142. September 16, 2026

0:00Will we continue to embrace truth, justice, peace and a path to prosperity? I believe that America's best days can still be ahead and I want to lead us forward. Join me now in the Read Revolution. Wednesday, it's the Read Revolution on John Reed back in Richmond after a day in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia yesterday. So I'm always glad I want to get back home. I didn't get back to gosh, like midnight last night and then you know, I have a family members in the hospital. So I spent the night in the hospital. So you know, it's just it's a stressful time and it took over three hours to get back to Richmond from Northern Virginia at night. I mean, we got it really is a problem with the with the highways in the Commonwealth.

1:08I mean, that's not new for I'm 55 years old. I guess my entire life. This is what I've heard, but it seems weird to me that we can't ever seem to get ahead of the traffic problems in Washington. Good thing is, you know, now we got a Democrat governor and they run their mouths about how they can solve everything. So hey, what are you going to do to solve it? We know you're not willing to give back the gas tax money. You said you needed that money so that you could build new roads, even though you have a $2 billion extra account with money that is extra. You've overtaxed everybody. So now we have a $2 billion bucket of slow. We could be a slush fund here in Virginia. And I don't think any of us are going to see that money return to us, right? Okay, so that's fine. The money's already gone. We've already felt it and lost it in our own personal lives. And it would cost how many millions of dollars to actually cut the checks and send them back to the people.

2:11Fine, keep the $2 billion, but what are you going to do with it? And so when I'm out and about and I and you know, this is one of the good things about being a native Virginia compared to all of the people who are at the Capitol who are not native for so many people who have no clue what they're talking about. They've been here for 10, 15 years maybe if you're lucky and one part of the state, they don't know anything else about the Commonwealth of Virginia. But they are the ones making budgetary decisions and laws. Most of them with no background that would give them any guidance to make wise decisions. And I mean, you do realize we're sending the dumbest people in the Commonwealth to the state Capitol. I mean, it's no longer the talented lawyers and you know, the most successful business people. I mean, we could argue whether they're qualified to make good decisions, but at least they've got something to base their decisions on in a business mindset.

3:11And instead, it is social justice warrior crazies who have gone to the Capitol. And let's see, can they fix anything? I don't think so. I don't think so. So I sent in traffic for three hours last night. And while I'm doing it, I'm thinking, why is this constantly a problem? Is it just that impossible to build extra lanes and not take 20 years to do it? You know, $20 billion in 20 years to get it done. It's just, it's just crazy to me that no one seems to be able to get out in front of this. Is it the lawsuits? Is it the environmental wackos who constantly file lawsuits? Is it the regulatory world that we live in where everything you do, you have to jump through all these regulatory hoops, you have to do all these studies, which by the way, cost of fortune. And so by the time the studies are done, what one, two, three, I don't know, four or five years down the road, you now have increased traffic.

4:17And the plan that you are, you were studying is no longer relevant because the traffic has increased so much. I mean, is that what's going on? That's why we have a fuel problem in America. We can pump all the oil we want, but we can't refine it because the environmentalists and the EPA and the regulations that are in place prevent us from having the refineries. So we're not opening refineries. So we're defended on somebody else to do the refining. I mean, we've kind of boxed ourselves into a corner. And it's not serving the people of the United States very well. In this case, when I talk about the traffic, not serving the people of Virginia very well. And you know, I know there have been smart people, been good governors, people who care, who have been in the governor's mansion. I mean, this is one of the cases where maybe, maybe it would be responsible to have two term governors of Virginia, four years, four years. I think governor Youngkin said something about how he thought six years would be the perfect amount because then you'd have what three elections during the time that one person was governor and six years is enough time to actually move the needle.

5:28I don't know. I don't know. But nobody seems to be able to get ahead of these constant issues. And we're spending a fortune. It's not like we're not spending the money. And when someone like me and a lot of the Republicans at the Capitol says, Hey, you know, times are tough. And then of course with the Iran war and the current gas prices, why don't we suspend at least what we can, which is the state gas tax. Let's give everybody a break. If you're, if you're a multi millionaire who's driving number, say these bins or some fancy car, gas guzzler or something that is very cost efficient. We're going to give you a break. And if you are a blue collar worker who's got to drive a huge pickup truck to go do work, we'll give you a break. Everybody gets the break. No matter who you are, if you're driving, if you're getting gas in Virginia, you get the break.

6:31What do we do that three months, six months, be something. It would show that the people who are running the government understand that the people are really getting screwed here. And feeling the squeeze. So why would we not do that? You can't keep up with the construction of the highways anyway. It appears. I will tell you when I was overseas, I hate say it. Because I'm not a big fan of a lot of these foreign governments, but their roads are great. They're roads are great. Now they've got people who were practically slaves who build these roads. Nobody wants to talk about that. I'll be honest with you, bring people over from the Philippines and treat them like dirt and they live in a warehouse and get, I don't know how much money, but not very much money for a day's worth of work. They never get to take a shower. They're treated like dirt in the society. So they're not working with a labor union and they're not working with their neighbors who think, you know, I should get a living wage or at least a wage that makes life livable for me.

7:41They treat people very poorly in other parts of the world and that's probably how they build these things quickly because, you know, let's be honest, you don't have PETA and you don't have the Sierra Club and other environmental groups filing lawsuits. I mean, you think in China, they're worried about lawsuits. You complain and somebody knocks on your door in the middle of the night and you may or may not be there the next morning. That's, that's how those problems are resolved in a lot of countries around the world. So I'm not suggesting we go to that, but maybe we should recalibrate a little bit as we fall further and further behind. And if you do travel and if you have traveled extensively, like I have, including to some countries that most people don't go to and you're driving along or you're in an Uber or a cab and you realize, wow, there's no graffiti. It's a six lane road with no potholes. There's not one little speck of dirt or trash anywhere.

8:43And then you think about what you just left 12 hours earlier in the United States. We got a problem on our hands. So which is it? Are we going to spend all this money and build infrastructure that actually allows us to keep up with other countries, both for our citizens. So that you feel like your money's well spent and you're not wasting three hours like I did last night in traffic. And you're building infrastructure that allows business to move quickly, move that shipment from New York to Virginia to Florida to Tennessee quickly on the highways. There's something seriously wrong here. And I can't blame it all on Democrats. I wish I could. I can't blame it all on Democrats. I there, there is a problem. And I think that it's appropriate for someone like me, since I am one of the few people that I know who has been around the world over the last 30 years and seen a lot of things that most people don't get to see.

9:52Who else can flag this for you? Who else can say you're getting screwed? And I've seen it with my own eyes. You're being robbed. You're not getting your money's worth. And when things get tough, when you expect the government to look after you out for you, they don't. They keep the money. That I can't blame on Democrats, because I think Republicans were united in giving the gas tax back to the citizens a couple of times over the last few years. And the Democrats have stopped it over and over again. I find that reckless. I find that irresponsible. But the Democrats refute you know they talk a lot about how they care about the working person. Oh yeah, they really do. They really care about the working person so much that they won't give you the 20 or 30 cents back on a gallon of gasoline. So that you know, maybe it doesn't hurt you as much when the prices go back over $4 a gallon. And you you hear me for those of you who write me constantly and social media and say that I'm extremely biased.

