From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Joe Biden's State Of The Union: Where Is The Truth?

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

This week, Sean and Rachel weigh in on President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address to the American people.   They examine why the energy level of President Biden's speech was lower than previous addresses, and share their frustrations with the way President Biden approached various issues such as Ukraine, growing inflation, and the coronavirus pandemic. Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Light up Black Friday with Freedom Mobile and get 50 gigs to use in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico for just $35 a month for 18 months. Plus, get a one-time gift of 5 gigs of Roam Beyond data. Conditions apply. Details at freedommobile.ca. Hey, everyone. Welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm your host, Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast, but also my partner in life, Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. You know, there's been so much going on this week that we decided not to have a guest and just talk, you and and I about all the things we have been talking about all week because it's just it's like news overload non-stop coffee non-stop conversation

about the world which feels like it's going to implode like it's it's like a really scary time for us right now um not just for Americans but but for the world I mean we feel like you know things aren't going right and you know I'm on I was on air last weekend and Russia goes into nuclear alert. I mean, when I was on Fox and Friends, I mean, that was kind of freaky, really freaky. And what's important is when you have these troubling times, you want to make sure that you have leaders in place that can help address crises. And it was interesting as this crisis has happened, happening, the president coincides with his state of the union address. So we were able to tune in and go, what is the vision of the president and how we're going to handle all of these crises on our horizon? I know who feels

good knowing that Joe Biden, who's really not mentally there. Thank you, Jill Biden. I blame Jill Biden for all of this. And also Millie and General Austin in charge of our military. Who feels good? Blinken. I mean, who feels good with any of these people in charge at such a crazy moment? And in fact, I think what we've both been talking about, I think a lot of people have as well, is that we're in this situation because of those leaders it is you know what happened in afghanistan their inaction in on on china and and the the sort of uh passes that they've given to china all along that have emboldened you know russia which is acting in conjunction with china i think through a lot this, or at least in consultation with them. I think when we talk about Russia, you got to talk about China at the same time. Yeah, no, I think you do. And I mean, just from my vantage point, I served in Congress, as you know, because we served together.

Because it was a big deal for you. Remember when you first the first time you got to go? Yeah, before we get there, I was going to talk about Lloyd Austin. I want to go back to this thought. I wanted to hire the best people in my congressional office, the smartest people, the best talent that I could get. I wanted to hire because you want to be the dumbest guy in the room. I did. And oftentimes I was. Or so my staff thought. people because with having the best people means I would be a better congressman serving the people who elected me. And I didn't care the color of their skin, their sexual preference, their race, their religion. I didn't care about any of that. But by the way, I had the most diverse office you could have ever imagined in Congress as a Republican. And not because you were looking for diversity. They just happened to be the best, the best people, the best people I could bring in. Chief of staff was gay. You had women. You had Asians

and blacks and Hispanics. Your district director was Hispanic. None of that was done because... I wanted diversity. I wanted smartness. And that's what I got. And so my concern with what Joe Biden... We had a lot of Catholics in the office. That was also not on purpose. Just happened to be the case.

But Joe Biden has brought in people not because of their talent, but he's brought them in because of his ability to check boxes. That's how we got Kamala Harris. You're right. And so in this troubling in these troubling times, I'm concerned that when you don't have the best and the brightest and the smartest people in the room, they can make mistakes. people in the room, they can make mistakes. And I think to your point, Rachel, mistakes have been made. And I think smarter people could have thought us through this in a different fashion. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later on Ukraine. But before we do that, I think we should talk about the State of the Union, because as you mentioned, I mean, the first time I went to the, let me back up a second. Not the first time I went,

when I, this is how maybe I was in Wisconsin. I had never been into the U.S. Capitol until I was elected. I got elected to Congress. And about three weeks later, I thought, oh, my goodness, I get to go to the State of the Union. Three weeks after he was elected, it dawned on him. I actually get to go to the state. And it was it is it is the coolest event. And I went for the first time under Barack Obama as president. and the excitement and the energy in the room on all sides. And obviously, I do not agree with Barack Obama, but there's this this air of anticipation that the country is going to tune in for this big address.

And Sean, it wasn't just the first time you went, although obviously that's going to be very memorable. But I got to go to many of them. Sometimes I gave my ticket away to Boy Scouts and other people who wanted to go. But I got to go to many of them. And you're right. It didn't matter whether it was Barack Obama or Donald Trump, the energy in the room, the anticipation around it. And by the way, on the times I did give away my ticket, I still felt that energy watching it on TV. You felt it. And the weirdest thing about this state of the union is there was no energy. It was like the the Jeb Bush, no low energy, state of the union, no energy at all. And I don't know if that Sean, what do you think it was? Was it,

was it because Joe Biden is just so low energy or was it that they were social distancing? What, what, what happened? Like, why was it such a deflated balloon before it even, you know, just when it started? I think there's a couple of factors and number. So the house has its normal function, right. And we go about our daily business. But the day before the State of the Union, they put up all these different lights around the chamber. So there's better lighting for the TV cameras to capture the chamber in the moment. I think the issue in this State of the Union, one was the social distancing. So if you notice, we were like, why aren't people in the chamber? And we soon realized.

