Cameron Hanes - Keep Hammering Collective - KHC 011 - Tulsi Gabbard

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician, United States Army war veteran, 2020 presidential candidate and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was first elected to her native state of Hawaii's legislature in 2002 as a Democrat, at the age of 21. She is now an independent. Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com   Follow Tulsi Gabbard: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tulsigabbard/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VoteTulsi Website: https://www.tulsigabbard.com/podcast/   Special thanks to our sponsors.   MUD WTR: mudwtr.com/cam Use code CAM for 15% your first order   MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off and Free Shipping   First Light: https://www.firstlight.farm/ Use Code Cam15 for 15% off your first order   Leupold: https://www.leupold.com/   Black Rifle: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first order   Hoyt: http://bit.ly/3Zdamyv   Bass Pro / Cabellas: https://www.basspro.com   Timestamps: 0:00:00 Introduction 0:00:31 Great day with Tulsi 0:01:40 Hard working character 0:03:38 Doing the people's work in Washington 0:06:40 How did Tulsi get started in politics? 0:11:00 Developing a sense of purpose 0:14:10 Running for Congress at a young age 0:17:10 Voting is key 0:18:40 Reasons for visiting East Palestine, Ohio 0:23:55 Why hasn’t the president made the trip? 0:28:52 Country’s focus is not where it should be 0:32:30 Russia vs. Ukraine 0:37:40 Impactful military experiences translating to politics 0:43:34 Military Industrial Complex 0:50:20 Service members not becoming discouraged 1:01:00 America’s southern border 1:06:00 What would detract from Tulsi Gabbard? 1:08:26 World Economic Forum 1:13:40 Speaking on behalf of the American people 1:16:00 Leaving the democratic party 1:22:42 Tulsi’s future goals 1:26:08 Faith impacting daily life 1:30:39 Can you win as an Independent? 1:38:40 Tulsi is a true leader 1:40:50 Closing 1:41:07 Sponsorships

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what brand it is. I just hope that you have the same level of confidence in your equipment as I have in mine. Because I know if I get one opportunity with my Hoyt, it's going to pay off. So reckless, that is a part of my mind I've been blessed with giving my blood so I am relentless. Welcome to the Keep Hammering Collective. I'm here with Tulsi Gabbard. How are you? Aloha.

I'm great. It's been a great day. Oh, man. Awesome day. Lift, run, shoot. Yes. With somebody who I look up to and admire. Oh, gosh.

That's, I don't even know what to say to that. It's been just fun to hang out with you. But I highly recommend the lift run shoot to anybody listening and watching because you know, I think I think this is something that I strive for in my own, you know, personal life is just to continue to try to challenge myself and to do things that I've never done. And today I did a whole bunch of things I've never done with you. So that was a blast, absolute blast. You did great too.

I mean, I can't say it enough. I've told everybody we've talked to today. What a badass you are. I mean, so good on the mound, so good with the bow and then strong in the weight room. It's, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised because I saw you rock 50 miles also. But I, it's, it's just, it's amazing to me because you've been a, people know you from politics, basically. And politicians by and large aren't somebody, most regular people really look up to. It's like you kind of cuss a politician.

You're like, why can't they, why don't they listen to this? Why don't do that? Can they do this? but on the flip side, you are somebody who, yes, they know you is because of politics, but I've seen the other side of you, the human side, the working hard side, the laying down in the parking lot with my feet up in the air at mile 30 in Hawaii. Just the grinded outside. Yeah.

And it's just, I mean, it's amazing. It's what we need as leaders. That's, I think, what Americans would love to have. Yeah, you know, I, um, Gosh, I think I had been in Congress for a couple of years when I don't remember what the outlet was, but a reporter asked me. So, you know, I think it's a reporter from Hawaii. So like, hey, how's it going there in Washington?

You know, are you fitting in? And I kind of stopped when they asked the question. I was like, no. I don't ever want to fit in here. I know, you know, where I come from. to fit in in the insular bubble of Washington, D.C. means you've forgotten that. It means that your priorities are not where they're supposed to be,

which is unserving the people who hired you and the people of this country. And I think that's so much of what's wrong with that place is you've got a lot of people who feel more comfortable in Washington with the lobbyists and the reporters and those who live and breathe and thrive in that political bubble, but completely out of touch with what it's like to be, you know, quote unquote, real, the real lives of just people across the country. And so I'm grateful to have never fit in there, don't feel comfortable there,

and thrive in doing things like we were doing today, really. It makes my heart happy. Well, mine too. I do want to touch on that. So what do you think that means for your future? Can you have your attitude in your approach and still, quote, climb the ladder in Washington? Yes. And the reason why is in order to be truly successful in Washington, obviously people have different definitions of success.

But to be truly successful means, we have leaders in Washington who are fulfilling their responsibility of the American people. People who don't go to Washington and feel like, okay, I am happiest when I'm going to this ambassador, the ambassador of France or Italy or whatever, going to their house for dinner. Right. People who feel like, yes, I'm going to Washington, D.C. It is our nation's capital. And that's where I'm going to do the people's work. And so, you know, climbing the ladder, quote unquote, climbing the ladder, does it should not mean, well, I'm climbing the ladder because I'm doing what Nancy Pelosi says or what Mitch McConnell says.

Right. Being successful in Washington with the kind of leadership that we need in this country should be defined by, are you waking up every single day excited and passionate about going and taking care of the people of this country? Right. And that is the whole problem right now is we just don't have that. You know, we have people there in both parts. who are more concerned about, you know, what part, we talked about this earlier today,

what parties am I getting invited to? Am I, you know, are the people on TV saying nice things about me and, you know, what happens? Am I hanging out with the cool kids in Congress and, and that right there is the whole problem? It's more like high school. Right. Than it is with the clicks. And it's just, it's insane. Yeah.

How many immature followers we have who've been charged with this awesome and incredible responsibility to do the people's work, but they're not. Right. They're not. They're doing it. They're doing what they're doing for themselves to see their name, you know, in the lights or in the headlines or on the door of their office. Yeah. Rather than staying focused on what they were sent there to do. And to me, it feels like, of course, I'm nobody.

I'm just watching on TV like everybody else, but it feels like a lot of theatrics. Yes. Like when I see AOC up there carrying on doing, making some big whatever scene, is she really doing it for a reason or is it just so she goes viral? That's a good question. Yeah. Maybe it's both. Yeah. But to your point, there is so much political theater.

So much. And when you're sitting in the room, you can see people kind of turn it off and on. Right. Like, oh, wait, there's a camera. Okay, go. Hit record. Throw that online. Which is, you know, again, what are their priorities?

Well, they're showing it. Well, and that's where I've seen you firsthand. I've seen your impact on people. I've seen you interact, you know, one on one. I know your story. So just tell me about how you got started in politics because the way I understand it is you were, what, young 20s and you wanted to make a difference, just like you were saying right now in your, you know, in your 40s and you're still with that same goal in mind, hopefully just working

towards to have a larger impact as, as, you know, you get appointed to another position, win another election. But what's the goal hasn't changed, right? No, not at all. And how'd that start? For me, growing up in Hawaii, it really started with kind of that conservation mindset of, you know, Hawaii is a beautiful place. You know, as a little kid, I first learned how to swim actually in the ocean.

The swimming lessons were out in the ocean and, you know, surfed a lot and just really grew up appreciating nature. And so as a teenager, there were different things I was involved with really around the protection of water and clean water. One of them was there was a guy who wanted to come in and build a landfill over one of our largest water. aquifers on the island that I grew up on, on Oahu. And I got involved with a group that was trying to stop it because even as a teenager, I knew, hey, this is a bad idea. Right. Because once that water aquifer gets contaminated, whether it's in a year or 20 years,

we don't have the option like other states to have water trucked in or, you know, funneled in in any other way. Once that source is gone, it's gone for lifetimes. And so we start gathering signatures and trying to figure out how do we stop this thing, lift the voices of the people up because there was a powerful person in the Senate at the state Senate at that time who was greasing the wheels for his buddy, the landfill operator. Right. And it worked.

And it worked. And it was an incredible experience for me as a teenager to see, oh, wow. So this is how we can make change. So you helped the successful protection of that aquifer? Yes. The landfill was not ever built over the water aquifer. I co-founded a nonprofit where we went and I used to go and clean up trash off the beaches on the weekends, but I was so frustrated when we come back every weekend and there's more trash.

