Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - From Navy SEAL to Natural Resources - Coffee with Ryan Zinke

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Today we sit down with the Representative from Montana, Ryan Zinke. From his roots in Bozeman to the halls of Congress, Zinke's journey is one marked by service, dedication and an unyielding passion for his home state. Mr. Zinke had a 23-year-long military career as a U.S. Navy SEAL. We discussed his deployments in Asia, his leadership at SEAL Teams SIX, his role in training future SEALs in the wake of 9/11, and his tenure in Congress, and his approach to energy, conservation, and tribal issues as Representative for Montana's First Congressional District. Sign up for the new G14 newsletter here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/exclusive Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/  

Well, good morning, everybody. I know you think you're going to get some Q&A, but sometimes a guest drops into your lap. And sometimes they have limited time. And it didn't make sense to release this as a full episode. So we're going to call this one coffee with congressmen, I guess. I don't know if it'll be a repeat thing because I don't know that many congressmen. But Representative Ryan Zinke, who actually represents the, what would it be? County and district that I live in, happened to be in town, met up at the coffee shop, walked over, had a little chat about government and politics. And yeah, why don't you just go listen so I can stop talking. Coffee with Congressman with Representative Ryan Zinky. Enjoy. I'm looking at danger close now. Here's the only question. How close to we are we for the political system to be unsalvageable? Because I feel like it's tomorrow.

All right. Yeah, from my perspective. Look, I've been a congressman twice, three times, secretary. I haven't seen a problem that's not fixable. It is absolutely fixable, but it's going to take courage. There's a lot of fundamental things we have to change in our government. Trust is probably at the front side of it. Let me ask you a question.

So what agency department bureau of the United States government do you have full faith in confidence in? IRS. There you go. All right. There you go. That was a joke for anybody. I know, big joke. I don't have full faith and confidence in any department of the government.

Well, and, you know, when I grew up, I did. Which one did you have the most faith in? Well, being a former Department of Defense, when I grew up, remember, I grew up in Reagan, and I thought when the President of the United States talked, particularly Reagan, he was talking to the American people. The division wasn't there, but I trusted it. When the FBI said something, and you and I have friends, in the FBI. We trusted him. Well, that trust now is gone, and that's a problem. So we're going

to have to, number one, bring transparency and accountability back. And that's a tough one, but also trust, right? And those that have breached the trust, they need to be held accountable. You and I are always held accountable. Someone holds us accountable. When you're elected, you know, the people do. I think that's an issue. And we can talk to the go along about financially where we're at. That is fixable as long as we have courage. But the bottom line, I haven't seen anything that's not fixable is going to take courage to get at it, though. Do you think that the people who are currently in office would actually be willing to make those changes? So I've never served a day in political office. I would say, actually, if I had thought about your question more, I probably would have

answered and said the closest department that I have faith in would have been the DOD. But then I would have had to clarify, I have the utmost faith that the DOD will complete their mission. I am very worried now, though, about the people who are pulling the strings on the course of the DOD and what they're doing to the DOD? Yeah, and I think, case in point, you know, why doesn't America trust the Department of Defense? Let's talk about Afghanistan. First time in my life that we not only abandoned U.S. citizens and left knowingly and willingly U.S. citizens outside the perimeter defend from themselves when, remember, the Taliban at that time, were

stoning the death the female pilots we trained. They were hanging interpreters, you know, out of the Blackhawks made in America. At that moment, we decide to run and we locked the gates. We welded the gates shut. So we were lucky to get out there with 13, you know, deaths, and I'm sorry for those deaths, but it could have been, you know, 40,000 in a heartbeat. Because you remember, Kabul, Kabul is like a bowl, right? One runway. All that had to do is one, one round and destable that runway. No one's getting out of Kabul because we gave up, we gave up Kandahar. We gave a bogrum, right? We didn't have any rotary wing. And you know what the, what the really bad part is? America lied. I mean, the Biden administration lied. And it was a retreat. And it broke confidence

not only to the U.S. troops in America public, but our allies don't trust us. And I think that incident rolled into Ukraine. It started a series of events. And we are now at the, you at nearing the end, because I don't think Biden's getting elected. I don't think America's going to stand for it anymore. But I'm seeing people who are waking up. I've given enough time to guess what's going to happen in political elections. I consider myself to be a reasonable person, and oftentimes I'm wrong when it comes to how the elections turn themselves out.

