Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Yew, my guests to I represented Texas is thirty second
Speaker 2: district and is running for the Senate against America's Sweethearts
Speaker 2: head Cruise. Please welcome Representative Colin Alred.
Speaker 3: How you doing, I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is great. Different what I usually do.
Speaker 4: So, Yeah, they're fun right now, you guys.
Speaker 1: Are It's a little better than the.
Speaker 4: House right now, just slightly. That's I mean, that's not
Speaker 4: saying a lot. That's keeping the bar. It's pretty low.
Speaker 2: You have such an interesting resume. You're a former NFL player,
Speaker 2: civil rights yeah, civil rights attorney, congressman, and now currently
Speaker 2: running against Ted.
Speaker 4: Cruz for the.
Speaker 2: Yeah in Texas as a Democrat, which is a bit
Speaker 2: of an uphill battle. Right right now, you're currently pulling
Speaker 2: at six points behind. Does it make it worse that
Speaker 2: you're lagging behind Ted Cruz?
Speaker 1: Of all.
Speaker 3: Now, listen, I'm confident that on November fifth that Texans
Speaker 3: are going to come out and show.
Speaker 1: Who we really are.
Speaker 3: I think we've had enough of twelve years of having
Speaker 3: an embarrassment. One of the most divisive centers in the
Speaker 3: country is somebody who I think fundamentally doesn't appreciate who
Speaker 3: we really are as Texans. I'm a four generation Texan,
Speaker 3: was raised by a single mom in Dallas. You know,
Speaker 3: you mentioned what I've been able to do, but I
Speaker 3: was able to do that because I had a lot
Speaker 3: of help from my community.
Speaker 1: For my state.
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that we can have some
Speaker 3: actually cares about us in the Senate.
Speaker 2: You have said before that you don't Texas doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be embarrassed by their senator. What is the most
Speaker 2: embarrassing thing about Ted Cruz? Is it that he fled
Speaker 2: to Cancun while Texans were in the dark and cold,
Speaker 2: or that time that he didn't feel the booger on
Speaker 2: his lip for so long.
Speaker 4: Burned in my memory.
Speaker 3: You know, I think there's the antics, right, There's like
Speaker 3: the you know, reading green eggs and ham on the
Speaker 3: Senate floor, or you're trying to take health care away
Speaker 3: from forty million people and stuff like that. There's the
Speaker 3: fact that he podcasts three times a week, which is
Speaker 3: a lot. Hat Yeah, that's a lot, when I say, senator,
Speaker 3: But you know when you had that little ROLLI bag
Speaker 3: when he's coming back from Kancun. Oh, yes, you know,
Speaker 3: it's frustrating going through those little rope lines at any
Speaker 3: time when you're going through it alone. To explain why
Speaker 3: you abandoned your state during a state guide crisis, that
Speaker 3: was really embarrassing.
Speaker 4: That's the opra that was Htopera.
Speaker 2: You're a father of two and you were one of
Speaker 2: the first members of Congress to take paternity leave. First
Speaker 2: of all, thank you for your service, and secondly, why
Speaker 2: is that so rare among your colleagues.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I didn't know that I was going to
Speaker 3: be the first one.
Speaker 1: I did it. I thought that this was a normal
Speaker 1: thing to do.
Speaker 3: You know, I grew up and I knowing my father,
Speaker 3: and so for me, I knew that when we had
Speaker 3: kids that I was going to do it right. And
Speaker 3: that starts at the beginning. And there's so much we've
Speaker 3: learned a lot.
Speaker 1: There are so many benefits for.
Speaker 3: When men take leave in those early days. It's better
Speaker 3: for the men themselves, for their spouses, for their kids.
Speaker 3: And you know, this is not available to every American
Speaker 3: and I want to make sure that it is. And
Speaker 3: that's one of the things I've been working on.
Speaker 1: Because you.
Speaker 3: And I both know that those early days are tough.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and when you're welcoming, you know your bundle
Speaker 3: of joy is also coming with a whole lot of
Speaker 3: other things that are changing your life. And you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's right that we're the only major
Speaker 3: developed country in the world that doesn't have a national
Speaker 3: paid lead policy, but.
Speaker 4: Do not agree more.
Speaker 2: Texas was one of the first states to criminalize abortion.
Speaker 2: What would be your plans to protect and restore women's
Speaker 2: reproductive rights?
