The Exchanges

Q I love it. Okay, I want to add with some rapid fire. Term limits. Should politicians have them?

A I'm not an advocate for term limits. Two quick reasons. Number one is we've seen in states that have implemented term limits how it's really about money. So when you look at powerful incumbent politicians, they are powerful because Because of the big lobbyists and corporate money that goes to incumbents. You implement term limits, the power, the, the money and the attention shifts from the special interest away from the elected politician and towards the unelected chiefs of staff, professional committee staff members, those who stay on regardless of who the elected official becomes. And when you have this forced rapid turnover of elected officials, then you see them come in Say, hey, maybe it's Cody Sanchez. She's a phenomenal business owner, never worked in government before. You come in, and you're like, OK, I need, I need to talk to some people who know how the machinery of this place works. Maybe you go and you hire a chief of staff who's been there over five different previous representatives, and you get your advice from this person or this professional staff member or this person or that person. The moneyed interests are funneling through them, who will never be held accountable, rather than the elected official Uh, who has that forced transparency, uh, that many of our laws require. And number two, it takes away what I believe our founders intended, which is the right o…

AI assessment note: “I'm not an advocate for term limits. Two quick reasons.”

Q Why would they do that? If it wasn't a surprise to that many people, what's the reason? I don't think many Americans are like, the thing is, I really would like Ukraine to be in NATO. Like, I don't think most Americans even know who's in NATO or not. Myself included. I couldn't list all of them. So, like, what's the reason?

A The goal of the U.S. government at the heart of this is another regime change war. They want to get rid of Putin, and that's not a secret. Uh, some of the highest, uh, leaders, you know, Secretary Austin, uh, Secretary of State Blinken, others within the White House have made it very clear that their goal is regime change, to, to get rid of Putin. So why, why should we care about that? Well, what happens in so many of these regime change wars that the United States has led and orchestrated or waged, uh, toppling a leader that they don't like? It ends up undermining our own security interests, and it, you know, there, there are so many different examples of Iraq and Syria and Libya, uh, and Afghanistan, how, how we see how this has in so many ways undermined our own security, and in the case of what we've seen throughout this economic warfare and proxy war that's being waged against Russia, it has hurt our economy, and it has made us less safe, and it has pushed us closer to the brink of nuclear Armageddon than we have ever seen before. Period. They are doing all of these things, um, that are counter to our own security interests, as it is yet another repetition of what we've seen over time. They, they never ask the most basic question, which is, okay, let's say you're successful in getting rid of Putin, and, and however that's done, and there are many different ways that it cou…

AI assessment note: “The goal of the U.S. government at the heart of this is another regime change war.”

Q some of this you just have to do individually what's better for the electoral system. You talked about hope. So where I want to end is a lot of people think the American dream's dead. A lot of people think that we have no hope. A lot of people think that all politicians are out To get us and that America's best days are behind us. What do you think?

A I am hopeful. I am hopeful because of the promise and the vision and the potential that the founders of our country saw for us. While we are worse off and our freedoms are being eroded in a way that I never ever imagined would occur, at least in my lifetime, all hope is not lost because we the people have the ability to turn this country There are far more of us than them, and they are abusing their power to the extent they are because they are terrified of our power. The American dream is, is not lost. You still find people around the world who see our country and see opportunity, see the ability to be able to come and make your own decisions for yourselves about how you live your life and, and what you want to do, what path you want to pursue. Saying that, if we sit back and do nothing, This country that we love and the freedoms that we cherish will be lost. So my hope is not based on some unrealistic altruism. It is based on the power that we have in our hands to be able to save our country, defend our freedom, and get us back on that right track that our founders envisioned for us as a people and as a country.

AI assessment note: “I am hopeful. I am hopeful because of the promise and the vision”

Q We've talked about this before, but, you know, I could never figure out, is it evil? Is it incompetence? Or is it this belief that we, the elites, are so much smarter than everybody else that let us just, let us help you because you poor idiots can't do it by yourself. Or is it all three?

A I, I think it's a combination. I think it's a combination. At the heart of it, you know, when, when you tell, like, what is, what is evil? How do you define evil? To me, what they are doing, their actions are evil, and it comes from that violation of their promise, ah, that whether made explicitly or implicitly, when you are put in this position of what is and should be public service, Political office is at its heart about public service, and you are taking actions that are diametrically opposed to the best interests of the quote unquote public, the American people, then your actions are evil because they become self-serving and the consequences actually, uh, are a violation of that promise that, that you made when you took that job, whether you're an elected official or you're a bureaucrat, uh, in both cases, They are, they are completely undermining their purpose for being in that position, and to me that's the most offensive thing of all.

AI assessment note: “I think it's a combination. I think it's a combination.”

Q not want to annihilate us, but there are other groups of humans who do. What's interesting and fascinating for me to watch, and I gotta stop watching it also on Twitter, was Le Pen and what happened in the most recent election. What, what's your take on that, and are there any importance of it that we should be watching when it comes to our election coming up this year?

A We, we have to be very, very vigilant Uh, in our own election. You know, we're roughly four months, a little less than four months away from our own election. When we see everything that's already been done, again, in broad daylight, I think we've got to be extremely vigilant at all of the things that are coming our way and the tactics that may be used all the way up until that last vote is cast and beyond with the legal fights that will inevitably come, no matter the outcome of the election, because We have people who are more interested in preserving their power than preserving our Constitution and our freedom and our democracy, and that, that really is the greatest, uh, the greatest risk. I think what we saw play out, uh, in, in France's recent election should serve as a, a big red flag that if the powers that be are, uh, seeing a great threat from the voices of the people, Uh, that they will shift and maneuver and do whatever they feel they need to do, uh, in order, in order to win, and I haven't followed the minutia of all the maneuvering that took place, uh, but I think it's, it's pretty interesting that they literally pulled out all of the stops in order to prevent, you know, the more conservative, what appeared to be the majority, uh, from being able to actually win in that majority, and instead they've gotten The exact opposite in what some people are calling the, the …

AI assessment note: “what we saw play out, uh, in, in France's recent election should serve as a, a big red flag”

Q And by not involved, you mean that they weren't funding you?

A And, and so I had zero insight into the inner workings of the Democratic Party machine whatsoever. I knew some of the figures because I'd see them on TV. Maybe I had met them in passing here or there. Uh, so I was surprised when I was asked to serve as vice chair of the DNC two weeks after I was sworn in as a member of Congress. Uh, but like with most other things, I see an opportunity or a window opens and I was like, okay, is there a way for me to possibly do some good here? Um, if so, I'm gonna explore it and try to do my best. My decision to leave as vice chair of the DNC came during the Democratic presidential primary in 2016. It was, the race kind of boiled down to Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders. Uh, the party leadership was heavily waiting, uh, and tilting the scales and essentially rigging the primary for Hillary Clinton, much in the same manner that we have seen occur in this 2024 election for Joe Biden, where you, you kind of take away the auspices of a primary, but, but it's worse now than even it was back then. At least back then, they actually had debates, uh, primary debates.

AI assessment note: “so I had zero insight into the inner workings of the Democratic Party machine”