From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Q & A: Rachel's #1 Parenting Hack & The Wisdom Of Intergenerational Living

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

Taylor Swift has been named Time's "Person of the Year," do you agree with that choice? Well, Sean & Rachel don't!  So, they proposed a new title should be awarded... "Most Insufferable Person of the Year." They also answer a question on Republican voter's minds, if not former President Trump, then who's next in line for the GOP nomination? Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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wife too, Rachel Campos Duffy. Hi Rachel. Sean, it's so good to be back. You know we love Q&A and it's kind of the Christmas season, so it's a mishmash of viewer-listener questions that are sort of non-Christmas and then Christmas. Yes. So why don't we start with one of the Christmas ones to get into the Christmas spirit, because we are definitely getting into the Christmas spirit here at home. We are. I'm almost

all done with decorating. I take it like in stages. It's taken me about two weeks of like little by little getting you to help me, but we're getting there. We have taken it in stages. And yeah, it's interesting. I get stuck doing a lot of the, what I think sometimes is frivolous. Sometimes I'm like, do we really have to do that? But it's outdoor work I can't reach or it's too cold for me to do it. Or the inside too. But all I'm saying is after 25 years of marriage, I've figured it is just easier to do it. Just say yes.

Just say yes. So great. And get it over with. And our Christmas decorations have gone a lot better than prior years because I'm so compliant. Yeah. But can I tell you, that's actually, that's so interesting that you say that because when we talk about marriage, we've often talked

about how being married for a long time, like things get easier. Like we talked over Thanksgiving about how we just kind of over years, we kind of know how to do Thanksgiving now. And it just, there's an operation. There's, we know what we have to do we have all the right equipment that we've bought over the years to do it right the right dishes the right pans but over the years certain things get bad we've even talked about how you learn how to fight more fairly or you learn how to like let things go or you know i noticed this the other day you and I got in a big fight. This is my way of avoiding the fight. Yeah. It's not worth it. Or I lose the long run anyway. I'm going to do it no matter what,

why complain about it, why fight about it. So I'm like, okay, fine. You're making it sound like it's all about you giving in. That's not true. The other day we got in a fight, we got in an argument, and then we've learned to quickly resolve things that you know like you said sometimes you just go they're not as worth it and it was in my case in this one i was like okay let's just talk about this let's not let this fester and ruin the whole day we just had this argument you were in the car i think we were arguing on the phone i was home and then when you got home it could have well i know it just

happened i remember it and and so you got home and we were kind of giving each other the silent treatment for just a little bit and then i was like let's not screw this whole day up okay let's just stop let's just talk about this and we worked through it and then we went back to doing what we had to do some chores that we had to run house but wait was going back to the christmas decorating which is that over the years now you know this is not worth a fight you know you're going to end up having to do it at some point to hang this thing outside that i can't reach that i really want up because it's going to make me happy and it's too cold for me or too dangerous for me to climb up or i'm too short and i can't reach it so you're just going to do all the outdoor stuff

and and that's just the way it's going to be sometimes i disagree with the direction that i get outside and how i'm supposed to do it but i just because i do it because i believe there is beauty in symmetry sean and so if you're going to hang the garland over the door it's got to be symmetrical and so we've argued about it in the pastland over the door, it's got to be symmetrical. And so we've argued about it in the past. We'd be like, it doesn't matter, Rachel. We haven't argued about that. Now you just go, how many inches over do you want it, honey? So can I tell you this?

So doing our Christmas tree normally for the last, I think our whole marriage, we have cut down on Christmas tree. We have always cut down on Christmas tree. So this year, the place we, again, in Wisconsin, it's easy to cut down on Christmas tree. We have always cut down. So this year, the place we get in Wisconsin, it's easy to cut down on Christmas tree. We came to New Jersey and we have found a place being cut a Christmas tree down. This year, we went not the weekend, the weekend after Thanksgiving,

we went the first weekend of Advent, which was last weekend. And the place we cut our tree down, they were closed, right? They're like, we sold all our trees. So we couldn't cut one down. We and bought one which was really weird after 24 years of cutting trees cutting a tree on the 25th year and we had a little we had a little not a fight an argument like rachel there was a beautiful tall blue is a tree. It was expensive. And I'm like, it's too tall for the house. And so I knew it would fit.

I got a, we got a little smaller, fatter. Still, it's 12 feet high. It's still, it's a big tree. This other one was like 17 feet. It would have fit. And it would have fit. Because we had a vaulted ceiling. I should have given it a vaulted ceiling.

So it'll go in. So we got the shorter one. We should have got the larger one. I just paid the money. I didn't want to spend the money on that much for the tree does so it'll go in so we got the shorter one we should have got the larger one and just paid the money i didn't want to spend the money on on that much for the tree but then the question became what kind of lights do you put on them and we've done all we've done colored we've done just white we've done white and color and i wanted to use colored this year and you're like no we're gonna do white because the tree is too short and fat and stumpy it's 12 feet by the way i love i i'm a colored light person, but on this tree,

it just wasn't going to work. And I disagreed. And I just said, fine. I put on the colored ones, and then I had to take them off and put on the white ones. And I just learned, I don't want to do it twice. Fine, I'll do the white ones. So I can see it again. But the tree's coming along. We've got to get the

decorations on this weekend. Yeah, we wanted to do that. And I would agree with you. That's fine. You do have a better eye than I do. And once it's all done, I do appreciate all of your insight and vision because I like the way my house looks after you have crafted where you want to put all this different stuff and have me do it. I love decorating. I love Christmas.

