Investigating ActBlue: Jim Jordan on Corruption and Government Oversight

0:00Hey folks, a word from one of our great sponsors, Ghostbed, you know what? I say it all the time in the show, I've never slept better, why? Because I bought one of these incredible mattresses. If your body was fighting to get comfortable, you're going to feel it the next day once you buy a Ghostbed. That's why I sleep on a Ghostbed. Ghostbed is engineered to help reduce the reasons your sleep gets interrupted. Ghostbed is designed to relieve pressure, help regulate temperature. That's a big one and support your body. They're cooling technology built into every mattress and they're made in the USA. With Ghostbeds 101 night sleep trial, you can try it at home because the real test of a mattress is how you feel when you wake up in the morning. If you're waking up sore or tired before the day even gets started, check out Ghostbed. They're offering my audience an extra 10% off their lowest prices of the season. So do me a favor. Go to gosped.com slash just news and use that promo code just news. The checkout, that's gosped.com slash just news, promo code just news. Hey folks, what if drinking more water is actually the wrong advice after you turn 50? I've been reading a lot lately about hydrating the right way.

1:02That could be why you're dealing with afternoon brain fog, low energy or even nighttime late cramps. Oh, I hate those. US Army researchers found that older adults hydrate better with amino acids plus low sodium electrolytes not sugary sports drinks. That's why I personally like and use the hydrate. It has all the essential amino acids, key electrolytes, quality sodium. And by the way, it tastes great, three great flavors. Get my special offer plus free shipping at native hydrate.com slash just news. That's native hydrate.com slash just news. Go check it out. Hello, America and happy Friday. Welcome to the latest edition of John Solomon reports. The podcast from you know where just the news, some bad news for some mainstream media outlets. This just broke on just the news a few moments before the show. President Trump has banned. You get a load ready for this CNN. MS now the old MSNBC and

2:07Politico from reporting from the White House going forward and outright ban. Now we'll see if that stands up. They're probably going to have to go to court to get back in. But how about that? That's a big deal. Donald Trump is getting behind a Ken Paxton in a big way in the Texas Senate race as well. People getting a big view of that. He's also doubling down not just on Ken Paxton. Against the Democratic candidate, Telle Rico, he's also doubling down on those $5,000 dividend checks. Saying we're gonna get it and it is going to help Republicans win. That's a big important thing. An important story on privacy and our fourth amendment. Our right to do process. A federal field score is rolled that law enforcement officers can search people's phones at our border without having a warrant or probable cause. That's going to be an interesting question because it seems as though the border may not be all the border. It'd be interesting to see what that looks like. Is the border part of US territories and outside of it? Why would the fourth amendment not apply there? Interesting question. And then an ICE agent who was involved in a fatal Minneapolis shooting

3:11has pleaded not guilty to lying about the investigations that led up to the shooting of this Venezuelan man back in. I think what I'm trying to remember was that back in the summer. No, it's actually back in January. If I remember, click all the way back in January. The gentleman who was shot and wound it didn't die. Julio, so so I see this, but he did suffer injuries and he ultimately was let go. They didn't charge him. The ICE agent's name is Christian Castro. He's 52 years old. Pretty tough situation. Reminder how difficult these circumstances sometimes can be. And then speaking of the Ken Paxton race down in Texas, this happened over the week. Oh, it happened. It's Thursday night. James Tallerico, the Democrat nominee, has been is facing accusations of quote blatant corruption, close quote, because he took a high salary while working for consulting firm that received millions in state contracts awarded by the Texas education agency. Tallerico used to provide oversight of the agency as a member of the public education

4:13committee in the Texas government. So that is a thing that complaint has been filed. You see the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton laid in and made this an issue yet. This is getting a lot of attention all around the country. All right. People say, is there a difference with that President Trump in charge when it comes to all that nonprofit money going out? A new analysis shows that the Trump administration, since it came back in office, froze block or stopped $177 billion with a B dollars in grants. In other words, we're not spending it. We're not just giving it away. A lot of people think that they decline in democratic donations, the financial trouble, the Democratic National Committee has been in. Maybe a result of all of that federal money, like USC ID money and other money being constrained, pretty important conversation all around. All right. Those are some of the headlines today. Now let's get to one of the great lineups. We got a good one for you today. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan is going to kick things off on this Friday. He's going to talk about that very important investigation into Act Blue.