I noticed that right away. I was like, did people not show up? So what they did was they social distance, right? They're still doing stupid, stupid stuff of of covid. And so they had to have a seat between all the members. Right. So the one there weren't there weren't people. The chamber wasn't full of members of Congress, which it normally is.

And that that provides a certain level of energy. Some members couldn't sit on the House floor. They actually had to go into the gallery. That's the balconies up above where guests normally. That's where you'd sit. Yeah, that would be where I would sit. But members were up there. So there was that.

And by the way, one of the weird thing that I found was so in the Senate. So bad, so bad for TV, Sean. Like you want when you're giving a speech, you want to see a crowded room. Right. And that gives the energy. Dumb. But so in the Senate, they have assigned seats.

Every senator has a desk and that's their seat. And that's where they speak from. That's where they work from. We're different in the House. The House does not have assigned seats. First come, first serve. It is first come, first serve. No one has one seat to sit in.

You can sit in a different seat every single day. You can't reserve a seat. You can't say, well, that's my seat. You can't sit there. That's not the rule. You sit anywhere you want. Any member first come, you're right, first serve. Supreme Court and for our military leaders, but members of Congress who come in, there's no assigned seating in this state of the union. If you look at the back of the chairs, everyone had an assigned seat on where they got to sit for the state of the union, which I found really kind of odd and contrary to the rules that we have in the house. They've broken so many traditions in this administration. And it was just kind of a letdown like they're like no mask but then they had more covet theater because they just they couldn't justify just removing all the rules they had to just still play into that it was so annoying so so anyway that part is but just i

think the biggest letdown was usually when again whether you agree with the president or not um these are some of the best orators the country has, some of the best speakers and visionaries that the country has. And they come in and they talk to the country and you're there, you know, feeling the energy in the room for that speech, that great speech for that president. Joe Biden was different. I think all of us who have heard Joe Biden speak know that he doesn't do it very well. He mumbles his words. he has a hard time putting thoughts together so i think the anticipation just because of who he is as an orator as a speaker as a communicator led people to believe that this isn't going to be a great state of the union on top of the copa theater well yeah and he had a couple moments where he said iranians instead of

ukrainians it was just he was slurring his just he was slurring his words. He was slurring his words. He lost his train of thought, which is weird because he has the teleprompter in front of him. By the way, that reminds me of like 22 years old in that late night at bars. I wouldn't slur my words like that, maybe. But yeah, well, you know what? When you're, you know, 80 some years old, 90 some years old and you're you're suffering from dementia, you're going to slur your words, too. And that's what I think we saw. I mean, let's just be honest. I think after seeing that state of union for me and the way he was struggling and, um, he just didn't, he's not

up for the job. And you look at the problems that we're in and we're going to get into that right now. You look at the problems we're facing and that's just not the quarterback you want to have on your team. He's just not, he's, he's, he's an old tired horse. He's ready to go off into, you know, golf and you know, four o'clock dinner and jello or whatever, you know, Jill wants to give them, but I, he's not up for this job, Sean. It's just really obvious. And it's, and it's not just sad. I think for a while it was sad right now. It's just really obvious. And it's and it's not just sad. I think for a while it was sad. Right now, it's scary. You're right. And so as we talked about just the energy in the room and the

fact that he's not a good orator and COVID theater, those are all things that can be overcome with great ideas from the podium. The ideas on how we fix the problems that this country faces is what really matters in that speech. And I think that Joe Biden, frankly, through the whole speech was was missing the mark on the real concerns that Americans have. He was making us angry. So let's let's talk about that, Sean. Like, what are the things that he said that because I mean, first of all, full disclosure, I fell asleep about like 10 minutes into it. And I had re-watch this the speech that's how exciting the speech was on rumble not on youtube because i'm on rumble now um i re-watched the speech the

next day so i could you know see what i missed but that's how boring it was and i like these events i'm a political junkie i fell asleep but you were angry right from the get-go at some of the things you heard well first off i mean i think the first five minutes were fine. He talked about Ukraine. This is a, you know, they're attacked. Everyone's like, rah, rah, this is wonderful. But you know, right off the bat Joe Biden went into Donald Trump, basically saying he wanted to pass Joe Biden's legislation that was going to lift all Americans up and whether you're rich or poor built back better.

It was his. What was he talking about? No, the rescue package, the rescue package. The rescue package. Sorry, I was sleeping. So I lost my. But in that, he talked about Donald Trump passing tax cuts for the 1%.

And that's a moment where Republicans booed Joe Biden and Democrats. So actually, let's play that clip. So like many of you, I grew up in a family when the price of food went up, it was felt throughout the family. It had an impact. That's one of the first things I did as president was fight to pass the American Rescue Plan because people were hurting. fight to pass the American Rescue Plan. Because people were hurting, we needed to act, and we did. Few pieces of legislation have done more at a critical moment in our history to lift us out of a crisis. It fueled our efforts to vaccinate the nation and combat COVID-19, delivered immediate economic relief to tens of millions of Americans, and helped put food on the table. Remember those

long lines of cars waiting for hours just to get a box of food put in their trunk. It cut the cost of health care insurance. And as my dad used to say, it gave the people just a little bit of breathing room. Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefited the top 1% of Americans, the American rescue plan, the American rescue plan helped working people and left no one behind. So that clip really made you angry. And I think I know why. Go ahead. Well, it was because I was part of the effort that passed tax reform and with Trump, with Trump. And