I will trust you to cut down the tree and you can trust me on how the decorations should go up. But that is one of the beauties of being married for a long time. You just start to know each other so well and know what ticks and what little landmines to avoid. But that really wasn't our topic, though, was it? It wasn't, but we kind of got off on that. Okay, so there's a lot of debate about when is the right time to start playing Christmas music. Obviously, everybody right now is playing Christmas music, of course. But there are some people that start playing it on Thanksgiving and other people who wait until Advent.

And some people start right after, say, Halloween. And so, just through the course of our marriage, Rachel likes to be able to have the Christmas music play all day and all night. And so you wake up to Christmas music. And in Wisconsin, I bought one of those sound bars. And I'm like, this is good. I bought a couple of sound bars trying to get it to work where we could play it all the time on our phone. Here in New Jersey, we have a system that it does play all the time. But the system went down and it was cutting.

It would play a minute of music and then it would cut out for like 10 seconds. Thanks, Zonos. I got that resolved so music's not playing. Now we're happy. But I think right after Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving. Yeah, I do too. And it's not Advent but still we're like, you know what? Thanksgiving's over and now Christmas is on. Okay, we agree on

that one. Someone know your favorite Christmas movie? I like a lot of them. So give me your top three. So I like Elf. We put the Christmas tree up last weekend and we watched Elf through the process. And we laughed like we watched it the first time. It's hilarious.

Right after Thanksgiving, though, the first Christmas movie we watched was White Christmas, which by the way, I complained about White Christmas. Rachel always wanted to watch it. I was like, this is horrible. Until I actually finally sat down probably on year five or six of our marriage and I watched it. The whole thing.

I love White Christmas. It's so good. So fun. So fun. What's my third one? It's a Wonderful Life, probably, Sean. It's a Wonderful... I usually kind of think of that as New Year's, but yeah. But it is a Christmas movie. It is a Christmas movie. And then if I had a fourth one, I'd a wonderful life. Probably Sean. It's wonderful. Is that good to be? Yeah. I usually kind of think of that as new year's, but yeah, it is a Christmas and then after my, if I had a fourth one, I'd pick die hard. Die hard is the fourth favorite Christmas.

He's still a man. I would say white Christmas. It's a wonderful life. And miracle on 34th street, which I love that the new new one with the little... I liked them all, but Dylan Mulvaney is... I like the original, the black and white one, I believe with Shirley Temple. Wonderful. Not Dylan Mulvaney. Dylan McDermott.

McDermott. Oh, my God. That's so funny. Oh, my gosh. That is hilarious. With Dylan McDermott. Not Dylan Mulvaney. The trans man.

That's coming next Christmas, I'm sure. But with Dylan McDermott, who is just so dreamy in that movie, and I always get so mad because the female character rejects him so much, and everyone's like, why? He's so cute. He wants to marry you.

So anyway, that's that. Those are my three favorite. Here's an interesting question on Christmas related. What is your best parenting hack? Oh, that's a good one. That's a, that's a great question for you to answer first. I'm going to start because I did think about this one. And it's actually easy. The best parenting hack I have is to buy a round table.

I am obsessed with round tables. I'm going to lay out why I think round tables are so important for families. Now, we have in our home one round table in our kitchen area where we all sit and that's where we have our, our main, our meals every day. We also have a very long oval table that seats 12. You know, it's hard to get a round one in that space. It's, it's, it's probably impossible to find a 12 seated round table these days. It's pretty hard to find. But I have a long oval table in the formal dining room. But the main table that we eat at every day is a round table. And I like round because round, first of all, encourages conversation and encourages

everybody to converse. It also is an equalizer right so the dad doesn't have a better position than the littlest child in that so it's an equalizing conversation it doesn't have like that formality you know when you sit in the formal dining room sean you're at the head of the table and that's you're like i'm the dad i'm the patri of the table and that's, you're like, I'm the dad. I'm the patriarch. The patriarchy. The patriarchy. The round one is very equalizing, especially among siblings who are, you know, we have such a range, you know, from 24 to four. And so sometimes, you know, it could be easy for older kids to dominate and the equalizing

effect of that is good. I also like it because as you know sean the biggest fights in our family often um well the biggest fights are about what movie to watch on movie night um or monopoly has caused a lot of a lot of a lot of big fights um but that's what capitalism does right capitalism um but uh the other fight is who gets to sit next to who or who gets to sit next to mom. And there's something about when you're in a roundtable. It doesn't really matter if you're on my right or my left, if you're in front of me. Or I just feel like it cuts down on the fights about who sits where, because everyone's sort of equal around. And there's just something beautiful about seeing everybody in

one shot like that around the table i think if you were if you're planning on having a family if you have a family especially if you have a big family the investment in a round dining room table or round kitchen table is a wonderful investment it It is my greatest parenting hack because as you know, Sean, I believe that eating around the table at dinner is probably the most, outside of family prayers, is the most important event that happens in a family. Okay, so a couple points on that. So when we were in Wisconsin, we didn't, when we started to have more kids. We didn't have a round table. And actually, I remember in the Wausau house.

We had a round table in the formal living room. We never ate around that, did we? We did. Did we? Okay. Well, normally, but you wanted a round one in the kitchen. I did want one in the kitchen. But one wouldn't fit.

It did not fit. So, and we kind of had a little spat about that. But we got a long, we had a big, a big farm table there where we all sat around it. But we have a table now that's big enough that not everyone can sit around. But when the older kids are gone and the little ones are still here. Oh, we crammed them in, though. We did that over Thanksgiving when we had them all in. We crammed some of the white chairs in there.

We all sit around and have coffee. We have dinner. Yeah, because there's a bench also on one side, so you can kind of cram more kids in. And when they were all there, and actually, that's the moment I love the best, when we crammed the chairs in and everyone filled up that bench, that upholstered bench that we have in the back of that, around part of that round table.