10:55No, I have very strong opinions. You just don't like those opinions. But I have been critical for the last two months about the Iran war. Not that we started it. I think we should have started it. I think we also should have ended it. Doesn't bother me that we stopped Iran from having nuclear weapon. What bothers me is that now we're in September. And the prices have gone back up, which is the exact opposite of what the president promised and what we as Republicans want. And everybody's trying to come up with excuses. They're in an excuse in the damp thing. One way or the other. Personally, I'm tired of us starting wars and then ultimately losing them. So I'm not interested in some sort of halfway negotiated conclusion that puts us right back in the same place or worse in a couple of years. If that long. I just think you vanquish your enemy. It's one reason I've often told people you disagree with me and you know you cannot like me. That's fine. Just be very careful if you decide that you're going to make an enemy of yourself.

12:02Because I have a different attitude about that. I work with anybody. But if you do things to harm me and you come after me, not just with disagreements, but if you make yourself an enemy, you get put in a different category. And it hasn't fared very well for people over the years. I am pretty nice guy. I just not does not put up with that kind of garbage. One thing that I did want to mention about the tax situation and what we're dealing with is that the Democrats want these prices to go up. That's not just me making something up. That's not a hypothesis. They have said continually, sense Obama. And the think tanks have said it pre Obama. But during the Obama administration, this was a stated goal. Let's increase the prices so that fewer and fewer people drive less and less. And they say that they're trying to save the planet by decreasing the use of fossil fuels. I don't think that's what it is.

13:17I think it is to isolate you. I think it is to make you more malleable and to make you subject to the Amtrak schedule or the bus schedule or you will then vote for a boondoggle for billions of dollars for some sort of train that will never ever actually be built. I mean, that's poor people in California. Thank God. One of the last stories I covered when I was a television reporter in Waco, Texas was the bullet train that was supposed to go from Dallas. It was going to be like a triangle. It's going to go to Dallas and then to Austin and to Houston with a stop in San Antonio. Never built. You know, at the time, I was in my 20s and like a 20 year old, I'm thinking, this is the future. We need to build this. I mean, what in my home state? So I didn't really have any skin in it other than being a taxpayer there on some level for a little while. And then they didn't they never went through with it. And for years, I've looked at that and thought, gosh, why? You know, in Texas, God, if you can't build a high speed rail in Texas with all the open land there, then where can you build it?

14:21I mean, you know, if you can't build it between Dallas, Texas and Waco, Texas and Dallas, Texas and Austin, Texas, when you've got all those highways and open land that isn't densely built. What what hope do we have of ever having a high speed train between Richmond, Virginia and New York City? I mean, you know, that's crazy that they can't do it. But when you look at what has happened in California, you realize that it wasn't about building the train. It was about stealing money. It was about contracts and studies and people who were going to look at things and the train doesn't get built. So these people in California in particular, and now that we have started to import the stupidity of California into the Commonwealth of Virginia, these people who talk about saving the world are not saving the world. They're getting money and their friends are getting rich. And in the end, 10 years later, you're no better off.

15:23And the Democrats like it that way. I mean, I'd give them credit. Hey, if all of the Republicans say we don't want a high speed train, and I actually thought that anybody was going to deliver on a high speed train, like, all right, it's, it's 2026. Let's give you a whole decade. If I thought on September the 16th, 2036, God, I'll be 65 years old by then. But I presumably, I'll still be alive with any luck. So I get to see this. If I thought in a decade, we could spend the money, have a high speed train that would, that would handle capacity, move people from the world. Let's just say where I live in Richmond, not to be selfish, but Richmond all the way up to New York in what an hour, hour and a half instead of six, seven hours, like it is now. That'd be awesome. I'd break with my party and spend money on that. But I see I don't, I don't think you'll deliver it. I don't, I don't think that we'll actually get a train. I think we'll spend all this money.

16:31We'll make the lawyers rich with all the lawsuits. We'll spend ourselves up into a conibction fits over this snail and this turtle. I like turtles. You know, I'd like to protect the turtles. I'd like to protect the wildlife. But, you know, are we going to, are we going to shut down everything that we need in our society in order to do that for a decade. I thought in 2036 we could get the train. I'd vote for it. I'd vote to spend the money on it. Even though we're in debt, I think that would probably be a wise thing, both for the people and for business. You know, you have the, you have the cars that the people get in and then you have a couple of cars where you move product on the high speed train. I think that sounds smart. That's what they do in China. Why aren't we doing that? Because our guys are are playing the system to make money. The lawyers are making money. The legislators are making money. People are, are screwing us over on this. I can't support it because I know better, unfortunately.

17:38And, you know, you can get away for a little while like that. A couple of decades maybe, but at some point you look up like I have when I've traveled and realize we are falling behind. We're falling behind in infrastructure. And, you know, since we're $40 trillion in debt, it would be nice. I mean, it's one thing if you're in debt and you look out in the backyard and you say, damn, I bought a really amazing boat. I probably shouldn't have bought that boat, but that boat is amazing. And I've enjoyed being on the boat. And that's where my money went or you say, wow, that is the top of the line Mercedes. Are you, you just pick whatever kind of my variety, whatever car you want. I spent a fortune on that car. And yeah, I am in debt, but I spent a fortune on that car. I'm using it. I get the prestige of it. It's going to, when I, when I decide to sell it resell it, it's going to, it's going to make, make me some money back.

18:42Maybe even more depending on when I, you know, who I sell it to or when I sell it. We're $40 trillion in debt. Look around. What do you think we got for it? What do you think we got for it? We got a welfare state. We have, we have the encroachment and the growth of the ghetto mindset, the ghetto society. Notice I didn't say black. I'm not criticizing black people. I'm criticizing anybody who embraces the ghetto mindset. And that is like a gangrene that's killing us as a society. Not allowed to talk about it. Of course, I mean, I know everybody's going to call me names anyway. So I don't worry about it anymore. I am impervious to the normal methods by which someone who is smart and observant is shut down. Call me whatever the hell you want to call me. It's okay. That reveals more about you than it does about me. Because I know I'm telling you the truth. I'm not making it up. We're $40 trillion of debt. Look around. What do we have for it?

19:47Do we have the greatest airports in the world? No. Do we have the best highway system in the world? No. Do we have a space program that's second to none? I mean, you know, we're, we're in there. But it's not like the last 20 years have been fantastic for us. I think Trump's tried to get us back in the game. If we're not careful, we're going to be, you know, I don't, I don't say this in an ugly way, but we're going to be like Spain and Portugal. Formerly the richest nations, formally the nations that explored and then something went wrong. Either the trade routes changed or the products changed and it was no longer as profitable to have the products that they were selling. People didn't come through the same way. We're going to be the also rands if we're not careful. And instead of sending creative, thoughtful, mindful people who are business minded, not to the point that they stop on people,

20:48not to the point that they enslave people or abuse people, but to the point that they're looking 100 years down the road, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years down the road. If, if we don't start sending those people to the capital to represent us and stop sending the idiotic social justice warriors, we're done. We're done. And you have a chance starting Friday to vote early in Virginia, this ridiculous 45 days of early voting. It's always voting on something. Hey, enjoy democracy. It's always voting year round for something. So this time you get to vote for who you're Congress person. As you need to look and say, am I voting for someone who actually has some sense, some common sense and some vision, and who isn't going to embrace additional debt and the welfare society that will crush us. Or am I going to vote for the social justice warrior fools that we have empowered all across the Commonwealth of Virginia?

