest for your reasons to running for

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Speaker 1: the US Senate in the first place. And Ted Cruise

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Speaker 1: is on top of that pyramid as well. And so

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Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask you is to talk about

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Speaker 1: his dishonesty and to talk about the cowardice, because they're real,

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Speaker 1: they're elemental in the race. And I say this as

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Speaker 1: someone who grew up in New Jersey who lives in Utah,

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Speaker 1: to you, as a Texan, you're not pulling your weight

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Speaker 1: sending Ted Cruz to the United States Senate in the

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Speaker 1: same way Utah isn't pulling its weight by sending Mike

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Speaker 1: Lee to the Senate, although somewhat redeems itself by sending

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Speaker 1: Mitt Romney to the United States Senate. But at the

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Speaker 1: end of the at the end of the day, all

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Speaker 1: of these people aren't just showing up in Washington, They're

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Speaker 1: being sent there. And what's really remarkable from someone who's

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Speaker 1: not a Texan, but appreciates Texas's history, How does Texas

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Speaker 1: accommodate the dishonesty and the cowardice, which seems so if

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Speaker 1: you understand texas history, antymthetical to the values of the state.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I think you go

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Speaker 3: back to Ted Cruise's speech at the twenty sixteen Republican

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Speaker 3: Convention where he told people to both their conscience and

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Speaker 3: he fast forward to four years later where he is

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Speaker 3: the Senator who objected to the results in Arizona. Really quickly,

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Speaker 3: I just want to talk about January sixth, because I

432
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 3: was there and I was about fifty feet away from

433
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 3: Senator Cruz when he objected. I was a member of

434
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 3: the House Leadership team and we had a limited number

435
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 3: of members on the floor because of COVID, and so

436
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 3: I was on the floor, and I remember, you know,

437
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 3: when we're going through the states, Alabama, alask we get

438
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 3: to Arizona. As you know, it takes a member of

439
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,719
Speaker 3: the House, remember of the Senate, to object to the

440
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,200
Speaker 3: counting of the electoral College votes of a particular state.

441
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 3: And Paul Gosar, you know, there's always a kind of

442
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 3: crack pop member of the House who's it pubjects. That

443
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,640
Speaker 3: happens almost every session, as we know, but there's usually

444
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 3: not a senator, you know, Paul Gosar objects in the house,

445
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 3: and who's the senator? Of course? Who stands up? You know,

446
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,920
Speaker 3: it's my junior Senator, Ted Cruz. And I'm sitting there thinking,

447
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 3: what does Ed know at all about what happened in

448
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,080
Speaker 3: the election in Arizona. He knows nothing about it. But

449
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 3: fast forward just a few minutes later, we split into

450
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 3: our separate house. Remains in the House, the Senate goes

451
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 3: back to the Senate separate sessions to debate the results

452
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 3: in Arizona. And I started getting texts from my staff

453
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,000
Speaker 3: and from my wife asked me where I am. I'm

454
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 3: kind of annoyed because I'm on the house for I'm working,

455
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 3: you know where I am. I'm in the safest place

456
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:53,399
Speaker 3: in the country outside of the White House, and you know,

457
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 3: but they were seeing a very different story playing out

458
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,119
Speaker 3: on TV. They were seeing this mob that was starting

459
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 3: to breach the capital. And I remember they interrupted our results,

460
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,360
Speaker 3: They swept the leadership teams out off the floor, put

461
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 3: Jim McGovern in the chair, were trying to continue the

462
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 3: proceedings and at some point, the sergeant at arms representative

463
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 3: from Sergeant Arms gets on the microphone and tells us

464
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,919
Speaker 3: that the capital has been breached, that tear gas has

465
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 3: been deployed in the rotunda, which I just to me

466
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 3: is just unimaginable, this temple of American democracy. Anybody who's

467
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 3: ever been to the Capitol look up in the rotunda

468
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 3: and tell me you don't feel something, and to reach

469
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 3: under our seats for these gas masks that are ny

470
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 3: there that I didn't even know we're there. And I

471
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 3: sent my wife at text that I who was at

472
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,120
Speaker 3: home with seven months pregnant with our son Jordan, who

473
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 3: wasn't yet two years old, and she was seven months

474
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 3: pregnant with our ex son Cameron, and I sent our

475
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:51,800
Speaker 3: tized I didn't really think I'd ever have to send

476
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 3: them this job, you know, I said, you know, whatever happens,

477
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 3: I love you, and you being the only former NFL

478
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 3: linebacker on the floor, I take off my suit coat

479
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 3: and I'm literally preparing to have to defend a door

480
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,680
Speaker 3: because we have barricaded the doors with furniture we use

481
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 3: for paper, and the few, the few Capitol police who

482
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 3: are part of the kind of the protective detail of

483
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 3: the floor, who are there and suits have their guns drawn,

