From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Q & A With The Duffys: The Duffys' Favorite Co-Worker

Episode Date: September 30, 2023

Sean and Rachel pose some questions to each other on this episode, from why they feel Florida Governor DeSantis has failed to gain any ground in the polls, to who their favorite co-worker is at FOX. �� Later, they weigh in on the state of the economy in the United States, and share their thoughts on X CEO Elon Musk calling out Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after his trip to the Southern border. Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RachelCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy along with my co-host for the podcast, my partner in life and my wife, Rachel

Campos Duffy. Today is going to be a fun show, Sean. It is. Because we are going to be asking each other questions. And so we're going to have really personal questions and then some questions that are, you know, just different. Different. Okay. All right. So here's what I'm going to start with. You know, a lot of people think Ron DeSantis won the debate this past week. Others say it was Nikki Haley, but I would say that most people say it was Ron DeSantis. But Ron DeSantis'

main drawback for a lot of people is just that he's not connecting. So why is retail politics, if you will, that connection that you have with the voters so important when you could, you know, objectively say that Ron DeSantis has delivered on many levels as a conservative, and yet he's trailing by like 40 points. So first off, Ron DeSantis, based on his record in Florida, should be very close to Donald Trump in the primary race. He's not. Donald Trump is running away thus far with the primary polling. So listen, you've got to have good policy. You've got to be able to talk about the ideas that people care about, the issues that they think ails the country.

What are those problems? Identify them and then be able to give solutions to those problems. But he has done that. Ron DeSantis does that very well. But on the flip side, people want to connect with you, right? Because the voters put a lot of faith in you. They're going to give you their trust to do the things you promised. And you trust people when you connect with them.

And that means you look at them. You actually can talk directly to them. You can have a personality with them. You can laugh. You can hug. You can feel their frustration and anger. And it's not just in politics. It happens in all parts of our life, whether it's our marriages, our workplace, our friends.

And for some reason, Ron DeSantis, whether he was in Congress or you see it right now, and I called this early on, I thought he was going to have a problem. He just seems to be very awkward when he's engaging with people individually. And when he goes on stage, it's almost amplified, right? So the way you can connect with someone one-on-one, when you're on stage, you would think that might go away. But he still has the same problem connecting with voters because there's just this awkwardness that he has. The laugh, even the cadence of his answers, a lot of it seems to be rehearsed. He's very smart.

He can rehearse and memorize a lot of those things. When he goes off the cuff, though, it's pretty good. I mean, like when he called out the moderator and said, hey, wait a minute. I don't accept the premise of that question. This is what we did in, you know, Florida schools. He does, he can have those moments, but it's not, it's not the main. Very stilted. Even. Yeah. How do you explain the fact that people like how weird is it that other Republican federal officials, you know, other congressmen in the state haven't backed him up? What in Florida?

Explain that. I think a lot of people don't understand how unusual that he hasn't made the connections. He hasn't bonded with the own legislators in his state, which is why when Donald Trump moved from Florida to to from New York to Florida, most of those members of Congress endorsed Donald Trump, not Ron DeSantis. The simple, easy political answer would have been stay out of the race. I got two people I like. I'm not going to endorse anybody. They actually endorsed Donald Trump. And so when that was a message to Ron DeSantis, you're saying, what was their message? We don't like you. You're a jackass. Yeah. Right. We don't respect you. You haven't been nice to us. We're not going to be nice to you. I mean, this is this is very playground stuff, but it permeates all parts of life. So just take a step back. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump. These, if you meet them, whether you disagree or agree with their politics, they're charismatic people.

When you meet them one-on-one, I never met Reagan or Clinton, but they're, I don't know who's met them. They're dynamic. They're engaging. They're like people are mesmerized by them, right? Because of the personality that they have. And that's Ronda Santis. How does it matter? But it has implications beyond the campaign, correct? That if you can, if you have to pass legislation, right? Or not, you don't pass legislation, but you have to get people onto deals, I should say. You do.