21:54It's not a tough decision for me because I've seen what it can look like in other places. And I see what we're not doing and how stupid and foolish some of our leaders are, and quite frankly, how debious some of our leaders are. So I hope you'll plan on going to vote early. There are a lot of Republicans, a God, I just unbelievable to me who are still at this point. Like, oh, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to vote early. Look, vote as soon as you possibly can. Bank your vote. One lady told me yesterday, she said, well, no, I'm not going to vote early because what if something changes once I've voted, I can't change my vote. Do you tell me what's going to change that will change your vote? You're going to not vote for Rob Whitman, not vote for Jen Keges. What, what revelation are you going to get that's going to change your vote? What to vote for a Democrat? If you're voting for Rob Whitman in the first congressional district, my congressman, who I'm 100% supportive of, Jen Kegins, down at Virginia Beach in the second congressional district,

22:58tell me what you're going to hear that's going to make you suddenly vote for a Democrat. I don't, I don't know what that is. And let's be honest, the Democrats have no intention of changing their votes. Jay Jones is the attorney general. I mean, what, what was revealed about him, which remember I didn't go after it at first. I was like, God, this is so big. You know, killing people's kids, laughing at them, using political violence to manipulate people. I mean, maybe, maybe that's not true. Oh, no. It was true. Democrats still voted for him. He beat Jason Miara's by six percentage points. So it's clear to me, I guess you could argue that some of the Democrats that voted for him early might have changed their mind. Maybe, maybe, but I look at Winsom's numbers, my numbers, Jason's numbers. I don't think that's true. I think if you don't vote as early as you can, you're wasting what little money is still left in the coffers in Virginia for these candidates.

24:03You are risking that something happens between now and election day, where the time just gets away from you. I mean, some people are very diligent about it. I'm one of them. You know, if I have a heart attack and I haven't got my ballot to the Henrico courthouse, I'm probably going to ask the ambulance to stop at the Henrico courthouse and drop off the ballot before we go to the hospital. That's how intent I am on stopping the leftist takeover of Virginia, if I possibly can. Right. So I would encourage you to vote early. You know who you're going to vote for. So go ahead and get it done. Nothing that's going to change the ballots aren't going to change anyway. So let's say one of the Republican candidates drops dead. You know, worry about that when it happens, because the ballots aren't changing now that they're mailed out. I would get it done. And then you can concentrate on getting everybody in your family to vote correctly.

25:03Let me just share this with you. And I'm sure I'm going to be criticized for this. And I wish somebody else would do this work. But apparently everybody else is so scared that it falls to me to be the bad guy to tell you the truth. Take a look at this. Gazala Hashmi endorsement. Gazala Hashmi is the woman who beat me for lieutenant governor. Okay. She won. I did not win. I think that's obviously I'm not happy about it. Gazala Hashmi endorses Abdul El Sayed for US Senate in Michigan. Now Gazala Hashmi, I don't think has any connection to Michigan. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Does she have any connection to Michigan? She's got family in Michigan. Is she from Michigan? Does she have, I mean, she's from India and grew up in Georgia, I think. And you know, was a poetry professor here in Virginia. So I don't know why she's in the, I don't know why she was in the state Senate. I don't know why she's lieutenant governor. But I don't think she's got any connection to Michigan. Other than it's filled with radical Muslims.

26:11And this guy is the Democrat nominee for Senate. This guy, Abdul El Sayed is the one who's been hanging around with Hassan Piker, not last year, not two years ago. Recently Hassan Piker is one of the people who has said America deserved 9-11. Right. And so it's weird to me if you are a Virginia politician, let's say you're a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. You are the epitome of what everybody hates these days. You're straight to you're not gay. You're straight. You're a straight white man with blonde hair, blue eyes, six foot three. And let's just say you got 500 million dollars in the back. You're everything that everybody hates now. I think that's stupid, but that's, you know, you're, you're target number one for hatred. You're the, you're the person that screwed everything up in the most prosperous nation in the world. For whatever reason, that's how these people are thinking. I would counsel you not to go get involved in Senate races in other states, especially if they're really crazy controversial.

27:23Like let's just draw a parallel. If you were a white guy with blonde hair, blue eyes, maybe you had a German last name. And there was somebody in another part of the country who was blonde hair, blue, with a German last name. And it turned into kind of an ugly thing about Naziism, probably fake, right? And everybody's a Nazi supposedly. If you listen to the leftist, everybody is, I'm a Nazi, I guess, all this craziness. These idiots have figured out they just hurl invective at you. And apparently there's enough of our population that's stupid that they'll accept that. I would advise you don't go get involved in that. You're running in Virginia. No one's asking for your endorsement in a Senate race in another state that you have no connection to. Is that got your brother? Is he? I mean, what is the connection? Other than your Muslim woman who was elected lieutenant governor and you made history with that. And so now the Muslim brotherhood sisterhood, the jihadist allegiances are being revealed because there is no reason for gazala Hashmi to get involved in that campaign, especially with the guy who's hanging out with people who constantly talk about how much they despise America and they think America deserves to be punished.

28:49So again, when I was critical of gazala Hashmi when we were running and she refused to debate, you know, she never wanted to actually engage with me and answer these questions. And the media is so pathetic in Virginia and elsewhere that they weren't going to ask her any tough questions about Sharia law. How would you navigate that? I mean, John Kennedy had to answer questions about whether he would take orders from the Pope. So Mitt Romney had to answer questions about as a as a Mormon, how he would deal with his faith. But, you know, you're not allowed to ask gazala Hashmi how she's going to deal with her faith and where that might diverge with the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia. Nobody's worried about that. No one no one has the guts to and ask that question except me. And then I'm supposedly the bad guy. She gets elected lieutenant governor and she swears that there's nothing to Faria's going on, even though we find out that the same people who supported Mamdani, the socialist, the radical in New York are the same people who support in gazala, but we're not supposed to ask about that. No one's supposed to know about it.

30:00Oh, how awful of you to ask those questions. I mean, you know what, if I'm wrong, why don't you tell me I'm wrong and show me that I'm wrong. I'm not allowed to ask the question and you're and no one else is going to do it. No other politicians going to do it. No reporters are going to do it. It falls to me to do it. So I'm the bad guy. Okay. I can be the bad guy. If I have to be, you know, it's my life. It's my reputation. It's my career and quite frankly as a gay man, it's my life that's on the line with the rise of Islam. So, you know, I'm sorry if that offends you, but I'm a little concerned about how I'm going to exist in my own community, in my own state, in my own country, if your religious beliefs begin to become dominant in the society. And then Gazala goes endorses this guy. What am I supposed to make of that? Why, why, why would you get involved in that? Just, oh, I know what it's like. I know what it's like to be an oppressed minority. Is that what she's saying? Or is there something deeper? I mean, I remind you,

31:02Abdul El Sayed is one of the globalized the intifada people. He's all about making the conflict between Israel and Palestine and Gaza and Hamas, making that a domestic issue in the United States. I think that's pretty stupid. I think we should reject that from anybody. You know, if you're talking about globalizing the intifada, next, I'm not, we will not elect anybody in this country who utters that phrase in an affirmative fashion. Because quite frankly, I'm pro Israel, but I'm not interested, whatever's going on between Israel and Palestine, I don't want it here. I don't want that conflict here. I'm not interested in tearing up our society over what's tearing up their society. And you know what? I'm smart. I'm wise for saying that. That is wisdom. That is experience. That is being a global person who understands how easy it is to destroy other people's lives if you personalize conflicts on the other side of the planet.