484
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 3: and there's no way out at this point, and some

485
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 3: of my colleagues joined me and took off their suit jackets,

486
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:29,679
Speaker 3: some of the particularly of the younger men, and at

487
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 3: that point, you know, I thought that might be where

488
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,879
Speaker 3: we'd have to make a stand. Luckily, the Capitol police,

489
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,360
Speaker 3: due to their bravery and I mean their incredible bravery,

490
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 3: got us off the floor. But while that was happening,

491
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 3: Ted Cruz, who had whipped up that mob, and who

492
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 3: had gone around the country talking about how this was

493
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 3: a steal and and who was, as we learned later,

494
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 3: part of the legal backing for trying to challenge this,

495
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 3: and who was implementing the legal strategy, which was to

496
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 3: try and delay, delay, delay, you know, he was hiding

497
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 3: on the supply claw it. And I think it does

498
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 3: say something about who he is, and I don't think

499
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 3: it matches who we are as Texans. I know our

500
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 3: history well, and we're a state that's proud of our history,

501
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 3: as that fought for its own independence, that was its

502
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 3: own nation, the lone Star State, but also that has

503
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 3: had a long line of leaders, whether you agreed with

504
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 3: them or not or not who were independent, strong voices

505
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 3: who didn't just follow, but who led you from George W.

506
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 3: Bush to LBJ to Sam Rayburn to Barbara Jordan, a

507
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 3: long line, George J. V. Bush of you know Americans

508
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 3: who whether you agreed with them politically or not, you

509
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 3: have to say that they were independent leaders who stepped

510
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 3: forward and were an important voce for the country. That

511
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 3: Cruz is not that he's someone who is. You know,

512
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 3: he knows the difference. Also, Steve, I think we both

513
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 3: know that he knew that Donald Trump lost that election.

514
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 3: He's a Harvard trained lawyer. He's somebody who knew what

515
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 3: he was doing to the country. But he decided that

516
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 3: it was in his political interest to do this and

517
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 3: that has to be punished at the ballot box. We're

518
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 3: seeing Donald Trump and getting some element of accountability through

519
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 3: his indictments and arraignment. We'll see where the trial goes

520
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 3: a jury if his peers will decide. But for Ted Cruz,

521
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,719
Speaker 3: that accountability is going to come in this election in

522
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 3: a state that he only won by two points last time,

523
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 3: and that we can beat him in this time because

524
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 3: it's not who we are as Texans.

525
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: When you think about Ted Cruz hiding in the closet.

526
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: You just said something, and I want to bring you

527
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: to that moment. You said, very calmly, a lot of

528
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,320
Speaker 1: Texas in you, the way you said it, a lot

529
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: of cowboy you were preparing to make your stand. Tell

530
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: me about that. What does that mean?

531
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 3: Well, as I said I when I sent that text

532
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 3: to my wife, it's the kind of text I think

533
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 3: you see. And we've learned later that Mike Pence's secret

534
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 3: Service detail was also contacting their families and telling them

535
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 3: we don't think we're going to make it out of here,

536
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 3: and saying their goodbyes. I was in a very different

537
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 3: situation because I had a number of my colleagues who

538
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 3: are older and who were looking to me in many ways,

539
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,959
Speaker 3: I think, to defend them. And my thought was, you know,

540
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 3: maybe we can hold this off long enough so that

541
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 3: the other folks can get off the floor. That was

542
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 3: my thought in the moment, obviously, and thankfully it didn't

543
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,479
Speaker 3: come to that. But I all of the doors had

544
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 3: been locked, Steve, the alarms are going off. People are

545
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 3: putting on these hoods. I call them gas masks, these

546
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 3: hoods to protect against tear gas. It looks like there's

547
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 3: no way out, and few of us. No, I didn't.

548
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 3: I didn't put it on.

549
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: Hold because you're getting you're getting ready to fight.

550
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was holding it. I didn't know, you know,

551
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 3: I didn't smell anything. It didn't feel like it was necessary.

552
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 3: Ruben Diego, who you know marine, is standing on top

553
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 3: of some of the chairs telling people when you put

554
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 3: on your mask, breathe slowly so that you don't hyperventilate.

555
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 3: And at that moment, it just seems very much like

556
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 3: this is what's going to be necessary. And I don't

557
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: mean that in any way to indicate that, you know,

558
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 3: to make myself seem any braverything like.

559
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: That, or of course not, but I think this is important.

560
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: Are there any Republicans standing at that door, at that

561
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 1: ramp part with you in common defense of their colleagues.