And so if you're likable and you can get people to work together and come together. That's positive. Or you have to have the skill set to go around the Congress and go directly to the American people to sell them your idea and push the Congress to do what you want. I think Ron would have a hard time doing either of any of those things. Florida is small enough. Again, it's a big state, but it's small enough where you can drive policy ideas that most of Florida agrees with and the legislature is going to follow. So that's my, again, this is very simple stuff. We all know it. We don't put always words to it, but we like likable people. And usually likable people, friendly people, charismatic people are able to win races, and especially at the presidential level. And I think that, again, Ron has a lot of successes. But this is the fallback. And this is not politics, it's just human nature. Human nature is we want people that we can connect with. And so on that point, Rachel, we're talking a little bit about the last debate in politics. How bad was the Univision debate moderator as it relates to one the whole this is a Republican

debate but also as it relates to what issues Hispanics care about because I thought she was way off base yeah I don't know why the RNC agreed to have her there because she's a really her name is Ilya and she is a liberal, super far left from Univision. Univision, everybody who watches Univision and knows anything about Univision knows that it is a tool of the Democrat Party, has very close ties with the Clintons. The presidents of those company of the company has very close ties. So it's weird that she was there and she asked question. Well, here's the worst part, Sean. She's supposedly there because she's representing Hispanics and she started the debate by speaking Spanish. And supposedly she's going to represent Hispanics.

She never asked anything that Hispanics care about. and the LGBTQ questions, which I thought was odd, given that the Hispanic community is working class, largely. They're suffering greatly during this time. It just seems like there was a total disconnect. She did ask about the Dreamers, but frankly, most Hispanics are not dealing with the Dreamer issue. They're dealing with kitchen table issues. And those people at the border, she could have done a better job of representing them.

I thought she was terrible. She also asked about guns in school. And that was a major force, which, by the way, not many people answered that question. That was a fast pitch. You could have hit that one out of the park as a Republican candidate. They didn't. I mean, is that an issue they care about? I don't think it's even close to the top of the agenda of what Hispanics are thinking about.

It really is the economy. And frankly, again, this is a Republican primary. A lot of Hispanics concerned about what's happening in the school, but not in the way that she described it. They're worried about all the gender ideology that's being taught in the school, the way that their kids are being indoctrinated and not educated. They care about the test scores, which, as you can see, lately, we've been talking a lot in the news about some of the test scores that have come out that are so dismal. So they want school choice. And there's probably no demographic more in favor of school choice than Hispanic. So this woman was totally out of touch. If you were going to bring in a Hispanic person for that reason, then, you know, she wasn't the one to bring in.

And it was just really weird to how bad she was. I really was disappointed that Tim Scott took the bait on her question about the curriculum, which was basically misinformation in Florida. And he took the bait. He tried to hit Ron DeSantis saying, you're saying that, you know, there were redeeming, you know, characteristics about slavery and that slaves benefited from slavery, which is not at all what was said and then he also talked about how he defended himself on on some level about hispanics saying that you know i have a chief of staff who's a hispanic as if that's like matters like that

kind of bean counting is so like liberal and i think think it really diminished Tim Scott in many ways. He's playing their game. What I felt to put it in my white- White man way? White man way. Yes. Thank you for that. Listen, she's a radical liberal. Totally. She put a Hispanic blanket over her and walked in and like, I'm going to pretend like I'm going to ask issues that Hispanics care about. But what I'm really doing is asking questions that liberals care about, which, by the way, the Republican voter doesn't care about. And this is a Republican primary debate.

So she completely missed the mark. But again, Donald Trump would have crushed her questions. And no one else. They didn't lean into them. They actually ducked away from them, which, again, is a sign of weakness. You can't duck away from those hard questions

because they're a conservative Republican voter. Well, Ron did not duck away from the accusation and he called it out for the misinformation that it was. Really disappointed in that. We'll have more of this conversation

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News. We have lots of friends there. We do. We do. So this is kind of a mean thing. It's like asking you who's your favorite child. But who is your favorite person at Fox? Or the question at the debate, who would you vote off the island? Who would you vote off the island? And Ron said, I'm not going to answer that. So you could take the Ron DeSantis, or you could lean into this and just answer it. Listen, this is so easy for me. My favorite person at Fox News or Fox Business is Rachel Camp.

She is my favorite. Okay, let me say you can't add me into it. I'm changing the rules. You can't say me. You know what? I'm going to go with... There's a lot of great people. I work with Dagan McDowell. We have a great relationship. Love her. But if I'm going to pick out someone

outside the box, Jimmy. Jimmy Fela is one of the nicest people. He might be everybody's favorite person at Fox. You can never meet. He's as funny in person as he is on TV or on his radio show. He loves his wife and his son, Lincoln. He's just an all-around hard worker, an all-around just really good guy. Yeah.