So it just got me starting to think, you know, I think I was 16 or 17 at the time, like how do we start to change things in a broader sense? And I came up with a little fun program that we took out to elementary school kids across the state. We're just teaching them like, hey, when you throw your, you know, soda can out the way, window and it gets down into a storm drain and out in the oceanry like to go surfing every weekend like and the kids you know first second third graders they remember they're just sitting there watching like with bright eyes like oh my gosh and it was so cool for me to see them connect the dots to be like oh okay so there are consequences to my actions and that ultimately led to um i was 21 years old there was an open seat in the state house uh where i lived and

And I was at kind of a junction in my life where I could either, you know, I was thinking about either going to school and studying political science. I didn't have my bachelor's degree at the time or I could go and offer to serve and do it. Don't talk about change, be the change, do the change. Exactly. And so that's what drove me to first run for office in Hawaii. And I won that seat and never thought it would be the beginning, you know, the idea of a political career was never even, it's still, it's just like, it's a foreign concept to me. But it, it began the thing that has been the common thread throughout my life is, you know, how and where can I best be of service, be of service to God, be of service to others, and how and where can I make the most impact. Right. And it has taken me into politics. It has

taken me out of politics. It's taken me to a lot of, a lot of different places. But that's the constant internal introspection and prayer that I have in what I'm seeking to do with my life. So that 21-year-old girl or young woman and then running for president from that journey, how does that happen? How did you have the confidence even at 21 to run for that seat as a young woman? I mean, where'd that come from? Where that confidence and that belief? And I mean, And that's a big undertaking. Yeah. Other people had done it.

Yeah. Right. So you were... I mean, you know, like age, age, I remember as a teenager, I used to complain about age discrimination. Like, what is this ages and stuff? Like, you're trying to tell me I'm 15 and I can't do something because why. Tell me why.

Okay. And so, you know, as I was 21 years old and I was going and knocking on people's doors, super shy and an introvert, it was very, very, very. very hard thing for me to do, just personally, to summon up the courage to go and knock on a total stranger's door, not know who was going to be behind it, not know what they were going to say to me, what were they going to ask me, would I be able to answer the question, like all of these fears and things running through my head. Right.

But the thing that kept me going door after door after door, I knocked on thousands of doors during that campaign was my sense of purpose and my mission. And never once did I think, well, I can't do this because I'm 21. Or I can't do this because I don't have a bachelor's degree. I can't do this for any number of reasons that other people probably thought why I shouldn't do it. And when people, you know, when I knocked on their door and they're like, wow. And it happened a lot. You're like, oh my gosh, you're so young.

And my answer to them was like, and don't you want young people to go and work hard for you, bringing fresh ideas and a new perspective to the challenges that we face? Or do you want a whole bunch of people who've already lived their lives and, you know, have retired and are kind of kicking back and taking it easy a little bit? Yeah. And so, and that was in that election, I, it was a five-way primary, all five candidates, all of us running for the first time and all very, very different backgrounds. And I won the primary election and then went on to the general election.

my opponent in the general election was a, had a private practice physician. And he started passing all these brochures that had a two, like two columns, like a comparison sheet. You and him? Yes. Okay. And under my column, it said 21 years old. And that was it. Yeah.

And then under his column, of course, I don't know, he went to school, where, degrees, fancy. That's all it said for you? Yeah. Yeah. So discount everything else you brought to the table and just you were just too young, basically. In his mind, I didn't bring anything to the table. Right. And so it was, it was interesting to see how voters responded.

Yeah. And, you know, and it became, you know, when I ran for Congress, I was 31. And it was much of the same conversation. Is that young? I was, I think I was one of the youngest, if not the youngest in Congress at that time. Now I think we've got people there who were 25. which is great. But I was just told by a lot of people like,

hey, you know, you've got so much, you know, opportunity. You're very talented. Why don't you run for Congress in 10 or 20 years? Come back and try again another time. And at that time, my major challenger was somebody who had just run for governor. He had been the mayor of the city and county of Honolulu, which is big, you know, over a million people. And he just, he discounted,

me as a person and saw me in the same way as that physician did. Like you weren't a threat probably to. Well, no, not at all. Not at all. And, you know, he was a guy who was already talking. He was already interviewing prospective staff, you know, four months before the election. He already won. Yeah, and he was supposed to win.

Everybody said he was supposed to win. I started out that campaign with 3% of the voting population, even knowing my name. It's kind of a big challenge. And he was at 100%. All right. Name recognition. politics is huge yeah because if people don't know who you are why would they even think about voting right yeah yeah a lot of people look at the ballot and they're like i heard of this guy before exactly

and that's it that's how they cast their vote exactly which is a whole other thing yeah yeah um uh and then five months before the election i think i was polling at 25 percent and he was at 65 percent. Still way out ahead. Still way out ahead. As he was thinking that he had already won the election because all of the, you know, the chambers of commerce and the unions

and everybody who was anybody was supporting him, I was out knocking on doors, holding town halls all across the state. My district, that district covered basically every island in the state except for the south shore of Oahu, pretty

much. And I was telling every one of these people, I'm applying for a job from you. You get to decide who you want to send to Washington to work for you. Not any organization or political power that be or political party. You get to decide. And people, I think people heard that message. And when Election Day came around, I ended up beating him by a 22% margin. Wow. That's a swing.

It was huge. And it was unexpected. But it just shows. And I tell this story because it's so important for people to realize the power that's in our hands as voters and as Americans. Because there's so much frustration and rightly so across the country with leaders who are failing to lead. People, maybe they're not leaders. Or people in positions of power and leadership who are not leaders at all, who are looking out for themselves. and who aren't fulfilling that promise to us,

nor are they fulfilling their oath to uphold. It's just important to defend the Constitution. And so, you know, I was just in East Palestine not that long ago in Ohio and talking to some of the folks there who feel pretty left behind and forgotten. Right. And one of the last people I spoke with before I left town, I was, you know, I was just talking to somebody on the street corner, this guy named Rick, he pulled over and came over to say, hello.

he's somewhat retired. I'd spent most of his life there. And he was so dejected and so disheartened by the lack of care from those who are responsible for serving them. People in the small village in Ohio. And he kind of just shrugged and he's like, well, I guess all he can do is vote. And I said, Rick, yes. Yeah. But that is the key.

key. If you're not happy with the way things are, this is nothing to do with partisanship. If you're not happy with the way things are, the only way we change it is by voting. That's what's frustrating is our voter turnout, what is it, roughly 50, maybe 60%. On average, yeah, on a good day, it's 60. So everybody complains, but only 60% of Americans vote. So I think to your point, you have to get out and vote. Yes. I mean, you think about how tight the, even the presidential elections been pretty tight really. I mean, if you're leaving 40% of the votes on the table, you know, that'll swing any election. So I think that's a great point to make.

I did. So what called you to go to Ohio? I mean, why were you that, did you want to support the people there? Did you think they were being overlooked or ignored? Or why did you make the trip to Ohio? I wanted to go and see for myself and to hear from them myself. You know, as soon as I heard about the train accident and the derailment and the toxic chemical spill and then that thing they're calling a controlled release, which looked like a huge bomb going off.

You know, I was watching this all play out on TV. And this was one of the reasons that I first ran for office. Right. It kind of stirs that same feelings of protecting the aquifer back home. Exactly. Exactly. I see. With people's, you know, I mean, literally as we're sitting here,

the people there are very concerned about their aquifer being contaminated. Right. Because Norfolk Southern, the company that owns those trains, their priority was on getting new tracks laid down so they could run those trains through again. And they basically shoveled dirt and gravel over all of these toxic chemicals that had spilled just so they could lay track down and get those trains running again. Right.

And that's what people there feel like. They're like, well, we feel like their priority was on making money and getting those trains there more than it was the safety of the community. And so, you know, I felt really heartbroken for the people there and angry at the lack of, the lack of care coming from our own government for them. And I was in New York City doing some. work there and it just got to a point where I was just like, hey, I need to go. So you can go and you feel like you being there, drawing attention to it, talking to people. And then also you go on

other talk shows and then you can talk about what you've seen there, which you've experienced. And so it gives you that perspective to hopefully get the message out that this needs attention. And try to bring their voices to the forefront and to do so in a way that I've heard from them. you know, directly. Well, even the call we had today. I mean, he said that nobody really heard of East Palestine. I didn't even know there was an East Palestine. A lot of people did.