this was tax reform for all Americans, all Americans who pay taxes. If you don't pay taxes, you don't you didn't get a tax cut. But what that tax bill did was it lifted everybody up. We saw we saw the the lower income Americans actually have greater wage growth than wealthier Americans. We saw an expanding middle class. Everyone had jobs. John, it was the greatest economy in American history. People's wages were rising, not because of COVID and they couldn't find workers. The wages were rising

because there was actual competition for labor and people were paying workers more. Everyone was doing better because we were incentivizing businesses through tax policy to come back home and set up shop in America to expand and grow and create more opportunity. And for Joe Biden to attack that, again, to your point, the greatest economy that we've had in at least in our lifetimes

and say that it was only for the rich is a bold faced lie. And his plan has put us in the worst economy in 40 years. Can I do a sign? I mean, that is so unbelievable. Such gaslighting. I mean, does he think we don't remember two years ago how great things were? I mean, it's so unbelievable. Bold face light. Let me just take a quick trip down memory lane. If our listeners remember the Bush tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts lasted for 10 years. They expired. And I wasn't there when they passed, but I was there when they were expiring. And when they expired for 10 years, Democrats had come and said, these are just tax cuts for the rich. Only the rich got tax cuts under Bush.

But they did the same thing they're talking about with Donald Trump right here in our tax cuts. But they said for 10 years that these were tax cuts for the rich until they were going to expire. When they were going to expire, Democrats went to the House floor and I was there for it. And they were like, we can't let these tax cuts expire. You know, middle income Americans are going to get hurt. Poor Americans are going to get hurt. And it was just for the rich. And we would go to the House floor and go, really? Because you just spent 10 years saying these were tax cuts for the rich. But all of a sudden, when they're going to expire, you recognize and realize and admit these were tax cuts for every American.

Same thing here. They claim that they're only for the rich. But you and I know I was part of the legislation. This was for all Americans. And so, again, that clip so angry to me because it was such a lie. And it's so to your point, it's so close in memory that we know how great the Trump economy was and how bad it is under Joe Biden. And I don't think people are buying it. I think that's what's so interesting is I don't think that he was able to convince Americans during the speech that they're doing better, that his plan, his rescue package helped them. I don't think people are buying it at all. Because here's the difference. What Donald Trump did under the tax plan was say, I'm going to give you your money back so you can do with what you please. You're a better steward of your money than the government.

And Joe Biden, what he did in the America Rescue Plan was through government say, I'm going to give money away. The government can spend your money better than you can. And that's the difference. You want to give money. You want to let people keep their own money, which is what we've done. And, you know, it brings us to a next clip that I want to play, because I think the biggest issue in America right now is inflation. And throughout this speech, Joe Biden was talking about all the money he wanted to spend, all the programs he wanted to fund. It was a spend, spend, spend speech. And obviously, when you think about inflation, there's the correlation between borrowing and printing money and the devaluation of the currency. You devalue a currency, you get inflation.

So let's hear Joe Biden's take on inflation. Inflation is robbing them of gains they thought otherwise they would be able to feel. I get it. That's why my top priority is getting prices under control. My top priority is to get prices under control, right? And as I just mentioned, he's not doing anything to get prices under control. He's just spending more money, which is making the problem worse. Remember when he was talking about let's pass bill back better, which is a $5 trillion deficit spending plan. That's what he wanted. He said that was going to get inflation under control,

which means he doesn't have any fundamental understanding of how the economy works, how inflation works. Actually, I take that back. He does understand it. To your point, he's trying to gaslight the American people to say it's going to help inflation. I'm going to lie to you just so I can get all of the spending and big government into place.

He's a liar. And I think he tries to, you know, for a while they said there was no inflation. It wasn't happening. Then they said it was transitory. And then finally somebody said, hey, you need to pretend like you actually know what prices are at the grocery store. And you heard him saying, yeah, I walked into my house

and I heard Jill and her friend talking about the price of ground chuck. Like, sure, Jill Biden was sitting at the table talking about the price of ground beef. I mean, these I don't think he's ever pumped his gas in like forever. When's the last time Joe Biden, you know, put gas in his tank? When's the last time Joe Biden went to the grocery store? And so he's you can see in this speech, he was also trying to do this. I remember back when I was in Scranton, he's trying to pretend like he can relate. He can't relate. He has no idea. And frankly, the callousness of the Democrat Party throughout this isn't just him. You know, Jen Psaki said, oh, these are first world problems. People are just worried that they're,

people complain about supply chain problems. Oh, you're just worried your Peloton didn't come in or, you know, whatever. This has been a very callous party, a party that is completely disconnected from the working class. And you see that, Sean, and the lies they're telling about inflation

and the fact that they really aren't interested in lowering inflation, which is hurting Americans. Americans right now are having problems putting money on the table. You know, they're talking right now about, you know, if the gas prices get worse because of what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. And I'm hearing some pundits on TV, even on the Republican side, saying, you know, Americans are willing to do this to take on higher prices to get, you know, to take down Putin. I don't know if many Americans can afford to do that. They won't be able to pay their rent or their heating bills, which have gone through the roof because of inflation. So this is this is a really crazy time we're in. And I think the Democrat Party has never been more exposed about how elitist they are and how disconnected and out of touch they are with everyday Americans.