It is so fun. And I noticed that when the cousins come over, they all like to sit around that table and converse. And I just, I love a round table. I can't say enough about the beauty of a round table

and the way it encourages conversation. When you mentioned then when we sit, you know, we have another table that we can sit at for, we sit at for Christmas and Thanksgiving. And you're right, there's fights. And it's not necessarily the fight about who gets to sit next to us, but that is part of the fight.

What happens is we sit at one end and then the older kids sit by us, right? And then the little ones get stuck a little further down the table. And it's a long table. And they feel like they're not part of the conversation. And the meal is not as enjoyable for them because they feel like they're being left out. You know what just occurred to me as you said that? What if this year when we have our big Christmas dinner, what if you sat in one of the middle, you and I sat in the middle chairs? So just, you know, in Congress.

That's interesting. When I was in Congress, when you do an event. Just event just occurred never the member of congress would never sit at the end of the table you always sit in the middle of the table you have like a fundraiser or a meeting or whatever so you can talk to the left and the right side of the table and across the table yeah and if it was two of us you one would sit on one side in the middle the other one said then the other side of the middle of the table so maybe that's a good idea we'll sit in the middle of the table but then i feel like i'm giving up the patriarchy and i'm not at the head of the other one sit in the other side of the middle of the table. So maybe that's a good idea. We'll sit in the middle of the table. But then I feel like I'm giving up the patriarchy and I'm not at the head of the table. We could talk about that. We'll have more of this conversation after this. Help turn off hesitation, turn off doubt, turn off fears. With your support,

the YMCA of Greater Toronto helps people turn off whatever's holding them back so they can let their potential shine, help turn on confidence and connections and possibilities from youth shelters to job training, mental health counseling and beyond. The YMCA offers hundreds of programs that empower people to shine their brightest. See our charity's impact at YMCAGTA.org slash charity. I'm going to go with a hack that is a Rachel hack. And because our kids, you know, go to school really early in the morning, which means we have to get up really early to get them out the door. And oftentimes we'll make them, they don't, we pack their lunches. And so Rachel came up with a parenting hack to do their lunches the night before.

It's not an incredibly unique. That's the hack I've got. It's a good one, though. It's made the mornings easier. A lot of people will have their kids eat hot lunch at school. Ours are eating cold lunch. Because they don't have that option. They don't have that option.

Except one day a week, they have hot lunch. Great day. Thursdays are great in our house because we don't have to do a lunch. It's funny because I asked Patrick at dinner yesterday dinner yesterday i said hey um what's the best thing that happened today what's the worst thing that happened today he was the best thing was hot lunch and then he went on to that world the worst anyway that's why i don't have a great hack but there it is i'll take yours oh i know i know what the worst thing was they have categories you know when you you are on the best behavior and good behavior

you're a role model you have a your name and it goes on this different chart and he got moved to thinking about think about it which means he has to think about his whatever his behavior and so i said well that's not good and he goes no no that's good i'm thinking about my behavior you try to position that in a positive he's spinning it he's spinning it um okay so this past week we had a really great conversation if you haven't heard it it's really fun on um and actually really insightful our daughter came on she just written an article about how taylor swift um got the the time magazine award the title person of the year for Person of the Year. And the title said that the most

inseparable person in the world became the Time Magazine Person of the Year. This is a Vita's article, not Time's article on. Right, Time didn't say that. Time was celebrating Taylor Swift. Vita was saying, how did this the most inseparable person in the world get this award? She had this great article explaining why she believes that there is actually a political motivation behind the celebration and the vaunting, vaulting, you know, putting her up on a pedestal of Taylor Swift, because there's no explanation for just, I mean, the hype around her in terms terms of and this is according to avita's article musically it's not genius um there's nothing to explain the absolute phenomenon that she's become globally and her theory or her thesis in this article is that the political establishment on the left likes Taylor Swift because Taylor Swift basically embodies that single woman leftist sort of very, very gullible and persuadable voter. And that she's like the symbol and the the she embodies all of that. And so, like, you know, you have have a mass mandate she's the first to do it

she you know dating the the king of pfizer um you know the the what's his name again travis kelsey that's right um you know she's a democrat she hates trump she you know campaigns against republican you know candidates in tennessee marsha blackburn you know, candidates in Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, you know, the whole podcast on that. OK, so she posts this, gets a lot of great response. But one of the threads of the response was really interesting because people said, really? Taylor Swift is the most insufferable person in the world. What about and then they have this long list of everyone from Hillary Clinton to Rashida Tlaib. So then the question just became, I thought it was interesting to ask, who is the most, if it's not Taylor Swift.

Who is the most insufferable? Who is the most insufferable person in the world? Now, the list included Kamala Harris. Had a lot of, you know, Pete Buttigieg, who is truly insufferable. I have always said he's worse than um kamala harris but i i kind of came up with mine i thought maybe you might want the trans man in the military what's what's his name her name oh he's not really an admiral are you talking about rachel levine she is not really an admirable an admiral it's a man who claims to be dressed up

like a woman and they gave him like you know the way you get like an honorary degree if you're famous he's the honorary admiral he's an honorary admiralette i guess i don't know um yeah that's a good one actually i i was gonna the babylon b gave him the man of the year award and they lost their minds yes they wanted to cancel the Babylon Bee for that. But on that point, so I would agree. There probably are a lot more insufferable people than Taylor Swift, far more annoying. I agree. But they were not up for Time Person of the Year. I mean, King Charles is insufferable.