I mean, I didn't know that was even a place, but he said nobody ever heard of us before now and now. So, yeah, I get that. That was just for people listening or watching going that, you know, I literally, it was five o'clock in New York and I made the decision to go. and booked a flight that was leaving at 7, packed my stuff real quick, ran to the airport without,

I didn't know anybody on the ground. They were personally. I didn't have anybody's phone numbers or anything. Right. And it was through a couple other veterans that I was introduced to this veteran for the Navy, Brian. And, you know, I was being texting him that night

at like 4 o'clock the next morning. And he and his wife, Samantha, very generously offers, hey, yeah, come by the house. And so I went and was talking about. to them and mentioned that I was coming here to see you after. And so he's a very, very inspired by you. So I was glad that we were able to FaceTime with him earlier. Seems like a great guy. And he texted me after. I actually didn't, I didn't share this with you. But I want to, I just want to read it because it is,

you know, as we're talking about impact. This is from Brian. He says, thank you Tulsi. This month has been hell meeting and hanging out with you and facetiming cam lifted my spirits more than you'll ever know i appreciate you so damn much thank you thank you thank you but it's those you know i mean this is this is coming from a guy who um who after he left the service uh ultimately got to a point where he had no purpose to live and so he's been to those those darkest places and uh you know now he's He's in a much better place and is finding his purpose in being able to help other people who've been or are where he was. Right. And he's starting an outdoor group, isn't he?

Yes. It's called at ease outdoors. And just so he can share his own experiences and the things that have helped him in his life with others who might be struggling, whether they're veterans or not. Right. And, you know, veterans or anybody need an outlet. Sometimes outdoors can be that, be that calming. I don't know. I think everybody needs to calm their mind sometimes.

And we talked about that, even the shooting the bows today is like you can't be focused on anything else other than shooting a perfect arrow. And that's what people need. It's almost therapeutic in a way. Yeah, it absolutely is. Okay, so I understand it totally makes perfect sense while you went to Ohio. And I love that. And it's back to your initial reason for getting into politics.

And I love that. I love that you showed up and wanted to. to see it for yourself and see if you can make a difference. So why would you think that the president of our United States hasn't made the trip to Ohio to, I mean, those people feel like they've been abandoned in some way or ignored in some way or shouldn't, if he's over in Ukraine,

which seems like it's a little bit further than Ohio and spending time over there, why isn't he there to see that spill or the trend derailment? I mean, the most simple answer to that is it is a symptom of the bigger problem of not caring. And, you know, as the president of United States, I mean, look, President Biden promised when he was running for office. And I think even in his inauguration address, promised to be a president for all Americans. People voted for him or not. Right.

And I heard from folks there. in East Palestine, Ohio. Yeah, most of that county voted for Trump. And the fact that that even has to cross their mind saying, well, I wonder if he didn't come here because we didn't vote for him, is a pretty sad statement in and of itself. No American, no American should feel that way. Right.

And I think it speaks to kind of a bigger, and it's not just President Biden. We saw the same kind of dismissive attitude in his Secretary of, transportation, Pete Buttigieg, you know, okay, you could say the president of United States is a pretty big job being pulled in a lot of different directions. Maybe the guy who should be going out there immediately is the secretary of transportation. Well, you know, he didn't even say anything publicly about this situation until 10 days after it was over. And then a lot of his statements were like, you know, this thing is getting a lot of attention. But, you know, there are over a thousand train derailments every year as though, you know, this isn't important. And also, what are you doing

about that? Like, that's a disturbing, alarming number. Right. And when you look at, you know, where these trains, the communities that they're running through. Yeah. You know, you have homes 50 feet away. Right. A hundred feet away. Yeah. On both sides of these tracks. And so I'm thinking about people at home who now are wondering, like, gosh, I wonder what those trains are kids. I wonder if our community is going to be next. And I wonder if anybody's going to be there for us. Yeah. And how maddening it must feel to be living in those communities and then to see our president not only not showing up, but instead choosing to go to another country, promising another $500 million on top of the over $120 billion of our taxpayer dollars that have already been sent to that country

to secure their border, to pay their pensions, to build schools, and to undermine our own national security by escalating this proxy war against Russia. Russia has more nuclear warheads than the United States and have made very clear that the use of a nuclear weapon is certainly on the table. Right. And so where does that, where could that potentially lead? A nuclear, President Reagan said very powerfully, a nuclear war can never be won and therefore should never be fought.

Right. And it is absolute insanity that we live in a world right now where the leaders in our country and leaders in other countries are so non, and talking heads on TV. They're no, so nonchalantly talking about, oh, well, you know, if World War III starts, well, this is how we would, you know, strategically approach it or, you know, you know, if a tactical nuclear weapon is used, then this would happen and that would happen, as though it's like just another day.

Right. And not at all being honest, frankly, maybe with themselves, but certainly not with the American people, about what that really means. And how, you know, yes, there are, you know, they will have bunkers that they can operate and continue to fight the war from,

but where does that leave the rest of us? Exactly. destroyed, like absolutely incinerated and destroyed. So, you know, there are, we can talk about what's happening in East Palestine, but East Palestine is unfortunately just the latest in a whole string of examples, of similar examples, where our leadership is very quick to go and, you know, launch new regime change wars or, you know, funnel more money into the military industrial complex. pushing our country deeper and deeper into debt. Meanwhile, you have people in East Palestine literally begging for help. Begging for help. It's such, it's so insulting. I think a lot of you guys will be interested in this next sponsor.

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Thank you, Lou Pold, for supporting the podcast. Why is it, why do you think that's happening? I mean, why is our focus on Ukraine and doing what is going on there? I mean, I feel like, you know, if you, Putin, who knows what his future is, but if you back him in a corner, what does he have to lose? But so what is our role over there? What do you, I know what they say is, you know, world peace. I think is kind of the, in quotation marks.

Well, they say democracy and freedom. Okay. I think those are the taglines that they're using that. What do you think is happening? They have wanted to wage this regime-change war against Putin for a long time. And this, you know, Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which obviously was wrong and should not have happened, gave them that excuse to wage that war using Ukraine. and the Ukrainian people as their proxies.

And just like so many other regime-change wars of our country's past, they're being incredibly short-sighted about what the consequences and the cost are and will be. And so, you know, I mean, it's no secret. There are reports already out that, okay, well, if Putin gets taken out, by whatever means, who knows,

the next guy who's kind of positioning himself to be the next leader of Russia would be far worse from an American interest perspective. I mean, we've had a relationship with Putin. I mean, maybe it hasn't been perfect, but whatever. We've avoided a nuclear war. Right.

And it makes me think of that quote, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know. So yeah, we know what he, the ills he has and maybe his mindset, but this guy you're talking about maybe who comes in, who knows what his goals are. Maybe his goals to take over the world, who knows? Yeah, it's true.

It's, you know, we used to have many non-proliferation nuclear treaties between the United States and Russia. You know, we had JFK who worked to implement some of those. We had Ronald Reagan who worked to implement some of those. those, a Democrat and a Republican president, both of whom understood and recognized the risk. The risk and how important it was for the survival of the American people in our country, but also of the world, to prevent that potential of a nuclear war from occurring. Fast forward to where we are today, Putin just announced recently that he was pulling out of

the lone remaining nuclear arms treaty that the United States. in Russia had the New START treaty. It's not a good sign. It is not at all a good sign. And again, people in Washington are barely shrugging their shoulders. And rather than recognizing, and JFK gave a powerful speech at, I believe, was American University. And he talked in there about how sometimes these situations seem impossible. You know, somehow it's hard.

to see, and I'm paraphrasing obviously, but somehow it's hard to see how one could come to a negotiated agreement to find, to choose that path of peace rather than that path of war. But there is a way and there has to be a way. And that's what leadership means. That is what we require of our leaders. And what is so, what should be maddening and heartbreaking, I think to every American is how not only has, if President Biden really cared about the people of Ukraine, he would have done everything possible to try to prevent this Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the first place. There were opportunities to at least make an effort, at least make an effort.

They did not take them. And then after Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden would should have done everything possible to try to bring an end to this war as quickly as possible. Worse than not doing everything he could, he and his administration actively stopped negotiations that were occurring between Russian and Ukrainian officials to try to end this war in the weeks after, in the month after. Why would he do that?

Because he really didn't want the war to end. That wasn't his goal. And this is the problem. And these are the questions that we should be, We should be asking them. If the goal was to save Ukrainian lives and to stop this war as quickly as possible, he would have done everything differently. Instead, it's don't negotiate, don't negotiate, telling Zelensky, don't negotiate,

walk away from the table, we're going to escalate. Here's the money. Here's all the weapons. Here's everything else to escalate this war. Even and even now, you know, it's one year later after Russia invaded Ukraine. And we have the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and many others in very high-ranking positions saying, the only way this war ends is through a negotiated outcome.

Right. The only way. And we're still sending more weapons. Exactly. Exactly. It makes me nervous because Russia, we know they'll put as many men on the line as possible. I mean, they have a lot of guys. It's a huge country.

Yeah. A lot of fighters to, I guess, sacrifice for the cause. They have more than Ukraine. Yeah. Right? Way more. That means how many deaths are going to happen? Exactly.