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As we talk about inflation, talk about the biggest pain that people feel. I think that's number one at the grocery store. But I think the biggest price increases people see is when they fill up their car, the gas prices. And so Joe Biden has a plan for that, Rachel. By the way, the gas prices are affecting the grocery store prices as well.

Exactly. But he has a plan to lower your energy costs. Let's hear what it is. Let's play clip number one. Oh, this is really going to get Sean's blood boiling. Tonight, I can announce the United States has worked with 30 other countries to release 60 million barrels of oil

from reserves around the world. America will lead that effort. Releasing 30 million barrels of our own strategic petroleum reserve. And we stand ready to do more if necessary, united with our allies. OK, Rachel. So America has huge energy reserves, right? We were energy independent under Donald Trump. When Joe Biden comes into office, he shuts down the Keystone pipeline, puts

thousands of people out of work, by the way, completely. And then he and then he shuts down leases on federal lands that allow us to explore more energy resources. And then he has policies that go after that attack the energy producers because they're dirty carbon emitters. So regulates them. What you have is the American energy industry recoiling and saying we're not going to engage in this industry because all of a sudden we're that we're the demons, we're the devils, we're the bad guys. Yeah, right. So they don't do it. And we see American production fall. So what does Joe Biden say in this speech? Not that I'm going to reverse my policies on energy. I'm going to release oil reserves, not just in America, but also around

the world that might cover America for I think it's like two and a half days of our energy use that would cover us for this. This is a drop in the bucket of of energy usage in america and the fact that that's his plan to lower our costs and not pursue more american energy sources he wants to he also said part of his plan was to do more green green investments and and so forth he mentioned that didn't he the second And second, let's cut energy costs for families. An average of $500 a year by combating climate change. That's so funny. We're going to cut your energy costs by investing in more climate change policies.

Wind and solar. We're going to cut back on oil and gas, drive the cost up of gas at the at the pump, natural gas to heat your home. You're going to pay more for that. But climate change and his policies are going to reduce by five hundred dollars how much you pay for energy. This is just the bold face line that he's done in the speech. And frankly, no one believes it. There was a poll that was done that says how many people believe in climate change and a vast majority of people believe that climate change is happening. And then they said, well, how many of you are willing to

pay a hundred dollars more a year to address climate change? And a vast majority of the people who believe in climate change aren't willing to pay a hundred dollars more to address climate change, which shows them how big of a problem they really think it is. Right. There are people, American families are paying way more than $100 a year in increased energy costs. I just don't want AOC and Greta Thunberg doing my energy policy here. I don't want them directing this great nation we live in on what we should do about energy. And we see, Sean, it's not just that it ends up costing more to heat your home, to buy your groceries at the grocery store, to fill up your gas and take your kids to school

and soccer practice. It's not just that. It's that it's national security. We're now seeing the entire globe because so many stupid Western countries that bought into this crap have, you know, now they're dealing with the threat of nuclear war with Russia. I mean, we're buying oil from the people who are waging war in Ukraine, from the Russians. This is so dumb. And you're seeing the Europeans really quickly turn on this and go, you know what, we can't do this. But I don't see that that same kind of change of heart here in America with our Democrat leaders who are, by the way, hold all levers of power right now. And in a speech, we saw that for sure, Rachel.

And what's the problem with this is, number one, the oil and gas that come from Russia is really dirty, right? There's there's cleaner oil and gas. There's dirty oil and gas. It depends on where it comes from and what wells their oil is really dirty. So when you refine it, it pollutes more. When you burn it, it pollutes more. American oil and gas is much cleaner. Why is that? You know, so if you I don't, but I know that's the case. So if Rachel asked me questions, I can't answer. I know. I know. I've heard that. I know that Representative Waltz had kind of talked to us. The administration has admitted that. And so if you live on one planet, why wouldn't you pursue the cleaner American energy, which means we have more jobs. We're not giving our money to

Putin, who who is wage or all kinds of people that hate us. That's more jobs for us. It's more tax revenue into the federal coffers that could maybe help address this massive debt. But instead, this philosophy of if we don't produce energy here, but someone else produces it, we're better off in global warming. It shows how stupid they are. They have to ship it here, by the way. That's a whole other thing. I mean, that's more oil and gas and pollution. Can I just tell you on our side, I'm going to bring up a conversation that Rachel and I have been having. So we have a lot of kids, as you guys all know. So we have nine kids, two of us, that's 11 of us. I felt like you were forgetting

the number of kids. A couple of them. I think it's three ages. So we have a Suburban. We all can fit in the Suburban. And then I have a Ford F-150. We have two cars. And these cars actually burn a lot of gas. We had to get like 14 or 15 miles to the gallon. I love our truck.

I do too. Every family should have a truck. I agree. This is my first truck that we bought and I love it. I used to have a Jetta, a Jetta diesel vehicle, which I loved. It got like 47 miles to the gallon. I used it that in the campaign. That's a Whole Foods mom car. It totally was. But I was Whole Foods mom on my campaign trail the first time. But the point is we're having a conversation in our family about, I mean, we have two vehicles. They get 14 miles to the gallon.