Speaker 3: As you mentioned my wife and I we've had two
Speaker 3: boys in Dallas in the last five years, and I
Speaker 3: went to every ultrasound appointment, every genetic testing. And you
Speaker 3: know those rooms when you're having those conversations with your doctor,
Speaker 3: they're too small to have somebody like Ted Cruz in
Speaker 3: there with you. What's happening in Texas is really it's
Speaker 3: a tragedy. You've had twenty six thousand women who had
Speaker 3: to get birth to their rapist child since these laws
Speaker 3: went into place. We've had stories like ky Cox. So
Speaker 3: it was a mother of two who had a much
Speaker 3: want and third pregnancy. She'd go to the emergency room
Speaker 3: four times. Her doctor said she needed a medically necessary abortion,
Speaker 3: and she asked her state. Can I have it close
Speaker 3: to home because I have a one and a three
Speaker 3: year old at home.
Speaker 1: They said no. They didn't just say no, it's.
Speaker 3: If you do this, we're going to prosecute you, your doctor,
Speaker 3: your hospital. We have counties saying you can't drive to
Speaker 3: the county if you're to use the roads to access
Speaker 3: an abortion. I mean, that doesn't sound like freedom to me.
Speaker 3: And I know one thing about us is Texans, so
Speaker 3: we believe in freedom.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: To me.
Speaker 3: The only way that we can restore this right to
Speaker 3: Texas women and families is at the federal level by
Speaker 3: codifying Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade. And I'm not saying a little.
Speaker 2: Yeah, voter turnout is going to be critical for you
Speaker 2: to flip the seat. It's been estimated that nine point
Speaker 2: five million registered voters didn't vote in the last election.
Speaker 2: How will you encourage Texans to get out and vote
Speaker 2: and does it rhyme with Morshin?
Speaker 3: Well, as you mentioned, I was a civil rights lawyer,
Speaker 3: but I was a voting rights lawyer, specifically before I
Speaker 3: ran for Congress. You know, to me, there's nothing more
Speaker 3: important than getting you know, Texans and our fellow Americans
Speaker 3: engaged in our democracy, and in Texas we make.
Speaker 1: It way too difficult to vote.
Speaker 3: But I want folks to know there's a reason why
Speaker 3: they're trying to make it harder for you to vote.
Speaker 3: Why are they trying to take your voice away? Why
Speaker 3: are they trying so hard to make it difficult for
Speaker 3: you to be engaged?
Speaker 1: Don't let them do it right?
Speaker 3: And to our young people, you know, it's like one
Speaker 3: of the things where you wouldn't let your grandparents pick
Speaker 3: your playlist for the next six years.
Speaker 1: I don't want to pick your centermer right, you know? So?
Speaker 5: You know, yeah so, But.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's also true that we have
Speaker 3: to talk about what's at steak. You know, to me,
Speaker 3: in Texas, what's at steak is our fundamental freedoms if
Speaker 3: taken away. A woman's right to choose, the ability to
Speaker 3: make your own decision about your body. They're banning books,
Speaker 3: They're kicking kids out of school because of their hairstyle.
Speaker 3: I mean, to me, this is fundamentally about who we
Speaker 3: are as Texans and as Americans, and we have to
Speaker 3: restore freedom in Texas and across this country. Now, thinkolks
Speaker 3: are going to come out and stand up for that.
Speaker 2: You serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. We just recently
Speaker 2: found out that seven aid workers were killed in Gaza
Speaker 2: due to Israel air strikes. Does that give you any
Speaker 2: hesitation to providing Israel with bombs?
Speaker 3: Listen, this is a horrible tragedy, and these folks were
Speaker 3: there to feed folks who are suffering from famine, extreme conditions.
Speaker 3: They've done it around the world, and to me, it's
Speaker 3: an incredibly noble venture that they're engaged in to try
Speaker 3: and make sure that we can combat these conditions. And
Speaker 3: as I see it, October seventh was a tragedy and
Speaker 3: the response anyways has been incredibly difficult to deal with.
Speaker 3: Our role, I think has to be to try and
Speaker 3: ensure that we as we're negotiating for an extended cease fire,
Speaker 3: that we have these hostages come home and that we
Speaker 3: find a way forward in which there's two states existing
Speaker 3: peacefully next to each other. And that has to be
Speaker 3: our n goal.