But we also could go a step farther back to Iraq. And we could take a look at what we were pitched going into Iraq and then what Iraq actually ended up becoming. and it's, yeah, our history of decisions when it comes to the implementation of the OD, it's not great. Like, I think Afghanistan, if we had to go to the history books, I think we're going to be judged as a failure on the Iraq war in general, probably, but the departure of Afghanistan for sure. Well, you know, on Iraq is interesting because, you know, I was early, I was a Special Forces commander in Iraq in Flusia in 2004, right? And that was, well, we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. I hit the number one chem biotarget in Iraq in Mop level four.

It was an agricultural school. Well, and the Iraqis were a little disorganized. You know, so they said, well, we had chemical weapons. Yes. Where are they? Well, we don't know. They were actually being very truthful. They didn't know because they didn't have any inventory and stuff got buried.

But at the day, you know, I always say what now? So if you defeat Iraq, what are you going to do about Iran? because we have emboldened Iran, no doubt. So we've taken that countermeasure away to a degree, and now Iran is much more emboldened. Act, there's doing maritime operations with Iran, China, and Russia now in the Middle East. That should strike a little attention, but this administration not so much. Knowing what we know about Iraq and what we said that we were going there for

and what the war ended up becoming and how we left, would you still support going there? The reason why we went to Iraq was because we were told weapons of mass destruction. I don't think that was the case. It would be tough to prove the case that it was the case. But also, you know, Iraq wasn't exactly the best of characters either. Sure. They publicly said they did have weapons of mass destruction. They sent, you know, their spies to kill a president.

That plot was foiled. and they were a menace. No doubt they were a menace. There's a lot of menaces out there. I was going to say, I can name a few other countries in that region that fit the same criteria that you're talking about. Well, now shift forward to today Ukraine. So what's the plan? I was not aware that there is one.

Well, you know, so we're $130 billion in. And, you know, I grew up with John F. Kennedy that we'd pay any price, bearing burden, and make sure the survival of liberty. Absolutely. So there's a compelling case of helping democracy. I'm not sure Ukraine is democracy, but follow that line of reason. We're $130 billion in. So what's the plan?

And because we're tiptoeing towards nuclear combat with the Russians, and if the plan is for Russia to give the Kermian Peninsula, I mean, you're a historian. Look, for 800 years... I wouldn't call myself that, but... Well, for 800 years, the Kermian Peninsula, I think there has been 14 wars fought over it. And that's Russia's only warm water port. It would be like saying we're going to, the U.S. is going to give up the Mississippi. So that's an unrealistic target. It looks like, you know, we're giving Ukraine a blank check.

I don't like blank checks. So what's the end goal? Where are we going on this thing before we spend any more money? My opinion is tell me the plan and where we're going to go. Because right now I just tip-toeing, wandering in, you know, the plan as well, defeat or diminish Russia's capability to conduct. conventional warfare. I think we're there on that. I think having a defined plan at end state is good if you're ever going to commit American, for sure, American capital through the lens of boots on the ground, but also from a monetary perspective. I mean, how about that's just a

baseline requirement before we do anything? Well, you know, the administration, certainly with the executive in the constitution, we give them a lot of leeway, but this is the counterbalance is Congress, power the purse. Congress needs a step forward in demand, and we are, what's the plan? One is our stockpiles are diminishing. You see mostly as, I think, a product of lack of leadership. China's flexing their muscle. And where are we vulnerable to China?

Pretty much across the board. Yeah. I think, you know, a seal when he goes to battle probably has a couple dozen critical mineral requirements, you know, in their thermocytes and tritium, et cetera, all critical minerals. And where are they all made? We're made in China. Almost, you know, 93% of the processing is made in China. So all of a sudden, you shift and you look at the supply chain.

We were talking earlier about, you know, you're building your house and can't get equipment and the black coffee here. And you couldn't get a bid. Well, same thing across the supply chain. And we look at it. Where are we vulnerable now? We're vulnerable from China on the components. And don't even get me started with the EV world is even worse. It's the future.

What are you talking about? That's how we save the planet. Here's that I'd say, Rod. We should all have electrical cars in California, which I know we both have spent time in on a power grid that can't support the charging of them. Cleaner, great, you know. But these are the facts that when I came in as secretary, we were about 8.3 million barrels a day in oil production and declining.

We were beholden by foreign interests. We were vulnerable. And look, you know, before I send troops overseas, fighting for oil. You and I fought for oil a lot of times. I don't want to send my kids to fight for oil when we have it here. So we went in two years from about 8.7 or so to 12.5 million barrels a day. We were the world's largest producer of energy. And you know what? We lowered emissions. You know why? Because no one does it better than the U.S. So if you want clean fuel, then do it in the U.S. If you want dirty fuel, then raise the cost of it because it'll be produced

somewhere else in the planet that I can tell you, you've seen Saudi, you've seen it. You've seen, You've seen Africa. I've seen where they produce. It is, and again, I have, like, it's anecdotal because I've only been to the places that I've been, but it was, let's just say, not the best air quality, visibly horrendous water quality from even the hotel that I was staying at. I've seen it firsthand. Yeah, and here's a little factoid. You know, we're seals. We live in the ocean.