5:17We'll have a similar conversation. Saturday with one of his cohorts in the investigation House Admin Committee Chairman Brian style. Today it'll be Jim Jordan. We'll talk about what's on the agenda, the weaponization of government. He'll be great. In the second block of the show, he has been a champion of religious freedom all around the world, a former ambassador, former Kansas governor, former Kansas senator, Sam Brownback. We'll join this for an extended conversation. He just had an event this week highlighting all of the horrific cases of religious intolerance, religious persecution in China. We give China a pass too often on this, but Christians and other people of faith are persecuted in ways that violate our senses, violate our beliefs in America. Sam Brownback wants you to know it and understand it inside out and he's going to help us in the second block of the show. It's an extended interview. You're going to be fun. Then the third block of the show, Tim Stewart, is going to be in the House. There is a crucial piece of legislation, a very important program that proceeds from

6:18oil sales and put them into conservation, our parks, our lands. It's been in jeopardy. His Congress hasn't gotten around to renew it. Tim Stewart's going to tell you why it matters so much. We'll also talk about oil and gas, Venezuela, and could we one day soon have an American OPEC, meaning we wouldn't be that reliant on the Middle East OPEC nations? That's a pretty big question for all of us to ask. All right. That is our lineup today, a quick shout out before we get to our Friday show and our weekend messages, a quick shout out to Quince. You know, I think the world of Quince, why? Because I don't like to strap it for my clothes and brick and mortar stores anymore. I don't know why. I know it's a guy thing, right? But I can get high quality wardrobe and the clothes look like they are atop of the line, high brand clothes, they're highly durable. You can wear them over and over again. Things like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, marina wool. I like that in the fall and the winter. Now these clothes are timeless, they're versatile, they're long lasting, they're dependable. You're going to wear them day after day because you just like them so much.

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8:20spiffy without the brand markup, go to QuinceQUINCE.com slash just news right now. Back in a second with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. All right, welcome back everybody. We got a very special treat for you today. He's the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, one of the most dog and investigators I've ever seen in my career in Congress. He's behind a explosive new report that just came out this past week by three congressional committees accusing ACPU, the large Democratic online fundraising machine of intentionally looking the other way while suspicious foreign donations were coming in and while they were lessening their security provisions potentially to allow that joining you right now. Chairman Jim Jordan, so good to have you on the show. Good to be with you. Thank you. All right, this reports a bombshell. I got a lot of attention. Everybody's talking about it. Tell us what you found and how this advances the story from the work you did this past summer. Well, I think the probably the biggest takeaway is we've deposed now 10 people from Mac,

9:24but well, let me back up. You said it right. This is the fundraising machine for the Democrat party for the left. We deposed 10 of the people who are key folks. They're in house counsel. They're fraud prevention people, board members, 10 for 10. Every single one of them took the fifth. And I think the reason they took the fifth is because all the facts stack up against them. I mean, that we have communications where they said, well, we're going to lessen our fraud standards. We've got to advertise the money coming in. By the way, billions of dollars, billions of dollars every cycle that this sack blue brings in for Democrats. We know one lesson that they told us all we have rigorous passport verification systems in place when people are contributed from a site that's overseas. We make them right down their passport number. Yeah, but they don't check the number. You could write down one, two, three, four, five, six. You can just write it down like, oh, there's a number there. Everything's fine. This is the operation they ran.