32:11I didn't make it up. That's what he says in Michigan. And let's be honest, that's what gazala said when she marched with the Palestinian movement and the pro-Hamas crowd here in Richmond with her bowl horn screaming about something happening on the other side of the planet and trying to make it a local problem. Is that the leadership you want? So you know, at some point, please stop criticizing me and start looking at the facts of what is happening with the people that you're putting in office. There is no reason for gazala Hashmi to endorse in any race, especially a controversial one with a guy who denounces America and hangs out with the anti-American crowd. Except that maybe, maybe just maybe she has a affinity for that movement. That's not me being ugly. That's not me casting aspersions and being a racist and a bigot far from it.

33:13That's me warning you that you are empowering people who hate this society. Not people who have the American flag on the wall and the presidential seal on the wall and red, white and blue on the wall. People who do not like this society and want to transform it. And you know, if you want me to give my list of things that I can be critical of about the United States, I'll do it. Fundamentally, I love the country and want to protect the country. I don't want to destroy it. And I don't think you can say that about a lot of the other people who are running, including some of the people who are in office here in Virginia and you better pay attention to it. Because by the time you wise up, I mean, I can't take you on my trips around the world. I can't have you live with me in a Middle Eastern country and see some of the horrors, some of the uncomfortable things and the horrors that I've seen around the world. I can't do that. I can tell you about it. And I would advise you to listen and realize that everything isn't a hallmark moving.

34:18Everything isn't what you were told. I went to Baylor University and I was told, oh, all the great religions are all about peace. I, you know, I loved my professor, wonderful guy. I really learned a lot from him, but he was lying. I or misinformed, he believed the hallmark version of all the different religions. It's not true. And we better wake up to it before we find ourselves in a constant conflict that's violent. And I think we're headed to that. And right now the folks on the left, the socialist communists and the jihadists have united to take down the society and you better wake up to it before they either accomplish their goal or we wind up in a war. Where a lot of people are hurt, if not killed, because we're fighting over it. I would like to avoid that. That's part of my motivation is to avoid that type of violence and conflict.

35:18But it means you need to stop believing the Disney World version that everybody's the same because they're not. And I can personally testify to it. And I'll tell you what, these people are going to kill me before they come for you. As a gay guy, I'm the first person they want to put a bullet in. So forgive me. I am not some white lady in the suburbs who gets the privilege of not acknowledging the reality. I got to deal with the reality because it's going to hit me in a bad way first. So no, I won't shut up and I won't show deference to people who haven't had the life experience that I have because I know what I'm talking about. I probably behooved you to pause and listen to that. If you want to survive. Let's take a quick break. We'll be come back. We'll talk to one of the Republican congressional candidates. We'll see how his campaign is going with two days until early voting starts in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

36:21That's when we return on the read revolution. We are two days away from early voting in the Commonwealth of Virginia, 45 days, which is ridiculous. But that's what the Democrats have stuck us with of early voting in the Commonwealth. Election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. So a lot of money. I mean, I don't know how many hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be spent here in the Commonwealth. A lot of money is on the line for these congressional races and over the course of the next few weeks. You'll hear from probably all of the Republican candidates and I'm certainly willing to talk to the Democrat candidates and be polite and listen to them if they'd like to come on.

37:25Today, we're joined by Dave Beckwith, who is the Republican nominee in the 10th congressional district up in Northern Virginia. He's taking on the incumbent Democrat suhas, supermanion and Dave, I appreciate you being with us now. Wait for you to pop up. I'm assuming you're there. Producer Dan, is he we able to bring him up? Let's see. Sometimes we have a little button problem and people are muted. But I you know, I watched Dave campaign as he was seeking this nomination. He was working very hard. I think he's somebody who has reached out to a lot of people. That's one of the things I want to discuss is whether or not he's going to, you know, what is the strategy in Northern Virginia where people would generally say that Republicans don't have a chance. How do you go and reach out? Hold your base, whatever that is. I don't know what that number is. Is it 20% 30% of the vote? What is the solid Republican base? Trump base? Are those the same thing? What's the differential between those two groups of people?

38:34How do you hold that base? Motivate them to get out to vote. And also pull over independent and moderate voters who may be alarmed as I am by the rise of the socialist and the Democrat party and some of the radicals like Gazala Hashmi and others who I've mentioned previously. Will producer Dan what's going on? That's all you pop up there. Let's see, I get my computer picked an awful time to freeze. So we are restarting. So, but yeah, Dave should be with us. I hope he's going to be with us shortly. Mike, right as you went to throw to him, my computer decided to crap the hell out in that the way it always works. But let's see, I should be able to bring him up. Let's see if I can get him. Well, that's why everybody has told me, John, you're crazy to do a live podcast because there's always going to be a problem. And you know, these podcasts you see all the time are usually pre taped and then edited and they have a nice little visual elements.

39:40But I just I like talking to people in real time, including with you, Dave, I'm glad to glad to have you here. So I don't know if you heard what I was talking about. I watched you campaign. You worked very hard. You got the nomination. I think you're still out there. I haven't I haven't spent as much time up in North of Virginia the last couple of weeks as I would like to, but I hope I can join you to be supportive in the next few weeks. What is your strategy here with early voting starting on Friday to hold the Republican base, the Trump base, and I don't know what that number is in North of Virginia and then win over the moderates in in North of Virginia to the point where you get 50% plus one. And how you doing, I'm glad to see you. It looks like you're muted or maybe it's just me. Let's see. Sounds like you're muted. Gosh, it's still it's still I'm not hearing you.

40:40Yeah, I think I think this is this is an issue on Dave's end. Okay, unmute yourself somehow. Let's see. Let's see. It's it's like the Zoom call at the Fortune 500 company. I did one yesterday where I was working with some people on some media issues. And here you are. It's just almost impossible to get these things to work to work right. Yeah, well, restream our podcast platform did some sort of an update during our hiatus. And I've figured out with them that we needed to switch different Brett to a different browser on the computer. But last week we were having some issues with with music beds not playing correctly and that sort of thing. But I thought that was just me. No, it was it was it was definitely not. I think I hear volume too. So, All right. I think I had a lot of fun.

41:40And that's a better backdrop anyway. Okay. How you doing? I'm doing great. It's been just amazing since the primary. I had great challenger there with Julie. But we were able to really I think capture both. When the primary but also pull the whole party together. So I think we've got good unity here. We've got all the GOP organizations organized ready to go. They're going to be staffing the early voting. And we've got signs out. We've got our message out. We're streaming. We've got social media rolling. So we've really got a great message going forward. Yeah. So that's interesting to talk about staffing the early voting. And we've got 45 days. It's tough to get volunteers out there. What are you doing? Well, and not let's remember we're going to have 135 days of voting this year. Right. Yeah. Because we had the we had the redistricting vote. Then we had primaries that we had to staff.

42:41And now we have the general election. The 45 day election is just crazy. It's something that we really need to change. We need to take back the delegate House of delegates in the Senate next year in Virginia and make sure we change that because it's just not. It's just not a reasonable thing to do. It's very hard on the candidates and the volunteers. Yeah. And the staff. I mean, from what I've been told, I guess up in loud and you all have enough money to run this thing. But some of these smaller counties. It's really draining. Limited resources away for that. It is. And it's it's. It cost a lot of money. Things that the state could be doing using that money for to run the elections. There are lots of other things they could be doing instead. Yeah. But I've really got some really interesting traction up here of issues that I wanted to talk about. And we ones is the amendments. We all know we had the redistricting amendment, but there are actually three other amendments on this ballot.