John Kerry, insufferable. But who is the most insufferable person to you? Okay, I'm going to go with Kamala Harris. I mean, she is... Do you think she's worse than John Kerry? Come on, John Kerry is so much worse. Yes. I get when you say that because he's such an elitist and

he sneers down at the minions of America that he's so much smarter than and so much better than. I get that. Give me your top three because I do agree. It's hard to pick just one. So Kamala? Yeah, Kamala's on the list. Who's the John Kerry?

Who's the another? Bill Gates. Bill Gates is like this beta male that wants to control the world. I don't find him insufferable, Sean. I find him evil. Evil is insufferable. And I'll go with

I'll probably try and carry as well. I'll go with those three. That's a good list, by the way. Even more so than the squad members. They really are insufferable. But they're just kind of stupid, too. These are real.

This is real power. These, these. Yeah. I mean, that's why I would put some of the ones that you had there in the category of evil instead of insufferable. Inseparable to me.

It's just like, like just annoying. So I have Pete Buttigieg in there. You know, I have, I just can't stand Pete Buttigieg. Megan Markle, totally insufferable.

Ah, good one. Yeah. And I had a tie between Ilhan Omar and Michelle Obama. And the reason I picked Ilhan Omar is I can't stand people who aren't grateful. And Ilhan Omar won sort of the life, you know, you think about the movie willy wonka winning the willy wonka golden ticket she got the golden ticket of you know being able to come to america

and you know she's sitting in a refugee camp you know somewhere in the like africa um after you know her country is dissolved her family almost died escaping this terrible violence and she's sitting in this and she gets the golden ticket to come to the United States. And she ends up in one of the coldest places, but one of the some of the nicest people in Minnesota. And I don't know how you meet Minnesotans and Midwesterners and not really, truly love America because they are the heart and soul of America. They used to be. Well, but but, you know, there's some there's some there's some city dwellers in minneapolis the vast majority of minnesotans get outside minneapolis get outside

people get outside and dina um and you're okay um but in any case she's around she comes to united states she gets a great education to you know whatever where she gets indoctrinated but she's probably better school than what she went to in Somalia. And she, you know, basically thinks America sucks. And I just find that kind of ingratitude. And that comes, I feel that way very strongly, because my mom is, you know, the daughter of immigrants on my mother's side, on my grandparents' side. My mother is an immigrant. My grandparents were immigrants. And I think about my mom. My mom is the most patriotic person I know. She loves this country. She was so grateful that she was able to come here and become an American when she married my dad, who was an American citizen. And she went through the citizenship process and she just loves America.

And just, I can't imagine my mom becoming a congresswoman and then using that purge to dump on the country to cause chaos the way she has with encouraging defunding the police and now the Hamas riots. I just think it's the Hamas protests.

I just find her to be such an ungrateful human that I just can't stand. I find her inseparable. And then going to the second, it does underscore the problem in American education. She was taught to hate America. She was taught that America was evil. If you just left her up, left it up to her own experience, she would have come to the refugee camp and come to this country. And like most in her own heart would have probably been grateful. But she was taught by these radicals in the school system to actually hate us and fight us. And what's scary is she's not the only one that has been taught this. You have a generation of people who have been taught to hate this country. And we're seeing this now with the radical support for Hamas and turning a blind eye to the October 7th attacks. And I think more

Americans are waking up to go, this is the cancer in America. We do have to root it out. And I agree with you, case in point would be Ilhan Omar. Yeah. who's the one i said tied with oh michelle obama another in great i mean i feel like michelle obama has just lived the american dream in so many ways and i know she wrote a thesis you know basically on how you know hard it is um to be black in america um i just think you know she wrote it from from Harvard or Yale. I don't remember where she was. This is the land of opportunity and nobody embodies those opportunities more than the Obamas. And they continue to wreck the country as they profit from it, as they, you know, really from behind the curtain do a lot of damage. I suppose Barack is as guilty of that as Michelle Obama. Some people wanted to know about Hunter Biden.

You know, the indictment came out. You know, we love talking about Hunter. But the question is, do you think that the Hunter Biden indictments will cause Joe Biden, Sean, to drop out of the race? So really good question. And the answer to that is no. So you've had the alphabet agencies of government who have been remarkably protecting Joe Biden.

And it's been really clear to anyone, any American who pays attention to the political system, that there is massive smoke. And we even had the fire with Hunter Biden. And the sweetheart deal that Hunter got in Maryland, where he was not going to be prosecuted for any more crimes, he had a deferred prosecution agreement on the gun charge and was going to get misdemeanors for not paying millions of dollars in taxes. The judge blew that up. Whistleblowers then came forward and exposed the corruption of this deal with Hunter

Biden. Well, the only reason that Hunter Biden is being treated differently is the power that his father has and the fact that the left wingers in the FBI, the DOJ and the IRS want to protect their savior, Joe Biden and his son. If Joe Biden doesn't run for reelection, that power goes away, which means that protection, the protection racket goes away for the Biden family. Interesting. And so if Joe Biden decides not to run, it's not just that he gives up power, which he doesn't want to give up. He's fought for this his whole life. He's actually going to be giving up the protection that his

family's been getting from government. So instead of stepping out of government, Joe Biden has to run that much harder to try to win reelection so he can continue with the protection because we're just scratching the surface with Hunter Biden, by the way. But it's such a great point, Sean. So if there were people in the Democrat Party, because there's a lot of Democrats who don't want Joe Biden to win, if they saw, I mean, I'm sorry, to run, if they saw that this indictment might, you know, scare him from a campaign, I mean, it's sort of counterintuitive in a way, because you have scandal, you go, I better not run. That's going to, you know, the scandal is going to surround me.