10:24And then when they got questioned about it by Congress, a letter from Chairman's style, he sent them a letter saying, respond to this. They responded back and they said things that according to their outside counsel, probably weren't accurate because we also know the letter. Their outside counsel sent to the chairman of the board and the CEO saying, hey, the response you gave to Congress looks like it's not true. Looks like you misled Congress, which is you know, John, you're not allowed to do. That's a crime. And so I guess it's probably no accident that when we depose all these people, they all take the fifth. Yeah, they got some liability there. They're worried about the report. Yes, they mentioned some proof or some concern that the lack system that they kind of dumbed down and made less safe for the 24 election allowed some foreign money to knowingly come in. Tell us about that. Do we know the size of the amount or the source of the foreign donations? Well, the chairman of the board said there's one email, excuse me, this was a statement.

11:27I think the individual made to the press. Well, yeah, it looks like maybe 48 million might have had a foreign origin. So that's just one one statement from someone. So maybe that, I mean, we don't know for sure, but everything points in that direction. Lack standards misleading statements to Congress when we inquired about all this, 10 for 10, taking the fifth, it sure looks like something's not not being done the way it's supposed to be. And it's, it's again, it's why I think the Justice Department, in addition to our investigation, the Justice Department's investigating these guys and we'll see where that goes. Yeah, well, the roadmap is there from the great work, the three congressional committees then. As you look out, we're getting to see other forms of corruption or concerns about corruption inside the government yesterday, Senator Grassley and the Caspar-Tel out of conversation about operation, round river, something we've been talking about. It seems to me for the first time a decade is being looked at, not as a politics as normal,

12:29but maybe this is a misuse of the government, misuse of the campaign finance system. How does that cultural change affect some of the things that we've been through over the last decade? Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, think about it 10 years ago as when it started and you were on the front edge of reporting this and digging into this, but you know, with with the Clinton campaign hiring the law firm, Perkins Kui hiring the public relations firm fusion GPS hiring Christopher Steele, the foreigner who writes the bogus document called the dossier that goes to Komi, Komi uses that to go to the secret court to get the warrant to spy. I mean, that's when it all started and then it just spilled out from there to so much so that in the 2020, and we're up to the 2020 election, they were doing this operation, much like that operation called Round River where they were labeling folks like you and I conduits of Russian misinformation or Russian information. When in fact the stuff we were digging into was that was all about the truth. And yet they're turning it 180 and saying, no, no, no, don't look at the hundred Biden

13:30laptop that these guys are looking into. These guys in Congress in the press, they're actually conduits of false information that just ridiculous. So I think it's interesting. In 2016, it was the Clinton operation doing what I just described with the dossier and that investigates, you know, up mid mid year exam investigation. 2020, it was the 51 former intel officials doing that letter and of course this operation Round River to help the Democrat beat President Trump. And then in 2024, it was Jack Smith. So each election, 16, 20 and 24, there was an operation in place based on baloney and false information to help the Democrat win the White House and undermine and hurt President Trump. That's wrong. That's not supposed to happen in our government. It's supposed to be we the people who decide who's going to represent us, who's going to be in the highest office, who's going to be our commander in chief.

14:30And they were trying to tip the scales in a big way. And let's hope people get hell accountable. Really amazing. Sir, I know you got to run with how busy you are, but really appreciate the time. I want to remind everyone you've also referred Jack Smith for possible prosecution for also lying to your committee. Pretty important. We'll be keeping it close and great to have you on the show. My friend. All right, folks, don't go anywhere. When we come back from the break, he was a governor, a senator, then a US ambassador. Today, he's one of the most cogent voices for religious liberty all around the world. Sam Brownback going to put China on trial for its persecution of people of faith right after these messages. All right, folks, welcome back to the commercial break. I have no one our next guest in action for a long time. All the way back to the 1990s when I was a young AP reporter. He is a former governor and United States Center for the great state of Kansas. And also, and there's a more recent role in former ambassador at large for international