And my kids drive a lot to school to get groceries. And so I said, Rachel, I have a great idea. I want to get a new car. What was it? A Tesla. I said, no. Rachel's like, we're not going to have an electric car. We are going to have an oil and gas.

I said, I'm going to wait until we get American energy cheap again. I'm not giving in to the climate people. There will be no Tesla in our home. And then but but we moved on from that. I tell you the other reason. There's another reason why I don't want Teslas are expensive. It would be a stretch for us to be able to afford it. And also our kids trash our cars. And I'm like, I am not paying for an expensive car and our kids leave like their lunches and just junk in the car all our cars are so and i when i got married sean how neat was my car so neat it was so clean and ever since i got married it's one of the things that just bugs me i get it every time i get into the car i get angry because our car is so dirty.

No matter how many times I either personally clean out the trash or yell at somebody else to go clean out the trash. It's always dirty. So I'm like, why am I going to invest in a nice car and have my kids trash it? I have to be Sean. I have to defend myself for a second. The reason I thought about the Tesla was not because I wanted electric, not that I wanted to spend, you know, a premium for an electric car. The, the technology, when you drive that vehicle is remarkable to keep people safe. And I have a young driver who's 17 and she's a horrible driver. And I asked a lot of her and she asked a lot of herself when she drives and I wanted to have

extra tools in place to actually help her, I'm a terrible driver too. To actually help her and keep her safe. So that was the Tesla conversation. It was the safety features. That's what it was. But also as the energy prices went up, your argument for the Tesla got better, to be honest. Which were beyond that now.

But we're going to go, we want to get a vehicle that gets way better gas mileage. And I think a lot of Americans now are like, how, how can I navigate rising gas prices? The suburban becomes, I mean, again, I have to have a vehicle that can move my kids around, but it becomes a less, less reasonable. I'm not, I actually, that, okay. I actually said to Rachel, fine, let's not get a Tesla. Let's get a Prius. And she was like,

never, never, never a prius you guys wait all our listeners think i'm a big lib with the cars but i get it i get that you know people are going we got it we got to lower our costs in our in our homes how do we how do we do that and and oil and gas is affecting our lives you know and and this idea that we could have gone to green immediately is so dumb. And what we've done is really in danger. It's not just our budgets anymore. It's our- It's national security. It's our national security. It makes me so mad. So can I tell you about something else in the speech that really made me mad? Tell me.

So I saw this the next day because as you know, I fell asleep because Joe Biden was so boring. But he started to talk about not using covid to divide Americans. OK, like he's so now lying. He's trying to pretend like he's always been this uniter. So first, let's play the clip and then I'll tell you why it made me steam. Let's use this moment to reset. So stop looking at COVID as a partisan dividing line. See it for what it is, a god awful disease. Let's stop sending each seeing each other as enemies and start seeing each other for who we are, fellow Americans. So this is the guy who went on air and said this is the and lied, by the way, said this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated.

So basically blame people like you and I who said we didn't want to get vaccinated because we already had COVID and it would have been bad for us to get vaccinated. He wanted to blame it on us. He said his patience was wearing thin. He said we were causing other people to die and get vaccinated. He wanted to blame it on us. He said his patience was wearing thin. He said we were causing other people to die and get sick. And now he says we need to see each other as Americans. And by the way, he blamed you and I for the pandemic. Remember, this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated. He has never blamed China for this pandemic. There's been no consequences for China in this pandemic. Zero. We you and me, Sean, are to blame. And now he saw his covid poll numbers. And now he says,

let's all just be Americans together. Let's take off our masks. Let's you know, this is the biggest farce. I mean, it just it just steams me. It was such a lie because everyone I mean, almost everyone I know who was vaccinated and even boosted, they all got Omicron. I know Omicron. So it really was, you know, an issue for every American, not just unvaccinated Americans. So this this was rich. And again, he's made it such a partisan issue, attacking people, mandating people, forcing people, firing people. And I think what happened here, Rachel, was he saw his poll numbers. I think they looked at this and said Americans hate the policy that he's implemented and the authoritarian nature of his policies and the fact that the policy didn't work. And so now he's going to walk it back. And again, pretend like we don't have Rumble or YouTube,

that we don't have memories to know what he said about COVID and to thinking, to say, let's all just get along and see each other as human beings. He didn't see the unvaccinated as human beings, the unvaccinated with human rights, with self-determination, with the right to choose for themselves. He didn't see them that way,

but now he wants to come to us and pretend like we should all just get along and forget about what he's said in the past. We had friends who were undergoing, they were undergoing fertility treatments and were being threatened to be fired from their jobs because imagine being already having the, what is it? The sadness that came from being, I mean, we've, we know this person, this person has been struggling for years to get pregnant. It's, it's hard and was undergoing fertility treatments and was under threat of losing her job. If she didn't take the vaccine, why would she take a vaccine in the middle of her fertility treatment? I mean, that didn't make,

made no sense. Um, there were people who, who had cancer or were recovered from cancer and didn't want to take the vaccine for that reason. There were people who, you know, already had covid. There were people who didn't want their kids vaccinated. There were all kinds of reasons. And by the way, at the same time that they were telling us we had to take the vaccine, they were censoring anyone who had a vaccine injury. to take the vaccine, they were censoring anyone who had a vaccine injury. You were literally told that you were crazy or you were a conspiracy theorist. If you reported any vaccine injury, you had the only person who came to their defense in the U.S. government. Thank God was Senator Ron Johnson, who has been, you know, just such an incredible and Rand Paul was there, too. Yeah. And Senator Rand Paul as well. But especially with vaccine injury, I think that Senator Johnson really stands alone on that and providing a platform for people who were told, shut up. Even a kid, even we had a girl on Fox and Friends who the mother had all three children on the vaccine trials.