But the scandal is this big. And to the point where you need these agencies to do the dirty work and protect your family from what normal people. If you if you don't run, you suddenly become an average Joe. No pun intended. And and an average Joe would be in jail by now. All the there's no question about it. No pun intended. And and in an average Joe would be in jail by now. All the there's no question about it. An average person would be in jail for this kind of money laundering. The shell companies that not paying taxes on millions of dollars, all of these things that they've done, gun charges. So, yeah, it's interesting. So this will cause him to.

It's interesting. So this will cause him to run. That's a good answer to the question. Just to note that a lot of the money that Hunter Biden made from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company. Yeah. The Department of Justice let the statute of limitations run on those charges. So so Hunter Biden's not being charged for the Burisma money, not paying taxes on the Burisma money. This these allegations, these these this indictment goes back to 2016, 17, 18, and 19. So the allegations are six years old. No one doesn't pay their taxes for a year, two years, three years. And the IRS just sits back and is like, well, we'll see what comes up here. Maybe we'll send you a letter.

Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll prosecute you. No one gets away with that. You get prosecuted like a month after you lie on your tax form or you don't report income. This is six years down the road. And it's only because of Gary Shapley. He was the IRS whistleblower who said, listen, the corruption inside of the IRS and the Department of Justice and how this is being handled is real. The House Republicans then, you know, did hearings on this. And so when light was shown on the corruption of

how the agencies were handling Hunter Biden, I think they felt pressure. Like, okay, we have to charge him. Do I really believe in their hearts? They're really happy about this? No, they're not. do I really believe in their hearts? They're really happy about this? No, they're not. And the question is, will they follow the leads that will lead them to Jim Biden, Joe's brother, and to Joe Biden himself? I don't know the answer to that. I hope they follow all the evidence. But that is yet to be seen. Very, very interesting. It's going to be an interesting election. Speaking of that, there was the debate. You and I did the post debate I hosted it on Fox Nation

I had Sean, I had Will, Kane and Jimmy Fela and we had a really interesting discussion and in the discussion we kind of went around and said who won the debate who are the winners, who are the losers Will Kane said that he thought ronda

santos was the winner and bivik was the loser and we were at odds because i i thought clearly bivik why i was so impressed with him and but everyone felt like he was really annoying clearly the press thinks he's really annoying um you have you know van j Jones on CNN saying, I'm scared of him. I feel like he's just inches away from spouting Nazi propaganda. That's what Van Jones said. He said, I shudder when I hear him. I shake. I was shaking when I was listening to him because I realized he was going to be on the political stage, you know, for the next 30 years. And that part of his statement is actually true. I have to tell you, Sean, obviously, I don't think that Vivek is going to win this election. I don't think even if

something happened to Donald Trump, that he would be the next one to win. But I have been really intrigued with how he has resonated with conservative young people. We have young, you know, adults, children, I've spoken to other young adults. Vivek Ram Swamy really does an amazing job of articulating the distrust that so many Americans, but especially so many young Americans, have with the system, with these three-letter agencies that you were just talking about that were doing the bidding of the Joe Biden administration, with the health departments in our government who, you know, took away our constitutional rights and forced everyone to take experimental, you know, vaccines or else lose their job and not be able to feed their families. I mean, we have been through, I mean, so much just constitutional trauma over the last few years that have been just really laid to bear for us. And I think that the sort of business as usual politicians like Nikki Haley, for example, and even Ron DeSantis on some moments, although I think Ron DeSantis is truly an America first candidate.

But he does or his style is sort of the old school style. The aggressiveness of Vivek, in my opinion, Sean was very, was very appealing and maybe I'm crazy. Someone who's run for office before it's, and again, someone who's, when I first ran, it's like, you're trying to grapple with all the issues and make sure you don't step on landmines. And that can make you just not the best communicator. And what I find interesting to look at Vivek Ramaswamy,

he studied the issues. He knows the issues. He's really smart. He's really well-spoken. And he seems not to care about landmines. So he is, when you ask him a question, he doesn't have to think about how I'm going to answer it and what could a landmine be and what's the press going to say about it.

He's just giving his authentic answer to questions. And that's why he's just, because he knows the stuff. And I think that is really refreshing. It's not just that he knows the stuff, Sean. He actually said, I would rather lose telling the truth and win by not being authentic about how I feel about something. And I love that you brought up how like how hard it is to campaign because the media is so dishonest. I remember you once telling me, you know, you would do town halls in every single county that you were a congressman. And it was was really hard work in 26 counties.

And you went to every county and gave a town hall. work in 26 counties and you went to every, you know, county and gave a count all and wherever you went, obviously they were going to be, you know, the press was going to be there ready to dissect what you said. And you told me once, you know, the hardest part is you have to not just think about what you're going to say, but if the way I say it can be dissected and diced into, you know, something that the press or your opponent's opposition research group can construe and take out of context. And suddenly you look like something that you're not. And that is a really complicated and difficult thing to do. And I think one of the things that I do love about Donald Trump and Vivek Bhattaswamy is that I think we're in a new era

where it's like to hell with it all just say it like it is if you want to you want to call me a racist call me a racist you're gonna call me misogynist and finders of women or whatever go for it um you know war on women war on this it's like forget it i'm just gonna say what i think and the people get it and if you and the media and the elites want to use it to rip me apart, you know, go for it. And on that point, Rachel, if Nikki Haley was like, you know what? I did say that parents, if they want to transition their kid at 14, they should. Well, own that statement on the debate stage.

Instead of saying that multiple times in media releases and then at the Republican debate, be like, well, you're lying about me. I didn't say that. It's like, well, be honest. If you really believe that, tell us that you believe that because that's important to me. I don't think that parents can allow their kids to have sex at 14 and they can't allow their kids to transition at 14. That's my view as a parent. But just two points on the debate. I thought the part that was not talked about enough was Nikki Haley was asked about the economy. They had one portion about the economy and housing. And when the question came to her, she was like a deer in headlights.