15:31religious freedom, a topic that is becoming increasingly more important all across the world, whether it's the incredible efforts to attack Christians and Igeria or all the things that China does to crush anyone who holds faith in that communist agnostic atheist state. He is none other than Sam Brownback, Senator ambassador. Good to have you on. Hey, thanks. I'm always pleasure to join you and good to hear your voice back at you. And it was an impressive thing you did earlier this week. I watched it. I think it's so important. Many Americans don't know just the heightened level of repression in China. So you held this on the on the record press briefing. Had some pretty impressive people there including Jimmy Lyson. Tell us a little bit about the message that that very important event delivered yesterday. Well, the message is that China and specifically the Chinese Communist Party is systematic, dogmatic,

16:35brutal about suppressing all religions and they have to do it. As an officially atheistic country, there can be no authority higher than the government. There is no divine authority. There is no faith. I shouldn't say there isn't any faith. There are people who have faith, lots of people have faith, but you cannot have an open organization that claims anything higher of an authority than the government itself. And we're putting that out there and also showcasing they've got three genocides going on right now. They've killed more of their own people than any regime in the history of mankind. And there are third largest trading partner. Why are we feeding them with our dollars? I mean, this is something really that either they have to change and open up or we've got a back our economy and economic relationships with them way down. Yeah, and that's usually the way to get China's attention. Some demonetization or delistings in the stock market, things like what President Trump did in his first term, that gets Beijing's attention more than anything it seems like.

17:39During the Biden year, as it seemed like China had a free for all the FBI's China initiative was shut down, which was trying to track down Chinese spies and American academic institutions. Some cases were dropped, some investigations were dropped. We were kept from the knowledge that China had vacuumed up 220 million voter files, something I worked on with President Trump to get released recently. It seems like the Trump administration has reversed some of that. Give us your referee of where we are compared to where we are under Joe Biden, but where you'd like things to go beyond where we are at this moment today. You know, President Trump's the first president since Kennedy to confront China. We've been seeing the threat coming really more specifically and clearly within the last 15 years or so. But he's the first one's been willing to confront him with tariffs, with calling them out, with these investigations. Then you saw quite a bit of that fall off under Biden, not completely Biden kept a number

18:43of the tariffs and that was good. But now what we've got is really a situation where China is starting to pull the levers that they've built against us for years, like the rare earth minerals and saying, no, okay, maybe we're not going to let you have those things. And I'm sure they're threatening on our pharmaceutical supply chain as well. And so Trump's got to negotiate through that because we're not in a position yet. We will be, but we're not in a position yet to break those economic ties. So we've got to do a bit of a tap dance here for a while until we get into a better position to where we can be much more directly confrontational and then them not be able to tank our medical supply lines, our weaponry that we make. We're getting there, but it looks like to me, you're a year out, probably at least, minimally, from being able to be more aggressive. And I think the president clearly does want to be more aggressive towards China. He's got to get us in position to be able to do that.

19:46Yeah, you don't want to shoot before your ammunition is lined up. And that's always an important thing in diplomacy. There's the she-submit coming up, assuming it still happens. China is probably feeling a little bit of a squeeze of these new Iran and now soon to be Russia sanctions, because China has played in both theaters. What do you think are the opportunities for President Trump? Would you like to see him do to address this particular religious freedom issue with China? Because there are so many powerful anecdotes out there. We really know what China does, and it is not good. We do know what they do, and we do know it's intentional, and we do know it's targeted and specific. And we do know it's a, they view it as an existential threat, because they spend billions every year to suppress people of faith. These are the folks that will actually stand up to them. These are our clear allies, the people of faith of all faiths in China. What I'd love to see the President do is start to raise this issue, and just say, look, this is a, this is a major

20:51court thing to us, and our economic future activities together are in high question if you don't start opening up and allowing people to practice faith freely. That's what I would like to see him do and say, and also to just be candid with she, say, and look, the country Americans have had it with China. If you survey the people they want out and away from the Chinese Communist Party, and if you don't change, that sentiment's going to dig in deeper, and we're going to continue to have a falling economic activity with you, because you just, you don't respect the dignity of the human individual. That's what I'd love to see that conversation get started, because at the core, it's what we've got to say to China, we cannot feed them our dollars for such a repressive regime. Yeah, no, and money is their lifeline. They