had all three children on the vaccine trials. She was pro vaccine. She used her own children, something I would never do in the trial for the vaccines for children. Two of her sons did well. Her daughter was left with these terrible neurological after effects. Pfizer abandoned her. The president never called her. And she was told she was crazy and a conspiracy theorist. So this is the things that happened to people throughout this pandemic. And now because his poll numbers are bad, he says, take the mask off and oh, let's all be friends. I'm sorry. I'm not going to forget. I'll tell you who else will not forget what he did with mask mandates, because, by the way, we still have mask mandates in our airports, which need to go away. I think some of the poll numbers, Sean, is not just that people were going to be fired from vaccines, but also the working class. Many of them Hispanic, by the way. And I think this has something to do with the if somebody dug deeper into the numbers, I think they would see so many of Hispanics are in the service industry.

So many of Hispanics are in the service industry. So many of them were forced to wear masks for eight, 10 hours a day, which cannot be healthy for you, cannot be healthy. It's definitely uncomfortable. And it is certainly elitist to go into a restaurant where your bus boy, the guy who's working in, you know, really hot temperatures in the back of the kitchen has to wear a mask. But the rich people sitting down or the people with extra cash sitting down in the restaurant don't. This kind of elitism is why Hispanics left those countries. They don't like the classism, because if you go to Latin America, you will see classes like you've never seen before. And all of a sudden it was revealed during covid. Nancy Pelosi could go to a fundraiser with no mask. She could go get her hair done when the rest of us had, you know, gray roots with no mask. All of these things happened that exposed the mayor of Chicago could go get her hair done without a mask. I mean, the liberals were able to go out and and take their masks off and live normally while the while the rest of us and especially to your point the working class the working class had to keep their masks on um i think that enraged a lot of people by the way to think that covid doesn't affect you if you have

money um and you're an elitist or like if you're working class you're gonna get covid and spread covid i mean it's it's so stupid remember obama's party? They were all maskless, but the servants. The servants had to wear their masks. And that pisses people off. And for us, it makes us angry. It's like, let them take their masks off. It's inhumane to make people work eight hours a day with those masks on.

And just by the way, we had COVID early before there was a vaccine. And so we were, and we talked to doctors. They're like, listen, you've got a great immunity. I don't care what they say. Your immunity is fine. You don't need the vaccine. So we didn't get it because we listened to smart doctors. You know, I don't know what my decision would have been had I not had COVID, but I did. And then, you know, I didn't get it. And the, but the pressure

that we were feeling from all different kinds of places to get vaccinated and our rights and freedoms that were taken away because we didn't have a card to show people that we were vaxxed. We didn't have the American Chinese credit score to show our vax card. We couldn't go out to eat. We couldn't go to stores. And you and I were like, you know what? Now I'll be damned. Now, if you want to play this game with us, now we're not getting faxed. I'm not going to be pressured into getting vaccinated just to be in compliance with what the government wants us to do. So anyway, at this point that you brought up in the speech, again, another lie that

the president told that we should all be at peace and forget his horrible conduct of COVID. We'll be back with much more after this. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high-intensity focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions. And that very

same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. Sean, you know politics better than anyone. Do you think that you know this is now what is it march in november will americans have forgotten all these lies um you know if the economy maybe if god willing the economy ticks up a little bit will americans forget the two years that the democrats put us through will they forget you know of these things that are happening, even on the world stage, the energy stuff? Will the Democrats be able to get away with it? It's a really good question. So for Joe Biden, there's plenty of time between today and when he's up for reelection in 2024 to forget about what he did here. He can turn it around. There's

time for that. But when you're, what, six months out from the midterm elections this November, Americans will not forget. It will be fresh in their memory. And what's happening right now as we sit in early March is Americans are making up their mind about how they're going to vote. Right now, they are?

They are. And I think they're becoming entrenched on some of the failed policies of Democrats in the administration and the authoritarian nature, as you just mentioned, of COVID. They're thinking, I want a new direction. And so I think this is getting baked in this way that's going to come in November. It's going to be really hard for Democrats to change. And to that point, it's one thing, in this speech, Joe Biden had come in and said, listen, we are we're going to change course. I still believe in climate change. I still believe we need to have wind and solar in a zero carbon footprint.

But right now there's a there's a greater need. We have this this this conflict going on between Ukraine and Russia. We can't support the Russian war by buying Russian oil and gas. And the fact that we don't produce energy in America means the supply is reduced, which means prices go up, which means Vladimir Putin is making even more money because we're not producing oil and gas. We can't have that. So we are going to turn on the spigot in America and we are going to produce more here. And I promise you, I'm going to come back and we're going to bring this back down with our green energy policies. But today we are going for American energy. We are going to fight this with every tool that we have. I know I've talked

about Donald Biden, I know I've talked about sanctions, but the best sanction we have on Russia is producing American energy, which will drive down the prices at the pump. It's going to help you and it's going to hurt Putin. If he had done that, salvation could come for Democrats if he had changed course. But what I heard in that speech is-

Why didn't he do that then, Sean? I mean, he's a political animal. Why't he do that? He's a political animal. Why would he do that? He's double. He doubled down on all of his failed policies. There was there was nothing surprising. There was nothing new. There wasn't anything in the speech that made me go.