She gave the most rambling, nonsensical answer of all the candidates. She was horrible. And the number one issue that people have right now when you poll them is they're concerned about inflation. They're concerned about the economy. They're fearful of what's coming in 2024 and how it's impacting their lives. And that Nikki Haley couldn't come up with a good answer on the economy. And she's an accountant. She had an accountant. Listen, an accountant, she's not an economist. She's an accountant. No, but I i mean she understands the numbers i mean more than the average person wouldn't you say an accountant would understand

the numbers more than the average person in the debate uh it didn't appear that she understood that at all agreed um and i thought that was a huge by the way nikki haley uses the fact that she's an accountant to say america needs an accountant in the white house because we're spending too much money blah blah blah i love blah, blah. I love my accountants. They do a lot of good work. I don't know many accountants. I don't because I do the taxes. So I know the accountants.

I'm impressed with accountants because it's like the one part of my life I want nothing to do with. I love accountants, but I don't want them as my president. One of the things I just want to mention, Ron DeSantis. On our podcast, and I've told you personally, I have not been the biggest fan of Ron DeSantis. On our podcast, and I've told you personally, I have not been the biggest fan of Ron DeSantis. I knew him in Congress. I did not think he was... First of all. Yes. Thank you for saying that for me. For some reason, this is the fourth debate, I've warmed up to Ron. And there's something about his record. And he's not he's not the he's not

the flashiest guy. He's not the friendliest guy. He doesn't have a personality made for the national stage. He doesn't. But he has a record made for the national stage. And for some reason, I've just really grown to respect what he's done in Florida. And I'm warming up to him because of that. And I listen, I still think Donald Trump is is right. But he'll become your goat. He's he's done in Florida. And I'm warming up to him because of that. Now, listen, I still think Donald Trump is the real deal. Right, but he's become your goat. He's the guy. If not Trump, I've kind of come to dissent. Even though I love Evade.

Which is what these debates are about. The debates are, if something happens to Trump, who is it? And for me, too, I love Evade. I think he's too young. He hasn't done it. And he hasn't been in Congress before. One of the things I learned from Trump, Sean, is that, you know, when you come, there's something amazing about having an outsider. I mean, I love that idea. And a businessman. And Vivek is a businessman. No question about it. A very successful one. And I like that. Someone who thinks like that. And I'm sure on an IQ level, like, I'm sure Vivek, you know, has a really high IQ. He's a smart dude. But when you don't know all the traps and the deep state and the people, it is really easy to be taken for. And I think in the first administration, in Donald Trump's, you know,

early years, he ended up bringing on to his administration, his cabinet and many important key positions throughout the government. So really bad people had bad intentions that did not like him, that were actually actively undermining him. And so I would I'm very wary about somebody that green. I so there's been a progression, Rachel. But but I but I agree with you, Sean. If something happens and Donald Trump can't do it, and I'm going to tell you, that's going to be a very sad day in America. I really believe the only person who can save us at this point is Donald Trump, because there is nothing they can throw at this point. There's nothing they can throw at him that he can't take. We know everything

about him. He has been, you know, dissected in every way that, you know, any candidate has ever had. You know, there's nothing they can do to him anymore. They've done it all. And if he survives this latest, you know, gauntlet that they have for him, he's he is indestructible. And so that's my first choice is Donald Trump. But short of Donald Trump, it is Ron DeSantis. And he has a record. And by the way, it was on these social issues. People go, well, who cares about the social issues? I care about the social issues. But the strength it took to take on those social issues, you know, the university that he started in Florida, Sean, with Chris Ruffo, really important moment in taking, you know, it's small, small thing. But the first most important step in taking back our education system at the higher, you system, the higher education system, the way he's expanded school choice, the way he's taken on curriculums and all kinds of third rails.

He's the guy, not Nikki Haley, who I believe is beholden to whoever will get her into power. So what I think is that the media has had a progression. It started with Ronald Reagan, and he's so stupid, and it got worse for George Bush, and then it got even worse for Donald Trump. But even the media loved John McCain. John McCain became the nominee for the Republican Party, and they skewered him. Yeah, it's true. They might like anybody right now, but Trump, they like Nikki Haley. If Nikki Haley was the nominee, they would absolutely destroy her. And what I fall back on is who's going to be able to take everything the media and the Democrats are going to throw at this

candidate, right? Can Nikki Haley handle it? Can Vivek handle it? Maybe. I don't know. But I know Ron DeSantis can. I think Ron has stood up to the machine, the leftists in Florida. Now, leftists in Florida are different than the leftists nationally, but I think he has the best record of standing up and fighting for what he believes in and what we conservatives believe in

more so than anyone other than Trump. And we know that Trump, again, they've thrown everything at him, lied about him, Russia collusion. They've prosecuted him. They've impeached him. They're going after his businesses and his money. And he's still standing and fighting for us.

But if not, if not Trump, then I do think Ron is the next best choice of someone who can weather the coming barrage of attacks that will hit him if he was not just the attack Sean it's like once they get in what will they do I think Ron DeSantis is America first I think he has the right instincts I think Nikki Haley has a lot more globalist instincts I think she's much more would be more susceptible to be beholden to to influences whether it's you know it's from black rock or of course yeah for even like you know even this i mean on this easy step on if you're gonna take money from larry fink um it doesn't it doesn't speak so much about you personally taking his money but it says what does larry think think about you larry fink is the head of BlackRock, and he's the one who's pushing ESG on the world.