562
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are, there are, and I give them a

563
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 3: lot of credit for it. And you know they we

564
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 3: had in that moment, I think, and I know from

565
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 3: time when we edited the floor, we all I think

566
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 3: felt very similarly about it. And yeah, we had some

567
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 3: Republicans who were standing right there, and I think, you know,

568
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 3: joy Nils comes to mind. I'm forgetting some of the

569
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 3: other names. But you know, I think there were some

570
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 3: folks who were willing to do the right thing and

571
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 3: to be, you know, sort of help help these very

572
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 3: few Capitol police in any way they could. And one

573
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 3: thing I think that was shocking to people probably to

574
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 3: learn was how few Capitol police were having to do

575
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 3: against so many and protect that line. And I, you know,

576
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 3: Brian sick Nick's family was present on the anniversary of

577
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 3: the sixth. He's the officer who died on January sixth,

578
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 3: and his family was there when we were speaking about

579
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 3: it in the Capitol and I spoke directly to his

580
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 3: family and I meant it, you know, your son's sacrifice

581
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 3: allowed me to meet mine. I was able to get

582
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 3: off that floor because they held those lines, you know,

583
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:01,400
Speaker 3: and they described as medieval combat. And when we left,

584
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 3: I remember looking back and seeing the officers staying behind

585
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 3: with their guns drawn and the glass breaking, and I

586
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 3: remember thinking, what about what about these guys, you know,

587
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 3: what about them? And I remember thinking about the incredible

588
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 3: sacrifice they were making for us, because at that time

589
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 3: we didn't know that, you know that the riot was

590
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 3: going to subside in some way. You have to put

591
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 3: yourself in the place where we were so close to

592
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,520
Speaker 3: an event of mass violence that Americans have no idea

593
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 3: for the most part. And I think that's one of

594
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 3: the great services of the January sixth Committee did was

595
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 3: illustrating for people just how close senators, member of Congress,

596
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:46,200
Speaker 3: but also our brave police officers came to know something

597
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,280
Speaker 3: that you know, it was more akin to a Civil

598
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,280
Speaker 3: War air battle than than to anything we were used.

599
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: To them, no doubt, no doubt in my mind whatsoever

600
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:58,439
Speaker 1: that officer Eugene Goodman say met Romney's yeah, that's right,

601
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: he didn't you know, uh, he turned that crowd around

602
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: and Romney was around the corner, and that would have

603
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: they would have killed him. Would have been you know,

604
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 1: of all the senators right that that mob would have

605
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 1: had first contact with, I can't imagine that the worst

606
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 1: one you know too, that would have had a had

607
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: a terrible, terrible fate, you know. Then then Rommy in there.

608
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 1: So so when you go out, now better a rourk

609
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: loses by two points, where are you gonna make that up?

610
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: When you look at it? And I'm not I'm not

611
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: trying to put you on the spot to criticize better

612
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 1: Better a Rourke.

613
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 3: But.

614
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 1: He didn't get the job done against Ted Cruz in

615
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: a difficult state. It's a Republican state, which means you're

616
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,359
Speaker 1: gonna have to get a lot of Republican votes for you.

617
00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:58,640
Speaker 1: So what are you going to say to those to

618
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: those people, many millions of whom have been brainwashed frankly

619
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,320
Speaker 1: to some degree. You know, Look, I have relatives in

620
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: my family, you know that. I try to convince you know,

621
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: Seattle didn't burn down under the Black Lives Matter riots

622
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,280
Speaker 1: of two years ago. Portland is still there. It doesn't

623
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 1: look like Hiroshima in nineteen in nineteen forty five, right,

624
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: what are you going to say to those Republicans that

625
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: you need that you're a different type of Democrat for

626
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: the for the state of Texas. What's your proposition?

627
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, first of all, you know, of

628
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,400
Speaker 3: course we're going to build on what Betto did. And

629
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,879
Speaker 3: I think his run is incredibly important, and I want

630
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,359
Speaker 3: to give him credit for doing something at a time

631
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 3: when no one else would and it took a lot

632
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:51,839
Speaker 3: of bravery and a lot of effort, And that's why

633
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 3: we're having this conversation. In any ways, it's because of

634
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 3: the race that he ran, But I do have experience

635
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 3: running in these areas where the only way you're going

636
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 3: to win is by appealing to folks who might not

637
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,440
Speaker 3: agree with you on everything. You know, I'd be a

638
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 3: twenty two year income. But as I said, who was

639
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,760
Speaker 3: entrenched in the district that to not use two technical

640
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 3: of a term was considered an R plus five districts

641
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 3: so leaned five points more Republican than the rest of

642
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 3: the country. And you know we did that also by

643
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 3: getting a lot of folks who a decade earlier were

644
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 3: driving around our area with W stickers on the back

645
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,959
Speaker 3: of their car, you know, voting for me and block

646
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 3: walking for me, and you know, contributing to our campaign

647
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,400
Speaker 3: and A Sessions that's right, Pete.

648
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,799
Speaker 1: Upon it, like, I mean p. Sessions was a good politician.