Speaker 1: And we've had.
Speaker 3: You know, this has been our policy for some time,
Speaker 3: but in some ways I think it had drifted away
Speaker 3: in a strange way. I think this is a highlight
Speaker 3: of the need that we come back to this, that
Speaker 3: we make sure that we have a peaceful and independent
Speaker 3: Palacitian state next to a stable, democratic and Jewish Israeli state,
Speaker 3: and these folks co exist because we, honestly, we cannot continue.
Speaker 1: Down this road.
Speaker 2: I so appreciate the work that you do, and I
Speaker 2: so appreciate you being on the show tonight. I wish
Speaker 2: you the best of luck. Representative Colin Alrech my guest
Speaker 2: tonight or execus get A. Producers and writers of the
Speaker 2: award winning documentary film Against All Enemies, which exposes the
Speaker 2: role of military veterans and extremist groups, please welcome Sebastian
Speaker 2: Junger and Ken Harbaugh. Well, hello, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for being on the show.
Speaker 1: Pleasure.
Speaker 4: This movie scared the ship out of me. Was that
Speaker 4: was that the goal?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a it's a tough time in America right now,
Speaker 5: and I think we all have to pay attention to
Speaker 5: whether we stay in democracy or not. And that's what
Speaker 5: the point of this film was, is to get us
Speaker 5: to think about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really really does.
Speaker 2: Ken, you're a military veteran, a former Navy pilot. You
Speaker 2: can absolutely say that the vast majority of veterans have
Speaker 2: not joined these extremist groups, but for those that have
Speaker 2: what's so compelling to them to join the Oathkeepers, the
Speaker 2: Proud Boys three percenters.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm glad you recognized that the vast majority of
Speaker 6: my buddies, my brothers and sisters in arms don't go
Speaker 6: join the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers. But the
Speaker 6: ones that do, in many cases do it out of
Speaker 6: a sense of needing to recapture that camaraderie and that
Speaker 6: sense of belonging that they felt in uniform. When you
Speaker 6: take the uniform off, that goes away almost overnight. And
Speaker 6: one of the things these groups do really really well
Speaker 6: is recreate that by giving these veterans that sense of
Speaker 6: purpose and that sense of mission. The problem is that
Speaker 6: mission is undermining democracy.
Speaker 4: Sebastian.
Speaker 2: You explored you co directed in award winning documentary Ristreppo
Speaker 2: that explores the war in Afghanistan, and you've extensively talked
Speaker 2: about combat veterans reintegrating into civilian life in your book Tribe.
Speaker 2: What is it specifically about the wars in Afghanistan and
Speaker 2: Iraq that play a role in everything that we're seeing
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's complicated. The guys I was with
Speaker 5: in Afghanistan off and on for a year. You know,
Speaker 5: they they sort of trended conservative. But I can't imagine
Speaker 5: any one of those guys doing anything like what happened
Speaker 5: on January sixth. The real combat veterans usually don't have
Speaker 5: anything to prove, and I think one of the ways
Speaker 5: that the January sixth crowd is dangerous. They're dangerous in
Speaker 5: two different ways. One is that there are some real
Speaker 5: deal special forces guys who know what they're doing, who
Speaker 5: could organize a very serious, violent situation in this country,
Speaker 5: and we have to be very very careful of those guys.
Speaker 5: Most of the I would say most of the guys
Speaker 5: on January sixth, with the beards and the you know, camo,
Speaker 5: the tactical pants, et cetera, et cetera, might have been
Speaker 5: in the military but probably never saw combat. And I
Speaker 5: think that makes them extremely dangerous because they have this
Speaker 5: sort of fantasy of themselves as a hero, along with
Speaker 5: probably some psych disorders, and that creates that creates a
Speaker 5: very very dangerous mix.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well you bring that up. Would you say that?
Speaker 2: Is it fair to say that in this country we
Speaker 2: could have stronger support systems for those veterans who are
Speaker 2: coming back and reintegrating into society.
Speaker 5: Yes, I don't think that's the problem here with these guys.