21:51don't have a middle class, they don't really have a marketplace without American and Western markets to open up with. Are you a little concerned about how much Canada is playing footsie with China? China has no interest in the well-being of Canada, doubt they would ever defend them in a military conflict. Obviously, want access to the resources, but give us your thoughts on Mark Carney's sort of game of chicken with America that has China in the middle. I don't like it. I understand it. I mean, Carney is just really trying to poke at us. That's his base of operation politically in Canada. It makes no long-term sense. I mean, I understand he's mad at us, and I understand he and Trump don't have very good relationships, but economically, this makes no sense. Us and a partnership with Canada is very clear, and it's worked very well for many years. I hope it's really primarily for show because long-term, that makes no sense, particularly if China keeps this very aggressive

22:56global strategy of dominating the world and trying to bring the world towards more dictatorships and authoritarian instead of democracies. That's just ludicrous even on Canada's part. I really hope it's more for show than it is for actual activities. Yeah, it seems like that. In fact, it seems that's how Carney revived his polling figures in Canada was to just make the United States a boogeyman for a while. There's probably a lot of politics in that in that sway. I want to turn to something that I think is the historical lesson of our China relationship. I had Newt Gingrich on the show a year ago, and he walked me through this, and I found it really profound. I was covering it as a young reporter in the 80s and 90s, but I think there was this belief that China would go the way of the Soviet Union, which is if we opened up Western ties, that there would be a parastrican, eventually China would become not communist and Western friendly. That seems to have been a really big miscalculation. Along the way, China has found many, many different ways

23:57to exploit that theory we had for a long time. We had an example of this on our website, because it was Wednesday. Michigan State University has a program, like 15 or 20 years old now, that provides support to the institutions that help China with its communist propaganda operations. So, we're basically helping our enemy create propaganda through a back door, at least stopping the people that help the enemy do that. It was sort of, I was sitting out and playing open, so obviously the university didn't think anything of it. But did we have a miscalculation over a 20-year period of policy about China's true intentions? Oh, we certainly had the wrong operating theory, and I fell for it. I wanted to see them economically grow and closer to us, and the thought that this would open up their political liberalization, which we had seen in some other countries. And what they did is they took it pocketed the money,

24:58and we were doing fine, and there was religious freedom liberalization. Human rights liberalization happening under the Deng Chao Ping philosophy, and several of the communist dictators that they had during that era, it was opening up. And the people I work with will say that. But then you come back in with a Xi Jinping, who is just a new malfigure only with more technology and more sophistication. And he's just driving the hammer down on this, niphing everything that of any openness in the society. And we should have seen that, but didn't. And now we're being caught by it. I just think the key for us now is to realize that we've got a big beast that we're going to have to deal with. These guys are tougher and better organized in the Soviet Union, ever was. They're a much tougher ombre than we dealt with in the past. And we've just got to

25:58realize that we're at a war with them. We're in a cold war, we're in a hot war in some places with their allies. They build up an alliance of authoritarian around the world. Trump has done a beautiful job of dismantling that in very tactical ways. Ben Zuele was amazing. Iran has been more difficult by far. And it's a bigger and tougher player. And Russia has been confronted by it's trying to gobble up Ukraine. So I mean, Trump's done a great job of going at their alliance very effectively. But you still got the big beast to deal with. And that's one, you know, I just probably just going to take some more cornering of them and us getting better prepared to go into this strategic battle we have. I want to say one thing that I'm very optimistic about is that I think the tide is turned against authoritarianism. I think that you're starting to see a lot of

27:01chinks in the armors and break. And you're starting to see China act a lot more like a scared dictator instead of a confident one. And just by the actions and things they're doing. So I'm actually thinking this is a moment to press forward. You encourage the people of faith inside of China to stand up, to push back in subtle ways. But it's like sending the signals that Reagan did to the Jewish Refuse Nix. And he starts talking about him. And that gives him courage. It gives him courage to push back. And that's where I think we are right now. It's just that moment of let's give him courage to push back because things are going to change. The communist China is on the wrong side of history. And it will fall. It is in the persistence and a sort of a consistency in the policy which Donald Trump's 10 years have given us in both 10 year terms he had. There was a kind of a consistency. So every time you stay on a path for a little while, you see China start to bend its