And for what? And for what? And this is the problem. And, you know, Biden says, well, this is about democracy and freedom. And Mitch McConnell says the same. You have Democrats and Republicans in Congress who are also guilty of the same thing that Biden is of trying to amp this war up and claim it's about democracy and freedom. And yet, you know, some of these people are the very same people.

who are undermining our own democracy here at home. While they're wearing a Ukrainian flag and not an American flag. I mean, I'm pretty meat and potatoes. I'm pretty basic. But I like people who want to care about America first, personally. But yeah, I mean, I've never understood this, our involvement over there.

And plus sending the money when we have communities here at home that need it, just as we talked about in Ohio. Yeah. And just to add on to that, you know, they claim it's about democracy and freedom. And yet they don't answer to the fact that Zelensky had banned the opposition political party, arrested politicians who were his political opponents, took total control, total control of the media. The media in Ukraine is now government controlled, period. That doesn't seem very. He banned the second largest, I think, Orthodox Church.

in Ukraine because they have, I don't know, some of the leadership was supportive of Russia or there are Russians or something like that. The list goes on and on. And so the thing that comes to mind when Biden is there saying, you know, this is a fight for democracy around the world, if this is how he defines democracy,

well, then it makes a lot of sense when we see how they're treating us. here in the United States. Exactly. Yeah. The censorship through big tech. I mean, all of it. It's very similar to what's going on over there. It sounds like. Right. Yeah. That's, that's what's unsettling because a lot of people see the stories. They and, and to your point about voting and making difference, sometimes it feels as a voter, as an irregular American, it feels overwhelming. Like, can we, is this ever going to change? Can we change this? And that's where just, you know, talking with you and just keeping that dream alive, you know, that, okay, we got two more years

of this guy, then we get another chance to have our vote be heard. But man, it's frustrating sometimes. It is. It's really, trust me, I get it. It's, I don't know. I, I mean, I respect what you bring to the table. I respect your fight. I respect your perspective. I want you to have that opportunity to make the difference that you've been fighting so hard for. I don't know. The future is exciting when I think of where you could go. I did want to touch on how is your military career affected or impacted your political aspirations

or goals. I mean, has that changed, has that changed you from when you were that 21-year-old who won that seat? How has that shaped you? Well, I, so I was nearing the end of, so I, I enlisted actually. I enlisted while I was serving in the state legislature in Hawaii. Why did you do that? And driven largely by the terrorist attack on 9-11.

Okay. And, you know, opening my eyes to a world far outside of Hawaii like so many Americans and wanting to do my part to go after those who attacked us on that day. And so for me, I wanted, I, I, I, I, kind of had this call to duty in that sense, but also, you know, wanted to fulfill my service to my state. So I ended up enlisting in the National Guard when went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training once our legislative session was done, came back and that following year was campaigning for re-election when our National Guard brigade combat team was activated and called

up for a deployment to Iraq. And this was the summer of 2004. And got a call from my commander. I was in a medical unit and got a call from my commander when this notice went out saying, hey, you know, this notice just went out and we just wanted to let you know. You don't have to go. You don't have to deploy. Your name is not in the list because somebody else already filled that job. And I just, you know, it didn't take long for me to communicate to him.

There's no way I'm staying back. Yeah. There's no way. There's no way I'm going to stand on that tarmac and wave goodbye. to you guys. And so I withdrew from my re-election campaign and got trained in a different job that they needed somebody to fill. And then went off on a deployment.

We were in Iraq for a little over a year and served in a medical unit where the first thing I did every day. I mean, it changed my, it changed me. It changed my life. Seeing and experiencing the cost of war. both from, you know, the human cost, as well as, as well as the cost, the economic cost, the cost in treasure. Right. The first thing I did every single morning while I was there was go through a list, a list name by name of every injury and casualty that had occurred in American forces, the previous 24 hours.

And to go through each of those names and see if our brigade had close to 3,000, people and looking for any of our soldiers who may have been on that list and then to make sure that they were getting the care they needed either in country to stay there and get back in the fight or getting them evacuated and eventually tracking them all the way until they got until they got home and was that your job or is that what you were just that was my job okay yeah that was that was the first thing and then obviously I would go and report to to my commander or to the general or or the colonel, what the status was, what the situation was. And just every day kind of thinking through and understanding their loved ones at home.

Yeah. You know, my parents, they didn't tell me this until I got home. But, you know, like every other family, every time they saw, you know, a helicopter crash or an incident that happened, you know, their heart. tightened up. Mm-hmm. And we lost, it was a heavy time in the war, and our base was in what they, you remember, they referenced the Sunni triangle at that time.

We were about 40 miles north of Baghdad and experiencing that it's something that's never, never left me. And coming back home from that deployment, a lot of my friends and former colleagues assumed that I was going to, okay, so you're back. Now you can go run for State House. You can kind of pick up your life where you left it. And I just couldn't. I couldn't.

My whole perspective had changed. And I wanted to find a way to be able to take those experiences that I had had and use them constructively. I didn't quite know how or where and kind of started cold calling different people and just trying to figure it out. I ended up going and working as a legislative aide for one of Hawaii senators, who was the chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee at the time. and was able to take kind of those experiences as I was coming back home to help improve care and services for our veterans. But that desire to be in a position

where I could actually influence the policies, you know, our foreign policy really began from that first deployment. And then you had another one too, didn't you? I did. So I worked in Washington as a legislative aide for a couple of years and then our brigade was called up again and I volunteered for that deployment and came back with that same drive. And it was about a couple of years later that I ran for Congress

and sought a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee. And that's where I served for most of my eight years that I was in Congress. Wow. What a journey that's been. It has been. What has, when did your, or what is your perception on the military industrial complex? How is that, was it different when you, from that first deployment to where it is now? Or how do you see that? I didn't, I did honestly, like those words probably never crossed my mind before that deployment.

No, I think, well, I wasn't in, but at that time, I loved watching on the TV. I loved watching us bomb Baghdad personally. It was just like, yeah, these guys have to pay for what they did. And so I think a lot of Americans, that was, I remember a lot of pride in America at that time. Everybody had flags, you know. So I understand that those words weren't even said at that time. It was like, no, we're making America is cleaning up the world's mess. That's what we do.

And it's like, you know, that's what we've always done. It feels like. And but I don't know if I had blinders on. I don't know if I really understood. I think we were all sold a certain narrative and a certain bill of goods, especially around the Iraq war. You know, we sent guys into Afghanistan to go after Al-Qaeda right after 9-11. And they were very, very effective at that time.

But then, you know, obviously now we know a lot more than we did back then. but the mission changed instead of continuing to make sure that we that we really took out this this Islamist jihadist group al-Qaeda that planned and attacked us on 9-11 then it was like oh well weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein Iraq and and then anyway you know I mean the rest is the rest is history. ISIS ended up growing up out of that and but we were we were sold a certain narrative. Right.

You know, at that point. And so when I was there, you know, speaking about the military industrial complex and those who profit off of us being in a constant state of war, I saw through, you know, KBR Halliburton, which is, you know, Dick Cheney's company. Yeah. They had the contract to provide every single service in our camp, every single service. How much money did they make off that? And so that's, you know, I mean, I had just, you know, I'd served in the state.

house for two years. And so I had a little bit of, well, I had a lot of curiosity about where our taxpayer dollars were going. And so we started, you know, I would talk to the people that they brought in to go, you know, who were cooking our food, who were working in the Chow Hall. And they were from the Philippines. They were from Nepal. They were from Sri Lanka. All of these countries where this was their best opportunity to be able to provide for their family to start asking them, how much do you get paid? And, you know, okay, I get paid $500 a month or $600. a month. It's like, wow. And you're working, you know, 12-hour days, six, six, seven days a week. And how often do you get to go home to your family? Like, oh, I get, I get like, you know,

one week every 18 months or something like that. Wow. And then I started asking, like, the people in charge of contracting. It's like, what are we being charged per person per meal? And I think it was something like $40 per soldier back in 2005. Wow. So if I walked in, If I walked into the chow hall, because they click everybody in, if I walk into the chow hall and I quickly grab a banana and, you know, maybe like, you know, those little plastic Cheerios boxes of cereal. Yeah. That's 40 bucks. That's 40 bucks to the taxpayer. Right.

And I had so many conversations like that. And it really opened my eyes. And then, of course, we start reading articles about how much money these contractors are making. And you see the disconnect between like, okay, well, this is. how much they're charging us and this is how much they're paying to the people who are providing these services to us. Yeah. Where's the, yeah. Pretty, pretty, uh, huge, huge profit margin. Yeah. And because they could get away with it. And that's the thing. And this is, I mean, this is not a yesterday problem. When you look at the trillions of dollars that have gone unaccounted

for in, in the 20 years we were at war in Afghanistan. Yeah. You look at now over 120 billion dollars that we've sent to Ukraine. And somebody like Rand Paul gets excoriated simply for offering an amendment saying, hey, guys, remember all that money that is unaccounted for or wasted in Afghanistan? Well, we had a special inspector general who has told us how much money has been wasted.