43:41I'm sure you've talked about them. But in particular, there's an amendment on abortion and amendment on gay marriage. And I think the key thing you remember on both those amendments is that both abortion and gay marriage or legal today in Virginia. There'll be legal tomorrow in Virginia, regardless of the amendments. But in particular on the abortion amendment, it's it's a very deceptive ballot. When you what's on the ballot, when you go and look at the actual language in the bill. It's very it really crosses some lines that I think Virginia is not ready to cross in particular. It wipes out parental rights for underage girls who were going to go get an abortion. It kind of takes the parents out of the picture. And I don't think that's what Virginians want. And my opponent, and this is one of the things I wanted to just make sure your audience knows, you know, guess who helped right and was a big sponsor of that first that first amendment on abortion? Well, my opponent.

44:43Is that right? When Sue came from the legislature in Richmond. Correct. And then matriculated up to Congress. So he was involved in crafting that to get those bills in place. You had to have it in two separate sessions. And he was both involved in the delegate and in the Senate. And he has done something pretty remarkable. And this is what I found is I've been going around my district. And, you know, just a reminder, I'm running the repertoire to my district over party. My opponent has represented the party over his district. And I think this is just one more example. The Catholic, he has found a way to unite all the religions against the amendment that he helped raise. The Catholic Church has come out strongly against this first, the abortion amendment. Most of the churches I've talked to either Protestant or evangelical have also come out opposed to this amendment.

45:44And within the Muslim community, within the other religious communities, there's a lot of trepidation about how far this goes. So I think he has really shown how extreme he is on this issue. And he's not a step with this district. Yeah. I'm certain that conservative voters for whom abortion, especially unlimited day of birth abortion. I mean, that's the horror of this thing for me is that if we want to have a debate, I mean, I pro-life, but if you want to have a debate about the first six weeks, the first 12 weeks, I guess we can have that debate, doesn't change my opinion. But from a public policy standpoint, we can have that debate. This amendment allows day of birth abortion with one doctor, the abortion doctor, only having to say, oh, the woman in question here claims that she's mentally disturbed by the concept of having the baby. And the threshold is almost nonexistent. Now there's no checklist to say what you have to go through before you terminate the baby, the full term baby on the day it's going to be born.

46:55And I think even, you know, as I traveled around the state last year, Dave, I had a lot of people who were pro-choice. They disagreed with me. They didn't like me being pro-life. They were pro-choice, but they said day of birth abortion was too far. And do you think that that has, can you get that message out in Northern Virginia? Do you think that resonates with people in Northern Virginia who might be pro-choice, but think this is too much? I do think we can get that message out. I think it is important that people see beyond what's written on the ballot initiative because just like with redistricting, it's very biased and very kind of hides all the facts that are in the actual bill. And I do think people were being receptive to it. And I think there's no reason we couldn't take a mulligan on this and say this bill is just a little out of step with something we want to put in the Constitution. Let's try again with the knowledge that abortion is legal today. It'll be legal tomorrow.

48:01It's interesting you bring up the gay marriage initiative and I have never talked to you directly about that. I support gay marriage. I have for years. I don't think it's anybody's business. What I do. What, what, you know, eventually I guess a lot of them and I will get married, I suppose. But I don't think even if someone disagrees with me if they are convinced I'm going to burn in hell or they just don't want to hear about it. They don't want to have anything to do with it. I don't think I should force them to participate in my marriage. I think a church should be able to say, it's going to make me mad. But I think a church should be able to say, no, you know what, that's not what we believe and we're not going to host your wedding and we're not going to participate in it. And we'll let the government treat us like anybody else, but individual citizens get to make their decisions about how they want to deal with that seems like the only fair way to go forward. What's your thought on this issue?

49:01I think that's well said. I think specifically there were amendments to that proposed within the legislature that were rejected that we're trying to make sure that religious members who had a conscious reason could not be forced to perform ceremonies and those were rejected. So I think yet again, I think there's a better way to write this and putting it in the Constitution has an error of finality that I don't think we're we want to have done. I think there's a lot of reasons to again, kick them all again on this, rethink this through and put something that it's more broad support across not just my district, but against the state. Well, you know, I told a lot of Democrats who agree with me on this issue. I said, if you just wanted to sponsor a straight repeal of the amendment that was passed in 2006 that says that it gay marriage is illegal in Virginia, even though that's moot now, because of the Supreme Court.

50:06That I would support because it's it's not a debatable issue at the moment. The court has settled it. And I didn't I voted against that in 2006. I voted for my boss, George Allen and against that amendment. I would do that again. But you've created so much drama that it's impossible to be supportive of what you've crafted. I think these people are so clever and devious. They know exactly what they're doing because a straight repeal probably would have passed in Virginia, big numbers in modern Virginia, but they've decided as they always do to go a step too far and try to sneak these other elements, including the transgender issue. Into the amendment and they're hoping that that's going to pass. And I think we have an obligation to point that out. And I hate I hate to be one of the people to say you should vote no on that. I wish I could have a different opinion, but I can. I think it's important that we get that message out and I really agree with your words on that.

51:10Well, tell me you mentioned a suhoss voting with his party and not representing the district. What would you point to specifically about that and tell me someplace. You know, in Northern Virginia, there's a lot of hostility to President Trump. I encountered it last year. What would you do if you were in the House of Representatives to help restore some sort of balance or normalcy to governance in these. And I think you think a great opportunity for that is the national debt. As we know, it seems like all the parties and the executive branch are hooked on spending money. We have a, we're going to be close to a $2 trillion deficit. And then we went over $40 trillion of debt. And that's an area where I think representing my district is I've gone and talked to people. That's the one thing that is resonated across parties and across backgrounds is this concern about our $2 trillion deficit.

52:15And that's what's that adding on to our debt. Most people know this or have seen this that we spend we're spending more now on interest payments than we are on our national defense. And pretty soon it will be the second in moving towards the highest amount we spend in the budget. And that is really not sustainable. And I'll leave an effort within the House. And across the government to find a way to cap our spending for a couple of years to let our revenues catch up. We're right now spending about $7.2 trillion, which I know is a huge number that people have a hard time understanding. But if we could freeze that number and then where we need to spend more, get that firm savings from fraud, from waste and from business, places where we come in and pay business, we subsidize business. We could we could with discipline keep our spending about where it is and let our revenues catch up and close the gap.

53:20We don't have to we just need to start getting back to our more normal, much smaller deficit each year. That's something I think I can do. You hear a rhetoric about that on the hill, but you don't see what someone going up there to try and do something. And I think that's differentiates me from the current incumbent, my opponent and actually the Trump administration as well. Yeah. Well, we could certainly use some strong voices to point that out during the budgeting process and attempt to hold the line. It seems almost impossible, but it is impossible. If you put leftists in who want to expand to the welfare state, where people become used to the government providing basic services. And there's no way for that to go away until there's a collapse. And I'm really concerned about that. I'm glad that's a priority for you. You spend how many years in the Air Force you that was a career for you. I spent almost 30 years in the Air Force.

54:20And then also six plus years as a federal civilian. I was also briefly in industry and obviously I'm a veteran. So when you look at my district, I think I cover about 60 or 70% of either the people or their families in terms of my experience. And I think that's one of the things with this district, we have a large number of federal civilians. Like all those civilians and the military remember the 42 day shutdown that my opponent voted for seven times. We lost two paychecks. People were having to take bridge loans out to pay their mortgages and their rent. And to be honest with you, people were very, very frustrated by that. The first thing I promise to you as a federal civilian is that I will not use the federal workforce, the military as leverage to get policy done. And then I will vote to support our federal civilians across the board. They're an amazing group of people. They do wonderful work.