649
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's the have been the chair of

650
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 3: the NRCC twice and you know he was the chair

651
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 3: of the rules committee, which is you know, is kind

652
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,879
Speaker 3: of the leadership's position for somebody who was important to them. Uh,

653
00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:56,839
Speaker 3: you know, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House

654
00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,760
Speaker 3: all came to the district. Left. Parnas and Igor Frewman

655
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,880
Speaker 3: and Rudy Giuliani came down and spent a bunch of

656
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,240
Speaker 3: brushing money trying to beat me, funneled to the Trump

657
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 3: super Pack, which got them indicted by the Southern District

658
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 3: of New York. But we didn't know that during the campaign.

659
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 3: But we did it by I think appealing to as

660
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 3: I said earlier, these kind of universal values that I

661
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 3: think are are sitting there underneath the surface and waiting

662
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 3: for someone to come along and say, listen, we're not

663
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 3: as different as the cable news is telling you. We

664
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 3: are like that. You know, I know that we can

665
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 3: have arguments about the size and scope of government, but

666
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 3: there are certain things that shouldn't be it for debate.

667
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 3: And that also, you know, we're a community, and in

668
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:40,840
Speaker 3: this community there are certain values that we have that

669
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 3: are unique to other places, that are not We're different

670
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 3: from other places. And I was born and raised in

671
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 3: my district, and I knew what those values were. You know,

672
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 3: my mom and taught in Pope schools in that district.

673
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 3: I'd gotten to public school in that district. The hospital

674
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 3: that I was born in is the one that I represented.

675
00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 3: And you know, and also by understanding who we are

676
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 3: and what you know, what our economy is based on

677
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 3: I'm somebody who has the rare distinction of being endorsed

678
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 3: by the US Chamber of Commerce in my last two

679
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 3: elections against Republicans, against Republican business people, because I've been

680
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 3: a pro business Democrat who understands, you know, what our

681
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 3: economy needs. You know, I'm part of the reason why

682
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 3: the U s MCA passed the US Mexico Canada trade

683
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 3: Agreement is because me and Henry quay Are and a

684
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 3: few other Texas Democrats really pushed for that because where

685
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 3: a trade state, and we understand how important trade is

686
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:34,920
Speaker 3: to Texas. But also at the same time, I've been

687
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 3: endorsed by the fl CIO, and I'm a former union

688
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:39,880
Speaker 3: member myself as a member of the NFL Players Association,

689
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 3: and I appreciate the right to organize, and so it

690
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 3: is possible to appeal broadly and to try to find

691
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 3: this common ground, and it's not going to work for everybody,

692
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 3: and I recognize that. See, there are folks who in

693
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 3: my congressional races, I thought I did a pretty good

694
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,040
Speaker 3: job in Congress, but in my reelection they were't going

695
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 3: to vote for me. That's okay, I respect their vote,

696
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:05,640
Speaker 3: but what we are trying to do is make sure

697
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 3: that folks know that whether you vote for me or not,

698
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:10,800
Speaker 3: I'm going to be your representative. And that's a big

699
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 3: difference from Ted Cruz, who if you don't, if you're

700
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 3: not part of his group, you're not part of kind

701
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 3: of the small slice of sort of the Texans who

702
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 3: came out in that election and got him over the

703
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 3: line to win that election, then he doesn't. He's not

704
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:30,360
Speaker 3: interested in what you think. He's not going to be

705
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,759
Speaker 3: your senator as well. He's going to be podcasting three

706
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,760
Speaker 3: times a week, demagoguing about you, going on Fox News

707
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 3: talking about you. He's going to be pointing out problems,

708
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,360
Speaker 3: for example at the border, but never trying to be

709
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 3: a part of the solution. He's unlike John corn and

710
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 3: you know, not going to after you've all did try

711
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 3: and pass the Safer Communities Act, which got John Corny

712
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:52,759
Speaker 3: in a lot of trouble with the Republican Party, but

713
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,359
Speaker 3: it was the right thing to do the first time

714
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,080
Speaker 3: in thirty years we've done anything to prevent gun violence

715
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 3: in this country. He's not like John Corny, who voted

716
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 3: for the Ships and Science Act, which is bringing high

717
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 3: take manufacturing back to our state, not like tong Corn,

718
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 3: who voted not the default on the country he went.

719
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:10,400
Speaker 3: He voted to default. He's somebody who is just looking

720
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 3: out for himself and who I think gives us a

721
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 3: chance to talk to that middle and say, listen, you know,

722
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,280
Speaker 3: I understand you may not agree with Democrats and everything.

723
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 3: I recognize that. I'm going to meet you here in

724
00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 3: the middle and say we're going to agree on the

725
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,959
Speaker 3: fundamental things. And I'm somebody who if you give me

726
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:32,120
Speaker 3: the faith to vote for me, I'll be your senator

727
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 3: to and I'll be somebody who listened to you, and

728
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:36,439
Speaker 3: I'll care about what's best for you and not what's

729
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 3: best for me.