We should appoint one of those for all this money we're sending to Ukraine. What was the response by Democrats and Republicans? Rand Paul is a Putin puppet. He loves Russia. All of these smear attacks, none of them addressing the substantive, legitimate point he brought up. He wants accountability. The American taxpayer deserves it.

And by the way, guys, DOD, you don't have a great track record of keeping track of this money or these weapons. We know that Ukraine has been and continues to be an incredibly corrupt country. Right. Incredibly corrupt. Yeah. The New York Times has even been. reported that. Exactly. But now that this war is the war that everybody who is in this this war mongering

establishment is supporting, you will not see those stories about how corrupt Ukraine is anymore. Anyone who dares to question the legitimacy of the purpose of this war from an American interest perspective is called every name in the book. Right. And again, just saying, hey, let's just keep track of our money. Not allowed. And that should, I mean, this is, this is what raises kind of red, should raise red flags. Yeah. In all of our minds, say, well, why? Why are you so opposed to this?

How come we can't even have a conversation about it? Yeah. Without you freaking out and, uh, and calling his names. I just, I just read a quote today from, um, Mike Pence. You know, I think, I think he's probably going to end up running for president. But, uh, he made a pretty disturbing comment today, um, criticizing, basically criticizing anyone who wasn't on board with the blank check for Ukraine train saying that we only,

we must only have people who believe in democracy and freedom in office. So you can't question anything. You cannot question it. Exactly, exactly. They're throwing this bucket of always your questioning democracy. Right. Yeah. Right.

I mean, that is, I mean, it's sickening on one hand, but what it leaves me wondering is, for the people serving, how do you not become disenchanted with the goals, the mission, your job? When you wonder if the leaders are doing the right thing, making the right decisions, and then you're just a soldier. Yeah. How do you stay focused on your job? I mean, this is a challenge that a lot of folks in our military are facing.

I was a couple of days ago just went and had the opportunity to talk to. a few hundred soldiers. And, you know, I know how fresh, I mean, I'm still, I'm a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves and civil affairs officer. And I certainly understand the frustration and hear a lot of it. And I spoke to them and reminded them about how our military remains, I think, the most trusted people in the country. by our fellow Americans.

And the reason for that is when we wear the uniform and we take that oath to serve, we're not taking that oath to a political party or particular person. That oath is to support and defend the Constitution. And we must be unwavering in fulfilling that oath in service to the American people, in service to our country,

and not break that trust, not walk away, not quit. And we are at a time where our country is terribly divided, where our fundamental God-given rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution are now being called into question or even undermined by people in positions of power. And so we have a responsibility to do our best to continue to reinforce that foundation and to lead by example of what it means to stand up. for the principles that make us who we are as Americans

and that make us that that have that are the foundation of this country and so you know even as frustrating as it can be and as the political power shift in one direction or another you agree or disagree with the decisions that you know the civilian policy makers are making I think it's incredibly important and and it's why I continue to serve it's incredibly important that that our military continue to be unwavering and grounded in in that oath to the Constitution that we take. Yeah, I just, I mean, I, man, I know those soldiers, everybody's serving, want to believe and they're doing the right thing.

They're protecting freedoms that we enjoy here at home. They're doing their part. You know, if we're in another country, it's hard work. And it's not, nobody's getting rich in the military, you know. And I know with my son, he served, he was a Ranger, he said the Ranger Creed. All those words are very powerful, very powerful. I just, it kind of, it breaks my heart a little bit to wonder if some of those guys are questioning, you know, being in the military when some of that stuff is frustrating.

Or they might read the news. I just want them to know that, no, you're doing the right thing. you're doing an important job and we need it and how valued they are. Because when I think of people who served in the military, we have a volunteer military. Yes. I mean, these are people who don't have to do this who are giving away four or five or more 20 years of the prime of their life

to serve our country. That needs to be respected and celebrated. And I would love if they knew that what they were doing was, yes, it's necessary work. And the leaders are making good decisions. Yeah. Every one of us as Americans should want that same thing and should care about that same thing.

And therefore elect and select leaders who take that responsibility seriously and who are not bending the knee to the military industrial complex. and instead who are making those decisions about where and when are men and women deploy in the world or deploy into combat based on, does this mission best serve the interests of the American people,

safety, security, and freedom of the American people and of our country? That should be the lens through which they're looking and the context within how they make those decisions. I'm not an isolation. and I'm not a pacifist. Right. I don't advocate for us burying our head in the sand and thinking,

well, if we just don't engage with anybody, then, you know, we won't have any problems. That's not reality. I live in the real world and I recognize that there are those who seek to do us harm. Our military exists to protect that, to protect the American people in our country from them. And we've got the greatest military in the world.

Let's make sure that our folks are, you know, trained, equipped and ready to go out and do the mission that we've been charged to do. For those who are politicians who are abusing that commitment to service that every single man and woman who serves in uniform has made, they should not be in office. They should not be in those positions of power because they clearly don't value the lives of those who serve by sending them on missions and going to fight wars that not only don't serve our national interest, but in so many examples, actually undermine our own national security, to put the American people at greater risk,

which our policymakers are doing right now as we speak. Yeah. And I do, I know that the military gets a lot of, attention for oh they're more diverse and more equality i think people need to be reminded to we have some beasts in our military we are the best in the world and yeah you might see the commercials about whatever or see people like want to take a shot at the military like we're you know we're not as powerful as we once were because of whatever no there's some badasses and these guys are studs out there they're great at their job men and women but we have the ultimate fighting force for sure in the world.

And I don't, sometimes we lose sight of that because we see some different things or media covers things that maybe shine a different light on that. But no, there are some warriors out there. Oh, absolutely. No question about it. I think it is important to continue to emphasize that though. You know, I mean, what is the function and purpose

of the military? Yeah. It is to make sure we have the better. the best fighters, the best warriors in the world. And those who raise their hand are committing themselves to that, committing their lives to that. I think, you know, I think a lot of kind of the emphasis or maybe focus in these other areas,

whether it's on, you know, what they call diversity, equity, inclusion, and what does that really mean and how does that look? I mean, that's a whole other conversation we can get into. Yeah. But there's a connection between, what some would say is kind of the not having their priorities right as far as some of the leadership of the DOD right now. It's directly connected to the fact that they are really, really struggling and recruiting. Yeah. And, you know, they're like, oh, well, you know, kids are

overweight. Yeah. Or they don't want to sign up for a job where they could die. I, you know, that's so, those are symptoms. Those are symptoms. of a deeper problem. You know, those who, those who sign up to serve are doing so ultimately out of a sense of purpose. Yeah. You know, you go and you join the military and you know you are signing up to serve a purpose

greater than yourself. Yeah. And the deep sense of fulfillment that that brings. And unfortunately, it's why a lot of folks who leave the military have a hard time finding their way because they've gone from that place where you're serving. alongside people from all parts of this country, all wearing the same uniform, all serving

under that same flag, all serving that same purpose. I think that's that disconnect between like, wait, what, what are we doing actually? I think that has a lot to do with the fact that, hey, you're having a hard time attracting talent to come and serve. There are some deeper problems, I think, that need to be addressed within the Department of Defense and a lot of introspection to say, what are your priorities? What are you asking people to do? Yeah, exactly. And I mean, I see it where when they are promoting this victim mentality to everybody, if you're a victim, then you're not going to sign up for a purpose greater than yourself. Because you've already feel like you've been taking advantage. And you're going to

say, well, what are you doing for me? Rather than saying, how can I serve? And that's, yeah. So that's one big part of the recruitment, but you see this message all the time, like our press secretary right now for the White House is talking about all the diversity and inclusion and equity they have instead of people doing their job, like hitting these markers on, we have more, whatever. I don't even know what the measures they. Well, it's race and its gender and its sexuality and it's all these things. Okay, great. Can we talk about the job?

Yeah. What are you focused on? Qualifications. Yeah. Doing a good job. I don't care what the person looks like or acts like or what sex they are. I want to know can they do the job. Yeah, exactly.

And so it feels like the focus there is kind of impacting downstream, which is our military, you know, and that's, and then I want to get your thoughts on this too. So we're so interested in Ukraine and protecting this border and everything else. What about our border, you know, our southern border and how that's impacting our communities here? It feels like there hasn't been anything or much done to protect our own border of our country. What's your thoughts on that? Well, that's a true statement, first of all. And you wonder, how is that possible?