You know, I must say that I'm going to pick someone else just because you already picked Jimmy. But when I met Jimmy, you know, very early on when I started coming to Fox, just as a not even a contributor. And then as a contributor, I've gotten to know him over the years. He's the exact same person he is today. I mean, he's really having a moment. He's he's really exploding and deservedly so. But he's the same guy I would, you know, joke around with in the green room eight years ago as he is today when everyone knows his name. And he's always been a happy, good, sunny person. And yeah, he's just a great guy all the way around. So let me ask you this.

Someone asked this question to us. If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? Oh, you were going to ask me who my favorite person was? I just didn't. Oh, you were going to ask me who my favorite person was? I just didn't. Oh, you didn't answer yet. Well, I'd pick you back down to me. But I was going to say that Pete and Will. You, of course, first.

But Pete and Will, I must say, I really like them. They're really good, genuinely really great friends of mine. And it's a pleasure to work with them. I'm going to dissect that because we were on the Will Cain podcast. Will took issue. Will thinks I like Pete more. Right. And she just said Pete and Will. So she said Pete and Will. By putting it first. No, I did that in alphabetical order. She's a crook winning too.

I truly like them both. And you don't often get a chance to work with people you like, love and respect so much. And I'm really lucky all three of us feel that the same way about each other. And we often talk about how we know this is a very special moment in our careers that we get to do this together as the three of us. And so, yeah, it's four hours. It doesn't feel like four hours. It goes by fast because we're just having so much fun in between the breaks and everything else. Those points in your life where you have like a really amazing team. I had that in Congress. And sometimes those things, they pass. Yeah, they're moments in time. You should enjoy it. And the three of you, and by the way, you're all very different and all very similar at the same time, right? I mean, Will and Pete are very different. You even attack the news and the issues and you're very different from them,, right? I mean, Will and Pete are very different. You know how they even attack the news and the issues.

And you're very different from them. But you all kind of have this, a little bit of mind meld as well. So it makes for a really good and fun conversation on Saturday morning. So you're going to go with your two co-hosts. All right. Yeah. That's good. Yeah.

I'm lucky to be able to say that. You are. Okay. All right. So I'm going to go back to my question. If you could change something about yourself, what would it be? So I'm a very imperfect person. Anyone married to me would know that. This is perfection. Just ask.

Sure. You know, I think for the sake of myself and my family, I wish I get up early on the weekends, but I've always been a night owl. And it's been a really hard thing for me to break because during the week, I wish that I would get up at like 4.30. People who get up, all the data is there. People who get up at 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning and get their workouts done and get a headstart on maybe their emails or reading, you know, things that they need to read. They just have a better day. And I have done it on occasion. I've had very short stints where I've been able to do it. I've never been able to sustain it. I really detest this about myself because I know if I had that discipline that not only would my day go better, I know I'm actually a better person with my kids,

with you, with everything. When I get up early and take care of my workout and get like a cup of coffee before everyone comes down, it is just- The day goes away from you. It gets to be crazy. The day just goes and then I'm catching up and then I'm not in the moment because I'm thinking about all the things I need to do. Getting up early would be my thing. So the thing with getting up early- And discipline. Why don't I have the discipline for that, Sean? And you have the discipline to get your workout clothes on. But to get to the gym- You have to pop that. No, it does not. But if you want to get up early, that means you have to go to bed early. And this

is our problem. Rachel says, I want to get up early, but then she doesn't go to bed early because she's a night owl. She stays up late. And it's a little bit frustrating for me to see. Even on Saturday and Sunday, it's like, get yourself set up, get to bed. Especially before I work. I get up at three in the morning for my job on the weekends, and I still sometimes don't

get to bed until nine o'clock, which is not good. I will say, you know what's been helping me lately is I've been taking like a little bit of magnesium powder and dissolved in water. You're drugging yourself. No, magnesium is a supplement. It's not even a sleeping pill. It's a supplement. But I'm telling you, it's been helping. And maybe this will be the beginning of something good because I am sleeping deeper.

I'm remembering my dreams, which I never remember my dreams before. So it's really weird. I know that I'm sleeping better. So maybe this will be the beginning of something. I hope so. Yeah, me too. What about you, Sean? What do you think you would change about yourself? I just, I think I'm nice, too nice. That's what you want to change about yourself? I'm too good of a husband. This is like the job interviewer. You say all your, all your, the things, all your good qualities.