It is that 90% of the plastic in the oceans, 90% comes from four rivers in China. Four rivers in China. So China's the number one polluter, CO2, the number one polluter, illegal fishing. So China is not a responsible ally. And I would say they're fast becoming an adversary. But on energy, the moment we become energy independent, then the EV push. And I understand cleaner, but where are the batteries made? China, where do they process China?

And what are you going to do when the battery ends its life cycle? On supply chain, there's a disposal part, too. too, right? Yeah. We're going to dispose them. 90% of the solar cells in this country get tossed in some landfill. And I believe me, in a solar cell, you know, there's toxins in there. I don't think we want to be just, you know, blindly thrown up in the Flathead County Refuge up here, you know, toxins in there.

You got to talk about the sourcing, too. It goes even back to the beginning. I've done some episodes talking to people about just the sourcing of cobalt. And, again, a lot of the, not all, but a lot of the manufacturers actually have deep ties from a business relationship to China, and they're very regulated to use their word, but just outside of the gates where tens of thousands of people are mining coal ball barefoot with no respiratory protection. It's unbelievable. Well, in China, you know, I sit on the bicamom commission on China. China harvest organs from political dissidents. Are we sure about that? Yeah. And you go,

well, who's China? This seems like some Reddit shit right here. Yeah, well, yeah, I'll show you the documentation is like, hey, this is a tough guy. And you're right. So the coal bolt. So who processes it? And when you do business with a Chinese company, look, it's a communist country. There's no difference between the Communist Party and doing a business with a communist entity. It is Communist Party. All right. That's who runs China. That's why it's called a Communist Party, right, and a communist country. So it enters to watch. But on, the energy in this country, the race to EV is actually causing more harm in many ways than good. We're just not prepared, and you can't raise the price and be blind to reliability, affordability, and technology. But, you know, I'm an optimist. These guys have gone too far, and it may feel nice to write a Tesla. They're beautifully made, and I actually kind of like the founder.

They feel nice until you think back to what it actually takes. to produce the vehicle and the petroleum products that are involved in the source. It's actually the definition of cognitive dissidents. People, it's like they're holding two ideologically different thoughts, and they can't do it. So it's like, I'm saving the planet by being in a Tesla. Don't worry about where the coal ball came from or all the petroleum products required to make this vehicle or the power grid, not being able to sustain it. Well, and I think you have to look at supply chain, both production input and output and disposal. So you're right.

But, you know, getting back to where we are as a country. Where would you start to clean up politics? Where to start? You're king for a day. All right. You have the freaking battle acts of justice. You can carve however you want. I would start out a little document called the Constitution.

You're not allowed to carve that one. Oh, you know, it's eight pages. And I think we've strayed too far away from our core document, which was, I think, in many ways divine. But I gave me an example. appropriations. So we have about a $31 trillion debt on the debt. If everyone to bear with me, I kind of explain it, is that with this debt, almost 70%, a little over 70% of the debt, Congress doesn't even vote on each year. That's just get set aside as automatic spending. You call mandated spending, 70%. And then you got a little 30%, and by the way, 30 years ago was

just opposite. I was going to say, how did that increase over time? Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. And so you have a little 30% left, and about half of that's defense. And the next half is probably Veterans Affairs. And then you're talking about 13%. So this whole thing about debt we went through and these bills is really looking at 13% of budget. No business in the world can balance their budget on 13% when that 13% is declining in the big bear is the mandated side, which is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. and all those programs are absolutely worth saving, but we better save it because we have 5,000 people entering the rolls on Medicare

is that no one's happy with flexibility and there's too much bureaucracy, et cetera, et cetera. But I'll go back to the Constitution. You know, our founding fathers were very clever. And they must have thought it was important because they put it up front in Article 1, Section 9, that no money should be removed from the state. Treasury unless by consequence of appropriations. So you say, number one, I'd change. I would say we need to appropriate everything and have the courage, have the courage to do it.

But when you don't look at two-thirds of the budget and, you know, we hear these terms about omnibuses and continuing resolutions and mandated and appropriated, it's all in Montana terms, it's all BS because all those things were put in place so Congress could punt. Let's not talk about Social Security. It's an election year. Let's not talk about Medicare. It's an election year. Well, when are we going to talk about it?