28:05behavior. Obviously the Biden year is kind of a verse some of that. One last question because you've written I think one of the epic books on this subject and it's such an important subject. I don't think a lot of people know just how repressive the religious environment is in China. And your book I think is a must read book. But when you look out over this, you brought a couple people alongside. You get this press conference that are very powerful figures. I always think of William Long who was this GE engineer who was in a five member cricket force labor camp for five 10 years. And then recently a guy that president Trump got freed, which was big news and Trump's I think freed about a hundred people from different tough situations overseas. But Pastor Ezra Gin tell us a little bit about the importance of having people like that on stage with you to show that this isn't a theoretical thing. These are real victims. You move people by emotion and story and not by facts and figures. And both of these guys

29:10have spent time in Chinese jails. The one gentleman that's an electrical engineer here now five years in a Chinese labor camp and in prison, electrical shock treatments, horrible thing, just because he wanted to be a fallen gong practitioner. And to me those are the stories like the Jewish refused nicks and Natan Shoransky's in an earlier era. They persecuted a lot of Jewish people, the Soviets did, but you knew Natan Shoransky, you knew the story and you knew here was a bright guy that just does not want to tow the Soviet line. And that's the same way with what you heard yesterday from William. And Ezra Gin here's a bright man that just wants to be a preacher. That's what he wants to be able to do. And that's I think how you move people with letting them know that we, I think our media has done a terrible job of highlighting these things going on. And Hollywood has been a wall on this. The last movie they did against China was what 1997, seven years

30:17into bed or something like that. And you got three genocides going on over there and all the horrible things happening. And you don't, you're not speaking about it at all to the American public or the best storytellers in the world. I mean, this is just a shameful chapter that I hope is coming to an end and people are starting to find their voice against this dictatorial regime that wants to take over the world. This isn't one that just can tolerate us and we have our space, they have their space. And they're operating in America. That's you heard those stories yesterday about how much they are operating in this country. So I just really hope people start to wake up. And I think the people have, it's really the elites that are looking at this going man, we've got so much economic activity interrelated that they just are kind of lead feet on moving on it, even though President Trump is not. And I think he's really being tactical. I don't expect a lot out of this next Trump sheet meeting other than try to show the world that the two global leaders

31:22in these positions can talk to each other. But I do think we've got to start going at the system of the CCP that's so repressive and oppressive and start highlighting that and tell them you either change or we're breaking off our economic activity with you. Yeah, yeah, it's not bad about it. And silence is complicit. That's why people speaking up has become such an important dynamic in this. And of course, you were among the first voices to do that consistently for such a long time, your contribution to this changing environment is never going to be forgotten. Mr. Ambassador, great to have you on the show today. Thanks for spending some time and thanks for a very Newsy event this week. I think a lot of people benefit from learning from that. I'm glad they did. Thanks for letting me on. God bless you all. Take care. Anytime, sir. God bless you as well. Thanks so all right, folks, one more good one to go. Tim Stewart right around the corner from the US and oil gas association. We'll talk about a bunch of legislative and energy things. He's one of the most learned people before we do. You know, I think the world of allegiance gold. We worry about

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34:27what that is and why it is so important. Joining us now to talk about that is the president of US Oil and Gas Association. One of our favorite folks to have on the show and favorite Twitter accounts to follow. You should follow him. It's a riot. Tim Stewart. Tim, great to see you. It's always good to be here. Thanks you guys. Thanks for having me on. So happy to have you. All right. So talk to us about this event that President Trump is is having and why it's so important. Well, yeah, you know, he's gathered his sports moves together tonight in the Rose Garden and it's a great time to be there. I don't think the administration gets near the credit that it deserves on all of the action that takes on conservation initiatives. And the Legacy Restoration Fund is one of those things, you know, six years ago, the tail end of their administration, they created a fund that takes oil and gas revenues off of onshore, off of not offshore, but onshore. And it steers them those energy royalties over well-emunally oil and gas royalties into roads and trails and camp grounds and visitor centers and water systems. Things that are both outward facing the