Listen, I, this is, you're getting us at a unique time in our life because we both feel really tired, I think.

Yeah. And I wish, and I don't do well when I'm tired. Like, I get crabby and also my brain doesn't work.

You turn into a monster. My brain doesn't work but I'm not as mean as you when you're tired. Yeah, I'm like a three-year-old, right? And it's not good. And so I've had for the last, since I had my shoulder surgery and didn't really get any help from you, since that, for the last five weeks, I just don't think I've slept well. So I would say I need to sleep more.

That's the one thing you would change about yourself? I need to sleep more. That's the one thing you would change about yourself? Based on your answer, I can think of some other things you need to change. Oh, God. Like humility, maybe? Okay, next time we should do a question about what would you change about me and what would I take from you. That would be more interesting.

Actually, let's do it then. Let's just do it. What would you change about me? Sometimes when Rachel and I fight, I don't know where this is going. She can't take my point of anger. She'll fight back on me on everything. And usually I won't say it like that. You mean not the point of the fight, but I make it bigger. No, well, you won't accept the point of my anger sometimes. And

then it becomes, sometimes it becomes a bigger fight. Well, I'll put my foot down and go like, no, you got to hear me out on this. And sometimes you just go, yes, I see. I'm sorry. I was a bad one. I was a bad one. I see your point. I see your point. I don't know. But listen, in all honesty, I've only been married once, so I can't speak about other marriages. But I just seem to be a pretty darn good wife, a great mom, a great partner in all the things that we do together. And so there's really not much. I mean, again, we don't have, like every marriage, we get little spats. And that would be my little complaint.

That would be your complaint. You know, I hate to say this, but it goes back to the last thing you said. I can't stand when you're tired and when you're crabby. And the other thing is, you hold a grudge more than I do. I do hold a grudge. You hold a grudge. And I think it's an Irish thing. So I think I would change that about you.

Maybe it goes back to the point that if you don't actually hear what I'm saying and you want to fight me on it, then I hold a grudge about it because you're not actually acknowledging me. I think it's a fair complaint. We can do counseling on the podcast. Just counsel each other. Yeah, counsel each other. I think that's a good one.

Okay, so what scares you the most about what's happening in America today? So listen, I think there's... Is it digital currency? So again, maybe it's just too broad of an answer, but all of the norms that we have had, all of the rules by which our society has lived by and we've all accepted, they're all breaking. I mean, the fact that we all look and go, if you rob a store, you should go to jail. We're not going to say, no, the robber's the victim or that this should be reparations. I mean, what is that? Or that we're not teaching kids actually material, we're indoctrinating them in school and colleges. The fact that we don't believe in free speech or gun rights.

They were prosecuting a former president. I mean, I think every norm has been shattered. So ironic that you say that, because that's sort of like what the Democrats entire campaign was. You know, in 2020, they were saying Donald Trump broke all these norms and yet he abided by the laws. He you know, but there really wasn't. I mean, the norms he broke were what he would he would say. It was that they felt were unacceptable to say as a president. Right. But in in regard to stylistic how society operated, we, you know, for the most part, were consistent with our past, except for Donald Trump was involved with Fauci and the masks and the shutdowns and Democrats pushed him and Fauci pushed him. That was a norm breaker. But what we're seeing today-

Oh, you mean with COVID, yeah. I think someone who lived through the 80s and maybe died in the mid 90s would look at this and go, what the hell has happened to this country? It has become unrecognizable. And the people that we have half the country pushing to silence and demonize and prosecute and shun half the other population, that's what scares me the most. And it makes me go, what kind of home will this be in 5, know, 5, 10, 20 years from now? What will our kids inherit? And that really freaks me out. And you hear me talk about this all the time.

And I get radical ideas on what we need to do. Like that we need to flee the country. I guess we're going to get really exposed here on the podcast, maybe. An option. Can I tell them? I don't want to be one of the Cubans that... Chose to leave the island too late. Right.

And they couldn't leave. And I got on a rickety raft in shark-infested waters. I want to be one of the Cubans that left the island before that. They flew off the island. No, that's why, listen, you're not alone. I mean, I think, you know, if you, they say like one of the number one Google things are like homesteads and people just trying to, you know, live in a way that they can protect themselves. The number of people who own guns now is at record highs. There's all kinds of things that people feel under attack. I think what scares me the most, Sean, is the young people. And I say this because, for example, if you pulled, you know, all kinds of, you know, all the demographics in America, probably the demographic that most would agree with the idea of hate speech and censorship are young people.