We better talk about it now because we're $31 trillion, and our glide slope's not good. So let's fix it. But fixing it is where we need people to be upfront, truthful, and you have to have courage. And we have now five seals in the House of Representatives. We're working on a seal in the Senate. we have three green berets and we're out recruiting people that I know have the courage. Do you think that service in the military will make somebody more successful or able to operate inside of the political arena? Well, certainly those that I've served with, they serve because they love the country.

And there is something that when you give the oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign domestic, that doesn't end when you leave the service. That's a lifetime, and it's a lifetime choice. And so those that have served, you know, I think our solution is to go back to the Constitution, understand there's going to be diversity of thought and respect that, respect others. But the Constitution is a framework that we need to all agree upon.

And that's certainly that's the heart. And I think most Americans do. But I encourage everyone to, hey, take a moment. It's only eight pages. And read the Constitution and understand the vision of power and a tyrant is unchecked power no matter where it comes from. Yeah, I worry about one, the Constitution's not a long read. Some of the language can trip people up a little bit. They were a little bit more flowery, if you will, in their terms.

I worry about people coming from the military, though, going directly into politics. For the same reason that politicians worry me just about as much as the military because we're talking. about human beings. And when you're talking about humans, they have human problems. And the best leaders that I ever served with were in the SEAL teams and the worst ones, too. I worry about what happens to people when they enter into a system that from a layman's perspective who's never touched it seems to have become more about empowering and enriching the individual than serving those that elected them to office. You make a great point. So I did 23 years. And most of my career in the SEALs was was spent trying to understand technology and integrate technology in the battlefield, right?

I think we trained harder than the generation today, but the generation day trains plenty hard. We probably trained harder, not smarter, the guys are training, but a big difference is combat time away. You know, I did, I think, six combat tours or so, and these guys today, they're just warming up. And so you're right. The modern day warrior also is strapped with a different set of, I'd say, unintended consequences. When you normalize, when you have so many tours that you normalize going over there, that becomes normal. You come back and there's some scar tissue. So in politics, there are some guys that have served that probably have a little scar tissue, but they also understand it.

and, you know, politics in my view, from Montana's perspective, it's kind of like rowing a boat. A boat has two oars, right? Unless it's a kayak. Well, you're still going to have two blades, right? You can alternate. Let's go with a boat. Okay. What if it's a sandal paddle board, then it's just one battle?

Oh, yeah. Well. Not to get lost. No, right. Here we go. So hang with me on this. A boat has two oars, right? And I'll admit, I'm the right or.

100% on the right or. But I do recognize there's a left or, right? And it seems to be as a country, what happens when you only only use one ore? Yeah, you go in circles. And it seems like a country we're going right circle, left circle, but we're not navigating the river very well. And look, and we have some big challenges. We have financial, we have border. We don't even have a border. Let's just just be frank, right? You got China breathing down our neck. You got the economy that's starting to fall apart. You got people are struggling with housing. We've got a lot of problems. but you can't really navigate the river using one ore and you can't use the tips

because I tell you that tips are a lot of splash but don't do anything. And what you feel is a lot of tips, people splashing in D.C. And anyone can fight. We've seen that. Leaders win. And the leaders is the front line.

Is everyone going to step in position? And this is a fight that we're going to have to make. But it's not only your country, congressman you got to keep your congressman accountable and the congressman better keep the the administration accountable and work back at core trust and and work back to getting the constitution it's everyone's responsibility do you think that they're actually trying to do that in the modern era because i feel like each side is just trying to win well you know certainly you know i sit on appropriations uh and it's contentious because, you know, in my view, the last four years, a lot of the woke movement,

they've mandated things to be put in the budget on the taxpayer dollars, right? How permanent are those? Can they be reversed? Well, yes, they can. And what the big battle is in the hill right now is we're just taking it out. You know, stay with the boat with the analogy of the boat, right? They put it on the boat. We're taking it off the boat, all right? I don't think the government should be paying for sex change operations. That's not DOD's mission. We should be paying for hormone, We shouldn't be paying for nonsense. I mean, unless we got into stop,

but they're going to pay in Philadelphia for the youth communist party of Philadelphia. Do you think U.S. taxpayers should be going for that? No. Not right. So we are taking everything out of the boat. There's a lot of, I would say, the core members of Congress today understand their country's in trouble and they're willing to step up and fix it. There's a lot more bipartisan under the scenes sometimes than the media would like.