And I guarantee you, if Nikki Haley wasn't there, would Larry Fink give money to Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump or Vivek Ramaswamy? Never. By the way, just because someone gives you money doesn't mean you do what they say. Well, that's what she says. So that's the point I want to make. She says, hey, they are interested in what I have to say. I'm not listening to what I'm not doing. They're bidding.

She's right. And she's right. And that's what's scary is that Larry Fink looks at Nikki Haley and says, I like where you're at on these issues. I like your positions. That should frighten every conservative. and says, I like where you're at on these issues. I like your positions. That should frighten every conservative. If Larry Fink likes her, and I hate Larry Fink, I'm like, well, if you like her, I bet I don't like her because you're trying to destroy America with your ESG movement, your

DEI movement, your socialist takeover of corporate America and force all these things onto the businesses that are trying to make money, but you want them to be social engineering institutions. socialist takeover of corporate America and force all these things, you know, onto the businesses that are trying to make money, but you want them to be social engineering institutions. That is what freaks me out. And when Larry Fink gives you money, sorry, you can take it. But if he's giving you money because of your policies, that's a huge problem. And I don't think that was really pointed out well on the debate stage. I don't think that was really pointed out well on the debate stage huh that i don't think the other candidates pointed that out well enough on the debate i agree no i think that you reframed it in the way that made sense to me because when she tried to defend herself she did a good job

and she was ready for that attack but what you're saying is even better um is is actually more revealing that larry fink likes you says all i need to know about you um when she failed on the trans like when her she was on a liberal network they asked her about the trans issue and her instinct was well whatever cut the baby here and yeah i think parents should decide i think it's up to the parents and um of course that was going to win her some favor with, you know, maybe liberals on this network. But her instinct as a woman and as a conservative woman and as a mother, erase women and the place of women and the unique contributions that women make to humankind beginning with the fact that you know we are essential to continuing the human race we are not equal to men men can't become women these are

you know basic biological facts and as a woman and as a conservative woman, that we have a conservative so-called conservative woman on that presidential stage and she was the one who wasn't standing up for women. That said a lot for me. So so so there's there's that, of course. We'll be back with much more after this. has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. Should we do one more? Yeah.

Okay. Let's do one more. Do you want to do... This is interesting. Do you think that intergenerational living should become more normalized given the state of the economy?

I think that the state of the economy. I think that it's the state of the economy is probably going to accelerate in some households that you see a lot of kids, especially who might be have flown the nest under a different economy that are coming back and living in their parents' basements or their old bedrooms because they can't make it. You're seeing a lot of, you know. You're seeing a lot of that. But the actual intergenerational living that used to be back in the day, Sean, and it didn't necessarily have to mean inside of the home. It meant that your mom lived down the street, your sister lived down the street, and you

were all able to help each other in different ways um i think that that is something that is really damaging to families i think i i've seen it in your family how beautifully it is that beautiful that so many people live you have 10 brothers and sisters the vast majority of them live within a few miles of each other in that town. They're able to help your parents in a really beautiful way. We have had my parents over the years live with us for, you know, one, two, three, even six months at a time and had that kind of intergenerational living. Not only is it good for family bonds, but I think that there's a lot of wisdom being lost. When the older generation is raising, helping to be involved in the lives of the younger

generation, there's a lot of wisdom that gets passed on. But when you live 400, 500 miles away, you just kind of figure it out on your own. You end up making some, you know, rookie mistakes that you wouldn't make if you had somebody from a prior generation living near you to kind of guide you and give you advice. Yeah. So when I was growing up, my dad's mother, Eva, lived a couple blocks away from us. And a block away from her was her sister, our aunt Amy. And every Sunday after church, and by the way, most of her kids lived

in our hometown of Hayward, and they all go to her house for coffee after church. And oftentimes they'd stop by and see her at all different times during the week. And it was really good for her, the social interaction. And she lived to be, what, I think, 96 years old. And again, she gave advice,

she gave counsel, she, you know, it was really helpful to have her there. And even now, my brother, six of my brothers and sisters all live in my hometown of Hayward. And there's a lot of help that they offer my mom and dad and advice and counsel. And so, yeah, and I think you make a really good point. Intergenerational living doesn't have to be where you're all living in the same house. That can be really wonderful. And a lot of people are homesteading now. They're trying to figure out ways to do that. But if you live in the same community, in the same neighborhood, I think that's really helpful. And just, I mean, look back 80, 100 years, you know, people, we didn't have the ability to travel. So people stayed close to home. They didn't go off to the city. They didn't, you know, travel halfway across the country for a job. They

stayed pretty close to the neighborhood and the schools in which they went. With travel now, people can go all over and they have. And that separation because of this advancement in travel technology has had an impact on the family. And I do think it's important to recognize what is the best way to do it. And sometimes that doesn't work. But all things being equal, if we can live by each other, if we can help each other out and, you know, have a tribe, a unit, a group that kind of fends for and helps assist in those difficult times in our life and also the fun times i think it's um it's it's uh it's what we want to strive for you know i think about um they've measured anxiety levels you know for for moms you know has increased over the decades and

it's it's obvious that probably the biggest factor is the lack of that support system. When you have your siblings living around you, your parents living around you, that kind of built in family support system is, is first of all, makes, makes having kids a lot more affordable, right? To get some help every now and then, you know, and when you have multiple kids, you, can you go pick up so-and-so? Cause I got to go run so and so to this game or I got to, you know, do this or that, that kind of, you know, cooperation between families. I think it's it's added to a lot of stress that women don't have that. And I think the idea of having a family and raising children was always meant to be, you know, a team sport. And that team isn't just your partner, your husband, or your partner, your wife.