Speaker 5: I think they're sort of willing dupes of a dishonest
Speaker 5: ex president, and they were sort of they wanted to
Speaker 5: they wanted to believe something, and they wanted a war
Speaker 5: to fight, and they wanted to act in a supposedly
Speaker 5: heroic way in a crucial moment in history and like
Speaker 5: save the nation. Except it's all nonsense, right, And but
Speaker 5: that aside, just generally for vets. Absolutely, we live in
Speaker 5: an amazing but alienating modern society and vets come back
Speaker 5: and it's very hard to fit in, and frankly, it's
Speaker 5: very hard for all of us to fit in. I mean,
Speaker 5: the depression and suicide rate in this country is through
Speaker 5: the roof, Like why would that be?
Speaker 4: Right? Right?
Speaker 2: So, extremist groups have been in the US for a
Speaker 2: long time, but what makes this particular moment so is
Speaker 2: so impactful and so dangerous.
Speaker 6: We have dealt since our founding as a country with extremism,
Speaker 6: with extremist groups.
Speaker 4: But you have to go back a long ways.
Speaker 6: To find a period in American history where a domestic
Speaker 6: terrorist movement has the cover of a political party that
Speaker 6: is a new situation when you have a former president
Speaker 6: name checking an organization the Proud Boys, deemed by Canada
Speaker 6: is a terrorist entity, name checking them from behind a
Speaker 6: presidential podium. That is incredibly invigorating for these organizations.
Speaker 4: And you probably have.
Speaker 6: To go back to the rise of the KKK in
Speaker 6: the South to find an analog to a terrorist movement
Speaker 6: that had major political cover and used it to.
Speaker 2: Recavoc You bring up the former president. He has certainly
Speaker 2: said some controversial things about veterans, somewhat disrespectful. Well, some
Speaker 2: might say he's asked wounded vets to not appear at
Speaker 2: his events. He's called American service members who have passed
Speaker 2: suckers and losers. Why is it that you find that
Speaker 2: your military brothers and sisters are coming to his side.
Speaker 6: We all know he has no respect for the military.
Speaker 6: He disdains the very idea of service. He didn't just
Speaker 6: call those who serve suckers. He calls those who died
Speaker 6: fighting for the country suckers. He called those who put
Speaker 6: on the uniform to serve their country losers. I think
Speaker 6: it's incumbent upon us to make sure that every single
Speaker 6: veteran knows between now and the election, just how disdainful
Speaker 6: of the very idea of service the former president is.
Speaker 2: There's no real evidence so far that Trump and his
Speaker 2: followers will accept the election results upcoming.
Speaker 4: How do you see this playing out?
Speaker 6: It could go a number of ways. I mean, I
Speaker 6: certainly hope that the person who tried to end democracy
Speaker 6: doesn't win a second term. Even if he loses, though,
Speaker 6: I think we all know that he's not going to concede.
Speaker 6: He tried to overthrow the results of a free and
Speaker 6: fair election once, I assume he'll do it again. I
Speaker 6: know Sebastiana has thoughts on this, but I think we
Speaker 6: need to be prepared for the worst.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I don't. I can't think a good
Speaker 5: reason why there wouldn't be violence if Trump loses.
Speaker 1: He hasn't.
Speaker 5: I mean, he's all in now, right Like, if he
Speaker 5: doesn't get re elected, he's wide open to criminal prosecution.
Speaker 5: He's the only thing protecting him, and it shouldn't even
Speaker 5: protect him, but it seems to be for the moment,
Speaker 5: so he's got nothing to lose.
Speaker 2: A lot of these far right extremists don't trust the government,
Speaker 2: They don't trust the meeting. They are untrusting of our
Speaker 2: intelligence agencies. Is there do you see any kind of
Speaker 2: hopeful time in our future where we're all dealing with
Speaker 2: the same facts.
Speaker 4: I think a glimmer of hope please.
Speaker 6: I think it starts with conversations like this, It starts
Speaker 6: with films like Against All Enemies. But at the end
Speaker 6: of the day, it's going to come down to one
Speaker 6: on one conversations. It's going to come down to a
Speaker 6: family member who cares about a veteran who is at
Speaker 6: that crossroads between doing something noble like joining Team Rubicon
Speaker 6: and helping disaster relief victims across the country, or joining
Speaker 6: the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers and undermining democracy. That decision
Speaker 6: often comes down to a conversation with someone who cares.
Speaker 3: About that veteran.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for being on. Thank you
Speaker 2: for making this incredible film and starting this conversation. Against
Speaker 2: All Enemies is in select theaters and available on vod
Speaker 2: ken Harbaugh and Sebastian Younger.
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