Joe Biden gets that this isn't working and he is changing course. He didn't do that one bit and it's not working. And he's going to continue to do the same thing, which means a disaster electorally. And to that point, when you talked about COVID and you and I have often talked about what's happened with kids in masks in schools, how tragic that is. We've talked about CRT. I know, listen, I know a lot of moms and dads who are rabid about COVID. They want to vaccinate their three-year-old child. They want to mask their kids up. There is that group of people. But there is a whole other

subset of American voters. And I think a big group of them are Democrat voters, moms, who have seen what happened to the little ones, the little kids, and what Democrats have done. And they're saying, I can't have it. I'm not going to have it. And there's another group of Democrat voters who say, I want to send my kid to school. And I know the pathway to the middle class, to the American dream is through a great education. And that you're not actually enlightening my child

in the school system. You're actually indoctrinating them with this critical race theory garbage. That's the main concern that you have in the school system is CRT as opposed to math and science and English. That has angered another subset of American Democrat voters who I think I think they're leaving the Democrat Party and leaving the party for good, just like in border states, border states, Hispanics are leaving the Democrat party. Yeah. So it's true. Sean, you came, you came into Congress in 2010 in this giant wave of, you know, for Republicans, I think like 80 or 90 new members came in. Is that right? Am I right? We had 63 new seats. Um,

and like there was 84 new members because there's Republican retirements where Republicans filled that seat. So how would you compare what your prediction is? Is the wave of 2022 midterms going to be as big or or bigger? So that's a really good question. So we are in 2010 during that election. Democrats had a far bigger majority in the House. So we had far more seats that Republicans could make up in 2010. The difference today is Democrats only have a five-seat majority in the House. So there's not as much room to make up there. So we're not going to win 63.

Republicans are not going to win 63 seats in November. But do I think they can win 30 to 35 seats? Absolutely. And if it's 35 seats, this is a massive wave that frankly will put a stop to a lot of Joe Biden's radical policies. But the problem and this is what we talked about in Congress all the time, and we all should be aware of this as Americans. this is what we talked about in Congress all the time, and we all should be aware of this as Americans. Every Congress, Republican and Democrat, continue to cede more authority to the executive, to the president. They give the president more power, more spending authority. And when we do that, you have less power in the Congress. And there has to be a fundamental party shift. Republicans and Democrats have to come together and start to take some of that power back. We're a co-equal branch of government and the Congress doesn't behave

like a co-equal branch of government. And so there's a lot that Joe Biden can do by executive order and fiat. And the question will be, will the courts hold him in line? That is yet to be seen. Yeah. I mean, sometimes Congress, just they're cowards. They don't want to vote on, say, a war. And so they cede that authority to the to the president or their parties in power and the executive. And so they rather than vote on the issue in the House, they they allow the presidency to take precedent in that case. And so, yeah, you're right, because they agree with the policy, agree with the policy. And I just want the president to do it. But there used to be a time when Democrats and Republicans came together in the House,

in the Congress and said, no, this is ours. And and they would go against their own party because they wanted to protect the power of that branch of government. And now now you don't see that. Now you see people operating not as fellow members of Congress, but more as party actors. That's right. And I think the country is worse off for it.

I think you're right, Sean. That's a whole other podcast. We should actually do a podcast on that because I think that's something that's really affecting our politics. Well, listen, I... Can I make one last point before we go? We talked about the State of the Union. i just want to bring up one other point um that is nancy clapping well you do nancy clapping i didn't well i didn't i didn't see

nancy clapping it's like did you see nancy that was so weird well first of all i loved her clap when when president trump remembers when she ripped up the papers and also when she like clapped her hands straight forward like a shark right like shark but this time she was clenching her teeth which my sister and i talked about it we think she's having denture issues and no i'm not i'm not saying that to be mean i think that her dentures were loose and she was doing something weird with her mouth. And then she also stood up really oddly at a weird time and she clapped with her fists together. It was really weird. It's like, she's, I don't know. It's like, you've got this president

who's like losing his mind and like, you know, having early signs of dementia. And then you have, you know, Nancy just kind of like acting bizarre behind him. And I don't know. It's like we the Democrat Party definitely means like new blood. Like these guys are old and they're acting really kooky. And it's kind of scary.

And just one point I'll make on that is Republicans have a policy that you can only be a chairman for or a ranking member for three terms or six years of a committee on a committee. And after that time frame, you're out and someone else gets to come in. So your term limited and how long you can run a committee. Democrats don't have that rule because every party makes their own rules for how they deal with, you know, putting people on committees and how they serve on committees. Democrats don't have that. So you can have Maxine Waters, who I served with for a long time in the Congress. She came in after Barney Frank left. So in 2012, she ascended to the top role of financial services.