How could they be so concerned about going and protecting another country's border when they don't, they're not even hitting the basic mark here at home? Right. Well, you asked them, and they've been asked, even by some of the mainstream media, are our borders secure? And you have the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whose job it is to secure our border,

saying with a straight face, our borders are secure. You have the vice president of the United States with a straight face saying, our borders are secure, which is the whole problem is like, what planet are you guys on? You're obviously not spending any time on the border

because anyone who goes down there can see our borders are not secure. Anyone who goes and talks to those border, border, you know, security agents. You get the real story. You talk to those families who live on the border. Our borders are not secure. And so if you're living in some fantasy world

where you really believe the borders are secure, then that's a huge problem. It's an equally huge problem. If you are just freaking lying to the American people. They know. I mean, I hunt down there every year, right on the border in Texas, right on the border, 10 miles from the border, basically.

Three years ago, you'd see maybe a couple border patrol rigs driving that highway. Now, last couple of years, it's nonstop. They can't get enough people to help protect that border. And when I was hunting, I saw big military helicopters flying over guys sitting out in the doors. It was like, I mean, it's covered up with illegals coming over. They can't put enough people there. They're making the state police or the sheriffs rotate every three weeks down there to help protect the border because they don't have enough guys because so many illegals are coming through. So I think they know they're lying and they just think that, well, if we say this enough, that's probably most people are going to hear what we say and not hear or see the truth.

Yeah. It has to be that because there's nobody who's ever been there. or seeing any footage from there would say that the border is protected. Yeah. And that's what for those communities down there, I mean, they're dealing with so much because of all those people coming through. And I'm not, you know, it's not like I don't want people to seek out a better life from another country.

Sure. Just go through the proper channels. Exactly. You know? Exactly. That's not too much to ask. Just follow the law. And we're trying to protect borders of other countries.

It's just, it's infuriating, I think, for the normal, regular Americans to, you know, know what's going on and hear the politicians say something different. Absolutely. And again, all of these things, and we could probably go down the list of every federal agency and find similar examples of how they're failing. Ultimately, they're failing the American people. They're failing to do their job, their basic core job. I mean, the Department of Education is another one.

You know, we throw more and more money towards the Department of Education. Teachers are still underpaid. And if we look at outcomes, our kids, I think the statistic I last saw was something like almost half of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. And are we asking ourselves, how do we improve this so that, you know, our kids are graduating with more skills and actually being capable and prepared to go out and just live their life? from whatever way they choose, that's not what's being emphasized. Instead, we have, you know, parents actually having to fight for their right,

even have a say in their kids' education. And, you know, we have, you know, teachers who are advocating, you know, basically a transgender or sexuality, you know, kindergarten first grade kids, asking them like, what is your sexuality? What is your gender identity? These kids are like, what? So, again, it goes back to what are the priorities? what is being emphasized.

And, you know, ultimately, they don't care. They don't care. They don't care about fulfilling that responsibility to the American people. And that is the biggest travesty because it's not them who's paying the price for their failures. It is, it's Americans across the country. And the future generations.

Yeah. So when people listen to this, and when I hear you talk, I think, oh my God, why can't we have? have Tulsi making decisions until you know because your perspective feels like a regular American's concerns but you have you know you're smart you've you serve in the military you have all this uh your journey's just been basically Taylor made you to be the perfect politician to represent the American people so to anybody listening they think yeah man she's squared away she

she's my type of person. So for your detractors, what are the arguments that they would make to try to, I don't know, steer people from you or how could people, what's a negative people might say about you? You know, the thing is that a lot of the critics who come after me are people who are not interested in engaging in a substantive dialogue or even or even or even coming after me with with substantive attacks because i see some comments i see a couple there's a couple themes that i see and it feels like you've addressed them before but i mean if they if you address what the tractors might say how would you do that look at my record look at um listen listen listen to what i'm saying and again

whether it's on foreign policy or domestic policy, I have been very clear. And, you know, my, a lot of the attacks that come my way are either coming from people who are choosing an attack because they're not actually interested in what I'm having to say. And so, you know, they just won't pick any one of a number. Or there are people who are intentionally trying to smear my character or plant seeds of doubt and credibility because they disagree with what I'm saying

or feel like someone I'm a threat to whatever it is there they care about or that they're trying to accomplish. But if they would listen to you, then because I see that all time. I see like a lot of positive things like, oh, I wish, could she run for president? Can she move to this state and be our governor? People love you. And then the tired arguments might be, well, the World Economic Forum, Globalist type thing. So what do you say to those people that want to throw out that, well, you're linked to this, WEF?

Again, look at, listen to what I'm saying. You know, with the WF is the World Economic Forum. With that, I go back to 2012 when I was first elected to Congress. There was a lot of buzz around my election and none of it was created by me. But I was brought in and there were headlines and news stories saying, oh, you know, Tulsi Gabbard's a rising star in the Democratic Party. Right. You know, we'll see her in the White House one day. There's endless potential.

And, you know, a lot of it was, I think, because I checked a lot of their identity politics boxes. Right. And they thought that I was going to come and be like everybody else where they could tell me what to say or tell me what to do and I'll just tow the line. And okay, cool, then we'll just lift her up and kind of set her up for success in politics in their own mind. And so some of the things that happened as a result of this narrative that they created thinking I was going to allow myself to be their puppet. Right. You know, I was barely in office a few weeks. weeks when I got a call, for example, like, hey, you know, will you be vice chair of the Democratic National Committee? Wow. I didn't seek it out. And my response to that phone call was, what does a

vice chair of the DNC even do? I had no idea. Sounds important. Well, yeah. I mean, I thought, okay, well, you know, I had no idea what this was before, but maybe this is an opportunity where I could try to make an impact in that position. You know, I was welcomed into the council on foreign relations. I I didn't know that much about it, but I thought, okay, well, I'm on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Maybe I can go and make an impact there. My name popped up on the WF website as someone they had designated as a young global leader. I didn't know anything about it. And I thought, okay, well, you know, maybe this is a platform where I can go and, you know, deliver my message and, you know, bring to the table the things that I care about.

Right. And so, you know, all these different things came my way. And I took advantage of opportunities to, you know, I ran for Congress because of those experiences that I had had in the Middle East. Right. And spoke out against the kind of globalist policies that the World Economic Forum pushes. I spoke out against these interventionist regime change wars and talked about why they are counter to the interests of the American people. Right. And so like with the World Economic Forum, you know, I didn't, I didn't get invited to go to speak at any of their events or didn't attend any of their sessions or anything like that.

But I think it's important, it's important for me in that position to be able to take advantage of those platforms and opportunities to be that voice in the room, maybe the only voice in the room, saying, no, we the people are. are not here to serve your globalist corporate agenda. Right. We, the American people, are not going to cede our sovereignty to some foreign leader or to some multinational corporation. And so, you know, people who attack me for these things, it's unfortunate because they haven't been paying attention. And, you know, I'm just saying, listen to what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. And you never, so you never had that opportunity to go and address that? No, no. I, I, I, I, I don't know that I was ever invited.

I don't think I ever was and certainly never. They put you on the website because you were. They put me on the website. And I found that it was a surprise to me that I ended up on the website. But I think, you know, the thing is that all of these things happen because the quote unquote powers that be saw a potential for me to be one of their one of their puppets that they could groom. And we've all, you know, we see these politicians in office today who happens all the time. build that purpose. Yeah.

But once they realize that I'm not that person. Right. And that I actually think for myself and I, you know, we'll stand up for our country and for our security and stand up against the war machine. Very quickly, they're like, oh. Yeah. Maybe we don't want her in these positions. My name and picture got taken off the World Economic Forum website.

And like I said, I wasn't invited to go and speak at these different things. Yeah. And, you know, so it kind of speaks to the how both Washington and kind of these globalist organizations work. Right. And it's something that, you know, we should be aware of. But I think most importantly is take advantage of these opportunities to speak up and to expose them for who they are and what they're about and what their actual interests are. And that's what I've dedicated my time to doing. You wouldn't be opposed to going there and speaking on behalf of the American people.