35:29public sees and the things that the public doesn't see. And in both national park service and virulant match of the lands and everything. And Pusa for infrastructure and it really it commos a part of the Great America outdoors act. It really is probably the most lasting conservation initiatives that any administration has done for many many years. And so we really admire the Trump administration for for doing this right now. It is a confluence of really the two biggest agenda items, which allows for making America beautiful again, but also they've unleashed American energy and the two combined together make for some really great improvements on our public lands and international parks. It's sort of funny, Tim, because when you look at the way the traditional media cover thing you'd swear that the Democrats were the party of conservation, but they gave us windmills and solar panels that give us intermittent energy at up trillions of dollars of investment. And the issue of the Republican party is it has been at the forefront of conservation for eighties going all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt even before

36:31that. How do Republicans do a better job of helping Americans understand that it is a party of conservation? Maybe not of the green energy scam, but of true conservation that makes our lives better. Well, you know, that's a great question. And I have to explain to people that the underland principle is this principle of multiple use. It's not an either or it's not a zero sum game. It's multiple use of the lands altogether, which means it is possible when it's done right to be able to enjoy recreation, even primitive recreation like backcountry hiking, camping, but also hunting and off you know, outdoor and off road use, etc, etc. And the same time, you able to develop the public lands as well to be able to develop the resources underneath them while conserving what is up above. I think our industry is probably the best example of that. There are wildlife refuges where where you would go on those wildlife refuges that never know that 10,000 feet underneath your feet, there's actually oil and gas that's being extracted out of that.

37:32Great example was is that is what's happening in Utah, for example. And there were a wildlife refuge. Literally there's a there their new rigs that are being stood up 150 yards away from the refuge that are going 10,000 feet down and 10,000 feet out and is producing refettle revenues and royalties that are going to be able to benefit the wildlife that is literally adjacent to that oil and gas rig and that's happening under Republican administration. I think you know, it's interesting again, this principle of multiple use that we can all do this together and we can all conserve the public lands together. We all love the public the national parts together. The only gas workers are hundreds and fishers and they don't want an and fishermen and sportsman and campers. They don't want to ruin the public lands. They want to conserve and take care of them as well just as much as they're hikers and they're in vimels and conservation for ends too. I think it's just this legacy restoration fun job and goes to show that this can be done and done well. Yeah, loadout. Timmy talked about that sweet spot where conservation flourishes at the same time

38:37as the energy and oil, specifically oil and gas markets are flourishing. So Republicans did a lot ever since President Trump was elected last year. They repealed a lot of the Biden mandates. They lifted the ban on fracking. They streamlined the LNG exports. They did a lot of stuff through CRA to roll back Biden regulations. There was stuff in the one big beautiful bill regarding energy. But there's still work to be done. What do you want to see Congress do to take what President Trump has already done sometimes via executive fiat and run that football into the end zone so that's done. You know, there's this this element of certainty, which is really, really crucial to us because if you live by executive order, then you die by executive order. And we saw that you know with with saw from Trump administration the first time to the Biden administration where we saw this incredibly rapid swing from and in executive orders in the use of the executive authority to stop projects. And then we saw that that pinion of sleep back the day that President Trump came in.