Yeah. Because, you know. Well, the media needs to sell their ads, so they need you to pay attention to what they're saying. Conflict sells. Yeah. Right? The battle sells. But, you know, a nice day, you know, a picnic wherever you got along today.

That doesn't make the news. So what I've seen is there's crazies, believe me, on probably on both sides. I think it's definitely clear it's on both sides. Yeah, but here's a mark. All right. Here's a marker is that there was a bill. Maria Salazar put it in. She's Cuban, and she's staunchly anti-communist. As most American Cubans are staunchly anti-communist. God bless them. Funny how that works when you've actually touched communism. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But so she puts a bill in and she condemns. The bill is condemning communism.

And boy, the read-in is a wonderful, you know, mousy, tongues, Stalin, you know, all the, All the principal characters are evil are listed in that. So you had 80 Democrats vote against it and 20 take a pass. So you have a Democrat caucus over there that about 100, which is about half the caucus, can't condemn socialism brand communism. So, you know, I think the parties, I think the Democrat party has shifted far, far, far to the left. I mean, John F. Kennedy would probably be sick. right and certainly in my lifetime even Clinton uh would be would be a screaming conservative uh this this because clinton remember was was uh social security work you know and and and and clinton actually

had some decent policies you know you know personally aside i had decent policies but you look at today as it were that were if if a hundred of that caucuses voting for socialism and communism that's a That's pretty rough. And on our side, we have some people that are just very, very, very upset because they're watching their country fall apart. And the divisions in this country, unfortunately, have widened. But the good thing is I've seen a little more bipartisan lately. Do you think that the right side of the aisle has drifted farther to the right as well? We've drifted a little towards the right.

But where we've gone is, is I think people are drifting. from the Constitution. So, you know, again, I think the Constitution is self where everyone needs to pull together in and reading the Constitution and understand we can have a disagreement. And I don't agree with myself all the time. You can ask my beautiful wife.

But we need to have the dialogue. And the dialogue should not be angry. And, you know, in the House, also the last four years, under the Pelosi regime, it hurt the institution. and COVID hurt this country. In a variety of ways, literally and metaphorically. Absolutely, but yeah, but it's hard to hate close up.

So when you're in Congress, and Congress is a body, right? 218 votes moves the bill. But it's a body, and you have to have relationships with each other. But when you don't have committee hearings, you can't travel, you couldn't even go into the office, right? What happens is you lose relationships. and if you were a Republican on that side, anything you put in was automatically dismissed because they had the run of the table.

Your only recourse was to go to the media, right? And sometimes legislation by media doesn't produce the right outcome because media likes to spike, you know, the extremes and pit one side against each other. So as a country, I think we need to focus on what we have in common. And look, if you can't agree,

with the Constitution, then I'm sorry, there's lines with me that we don't have much in common. But if we can poll the Constitution, we have a lot in common because that's what America is founded on. What do you think about term limits? You know, I think term limits are appropriate. And this is the argument about, and I voted, I would vote for term limits. What would you limit the term to? Well, this is the argument, is you'd have to restructure the Senate. because the first term in the Senate is you barely even speak.

All right. So a Senate's six years. To be effective, the most effective senators are three terms. Is that because they're learning to navigate in the current system as it exists? Because I feel like that might change if people are limited in their time there. Yeah. And here comes the quagmiter, right? So there is a deep state because if you're going to put term limits on,

you're going to have to put term limits on the power, which are the bureaucrats. All right. We're going to have to work. Termin lives have to have to be hand in hand. But also, you should always view D.C. And consolidation of power as the adversary. Because the Constitution, clearly, it is about a tyrant. An unchecked power is an adversary.

So when D.C., when you spend too much time in D.C., just like C. will spend too much time over there and you normalize it, then normal becomes D.C. DC's anything but normal. So there is a, just like being a seal, is it takes a little time to figure out the system to be really good at your job. So then you're really good at a job,

but you have a few years under your belt. And then that's your most effective and productive time. Right. Now you're in the front line, you're fighting. But when all of a sudden you do that transition from this is now normal, then I think. So, you know, I'm thinking the Senate probably three terms and maybe 20 years, maybe a little less. But I think we're heading that way because you look at the Senate. You know, there are many members that I think America questions whether or not they're capable of really being there.

Mentally, physically, et cetera, et cetera. And, of course, then you have our commander-in-chief as well. What do you think about limiting those serving in government, specifically politicians, their ability to invest in stocks? It is shocking to me how well some in elected office are able to select stocks. Here's what I don't understand. All right. So as a congressman. So my paycheck is about 174,000, right?

that's before taxes. So you do taxes, that's, you're about 140, right? And then you got to pay for a hotel or you get some stepping, but, you know, you got to live someplace, right? So you got in D.C., so that's by about 40 or so. And then you've got to maintain an house. So at the end of the day, you know, your net income is about what a senior lieutenant is in D.C.