I have said so many times I will go and speak to anyone, anywhere, to further the interests of the American people, our national security and peace. We have to. Otherwise, what are we going to do? We're going to sit in a room together and talk to people we only agree with and just hope and pray something changes. And like those assholes in office are somehow magically going to leave. No. We have to. And this is what, if we're, if we're concerned about our foreign policy,

if we're concerned about the direction our country is headed in, if we're concerned about how our freedoms are being undermined by those in positions of power, both in government, in the media, in big tech, what do we do? Do we remain silent? Do we sit in a room with an echo chamber of people who only agree with us? No. Or do we find that courage and conviction in our own hearts? Because we really care about this country that we love and we care about the future

that we're leaving behind for the kids and the generations. who will come after us and take that step into what can be a scary place, into a place that can open you up to attacks, because we have to fight for our future. Right. We cannot think that our freedoms that are our Constitution will remain unless we stand up, we the people stand up and fight for it, every one of us. Well, and that's why I respect your journey so much.

because I believe what you're saying. I believe, I don't believe when people want to lump you in and say these negative things because I've been watching. And I think part, if people do listen to what you say and they watch your actions also, you did leave the Democratic Party. I mean, that took courage. Because you were, I mean, I think, you know,

they picked Kamala Harris over you because you would have outshone you were a stronger leader. you're better than Biden. They can't have a VP candidate being stronger and better than the president. It's not going to work. But so I understand, I mean, you were right there. You were in the mix. You were on the, you debated for that position.

You were, you know, but you left it because, I mean, you explain why you left the Democratic Party and why you're an independent now. Well, the Democratic Party of today is completely different from the Democratic Party. I joined 20 years ago. You know, I didn't grow up in a family, like some have in America where, you know, my great granddaddy was a Democrat and my granddaddy, you know, there was no legacy politics in my family at all. My parents were just like, hey, like, you think for yourself.

You figure out, you know, you figure things out for yourself. And so when I was 21 and I decided to run for office and I was looking at the form, you know, like which box am I going to check about? you know, for which political party. And so it caused me to really think about and look at, you know, what do these parties stand for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party? And looking at the Democratic Party, both in Hawaii and then also, you know, the party of JFK, the party of Dr. Martin Luther King,

this was a party that I saw was a Big Ten party that was inclusive, that was welcoming of people who might have different beliefs on different issues, but who would take a stand for the little guy. You know, and that was the history in Hawaii. Hawaii was run by wealthy Republican landowners for a long time from its annexation, it becoming a territory and then becoming a state. Right. Up until, and a lot of these landowners were, they were treating the people who worked on

their plantations like shit. But the living conditions, the pay, I mean, just they didn't have a voice. And so it was the unions that came in and started to organize them because one group's tried to fight for rights on their own and then the other group. It was just, it just wasn't working out. So they finally, they all came together and they organized and they fought for basic rights to take care of these working people.

And that's what shifted Hawaii away from being controlled by a few very, very wealthy corporate landowners to Democrat control. And it's been that way ever since. But that principle of fighting for the people and being inclusive and fighting for civil liberties and civil rights, I mean, that was the party of JFK. Right. And that was the party that I joined. You fast forward now to today.

And really over the last few years, we've seen this just rapid spiral downward to insanity in the policies at the Democratic Party. is pushing. Right. Everything from people who don't believe that we have the right to free speech, people who don't believe that we have a right to defend ourselves, people who, I mean, the Democratic Party is now the war party. Right. You know, with this whole proxy war against Russian with Ukraine,

there's not a single Democrat in the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate that's come out in opposition. or even challenging. There was a small group of them that came out and sent a letter to Joe Biden I don't know, towards the end of last year, saying, hey, you know, all these flowery,

flowery like his ass words in the beginning of the letter. And then finally it just said, hey, we really urge you to lead an effort towards a negotiated peace. Right. Because if this war continues, it's the Ukrainian people who will suffer, who will experience even more destruction

and disaster and could even lead us to a nuclear war. They sent this letter out. It was made public. The very next day, barely 24 hours after, they retracted it because they got so much...

Yes, the backlash was so strong. They chose not to take a stand and literally retracted the letter and made this weak statement saying, oh, well, you know, of course they blame the staff. Oh, the staff sent the letter out or some crap.

Like, dude, your signature was on the page. Yeah. I mean, I hope you read it if you sign your name to it. Right. But ultimately their statement was something like, oh, well, you know, we still believe in negotiated peace, but you should do it after Russia loses. Like, how can you be a logically thinking adult and think that that makes sense? Right. You know, that is the Democratic Party of today.

You look at the Republican Party. There's, you know, a lot of warmongers in the Republican Party just as they're on the Democratic Party, but at least in the Republican Party right now, we've got a growing number of voices who are challenging the war machine in Washington, who are standing up for the American people, who are standing up for our security, risking being attacked and smeared

because they understand what's at stake, and they understand where their loyalties and priorities should lie here at home. And the threat to what we hold near and dear. Exactly. I mean, safety of our country and our people, right. Well, one thing, I mean, I respect and I don't know, I can't explain how much I like your journey and how you've went from wanting to truly make a difference. And it's so different than say the Bushes or the Clintons or the Bidens even, these big political rich families. I mean, you've been grinding.

Yeah. You've been grinding. We, we, in the 50 for the Fallen Rock, you know, helping fallen service. members, which we were both part of, and you helped organize that. But we went by your house, a normal house. It's not some big mansion. And it's just like, God, this woman works her ass off. She says what she means. She pushes back when she doesn't believe in it. She lives a normal life that most people could identify with and relate to. And you're out there working your ass off making a difference. I mean, how can you not respect that?

So it's, that's why I look up to you so much. And I want to share your message. And I want people to give you a chance that maybe whatever, I don't know what they're reading or what they're hearing or what they're saying even. But I know what I see. And I see a true American fighting for the American people. And I, I mean, it's, it gives me a great honor to know that you have been in the mix and you're still fighting. And I, I think, um, this guy's a limit for you. And I'm excited.

I don't know. What's your goals right now? I mean, you've done so much. But where do you hope to go? Thank you, first of all. I don't take your words lightly because I know they're not shared lightly. Life is precious. You know, it's, there was a big sign at the camp where we were at when we were in Iraq. And it was at the gate where, you know, all.

all of our security patrols went in and out of every day. And this sign read in big block letters is today the day. And it hit me like a ton of bricks the first time I saw it. And I saw it most days for the year that we were there. And it was that ever-present reminder that any day could be our last. And that was just as true for us there as it is for us as we sit here tonight. life is short and my goal is to make the very most of the time that I've been blessed with to dedicate my life into service to serving God, trying to be pleasing to God.

And what better way to be pleasing to God than to be of service and work for the well-being of his children? I don't know exactly where this leads, but I do know that we are at risk of losing the country that we love, you know, it's becoming increasingly hard to recognize. And the fact that, you know, we can and there are tons of disagreements on, oh, how do we improve the education system? How do we improve health care? You know, how can we fix services that are being offered to our veterans? You know, what's the best, what are the best investments we should be making in our infrastructure? Even border security.

There's a lot of different ideas out there. At a basic level, we have to come together and stand on the foundation of the Constitution of the United States. And we have to have leaders in office who are committed to upholding the Constitution and who are bringing a heart of service to the roles that we ask them to fill. We, the American people, we the voters. And my goal is to do everything that I possibly can to be that leader, to fulfill that responsibility and to offer that service in exactly what role or how or where or when.

I don't know. And that's honestly, that's not important to me. What's important to me is, you know, where can I make the most impact and how can I best be of service? man that's uh i admire that um that mindset is it's giving it's uh of service it and it goes hand in hand with what as an adult or i guess as a teen it sounds like how you've uh tried to live your life i was curious too how does your faith impact this your decisions your daily life Tell me about that. It's everything.

You know, it's, you know, I, I, I, I draw strength and clarity and courage. It's what I pray for every day and asking God every day, please let me be of service. And having faith in his. that even though I don't know what the outcome may be or I may not know what, you know, the next, where the next 10 steps lead, but so long as I'm doing my best in that mission and that goal to serve, I have faith that, you know, things will work out. Yeah. And that, that to me is politics has become such a game to a lot of politicians.

Right. You know, we see during election time people talk about, you know, all the polls and the horse races and the this and the that and you throw up the fancy board. And it's kind of you see a lot of those same boards on Sports Center, you know, and they're talking about the football fields and the fantasy football and the stats and everything else. And, you know, they lose sight that this is about real people. Yeah. And families and kids and communities whose lives are directly impacted. Right. Yes, by the decisions that our leaders make,

but who those leaders are and what they care about and who they care about. Right. And so, you know, when you look, for example, at Palestine, Ohio, residents there told me, well, our governor has been paid off by that company. Oh, thousands, they've given thousands of dollars. They spent millions of dollars on lobbying Congress. Right. And so people aren't stupid. Politicians think people are stupid and that they'll buy the lies that they're selling them.

but people aren't that stupid. Right. They see the trail of money. They see how they are not the ones who are the priority for these people who are in power. And so I think recognizing, for me, drawing my strength and my happiness from doing my best to be of service to God is certainly what keeps me grounded

and focused because I don't care what people on TV say about me. Right. You know, I'm not trying to win any popularity contest. And, you know, I don't draw my validation from what people in Washington say about me or anything. And it's why, like, people say like, how do you withstand these attacks? Because I've heard it all. Right. And I've gotten them all.