39:38That's why primary form was so crucial to us right now. And and people go, why do you need that? Well, if you want to be able to produce more molecules and more electrons and be able to transport them one way or another, then you've got to be able to provide everybody's certainty whether it be a the those who are investing in a new refinery in the Gulf Coast or somebody who wants to develop a renewable project to somewhere in the public lands in southern Nevada. They need certainty on their projects that if they invest and that's in a lot of most cases billions of dollars that that project will be viable, not just for what it produces, but how what it produces is transported to market. It's it's crucial for us right now. And so two things hanging the balance, be honest, when the Congress is as it sort of limps to the end of its end, its shelf life here. Permanent reform is absolutely crucial to us almost as many as with the legacy restoration fund. There's two bipartisan opportunities here where you can lock in some real gains for the American people, the American economy, generational gains if they do it right. They've just got to be able to to wrap things up here shortly. So Tim, given that it's bipartisan, given that it's popular, given that

40:43that's good things that are visible to every day Americans and given that President Trump's even himself, going to the dinner time and other things he does, why is Congress having a hard time doing a renewal of this in a very popular bill? Well, you know, John, we've talked about Congress is really good at only doing two things, which is doing nothing for a very, very long time until it's time to completely overact and then grew and everything in the very end. And that's really only what they're good at. Look, I have great faith. And as we've watched the negotiations, as we've talked with members of Congress, particularly in this, in this we're rat-winey things down and preparing for what will be a lame duck, we're getting some really encouraging signals coming out both Republics and Democrats, both of these things, both on primary form and also on legacy restoration fund. They realize that this is going to be an opportunity that they can't afford to not take advantage of. And I think cooler heads are really starting to prevail. Even even those that, members of Congress that we don't traditionally align with, you know, some of the Northeast Democrat Senator, for example, they're starting to realize that

41:44that if we don't do this now, then we are going to miss some real economic opportunities. And so, I think again, even it's better to take a half a loaf of a deal versus getting everything you want in a whole loaf. I think a lot of people are starting to realize that if we don't do this now, then next Congress is getting more and more difficult. And so, we're getting some encouraging signals. I know I sound like a little black rain cloud from time to time, but I think I'm actually feeling a little more optimistic today than I have been for several weeks. All right, Tim, I have national parks on my mind because tomorrow after our show, we are hitting the road to finally, I've never seen the general grant tree or the general Sherman tree as Sequoia, which is the largest tree in the world. What tangible results is this going to have for the American people? Because it's one thing for this to happen in Washington, but as I understand it, people are going to see changes in national parks and a lot of different other areas. You know, that is a great question. I was so you're going, you're going, you're in California. I'm going to be in Utah next week as well. In Utah, for example, my favorite five national parks, Canyonlands and Zion and

42:48Bryce, for example, that's not really five million dollars to Canyonlands to fix the water supply, 15 million dollars in Bryce Canyon to fix the water supply, 15 million dollars in Zion to fix the water supply, which is great because that this desert southwest and the one thing you absolutely need to have when you go to the national park is water. And again, I have to remind people, this water supply is brought to you by the US oil and gas industry. The federal oil does we pay through the legacy restoration fund. There's some very tangible. It's not the most sexy thing, but it is by far the most essential. Again, I love this program. It's one of the things that I've worked in Congress for a long time. It's one thing's I'm most proud of to be able to stitch my industry with the conservation community to prove that we can all work together for really something that is really good for the American people. All right, Tim. Before we let you go, I send everybody to your Twitter account because it is one of your account provides some of the most biting and witty retorts on all of X. So tell everybody where they can find you.

43:51It's at US underscore OGA. So there are times when I'm a little more salty than I probably should be. If you don't like it, you can yell at me. So it is. I appreciate the shout out on that one. So yeah. All right, folks. That wraps up our Friday edition of John Solomon reports a big thank you to Jim Jordan, to Ambassador Sam Brown back in the course. Our good friend Tim Stewart. We're back Saturday. Brian's now the chairman of the House admin committee and the man at the forefront of that act blue political investigation. He'll join us on Saturday morning. It's going to be a good one. Until then, God bless you. We'll be back tomorrow. Have a good night. Hey folks, Pennsylvania. The fifth largest state in the biggest swing state in the nation is under attack by national progressive billionaires and millionaires. Why? Because as Pennsylvania goes so goes the nation. That's what Matt Brier explains in his new book. You've got to win Pennsylvania. A call to entrepreneurs to save America. Why entrepreneurs? Well, just look at America's history.

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