So with that income, how can you amass wealth to the point where you're... Is that the job of a politician, though? Well, but how do you do it? If you're taking 80,000 in, right? Yeah. So how do you convert? I mean, are you really lucky?

Remember Hillary Clinton with a $10,000 bet? She makes $800,000 on a, by reading Wall Street Journal and cattle futures. This is pure luck. Well, but, you know, I don't mind people making money, but I don't mind people making money, but I remind people making on dishonest money. Problem is it spans both sides of the aisle. And the answer to your question is, is how do you make money on 80,000 a year?

Is that when they leave politics, they go get book deals and speaking deals, and they sit on boards of companies and their net worth exponentially increases by 20, 30, 40, 50x overnight? Well, I don't be good people of making money out of, when you're out of government. But when you're in government, all right,

it can't be tit for tat. You shouldn't be making back. on stock based on based on your inside knowledge or look I'm gonna I'm gonna promote you know what I when I got in Congress I sold everything it's not that they had a lot anyway yeah but I sold it I didn't want the the scrutiny because I'm willing to accept while I'm in that that my decisions and based on a personal is based on what's best for Montana in the Constitution so yeah I look at it go you should not be in a position while you're making money on your position while you're serving.

You know, as as as as as as a seal too. If you're going to be a seal, I have, I have no problem with guys, you know, making money on, because that's their part of their, that's their background, right? If I if they're making money on it when they're out and but you should always if you're going to make, if you're going to possess yourself as a, you know, a motivator or a author or. former seal, then do it in a good light of a seal, you know, and because that's part of your DNA makeup, you earn the Trident, it's okay. But don't write something that is untruthful. And if you're going to write something that's involved tactics, techniques, and procedures, you know, get it cleared. Yeah. I think that's, and make sure what you do, if you're going to promote yourself, then do it where every seal family would be happy with it, right? Keep it. Keep it clean and, you know, keep it above board.

When you're talking about the seals. Yeah. And then between. How do you address their failures while doing all of that? And, you know, I've been around, as you know, a long time. And you have I, I've seen both the successes and failures. And there's a deep side, a deep dark side of the seals too. I'd say the DOD in general.

Special operations, probably the wall locker might be a little deeper. Yeah. And some of it is, look, we press these guys. I think we press them too hard. I think some of these guys get on adrenaline, you know, back and forth. And again, we normalize, you know, that side of it. I think, you know, I don't blame the individual a lot of times. I blame leadership for keeping them in.

And we've had some problems with guys at senior levels, right? Well, they didn't get to be senior overnight. So where did the leadership come, came from when he had an LPO or a chief? Or, I mean, he didn't get from zero to where he's at overnight. There was a lot of gates along the way. So, you know, in the SEALs, in the Navy, in the service in general, I said, well, how's the E5 doing?

You want to know how the SEALs are doing? Ask the E5. Are you staying in? Are you happy? Because the E5, you're starting to think about getting married, thinking about having family, anything about those decisions, where are you in life? And if the E5 is running clean, the force is good. But the E5 is struggling, then you got a whole lot of problems come down your way because

they don't get any better. You know, they don't get any better from E5 to E7. You just get deeper, as you know. Yeah, I think that would be a good, like an 80% temperature check. what the E5 doesn't understand, though, is a lot of the mechanisms behind the scenes that make the sausage. Oh, you know, you know. So their life, although it might be going good or well, it's not the best indication, I think, of the overall community. I will absolutely agree with that. You know, one of my great friends, Matt Alevich told me when I was at 6, he goes, you officers, you rent your locker. I own mine.

and uh it both false statements but well to agree he did own us but uh he owns his for he has a lease it's not an oh yeah but you know also is that um you know the different segments of when i came in uh we had two oh sixes maybe three or sixes and then i remember our first admiral you know i I think at the peak, seals had like 16 admirals. Probably, yeah. Yeah, probably a little heavy on it. And anytime you have 16 admirals, the politics up on the upper end, you get a little tight too.

So I think having guys focus on being seals away from politics is probably good. So in some ways, you know, the chief locker, God bless you, you don't want to know. You know, just focus on what you're on. Be careful what you ask. Right, just focus on being good at demolition and being the best shot. You know, people else say, well, how was combat influcia? I said, well, you know, the good thing I was had really good people around me. I said, what about shooting?