55:24Often they're really underappreciated, but having been one of them for so long. I know the great work they do. And what obviously the wonderful amazing work that our military does. Yeah. I think you can vote in seven times to shut down the government. And I'm guessing I'm one Google search away from finding out that the incumbent Suhas was hypercritical of the Trump administration and Republicans while Suhas was voting to keep the government closed. Correct. He actually had town halls where he tried to comfort people who had been put on furlough. Or furlough that he actually voted for. Yeah. And of course people will say civilians, oh, well, you'll get paid after the government opens up 42 days, two pay checks. And we didn't know when we lost that last paycheck that was going to be the last one. It was incredibly stressful, very disrespectful to our federal civilian workforce to be shut down for so long, just as leverage ponds in a Washington DC.

56:28Blaming. Yeah. Wasn't it interesting that the shutdown ended right after the election? Yes. What's that interesting? Yes. I mean, talk about really screwing over the people in northern Virginia in order to complicate. Yes. For politics. Yeah. That's shameful. I'm glad you're going to stand up against it. And some people have said, oh, that was last year. No. That 40 day shutdown is fresh and everybody's mind because it was so painful. It was so different from what we had ever experienced before. Yeah. Well, let me ask you about the doge cuts because of course as I campaigned last year, I heard a lot of people who were very upset about cuts. So, you know, on the one hand, we do have $40 trillion in debt. We got to do something to fix this to right size the government. What's the balance there? How are you viewing this and analyzing it? Well, I actually survived the doge cuts. I was actually somebody in those crosshairs.

57:28And I had people who worked for me in those crosshairs. And I was actually able to save six people's jobs. They were brand new hires, but they brought incredibly were mid career. They brought incredible experience. And I thought hard to make sure we justified keeping them. And they're they're working for the government today. So I have that firsthand knowledge of the doge cuts. There were some good things that were, I think they tried to accomplish in that. But there was a lot of messy things that really hurt people. And I don't think actually brought value to those cuts. So it's a mixed bag. The intention was perhaps good, but the implementation was very sloppy. And I saw that firsthand. And although my opponent will talk about that, I actually experienced it, lived through it, and protected the workers who worked for me from the doge cuts. Well, that's an interesting personal perspective that would inform your oversight as a member of Congress.

58:32And just the influence you could offer as these decisions are being made for the next two years, as the Trump administration concludes. I'll give you a chance to make your last pitch. I hope we'll talk to you again before election day. But just if anybody's watching this and they haven't decided who they're going to vote for in the 10th congressional district up in Northern Virginia, tell us why you're running and why you want this job. Well, ever so quickly, I just want to talk about data centers. Brief. Oh, yeah. Well, that's big. Okay. Good. Well, my opponent was in the Trump was in the Obama administration working technology. He was a delegate, then promoted to a senator, state senator, and then promoted to Congress. In each of those roles, he oversaw the heart of data center Valley here in, in Loudon. And he saw this problem grow over the last six years and he sat on the sidelines doing nothing.

59:32The data centers went from a blessing to a curse. And he's only recently come out with some plans he's put into putting the laws on the hill that we're not going to go anywhere. And he's going to try and claim he's finally doing something. But for the people who have data centers behind their homes, for the people who hear that hum from the data centers 24 seven. And for the people who are worried about transmission lines that are going to come across Western Loudon and Prince William. It's small comfort. And what he's doing is actually not going to help with their current situation. So I think given that performance given that he has not done anything in the heart of data center, Alan. I think it's time that we fire him and that we hire somebody who does have a plan. I'm against those transmission lines. Virginia needs to start producing its own energy again. They need to start building natural gas power plants.

1:00:32Very clean, very clean source of electricity and start getting their own electricity generating. And on data centers, we need to focus on quality of life. There is no way a data center should be built behind the home. Anybody who knew about that was part of that should be fired. And my opinion is we need to have setbacks at the half mile to perhaps as much as five miles from any sort of any sort of communities. And then generate the electricity that they need. So I want to make sure I mentioned that. Well, you're right. That's a huge issue. And if you've got a plan and a contrast with kind of the reckless way this has been handled up to this point with the incumbent congressman, it's important for people to know about that. Yeah, he's very active right now after after the council left the bar. And he's he saw all these problems occur. The last thing I guess I'll leave with you is I am running to represent the district.

1:01:34I am very focused as I've been going around the district. I've been talking to people across across the entire district and hearing what their concerns are. And one of the things I've decided to do is put three district offices into our district right now. And one up in Leesburg. It's very hard to get to if you live down for those familiar here and Prince William or Faulkier County. So I want to put one in Manassas where we have a large number of recent immigrants. So they have easy access to a district office to get their concerns to me and also put one down in warrington. So we have the entire district covered. Of course, I need to talk about the fact that he's running to be reelected in a district that he didn't want. He supported redistricting and wanted to boot out half the district as well. Yeah. So I love my district. I want to represent it. And I'm looking forward to a great election coming forward. They back with in the 10th congressional district in Virginia.

1:02:35I'm always happy to see you. I appreciate you coming on. I hope I'll see you up in person in northern Virginia soon. And you're welcome back on the program before election day. Thank you. And I would just say Beckwith for Congress dot com. Beckwith just like it sounds Beckwith for Congress dot com. Please check out my website. I'd love to have donations. I'd love to have volunteers. Thank you very much. Yeah. Well, we've got a long way to election day. And I'm sure people will rally to you. Dave, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Let's say quick break. We'll come back producer Dan rejoins us in just a moment here on the Read Revolution. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, well, that's good. You know, I like a lot of these vets who are running as Republicans,

1:03:43especially when they really do have their finger on the pulse of the local community. You know, Dave's up there, Northern Virginia guy, been there for a long time. I think that type of person understands, you know, whether you're a new immigrant or whether you're a lifelong virginian, I think he probably has a better, a better chance of understanding what's working and what's not working than some of the, the randos that the Democrats keep pushing towards us. So, well, I was thinking about elections in general. I guess you could say over the last couple days and amazing to me that we don't insist on people running for office having a good deal of professional business experience. Not okay. Yeah, no, they don't. And is it any wonder that we're in the economic conundrum that we're in? Is the catastrophe waiting to happen? Because we're electing people present in the United States who's job experience consists of

1:04:48community organizing, whatever the hell that is. But it's, it's, I mean, it's a way to use government money to keep them afloat while they figure out what, what office they're going to run for. I mean, seriously, that's what's been happening. We're slow on the uptake. I mean, I think it took a long time for Republicans to realize, oh, wait a minute, all these NGOs, the learing centers that Nick certainly discovered, the person who's running the learing center winds up being a candidate for House of Delegates. And you know, they didn't have to earn the money. It was all through government grants, Medicaid, Medicare, all these all these HHS grants and USAID grants. We've been played big time. And I'm glad that some people finally wised up to it. Took me a little while to figure it out. I, I like you, Dan, I think I generally start with the idea that people aren't trying to screw me over. But then when I realized they are, oh, to see now I'm mad about it. So if you said some frustrated, it's because I've realized the Democrats largely,

1:05:51not exclusively the Democrats, but the Democrats large. They've been screwing over the taxpayer. And paying their friends and giving them a leg up when it comes to elected positions. And it's time to shut that stuff down. Well, look, I mean, in the legal field, and I was part of the legal field for a while, you're a big fan of that old community. Yeah. And they're big fan of me too. Let's put it that way. The expat, but the, the number of prosecutors I came across. We always think about defense attorneys as being having having this rep, oh, they'll, they'll represent anybody. They don't have any scruples or whatever. I tell you what, be far more concerned about the prosecutor who doesn't have scruples because the prosecutor who would subvert justice for the sake of winning is a very, very, very unethical person. And I'm going to tell you,

1:06:52there's more than a few of them out there. I believe it. But it's, I think they're people who railrode somebody. Yeah. And unfortunately, I still don't get this. I think there are a lot of people in the Democrat party who are the Soros prosecutors who have been convinced maybe sincerely. I don't know. I don't know how you think that letting murderers out rapists out, not prosecuting people in the fullest extent of the law when it's a violent crime is somehow justice. But they've been convinced that that's the way to go. And did you see the story in the last 24 hours? Nick Minock again, a W J LA. No, I haven't seen ABC station in Washington. Yeah. Nick has done the math that the new parole board that Abigail Spamberger, our new governor has created is already releasing 10 times as many people on parole as the Youngkin parole board. So let's just say that the Youngkin crowd was really anti-criminal and they were going to be tough and they were going to be harsh.