And I wake up happy. because I have an opportunity with my life to try to serve. And I'm far from perfect by, you know, I'm a highly flawed individual. But I know that so long as I continue to try to do my best, that that is where my happiness comes from. It comes from within. It comes from God. And knowing that no matter what happens, his unconditional love is there for me, for every one of us. And so, you know, with God's love, like, what do I care what Nancy Pelosi

thinks about me? Right. You know what I mean? Or whoever, fill in the blank, talking head on television. Like, and that right there is the problem. It's so many people in Washington make their decisions based on, you know, what other people say about them. And, and it's just, it's just sad, really. It's sad for them like, man, what a shallow life you must live. Yeah. Approval ratings. Approval ratings. Yeah. But it's even more sad. because of the consequences that the American people feel from those who care more about themselves than they do about the people that they're supposed to be serving. Yeah, I agree.

Are there politicians or people in that role that you do look up to that you do think are doing a good job? Yeah, I mean, there are a few people who I know and who I had a chance to serve with in both, House and the Senate, you know, I think that, well, I mean, I'll be honest. I mean, if I'm looking at the people who are lining up to run for president right now, I'll tell you, I don't have confidence. Mm-hmm. I don't have confidence in their ability to lead us. Well, I guess you better put your name in the hat.

So can you win as an independent, do you think? I mean, that's a question, really. It is a question. I don't know. It's not something. Because as crazy as it sounds, what do you need? 500 million to run presidential election? A lot. I mean, and so without being in the DNC or the RNC... Well, I mean, you would have to assume that the DNC or the RNC would support a candidate that they can't control. Yeah.

The reality is that if we want to see change, if we, the American people want to see change, we've got to do something. different. We have to be involved. First of all, yes, we have to vote. But we can't just play the same old games and think we're going to get a different, a different result. Yeah, we've been trying that. I mean, we end up, right? I mean, like, in election after election, I feel like we end up in a place where it's like, oh, what's the least worst option. Yeah, that's what. And that's a horrible choice to have to make. That is. I know. In the United States of America, you know what I mean? Like, how many countries around the world look, you know, they look to the United States

and look up to the principles and values that we were founded on. And then yet we're in a place where it's just like both sides are generating fear as the motivator saying like, well, if you, you know, this other guy or this other team is going to do all of these horrible things to you. So vote for us.

Yeah. It's a really, really bad place for us to be in as a people. And it's a really manipulative move on the part of those who foment fear for their own. Foment fear and divisiveness for their own political gain. That's what they've been, I mean, that was the whole thing with COVID. Yeah. I mean, so it's. For control.

Look how much control they get. It's been a formula that's been working for them. So I don't see it changing. You know, I just wonder, it's, I mean, I'm not trying to be an aegis in the opposite way of when you were coming up. But it's like, is an 80-year-old man the best we got here? I mean, are you kidding me? It's like, nobody's better at life when they're 80. You're not sharper.

You're not stronger. You're not a, I guess you could be a good leader still. But it's like, come on. Yeah. Well, I know you were talking your father-in-law up in there. I was. Well, yeah, I know. he's 84. I take him over Biden for sure. But I think that's I think the the point is like

regardless of whether you're talking about Biden who's you know 80 who will be 80 plus years old by the time his term is over or you're talking about another candidate who you know maybe in their 50s we have the responsibility to look past the superficial and actually look at them as a person and you know what what do they stand for? Right. And does what they stand for actually serve the interests of our country? Right. And I think that's really the thing here is we look at a lot of the identity politics that the Democrats are playing.

We look at the kinds of headlines that the media generates to try to distract, that are focused on the superficial rather than actually telling us the truth about, well, hey, here's what this person stands for. Here's what they would do. Or here's how they are positioning themselves on a, particular issue of importance, you know, through, for example, when we talked a lot about nuclear war in this conversation today, when I was, that was, that was the, one of the main issues that drove me to run for president in 2020 was in, in Hawaii about a, you know, early 2018,

we had a nuclear missile scare. It was a huge wake-up call where early one morning, we all, you know, we all got a text message on our phone saying there's a ballistic missile inbound to Hawaii. Seek shelter, seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. Wow. And so as you might imagine, if you're thinking about, God, well, what would we do right here right now if we got that message? Where do you go? You know, where can you take your family to be safe?

Yeah. It says seek immediate shelter. Where is their shelter? And just as we sit here, people in Hawaii. all across the state we're trying to figure that and there was no shelter there was no place to go figuring out okay if you've got 15 minutes 20 minutes left in your life what do you do yeah where do you go and and that was a huge wake-up call uh for us there it was a wake-up call in seeing how even in the aftermath of that obviously that was you know a growing nuclear threat coming from north

Korea, how dismissive leaders in Washington were and continue to be, once again, as we talked about, about the dangers and risks of nuclear war and how their policies are pushing us closer to that brink rather than recognizing as Reagan and JFK did, hey, we need to walk back. Right. We need to exercise the courageous leadership to walk us back from the brink. And so that was a huge driver for me to make that decision, to run for president, to be that voice for peace to be that commander in chief that would have the courage to go and speak to other leaders of other countries, whether they be adversaries or not, towards that common interest

of peace, just as JFK and Reagan did during their time. And so you would think, well, gosh, this should be an issue. The media should bring up to people who are asking to serve as commander and chief. This is a huge issue that has to do with the future of mankind. Did they? No. No. No. I brought it up. There was a question, they didn't bring it up. There was a question I brought, I think they said, what is the greatest threat facing the American people? And my answer was specifically related to nuclear war

and talking about what I just shared. No follow-ups, no, hey, let's talk to each candidate about what actions would you take to de-escalate these tensions and to walk us back from the brink of nuclear disaster? It didn't happen. none of the candidates wanted to talk about it. The media didn't want to talk about it. They didn't think it was important.

This was back in the 2020 campaign. And we looked to where we are today and we're seeing the exact same thing. They don't think it's important. They don't want to think about or talk about the unthinkable. And so it begs the question, well, what hope is there for us in our leadership when they're refusing to confront this most horrific reality? that sits on our on our doorstep yeah they're not they're not realistic either I guess I mean I don't know I don't know I don't really know the answer to that but I do like your take on it I do like that hey this needs to be addressed because I mean what a crazy world I mean a nuclear weapon being fired hitting anywhere I mean I couldn't imagine it's a pretty scary thought I mean Well, for me personally, I mean, even if people want to focus on the identity politics, you check all the boxes, but more than that, you're a true leader, a leader that can be controlled that will fight for the American people.

That's, God, we need that more than anything. I mean, I've said it before. I don't see, I don't know of a better candidate than you. That's why it's an honor to sit across the table from you. I want to thank you for coming to Oregon. Thank you. I want to thank you for doing the lift run shoot with me. That was a blast.

It's no joke, too. It's definitely no joke. I was challenged today in every respect. And yeah, I'll be thinking about you when I, like, can't lift my glass of water tomorrow for the next week. You were strong. You were strong. Well, I want to end this with this last exercise here. and this is giving you your keep hammering plate.

This is so awesome. You shot so well today. I learned so much. I learned so much. This was, yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait to learn more and to be better and to do better. And so the next time I see you, what do we do?

We did 53 yards today. 53, yeah, yeah. So we're going to keep on increasing that. Well, we're going to get that. You can go shoot with, was it Andre? I don't know. Yes, from what is it, privilege or what was? Privileged Bowhunter.

Okay. Yeah, you can go shoot with him. He's right there near you. That's who I went shot with when I did the. Out in Hawaii. Yeah. Okay. Okay, cool.

Yeah, he goes to the range there. We went to it. It's a nice range. We walked right by that, right? In the 50. I think it was dark. Did we? Probably not.

But it was right there along the coastline, right? Yeah. And there was, there's different things you can do there. But one is an archery range. And there's other activities they do. But yeah, it's a great place to shoot. The privileged bow hunter, Andre, I'm sure, would meet you there. He'd love to shoot with you.

He's a great guy. He helped set me out for I was there. And now you have your own bow and get it, get us at home with you. Thank you. Thank you. So much. Thank you very much. This is awesome.

You're such a badass. I wish nothing but success for you. I know you're going to do your best for the American people. I will. All right. Thanks, Karen. Take care. Black Rifle Coffee Company is a company that's very easy for me to promote because I drink coffee all day, every day. But more importantly, they are a huge supporter of the veteran community and are a veteran-known business, so they have my full support. Use code keep hammering for 20% off your first order and 20% off subscription to the coffee club, where you get exclusive coffee blends and merchandise. Mountain Ops offers the best supplements on the market and functional gear for athletes and hunters. Their battleground merino garments are some of the best I have found.

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