I said, well, chief, shoot. Nice shot, chief. You know, because we have brilliant, brilliant people. And the one thing I really have always appreciated about SEALs is very competitive. And it's kind of funny is that, well, you're just. you're just UDT, right? And I said, no, you're just STV. No, you're just a vanilla seal.

No, you're just an assaulter. No, you're just a special cell guy. No, you're just an advanced special guy. You know what? You're just not me. At the end of the day, we are hyper competitive as a group. And everyone's messed up but me. But assembled and given a task, there's no one better.

you know, because you just know that, you know, on a breacher level, you know they know everything about breaching, right? They've forgotten more about breaching than I know or ever know. But I know who, you know, as an officer, I never had to be the best in anything. Yeah. If you were breaching into our shit had been horribly wrong. But I was never the best at anything, but I always knew who was, right? And the secret to leadership is surround yourself with really, really good people and empower them.

Unfortunately, the environment that we put these guys in, as you point out, and extending them too long, there comes a lot of consequence to it because it's a high-octane game and you've got to be on. If you're not on, you're going to get yourself or someone next to you killed. Yeah. What are you the most hopeful about in the political spectrum and environment you are working with? What gives you hope that our system is recoverable? Well, not that it's destroyed, but I don't know. I mean, depending on who you ask on the wind is blowing. Some might say it's headed for the precipice.

Yeah, well, all right. We've been through a lot of battles on our life, right? We have. Well, not every commanding general, as we pointed out, is George S. Patton. Yeah. Right? Because generals don't win wars. It's a front line. And I think America is strong. I think the character of America

we're at risk. There's a lot of nonsense, you know, going on. But I think the core of America is strong. America wants to work. Most people want to show up in the morning, drop the kids off. They want to make sure the school's safe. They want to go about their business, pick the kids up,

watch a ball game, and watch a ball game in the weekend without the political bantering, right? So I'm seeing that a lot of people are stepping up and paying attention, which is whole fly. These problems that we have in the country, most of them we made ourselves, quite frankly. We just didn't pay attention. And it's kind of like this.

It's kind of like we got on America's bus, right? This bus is red, white, and blue. It's going to take us to the American dream. Everyone's going to have a three-bedroom, two-bathouse, right? Can we have an eagle up front? Absolutely. Absolutely. Probably Budweiser on the back of the old bud, right?

Okay. I still, you know, Budweiser is Budweiser. But you get on the bus, and then we get involved in busy in our lives. We go to work. We're raising kids. We're running businesses. Because we just think the bus is fine. And all of a sudden we look out the window, man, we're not even close.

And there's no driver, right? So this is what you get when you don't pay attention. So somewhere we lost the driver, so we've got to get a map and get about, but we've got to pay attention to where we're going and pay attention to what's going on in our country. And I've seen a lot more interest in school boards across the America, what our kids are being taught. And look, if we're off the tracks, it's our fault for getting there. So everyone just do their duty. And my duty at the moment, I sit in the house for representatives on appropriations on appropriations. That's my duty at the moment.

And you have a duty, and everyone, you know, everyone to their stations will be fine. Fair enough. I know you got limited time. What's going on in Montana? What's your wave tops Montana was? Well, you know, a lot of what we face in Montana, right, is that most people view Montana through the lens of Yellowstone. I was actually, if you hadn't said that, that's what I was going to say.

Yeah, that's true, right? And I go, look, Yellowstone is magnificently acted. It's well-written. It's a drama set in Montana. Shot in Park City for the first three seasons. Yeah, but Star Wars is a great drama well-acted. It is set in space, right? So it's really not Montana, but a lot of what I face is D.C. has some great idea, but they don't know where it is.

I mean, how do you think you can manage the Yellowstone River if you don't know where it is, right? So we have a challenge. We have endangered species that need to get out the list, particularly. Grizzly Bears, the science is clear. We have a reservation system that doesn't work in the park that's locking out the locals. We need to look at a transportation system, robust

transportation system. You know, locally in glacier, locals can't see their park. But yet 90% of the people don't walk more than 100 meters off that trail because most people do the main stem. And we can have a great transportation

system that allows everyone great access to enjoy the park. We can't. That vehicle pass switch has been, I don't pay attention to a lot. It's actually impossible to ignore people, locals complaining about that one. Well, and they should complain. It's not right. You know, Yellowstone doesn't have that same problem.

And each park is different. There's 18 parks across the system that have some sort of transportation system. The key is not to lock people out of the park is get a better system so people can enjoy it, right? And, of course, you have the Flathead Lake. that I'm going to throw that 100% on bureau reclamation. Look, if you don't kick the bureaucracy in the butt sometimes, they just stay in neutral. What's going on with the Flathead Lake? Well, the water table went low.