730
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,279
Speaker 1: When you talk to an audience of Texans, what what

731
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:45,239
Speaker 1: do you say to them about? What makes you anxious

732
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:50,400
Speaker 1: about the Democratic Party today? What? What is? What is? Uh?

733
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 1: You know when you I remember my days, you know

734
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,400
Speaker 1: I was always a moderate Republican and you knows the

735
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 1: party started to go off the rails. I was an

736
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 1: early voice, you know, going back a long time now,

737
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: you know, saying wow, this is times are changing and

738
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:11,440
Speaker 1: not not in a good way. Anything you worry about

739
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 1: with the direction of the of the Democratic Party, do

740
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: you get why so many working class people are estranged

741
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,840
Speaker 1: from the from the Democratic Party in the country. And

742
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:28,760
Speaker 1: what do you say to national Democrats about what's going

743
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:33,759
Speaker 1: on on the on the border, right, That's that's distinct.

744
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 1: You know what, What don't they know in Washington about

745
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,880
Speaker 1: what's going on in the border in Texas that you

746
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: that you share with them?

747
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, yeah, well I I agree with you

748
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 3: in terms of uh, you know, kind of seeing being

749
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 3: able to look at your own party and saying, listen,

750
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 3: I remember this party, but we've got some submission's been

751
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 3: in to talk about. And for us, it's you know,

752
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 3: I think it's a sense of elitism. It's this idea

753
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 3: that you know, sort of a highly educated class of

754
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 3: kind of eggheads know what's best for everyone. And you know,

755
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 3: I'm somebody who made my living until I went to

756
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:14,600
Speaker 3: law school with my hands, with the sweat off my

757
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 3: brow and literally with the blood that I was shed

758
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 3: on a football field. I know what it's like, the

759
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 3: shower after work instead of before work, which is saying

760
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 3: Ted Cruz has no idea about by the way, because

761
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 3: you know, the work he's done has never been dependent

762
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:32,240
Speaker 3: on sweating it out in one hundred degree heat in Texas,

763
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,360
Speaker 3: and you know, testing yourself against someone else the way

764
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 3: that we didn't football, you know, and you don't have

765
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 3: to do that to have an understanding, but it's certainly

766
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 3: something that gave me that. And I think in our

767
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:49,799
Speaker 3: party we are in real danger of losing folks who

768
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 3: do make their living the sweat off their brow, and

769
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 3: who work hard every day and who don't think anybody

770
00:43:56,200 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 3: has given them any advantages, and who around and see

771
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 3: people saying that, oh, well, you know you've benefited from this, that,

772
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:06,120
Speaker 3: and the other, and they say, I don't feel that

773
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:10,359
Speaker 3: way about myself. You know, my father worked hard, my

774
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,359
Speaker 3: mom worked hard. I'm working as hard as I possibly can.

775
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm barely getting the head. Who are

776
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:20,839
Speaker 3: you talking about? And that kind of you know, lack

777
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 3: of empathy and understanding of the working man and woman

778
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 3: and also just understanding that. Yeah, I mean, you know,

779
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 3: there are things that we have done wrong in our history,

780
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:34,399
Speaker 3: but we have a broader story to tell about where

781
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 3: we're going. That is a great story, but let's not

782
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,080
Speaker 3: spend all of our time relitigating the past. And this

783
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 3: is on both parties, and I hate the both sides

784
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 3: of them. But in some cases you'll see us saying, well,

785
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 3: you know, let's go back and find every single person

786
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 3: who building is named after, and you know, and let's

787
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 3: change that, or on the Republican side, of course, for

788
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 3: seeing them saying, let's teach that slavery was good for

789
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 3: the slaves. But there's a real story, which is that

790
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 3: we have a lot of flaws, but that the genius

791
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 3: of our constitution and of our country is that it

792
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 3: is capable of changing, and that it has and that

793
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:11,880
Speaker 3: we perfected our union over time. And so that's a

794
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,359
Speaker 3: better story to tell. It's an exciting story to tell.

795
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,759
Speaker 3: Now when it comes to the border, I think my

796
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 3: grandfather was a customs officer in Brownsville. After World War Two,

797
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 3: he fought in the Navy and the Pacific and he

798
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,880
Speaker 3: came back and he he never went to college, and

799
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,480
Speaker 3: he got a good job working for the customs department

800
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:35,560
Speaker 3: and in Brownsville at the very tip of Texas, which

801
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 3: is right on the border. And my mom and my

802
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,880
Speaker 3: aunt grew up in Brownsville, and I spent most of

803
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,360
Speaker 3: my childhood driving with my mom from Dallas down to

804
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 3: Brownsville to visit my grandmother there because My grandfather passed

805
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:52,680
Speaker 3: before I was born, and so I understand what our

806
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 3: border communities are. And I think that what people don't

807
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 3: grasp nationally is the burden that falls on these border

808
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:06,040
Speaker 3: community from our inability to deal with immigration and immigration reform.