She's been there for 10 years. She was there as a ranking member under Jeb Bush, Jeb Henshuling, who was the chairman. And now she's there as the chairwoman. 10 years there as a ranking member under Jeb Bush, Jeb Henshaw, who was the chairman. And now she's there as the chairwoman. Ten years there under Republicans, that would never happen. And the problem with that, I don't like you like the Democrat will the Republican will because you start to get new blood in. Yeah. People will sit on a committee for, you know, decades before they even get a leadership role. And so people, you don't get new, you know, a transition of blood coming through the Congress. And what you've seen, a lot of Republicans will do kind of what I did, they serve about 10, 12 years, and then they'll, they'll get out and someone else

will take that spot. And again, you don't want people to serve only one term or two terms, it takes some time to get the hang of how the process works. I mean, our government is complicated. You want people with a lot of knowledge and experience to be in the government. But you also want, you know, people coming in and out of the Congress as well. And we have a nice balance to that. And the Republican Party Democrats have people stick around forever. And young people, young members of the Democrat Party can never move up the ranks because there's so many old folks still in place.

So to your point, you're right. I think there's a lot of new Republican blood. Sean, do you miss being in Congress? I don't right now, actually. It's it's it's again, it's it's really it's horrible how the how the institution has been run. You know, they have they have to get go through a metal detector to get to the House floor. They wear masks. There's been a couple of impeachment. The masks are gone. They are gone. I think I'm going to miss it, though, Rachel. When Republicans take control in November, they'll be sworn in on January 3rd. And then I'm going to go, oh, gosh, I miss being there. Can I tell you the thing I miss the most? Your colleagues? No.

I'm going to quote you on that. No, I still get to see my old colleagues. I know, you love them. But I didn't realize the power of being able to go to the house floor and give a speech. No one really, I mean, it's C-SPAN, right? And you can clip it and put it out there, but the power of going into the house floor and being able to give a speech on what you care about

and what's on your mind is incredibly powerful. It's a it's it's a great institution. And I don't think I appreciated it until it's gone. I can't go to the house floor and give a speech on what I care about anymore. That's come on the kitchen table podcast. And you can talk about what you like, but you're if you haven't seen Sean's congressional floor speech on abortion. You should Google that. That's a good one. Go on Rumble, find it. It's actually very good. You were very good at what you did, Sean.

And I know a lot of people in our district missed that. I like having you home more, but I definitely know you did the best you could in Congress. I think it would be interesting to see you go back, you know, a little older, a little wiser, appreciating the things that you, you know, maybe couldn't appreciate the first time around because you're just kind of in this hamster. I mean, people don't realize how hard members of Congress work. I mean, I would look at Sean's schedule because they would print it out for him every day. And literally he had a meeting every 15 minutes and then he's rushing the House floor.

And I would sometimes have to call the secretaries and go, hey, my husband has to eat lunch. Can you please put a lunch break on there for him? Please let him eat. You'd actually get workout time for me. You got to put a workout time in there. And then oftentimes you get taken away. And then oftentimes I wouldn't do it. And I gained weight and it was, yeah, it's definitely a better shape out of Congress. But, but, but I would just say it's, it's a tough job. It's a really tough job. I hope one day you get to go back and do something in politics. I

don't know when that will be. Maybe when all of our kids are all off to college. Well, let's come out. Let's come back and do podcast on on Congress. And I because I have some interesting thoughts about the theory of what happens to the psychology when you're in the chamber and in the chamber, in the bubble, when you're when you're part of part of the conference, a Republican conference and how my views have changed since I've been out of the conference. And some people get frustrated about why are Republicans doing X, Y and Z? I have a theory on that because I lived it. And what would be fun, Sean, is we could do that podcast with a member, a couple of members of Congress who are in it right now to see how they feel. That would be super fun. All right. Well, listen, this has been a fun discussion. I guess I'm frustrated by the State of the Union. I'm hopeful that people didn't buy.

I feel hopeful because I can tell the American people didn't buy into it. The State of the Union is not strong. The State of the Union is not strong. And when it's not strong, you get a president who'll come in and just lie to the American people. And as you always say, he gaslights them.

He'll talk about trying to fund the police when we're like, you know what, fund the police. That was another crazy moment, Sean. Was all about defunding the police. He talked about securing the border when his party opened up the border. So a whole slew of issues Joe Biden lied on. And he had a lie because he had nothing to tell the American people of his policies and of his success that they would agree with because there's been no success in the policies that failed. So he just went out there and frankly told bold-faced lies. And it was nice to sit and talk about it at the kitchen table, but us Americans, we're living the reality of this failure every single day.

And I don't see an end in sight. I don't see smart leadership anywhere in the near future, at least, you know, coming from this administration. So American lives are demonstrably worse in just one, just one year, Sean, he's only been there one year. We have three more to go. I, I, so true. And, but again, with a change in the Congress that can be helpful, oversight is powerful in the Congress. And I think that's coming. So you're so hopeful.

You know what? The sun's always rising. The sun's not setting in America. We're coming back. I want to believe that's true. Thank you guys for joining us at our kitchen table, having a little coffee and a little chat. And, you know, until next week.

If you enjoyed this conversation, let us know. Subscribe, rate, review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download your podcasts. We hope to see you around the table next week. Bye, everybody. I hope you have a great week. I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day

with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at guybensonshow.com.