1:07:55Let's just say that. And maybe, maybe somehow you look at the individual cases and you think, wow, you guys are really being jerks here. Maybe, are you, are you then telling me that that Abigail Spamberger releasing 10 times that number? Is that the correct calibration? I'm guessing not. And I saw what Northam and his team did. They let cop killers out. So who am I going to trust? I got to trust the Republican over the Democrat once I see that you're letting cop killers out. Yeah, I leave it to me to compare to a scene in a movie, but I think the airplane seek will had a metal detector where all these Islamic terrorists walk into the metal detector, just set it up. One after the other and finally, this old granny goes through in a sound isn't made and that's the person that the security swarms around and has to pat down or whatever else. It's it's comical in that movie, but I'm not so sure that's terribly far off from how we're actually operating

1:08:55these days. Yeah, yeah. Even just though we are in this Twilight Zone quandary where there were up is down down is up right is wrong and wrong is right. We're we're doing almost the opposite. George Costanza like of everything that we should be doing. Well, I'm hoping one of the reasons that I've continued with the podcast and you know, so thankful for you, Dan, is that the the local media and the national media is largely dominated by people who I hate to say it are either dumb and want to want to see their pretty face and their big boobs and muscles on on television. And you know, I used to be one of these people so I can be critical. That is a component of who's on television and who's writing these days. And then the other component is journalists who are activist for leftist causes and there are very few people that I could identify today who are actually attempting to despite whatever they personally believe to get

1:09:58to truth and fairly offer both perspectives so that the audience can make it the voter. The audience could make a good decision. And we're kind of at fault as voters because you know, I've had a couple of people like John, you know, your your show isn't bombastic enough. You need to ditch the jacket. You need to be, you know, throw out more cuss words. It's you're you're showing your age. And I'm, you know, between the people who criticize me and the people who offered that type of critique, I'm just not interested in doing a clickbait. Yeah, we do the we do the best and worst of the internet. There's some silly stuff there's some funny stuff, some outrageous stuff there. But when it comes to a conversation, let's be honest, a lot of the voters are going to the TikTok videos and they're being educated by TikTok about the issues about what's happening

1:10:58around the world. And I may I humbly suggest you probably not get in the truth or the best balanced understanding of what's happening by being educated on TikTok. No, I think that's that's that's true. Or the New York Times. I'm rather proud of the the the territory, the the property we've we've state to claim to here in this podcast in terms of how we we deal with things. It's not it's not journalism. We're not we're not journalists. But as commentators, I hope that we're being fairly responsible and thoughtful about what we what we say and what we do and and offering people glimpse into the insight that we have regarding what's happening. So yeah, well on that note, do you have best and worst to the I have I have I have a couple things here. Yeah, let me see the the first thing is you know it Mitch Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnell is back or or or is he. Oh, it's me.

1:12:11Gosh, it really looks it looks so real. I'm not talking about the mask, but the AI video. Yeah. How are we seriously? That's funny. Yeah. You know, that everybody's beating up on Mitch McConnell, but then they covered for Joe Biden for four years as we watched that guy crater. No one wants to talk about it now. You know, now it's all I don't I don't wish ill on people, but now it's all, you know, sob story about his cancer. I'm sorry you have cancer. I just wish that we hadn't been suckered for four years or lot not even suckered lied to before you. But how do you believe anything you see now when you see that type of AI video and it looks so real. Yeah. Yeah. How do you believe anything? No, and you know, I go back about I think this is even before the pandemic. Glenn back used to do segments about this and it was just with the audio. I don't think we even we even had gotten to video yet that was that was true to life. But he would play

1:13:13computer generated audio of Obama of Trump. And you could not tell. You could not tell. Yeah. That it wasn't real. And I think he even had real ones mixed in as a you tell me what's what's the real one? What's the fake one? And you couldn't it was a I don't know. That's a good question. I have no idea. So it's yeah, we are. And that's the danger. All these people who've been freaking out for the last four days about AI taking over the world and killing all of us. Tomorrow we should have a guess where we're going to ask that question like how exactly would AI eliminate humanity? Maybe I'm not creative enough at the moment. But short of running the nuclear bombs or mixing all of the medicines that are then distributed through the drug stores. What exactly are we talking about here? I mean, I guess that's something could take over this podcast and and and seize the computer and there could be nefarious. But I mean, people are doing

1:14:14that already. So I'm curious about that. But these AI videos, that's kind of s how I'm I mean, people have been doing that when I was when I was living overseas Dan, I don't know if I've told you this story. When I was living overseas, it was the Arab Spring. And I had some people that I was working with to try to make sure that the radical islamists did not kill everybody who was in authority, not necessarily nice people, but they were in authority and they were friends of the United States. So quite frankly, I have to pick a side. I'm going to pick the people who are friends of the United States, not the ones who tell me we hate America and we want to kill you and you know, you're your buddy. Forgive me, but that's not a tough decision for me to make. But the people who were the radical islamists in the countries that I was in were recycling video that was five or 10 years old. They'd text it to people in in these villages and the villagers would riot

1:15:15because they were told that the video that was really five years old was fresh that day. Now that's a sia that's a military operation to push people into violence and to manipulate their minds. And they knew it was a lie and one of the things I was trying to do was come up with a way to expose the lies so that we didn't have the riots. And it was tough then. Now you don't even have to have fake video that you can identify that's old. You sit down and you create something that looks real and people might still react in a violent way. That's that's worrisome. Yeah, and on the subject of the legal field, I mean, that's that's what I go to immediately. How how try we could people falsely implicate somebody. I know. I know. That's a big that's a big concern of mine. And and on the flip side, I mean, if if all of this stuff is

1:16:19could it render just about any evidence moot? Right? No one can believe any people would be difficult. Do you have a do you have a doubt about the veracity of the charge and the evidence that presented and the average person could say, God, I don't know, you know, I don't know whether what I'm seeing is real or not. And then if you can't go back to your original point, if you can't trust the prosecutor, you know, if the police and the prosecutor are not committed to honestists, they're willing to fudge it. How do you believe any of this? Yeah. And it's scary. If you think that if you think that unscrupulous prosecutors are not out there, I have news for you. That's all I'm going to say. I have. I have really, really troubling. Why used to wonder that about the DNA situation because DNA is used as the slam dunk. Okay. But honestly, how many people have been on jury's who know anything about DNA? All they know is what they're told. Well, that's how