809
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 3: And it's it's not just the border itself, but it's

810
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:11,320
Speaker 3: it's the fact that, you know, you have Catholic charities

811
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:15,080
Speaker 3: that are focused in the valley in Texas that and

812
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 3: along the border that are completely you know, all of

813
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 3: their resources are over extended. You have local communities who

814
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 3: have set up to their own charity, uh you know,

815
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:31,440
Speaker 3: agencies and institutions to try and help migrants, and they're

816
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,840
Speaker 3: maxed out. People sleeping under bridges, people being released, and

817
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 3: sleeping on street corners. And it's frustrating for people who

818
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 3: live in that community because you know, number one, they're

819
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 3: not responsible for it, and there's not much that they

820
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:46,880
Speaker 3: can do, but they're already putting in so much of

821
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 3: their own resources and energy trying to do the right

822
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,880
Speaker 3: thing to treat people in humane way. But that's why

823
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 3: we need to have, uh, you know, a senator from

824
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 3: Texas who will actually talk about Okay, well and let's

825
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 3: let's let's do something about this for the first time

826
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 3: since the Reagan era. Let's have a comprehensive agreement where

827
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:06,880
Speaker 3: we say, yeah, we're going to have a whole lot

828
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:09,359
Speaker 3: of money for border security. We're going to make this

829
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 3: as secure as we possibly can. But let's also reshape

830
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:15,799
Speaker 3: our immigration system so that we can process people more

831
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:19,360
Speaker 3: quickly and process asylum claims better. We have more immigration

832
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,480
Speaker 3: judges in place so that border patrol agents aren't spending

833
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:25,320
Speaker 3: all their time doing paperwork instead of what they're supposed

834
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 3: to be doing. And let's better support these border communities

835
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,440
Speaker 3: because there are geopolitical forces that are forcing millions of

836
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 3: Venezuelans to leave Venezuela and Haitians to leave Haiti, and

837
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:38,319
Speaker 3: people from El Salvador and Watamala and Honduras. And that's

838
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 3: going to continue, particularly as climate change and other impacts continue.

839
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:45,960
Speaker 3: So we have to deal with this now. It's not

840
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 3: going to get better. And that's what I also get

841
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 3: frustrated with saying, oh, let's just build a wall and

842
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 3: act like that'll do it. I mean, get out of here.

843
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:54,960
Speaker 3: It's much more than that. So I think on the

844
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 3: democratic side, this idea that where you know, we'll often

845
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 3: think that it's on immigration that you know, we just

846
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 3: need to you know, welcome everyone, and that's not going

847
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:09,920
Speaker 3: to be possible. What we have to be able to

848
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 3: do is have an immigration system that meets the needs

849
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 3: of our economy and that treats people consistent with our values,

850
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:18,160
Speaker 3: but that also does secure our border and we know

851
00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 3: and that does it in a way that makes our

852
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 3: border communities feel safe, but also not so much of

853
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:22,799
Speaker 3: the burden fall on them.

854
00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 1: Of two things I want to wrap up with you on.

855
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 1: The first is we're to have people from all over

856
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: the country who will see this talk. For a second,

857
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: two Americans who are not Taxans. What does it mean

858
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 1: to you to be a Texan?

859
00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:46,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think we're a mix. I'm a fourth

860
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,839
Speaker 3: generation Texan. My boys are fifth generation Texans. We're a mix.

861
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,480
Speaker 3: We're not just Southern, and we're not just Western, you know,

862
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 3: we're Southwestern, uh, and we have We're a place where

863
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 3: so many things come together. We're incredibly state that is

864
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:07,560
Speaker 3: disproportionately young in terms of our population. We are dynamic.

865
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:10,680
Speaker 3: We're growing so rapidly. We have a thousand people a

866
00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:15,319
Speaker 3: day moved in the DFW alone, and things are so

867
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 3: much bigger in Sexas. We're talking about thirty millions exits.