It's definitely low this year for sure. It's slower than it ever should be. And the problem, when you bring the Flathead Lake low, a lot of Marines don't have access then. You can't draw pools out for irrigation in some spots. it makes a big deal, but it's also unsafe. Was it dam controlled down by summers? All right. There's an input up above with Hungry Horse.

And then the exit is the Selychcutney Dam. They used to be the Kerr Dam on the bottom. It's not the Kerr Dam fault. They are restricted in what they can. The reservoir itself miscalculated and should have should have been grant release out of the reservoir. The Hungry Horse pools like 14 feet. In my lifetime, you know, fifth generation, I've seen it 100 foot or 80 feet below. Oh, wow.

Right. So it's a reservoir. So if you got to make up water, then make it out of the reservoir. But do it in a matter, slow bleed, so you don't disturb, you know, all the recreation aspects of the South Fork and Middle Fork. So anyway, it could have been done. But, again, no decision. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wrong data. and when the flathead lake matters.

It matters for a lot of reasons. But also in safe, you know, you're a seal. There's a lot of submerged obstacles in that lake. That's why I just don't go in the water. I'm done with that shit. Yeah, you just go across it, right? Because you're always there. But that obstacle that was four feet below, right?

You'd just skim across you'd never know, right? So now it's just hanging out below the surface. You still don't know, and you're not going to know until you hit it. And that's dangerous for people to motor. Yeah, I've watched it over the years. here seven years now and the water level goes down in the winter when it freezes and people's boats come out. I was down at the, I was actually at the lake Saturday and I looked out at the dock. Like, wow, that high water line is below. But if your boat can't go on your slip, right?

Yeah. And that's what's the issue is. How are you going to get your boat out, right? So then you've got to get a crane or you just take it out and just not boat all summer. So you got a lot of businesses. And then on the park, last thing is on the side, east and west are very, very different, most beautiful, but different as far as businesses go. If you're so lucky to get a reservation, you're probably not going to stay in Browning, right? You're going to stay on this side. That means you're going to go from this side and enter. And so all those businesses on the east side are in jeopardy of going bankrupt because they don't have the traffic. And because they lock the east side down, that's, you know, Shoto and Great Falls and all that side. They just go to the park today.

They can't. So the east side, west side, I'm an advocate. But what we did do in the house is, hey, power the purse. We took the money away. And if they don't have the money, then they can't run the park system or the reservation system for glacier. So, you know, power the purse, right? And I represent this district, and the district absolutely wants to rework that reservation system so locals can have a shot going to the park.

It would just be great if they would shut up about it. I need you to fix that so I can not have to listen to them, bitch. You know, this is why leadership matters, right? You got a problem? Let's talk about how to fix it. And this is what's interesting about Congress is anyone can fight. Leaders win. So it's not about splashing.

It's about getting things done. And sometimes you've got to make the hard call and just tell people where you sit in the issue and you're going to accept making some yards. But if your playbook is just touchdowns, I can tell you, you're not going to perform very well. I mean, you got to take the yardage where you can and kind of in a political tone. What I see the House doing is we don't have command of the field. We don't have the Senate. We don't have the administration.

We have, we're the majority in the House. So what I see is we're holding the line where we need to and we're advancing where we can. And actually, we're getting a lot of things done in the House. So there's a lot of positive things that actually were getting done, a lot of good policies that have been in law. So this is why I remain a Reagan optimist. I see there's a path. But the only way to do it is we all got to stay in line and we all got to do our duty because this is about defending ultimately our country and the Constitution. What do you want to close that with?

I know you got another engagement. Well, you know, it's been fun. And, you know, for the frogmen listed in Special Forces, you know, come visit the Valley. And, hey. In February, it's the most optimal time. Well, anytime. But there's a lot of us up here. You know, there's 20 or 30 and there should be more.

I had heard that Montana has more veterans per capita than any other state, which I never ran the math on that one, but it wouldn't surprise me either. You know, we're either there or in the top three. a lot of people join the military for a lot of different reasons but montana a lot of legacy kids you know my uncle my father my brother joined uh in montana you've seen calispell during fourth of july it's no joke it's red white and blue they take it quite serious absolutely the flags were up like two weeks before like they're they're out there getting after it just golf carts full of flags just zipping flags up on poles yeah and then there there's uh there's there's there's no one taking to knee at that one unless they're praying. Awesome. Hey, great to agree with you. Yeah, of course. Fun.