It's also these other members of the family. And I think a lot of anxiety, a lot of alienation, a lot of loneliness has, has greeted from the fact that we don't live the way we were intended, which is frankly, Sean, tribal. we were intended, which is, frankly, Sean, tribal. Even raising kids. If you don't live by your parents and you have kids, you're reinventing the wheel. You're reinventing parenthood.

And you have no idea how to be a parent. And we all, as new couples, we all reinvent parenting. We're all going to do it better than our parents. But to have someone there that actually has done it before, your own parents, to give you some advice and counsel or to point out where they think you might be making mistakes. And you can take your parents' advice or not, but someone who has done it to look at your operation and go, you're doing this really well, or I think you're making some mistakes here. You have advice and counsel in raising kids. That's really helpful to raise better kids. But if you reinvent the wheel,

it's a little challenging. And we say this all the time, very imperfect parents, but we've gotten better because we've had so many kids. So we're almost like elder parents giving ourselves advice on the mistakes we made early on. And that's a real, and that's a real benefit to us. But even now, I mean, I was, I think I gave this, this example before, but it's, it's a really Even now, I mean, I think I gave this example before, but it's a really instructive one. My mom and dad were coming to our house and staying for a while. You can't help but watch how this operation works, right? We've got a big family, and they're watching how the operation works. And my mom's like, why are you doing snack time after school and then cleaning that up and making dinner?

Your kids are starving after school and then cleaning that up cleaning that up making dinner and then making dinner your kids are starving after school just give them dinner and it's easier on you because you don't have to do snack time and then clean up that and then dinner and then it gets late in the evening and they still have homework just when they come home have everything ready the table and that's what i do and we're like they come home the table is set the food is done and we sit down to eat and that is done and they're happier and we haven't and i get the immediate what's happening after school around the kitchen around the you know the dinner table there and then you know the then it's the cleanup and we're basically done with cleanup and onto homework in bedtime you know know, by 530.

I mean, that is a way better. And again, that's just an operational thing, you know. But your mom was like, what are you guys doing? What is going on here? And then we're also. Yeah. What are we doing? This makes way more sense.

Totally. Or they also can observe things in your children that maybe you have a blind eye to for some reason. There's just so much mothering and parenting that gets passed on and that is lost. And so much, I just think, wisdom that is being lost because of that. And that is why, Deep Tease, I'm going to address the motherly wisdom that is being lost because so many people, I'm going to address the motherly wisdom that is being lost because so many people. I'm going to do a special series. It's all I'm going to say.

It's a deep tease. And that's all I'm going to say. But I'm going to do a special note on this podcast about recapturing that wisdom. To continue the deep tease. I'm going to have to step aside and just let you do that solo. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. But no, so again, this doesn't work for everybody.

But just one lesson on this as we think about our own lives um and as our kids are kind of going out and doing their thing we want to find a place that we could be where they can all come back to um we like to be around each other we love them we think about this a lot a lot um it's like our it's like our favorite conversation we want our kids to all live near us. And near each other. And near each other. So we're trying to find where is that next place that we want to live, that our kids will want to live, that we can.

We love this idea of a homestead. We do. And so we've talked about that before on the podcast even. But that is, and there are so many families that are coming i think the craziness of the world sean is bringing people back to the basics and that because you you don't really you can't really trust our government anymore you can't trust so many things the only thing you got is what's right in front of you is your family so how do you keep your family together how do you stop all this alienation

and separation that's happening and maybe your family already lives in different parts so now it's time to just go okay how do i do it for my own family how do i change that pattern that tradition that whatever and start thinking about where i want to plant my roots and put it in a place where my kids are likely to want to stay near and close together. So it's a different way of thinking because we've always thought of ourselves as part of different households, our parents' households. And now we've kind of realized we're the head of this household and we have to be the leaders and figure out where we get them all to go.

Where do we get all the little chickens to congregate at? How to come back. And we don't have a great answer for it. We're still working it out. We're still working it out. We think that's important in life. It also is about changing that idea of like, I think, especially in our generation, Sean, it's like you go where the job takes you.

And that's how so many families end up living in different places. My own family included, all of my siblings, we all live in different places. And I don't like it. And I don't like it at all. We came to New Jersey because that's where the job was. We're at Fox. And that's how we've all been doing it. And now I'm at a place where I'm like, I don't like that way of doing it.

I want to do it differently. I want to do it differently. I want to do it probably closer to the way that your family is doing it. I want to find a place that's not as cold as Hayward, but where my chickens can come home and live around me and we can take care of each other. And by the way, Sean, we talked about this in the last podcast. As you get older, the nursing home situation is not good. The people that are coming in to take those jobs are often not as skilled as they used to be in the past. Sometimes those places were run by nuns who had a religious vocation to the elderly and to nursing homes. And so now I don't like the idea of nursing homes.

I don't want to put my mom and dad in one. I don't want to end up in one. So my insurance plan, and I don't care who criticizes me for saying this, because I had a priest tell me it's called Mexican Social Security. I have nine kids. I want, I hope, I hope that I'll be taken care of. And I think that's taken care of by a family, not by some institution, not by strangers. That's, I think, the best way to grow old.

And you lead by example by taking care of your parents. Yes. And they see that and they go, oh, that's what we're supposed to do as part of a family. Great conversation. And again, we are excited about the Christmas season. We thought about taking more time and how do we structure it

so we can really enjoy this time with our family. And it's never perfect. But again, we've thought through that and are trying to be better about how we're maximizing the wonderful magic of Christmas. So I want to thank you all

for joining us at the kitchen table for questions on Friday. Some of your questions, some topics of the day, which we appreciate. If you like our podcast, you can rate, review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find us at FoxNewsPodcast.com. We would like you to subscribe. You get a notice every time we drop, which is Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And until next week, thanks for joining us, everybody.

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