868
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:21,800
Speaker 3: We're talking about you know, driving from Dallas to El Paso,

869
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:25,640
Speaker 3: you know, it's about half the country and you're still

870
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 3: in the same state, you know, And we're a state

871
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 3: that has produced I think, some of the most authentic

872
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 3: aspects of American culture, you know, and and it's come

873
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:43,720
Speaker 3: from multiple different backgrounds, whether that's you know, our incredibly

874
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:47,320
Speaker 3: vibrant Latino community and culture, or the African American community

875
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 3: that has you know, I think from Texas has produced

876
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:55,240
Speaker 3: some of the national leaders that have helped shape our country,

877
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:58,720
Speaker 3: you know, to kind of the independent you know, Texan

878
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:00,959
Speaker 3: who's seen as the person who will be the straight

879
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,919
Speaker 3: talking text in any scenario. And so it's a state

880
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 3: of a lot of inconsistencies, of course, like any like

881
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 3: any place. But you know, in my experience, and I

882
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 3: really mean this, I would not have been able to

883
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 3: do what I've done were it not for the people

884
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 3: that I grew up around. They looked out for me,

885
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 3: They took me into their homes. In some cases they

886
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 3: extended open hand to me. At a time when looking

887
00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:28,560
Speaker 3: like I do in the eighties and nineties, in Texas

888
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 3: that could have gone a different way. And so, you know,

889
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 3: I think we're a state that also believes in doing

890
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:37,440
Speaker 3: big things. And that's one of the things that you know,

891
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 3: I find frustrating about where we are politically because we

892
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 3: have such small minded leaders. I think in place right now.

893
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: What does it mean to you to be an American?

894
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:55,320
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's a great question. I was a

895
00:50:55,400 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 3: voting rights lawyer before I came to Congress, and I

896
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 3: revere ar democ and I think it's the root of

897
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:07,239
Speaker 3: all of our strengths, whether that's our economic strength, our

898
00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:11,440
Speaker 3: military strength, it's all based on It's a free people

899
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:14,840
Speaker 3: who have chosen their own way. But I think America

900
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,440
Speaker 3: is a miracle. I really do. And you look at

901
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 3: I was a history major at Baylor, kind of the

902
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:25,319
Speaker 3: scope of the world, and you see, you know, a

903
00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 3: senate in Rome that couldn't make it, a democracy in

904
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 3: Athens that couldn't make it, and then you have a

905
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:36,600
Speaker 3: long gap of monarchies and dictators, and for the first

906
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:39,719
Speaker 3: time in human history since the Roman Senate, you have

907
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 3: a democracy emerge in this new world that becomes the

908
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 3: world's seating power, and that has spread this incredible kind

909
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:51,840
Speaker 3: of ideology and thought around the world to the point

910
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 3: where now while we're concerned about democracy, I think falling

911
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:00,000
Speaker 3: back in certain places, it's become sort of the baseline

912
00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 3: that the people think, this is what should be expected.

913
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 3: And to me, you know, being an American means that

914
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:08,560
Speaker 3: you can do anything. There's no limit on what we

915
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 3: can do. And that's one of the things that I

916
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:13,799
Speaker 3: love when Joe Biden says it actually is when he says,

917
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 3: you know, come on, remember who we are. This is

918
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,879
Speaker 3: the United States of America. There's nothing that we've ever

919
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 3: put our minds to that we can't do. I've just

920
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:23,480
Speaker 3: been reading a book about the Space race and the

921
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:28,000
Speaker 3: Apollo program, and you know, just sort of the ingenuity

922
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 3: and the talent that we brought together to do something

923
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 3: that we still aren't doing right now. We're still not

924
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 3: going to the moon right now. Here we are, you know,

925
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 3: sixty years later, and you know, anything is possible for us.

926
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:45,360
Speaker 3: But it's also true that like all great you know,

927
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:49,319
Speaker 3: institutions and powers that have come up, that we can't

928
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:53,359
Speaker 3: be defeated externally. We can only be defeated internally. There's

929
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,960
Speaker 3: no the Chinese can't aren't an next are not an

930
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,800
Speaker 3: existential threat to us. The Russians are not an existential

931
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 3: threat to us. The Iranians, the North Koreans. I'm on

932
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 3: the Foreign Afairs Committee, these are the are These are

933
00:53:05,239 --> 00:53:08,279
Speaker 3: folks we have to be concerned with. Sometimes we are

934
00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 3: competing with them in a very real way. But they're

935
00:53:11,719 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 3: not an existential threat to the existence of the United States.

936
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:18,280
Speaker 3: The only thing that is it's our own internal issues

937
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 3: of how we're going to manage our way forward. It's

938
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,440
Speaker 3: a pluralistic democracy where folks from a lot of different

939
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:25,880
Speaker 3: backgrounds and from all the different parts of the world

940
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 3: have to come together and agree on electing people and

941
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:34,200
Speaker 3: electing and accepting the results of those elections. And it's

942
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:37,439
Speaker 3: it's never happened. You go to Europe and their democracies,

943
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,120
Speaker 3: they're not as diverse as our democracy. They don't have

944
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:42,080
Speaker 3: as many voices, and they have all these crazy parties

945
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:43,839
Speaker 3: as well. You know, we are trying to do something

946
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:47,720
Speaker 3: that's very difficult, uh, and leadership matters in this period.