1:17:23my iPhone, that's how my iPhone got caught in the duplacross case. He was trying to manipulate DNA evidence. Right. Right. Oh, yeah. But you got to have somebody who's smart enough to know what's happening. And I wouldn't be me. I don't know the nuance of that. You I have here's one of the awful realizations that I've had just in the last five or 10 years of my adult life is I can trust no one. And you know, that's why I am trying on this show to speak tell you my opinion and also present facts and not be worried about where the chips may fall. You know, who's going to like it? Who's not going to like it? Because I think when you start trying to hide things or you start trying to hide your opinion or color the facts, then people lose faith in you and they should. But there's so few people out there that are willing to do it. And quite frankly, it may be one reason

1:18:24why you know, somebody would say, Hey, John, you're never going to get elected anything because you're just too blunt and too honest with people. So you know, no one wants to elect an honest person anymore. They want to elect somebody who will lie to them and make them feel good. Maybe I hope not, but maybe. Well, I was just going to say very quickly, the thing that still blows my mind to this day is that that that duke lacrosse prosecutors, yeah, jail sentence was one day. Yeah, yeah, one day, yeah, when you find out they deliberately lied in Medipule, man was trying to put away innocent people for decades. Yeah. And they gave me an abuse. And I think I would, I would have been more for like life in prison. I think I think these are the types of things that it's we need to deter that 100% and that's one way to do it. Like, you know, if you abuse the public trust

1:19:24like that, they're, you mean, that's just you're gone. You're done. So send the message loud and clear. Well, on a much lighter note here, something else that I have, of course, back to our favorite, our favorite terrain here, but baby Trump with baby mom, Donnie touring a New York grocery store. What is place I came in for a diet coke and every aisle just says milk. Welcome to the people's grocery for too long New Yorkers have been forced to shop, Mr. President. Zoran, where's the produce section? This is the produce section. We freeze the vegetables so we can freeze the prices. Half these shelves are empty. Even Venezuela has more stuff and Maduro throws a party in his stores. That's because our billionaires are contributing. Well, the ones that haven't left. How many are left? Two, and one of them is packing. Then what is this? City-owned mayonnaise made by the Department of Sanitation. Why the Department of Sanitation?

1:20:28They had capacity, sir. Where are the customers? In line, sir, very fair, very equal. How much is a gallon of milk? Free, after you complete the forms. How many forms? Twelve, and a very affordable pen rental. You're renting me the pen? For too long, New Yorkers have owned their own pens. I'm going to Whole Foods. It's so crazy that anybody thinks this idea is a good idea. I don't know. I don't know why anybody thinks that's going to work. I had praise for the local DMV, Division of Motor Vehicles, when I went to get my driver's license renewed. They moved pretty quickly. I really, I could count on one hand of those good experiences. You just can't have government run entities like this. I think a lot of people don't get it. When you go to your local

1:21:28grocery store and you pick up a candy bar or you pick up a steak or you pick up a chicken or you pick up a canned good, there are hundreds of people who have made that possible for you to walk into the grocery store and find four different versions and different prices and different qualities and different flavors and different tastes and different, you know, there's an entire pipeline that's been developed here. There is a price point for that. I'm not saying it's not expensive. Food is certainly more expensive, but what makes you think the government is going to be able to subsidize this, especially in a place with nine million people? What makes you think that's going to work? Well, it's crazy. If you're a sports fan, I know we have a couple Ravens fans watching. I'm a Steelers fan. If you're a Steelers fan, you wouldn't want members of the Ravens playing against you and officiating at the same time. If you're a Ravens fan, you wouldn't want Steelers players playing against you and officiating at the same time. If the government is playing the game,

1:22:34who's watching the watchdog? The whole point of government is that it's supposed to be the umpire and not actually in the game participating. Undercutting you. Yeah, it's just a farce. Well, the real danger is that you undercut the real businesses and the real farms and the and you start to shrink those numbers. That's already a problem where you happen. Yeah, inevitable. And then it collapses on you and then you have no pipeline left and you got to rebuild that. That took that took a century, if not more, of family farms and the process growing and innovation for us to get to this place where where I live right now in the suburbs of Richmond. I have three or four grocery stores within 10 minutes of my house. And if you undermine that, I mean, I don't think the people here are stupid enough yet to do that, but if you undermine that,

1:23:38it doesn't snap back tomorrow. This is a big mistake that could ruin things for another generation, if not more. I don't know why you would experiment with that. When you have the luxury of going to a food lie and or to another grocery store comparing prices. Uplooks. Yeah, come on. Walmart target anything. When I went to Havana, everybody told me, oh, you're going to a Cuba. It's just it's a success story. B S. Yes, disaster. I went into store after store deliberately so that I could see for myself whether it was great or not. They had two or three tubes of toothpaste in the cabinet. And you had to show a coupon in order to buy your toothpaste. On certain days, chickens arrived and they wasn't enough for everybody. You know, I mean, one day a year we run into a problem in the United States like, I didn't know what are my Thanksgiving

1:24:39turkey early enough so there no thanks giving turkeys. Well, you know what? I'll go eat the slice turkey that's over here. I can't have a real turkey because I didn't order soon enough. That's when we run into problems on holidays. It's every day in these countries. And again, having traveled extensively on my own dime, much of it because I wanted to decide for myself whether the BS that I was being told was true or not. I'm just telling you, we are playing with fire with these ideas and everybody's going to be miserable going forward if this takes off. Well, at least in this case, thank goodness for federalism and that, yeah, if they're going to try this in New York, flee, run for your lives. Right. So Ram was saying, get out of there. But some of the same, some of the same dummies who voted for Zoran and who or would have voted for Zoran. So excited about him. Are the same people said,

1:25:39oh, it's too expensive for me. Let me go move to Virginia because it's cheaper. Well, you know what, you move to Virginia because it's cheaper. You move to Virginia because there's been good government for 30 years up until recently. And now you're putting in people with the same horrible ideas that have wrecked really. I mean, New York City should be an amazing place, not just because it's got Broadway shows and professional athletics and concerts. It should be an amazing place. But we've had this tug of war my entire life. I'm thank God Rudy Giuliani won for as long as he was in there because he cleaned up the at least the tourist district and empowered business. But they're so wealthy with so many businesses, so many big, huge companies making a fortune. That place should be glass that's clean. And it's not. You know, I mean, I go up there a couple times a year for business and to go see a Broadway show. But and I've lived there. So I can testify in person. You have to have a different attitude to live there. Just three hours. Not great. Yeah, I would never

1:26:45want to be there. Yeah, it's not my kind of place. So, but unfortunately, like you say, it's not not as though Virginia is headed in the right direction thanks to all the folks who have left the the Northeast and come down here and it's really a puzzlement. You really not learn the lessons they should have learned from. And then you come in and say, well, I hate Republicans. Oh, you know what? Maybe you don't. Maybe you actually like it because you just moved here. So don't trash this place too. Yeah, it's really a bizarre situation. All right, well, I see we're out of time. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, thank you. I'm sorry we missed yesterday. And hopefully things will get better. In my home life and excuse me, we'll get back to normal. If you'd like to send a note to me or to producer Dan, you can send the note to the read revolution at gmail.com, the read revolution at gmail.com. I do hope that you'll find us on social media on YouTube on Twitter, X Facebook. We've got two pages there. The second page could use a little bit of love. And if you feel like giving us a good review,

1:27:46that would be very helpful because every leftist in town and actually across the country, apparently I made some list where they're going to trash me on a regular basis. So it'd be helpful if you push back by giving us a good review. We'll see you tomorrow for the next edition of the read revolution.