947
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:51,040
Speaker 3: It does. And we are not just here because we

948
00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 3: had this in our system in terms of kind of

949
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 3: the challenge we've had to our democracy. We're here because

950
00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 3: we had you know, demgog elected president who used his

951
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 3: role to try and attack the foundations of our democracy.

952
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:05,719
Speaker 3: And leaders are going to leave us out of this,

953
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 3: and we need Republican leaders as well as Democrats. And

954
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 3: that's why you know you mentioned it, Romney. I have

955
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,399
Speaker 3: so much respect for Xander Romney for what he has

956
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:16,279
Speaker 3: tried to do. And I have so much respect for

957
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,360
Speaker 3: the folks who I've seen, like Liz Cheney, who's a

958
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,280
Speaker 3: friend of mine and who I text with quite often,

959
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:25,400
Speaker 3: who have said what they know is right and have

960
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 3: taken a stand at a time when it's difficult for them.

961
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:30,840
Speaker 3: It's impossible for them politically, but historically they're going to

962
00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 3: be looked on quite well. So to me, being an

963
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:35,480
Speaker 3: American means that there's nothing we can't do, but also

964
00:54:35,560 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 3: means that we are responsible for it. No one else

965
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,280
Speaker 3: is going to do it for us. There's no cavalry coming.

966
00:54:41,320 --> 00:54:41,960
Speaker 3: It's up to us.

967
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 1: How do people find your campaign website?

968
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:51,160
Speaker 3: Well, they can go to Colin Allread dot com. I'll

969
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 3: spell it for folks because it's one L and Colin

970
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:56,840
Speaker 3: and two and all read and I'll just say, you know,

971
00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,480
Speaker 3: we need your help. The way this works, as you know,

972
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:03,080
Speaker 3: Steve at the federal level. We have limits on love

973
00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:05,080
Speaker 3: we can take from folks, and I'm somebody who doesn't

974
00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 3: take diying on corporate money. So I rely on ordinary

975
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:12,120
Speaker 3: folks giving what they can support my campaign. If you

976
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:14,879
Speaker 3: appreciate anything that I've said today, or you think that

977
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:16,640
Speaker 3: as a country we can do better, or as the

978
00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:19,040
Speaker 3: Texans we can do better than take Cruz, then go

979
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:22,080
Speaker 3: to Colin Already dot com and get involved with us.

980
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: Let me just wrap up by saying that this experiment,

981
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 1: which will soon reach its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary

982
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:37,080
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, has never had a gentle or

983
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:42,359
Speaker 1: calm period ever across our here, across our history, and

984
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:49,799
Speaker 1: we're clearly in another period of testing democracy. Government of

985
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 1: the people, by the people, for the people, cannot endure

986
00:55:56,719 --> 00:56:02,320
Speaker 1: under the weight of demagogues and liars like Ted Cruz.

987
00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:05,919
Speaker 1: It's it's as simple as that. And so I think

988
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 1: everybody who's had an opportunity to see this and to

989
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 1: watch you, and has an opportunity to vote in the

990
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:18,439
Speaker 1: state of Texas understands what an improvement you would be

991
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: over the over the over the incumbent, one of Texas's

992
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:27,080
Speaker 1: great Heroes is a man named James Earl Rudder. James

993
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 1: Earl Rudder was the commander of the second Ranger Battalion

994
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:35,520
Speaker 1: that stormed the cliffs at Point to Hawk above Omaha

995
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 1: Beach on D Day. And when James Earl Rutter returned

996
00:56:40,120 --> 00:56:44,040
Speaker 1: to Texas in peace and became the president of A

997
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:48,239
Speaker 1: and M, two of the things he did there where

998
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:53,080
Speaker 1: admit women with great controversy to the college and he

999
00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 1: also took the first steps towards desegregating Texas.

1000
00:56:58,480 --> 00:56:59,240
Speaker 2: A and M.

1001
00:56:59,640 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: So other service is in the military or service is

1002
00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 1: through academia. The expansion of the American ideal and idea

1003
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:17,480
Speaker 1: is what people are remembered for. It's what their legacies

1004
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:23,240
Speaker 1: are built on. And at the moment of testing and crisis,

1005
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:29,280
Speaker 1: you congressmen already were prepared to make a stand. Ted

1006
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:33,720
Speaker 1: Cruz was hiding in a closet that says it all.

1007
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:38,000
Speaker 1: The country needs people who will take a stand, take

1008
00:57:38,040 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 1: a stand for the American way of life. And I

1009
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:44,760
Speaker 1: really encourage everybody who's listening to do what I will do,

1010
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 1: which is to send as much as you are able

1011
00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 1: to this campaign, because we're not going to get out

1012
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:54,240
Speaker 1: of the mess we're in unless we elect people of

1013
00:57:54,320 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 1: outstanding character, men like Colin Already thank you very much.

1014
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:01,120
Speaker 3: Congressman, thank you, said