They've been normalized to that. And they accept the suppression of their freedom. They accepted it like sheep during COVID. They were forced to take vaccines or else they couldn't go to class. They were forced to mask. Even though they knew very early on that they were not at risk, they submitted to all of these rules and sort of that rebelliousness is gone. And they're resembling sheep or commie kids more than Americans. And that really scares me. This week, our daughter

told us a really chilling story about how when she was at the University of Chicago, she ran a conservative paper there called The Chicago Thinker with her and a few fellow conservative students. She had a student who wrote for that paper write her and say, hey, I need you to take down all of my articles because I'm applying for an internship. And if the employers see these conservative articles, I know I won't be hired. And this is the world that they have inherited, that they have accepted, that they're willing to self-censor in order to get ahead. And I understand that tension that that young woman had, but it is a very scary place.

And I don't see the young people gathering together to fight against it in any way, shape, or form. They've accepted this norm. They're learning to adjust to it, and they will be our leaders moving forward. And so that scares the heck out of me. And that's because they've been taught these radical ideas in the school system. They haven't been taught the beauty of our founding and our founding documents and the principles in the Constitution, why we actually believe them, where they come from, and why they're so important. They have no idea, and that's why they're willing to give them up.

Or maybe it's just a lack of courage. I mean, there's, listen, you know. No, they don't. I don't think they know. I mean, I think, I really think if you haven't been taught in school, these concepts, moms and dads normally don't sit down and talk about these ideas, how the government works, why it works the way it does, why speech is important. But one other point as well, the story of Evita and the student, what I see is this is just the beginning. There's only one acceptable speech in corporate America, in media, in government even. And if you deviate from that, you won't get hired. And do I see this as just a moment in time

or do I see this as the beginning of what is only going to get worse? And I see no end in sight. No one is stopping them. This is, we'll look back, this is the beginning. You could still be a conservative and get a job in America today. I don't know five or 10 years from now.

When it stops, I don't know, but it is only going to rage on in harder and faster towards our young people and the society as a whole. I did feel some hope with Twitter when Elon Musk took over. I can tell from Twitter that information that was suppressed before is coming forward. I'm really grateful for that. But, you know, Instagram, Facebook, all of those are still censoring and the textbooks are still censoring. Young people don't know about what happened. They don't know history. They don't know the history of communism and socialism. They're not getting that information. So they don't know, you know, what's what's coming forward. For example, Sean, do you remember this article I showed you this morning in the Wall Street Journal by our friend Helen Raleigh, she is a Chinese immigrant to this country.

And she's explaining how, you know, under communism, they would impose these centralized ideas of what you should do, whether it was farming or whatever. And inevitably, these things would lead to starvation. But they were imposed from the top down. And this is what the central planners wanted, and it happened, and people were forced into it. And it's not dissimilar from what we see now, where we have these central planners, these elites who are obsessed with the climate and think they can control the weather, saying, we can't have gas-powered cars, we have to move to EVs. We see the whole green New Deal economy that they're building for us that is not

technologically or scientifically ready to happen. They're still going to force it through. And we are suffering from the consequences of that. We see our inflation up because they have waged a war on American energy. We see our automobile industry being upended because they're forcing EVs. We see all kinds of things happening because they want to force a technology that I believe they think they can control us more with EVs, with electrical. They can control your thermostat more than they can if you have gas, for example. So I think all of this is about control. And if you don't know the history of communism and what centralized planning does to your economy and how it impoverishes people, well, you're not going to recognize what we're living

through right now. And obviously, free markets work best. Communists and controlled economies do not. And they're pushing so hard right now because if you're able to destroy the oil and gas industry and the infrastructure that sends oil and gas throughout the country, the pipelines, the rail, the trucks. The exploration that they're also completely destroying that. And that takes years to build up. If you can attack the gas stations themselves, if you lose that infrastructure, and then four years from now, we're like, hey, EVs aren't working. Let's bring back oil and gas. Let's have gas-powered cars that can bust your engine. The infrastructure is gone. You can't snap your fingers and bring back all of the infrastructure that you have today. And liberals understand that. They know that. That's why they're trying to destroy it under their rule, because then it's really hard to bring back. And it's really expensive to bring back. And then it'll just feed into their argument that CEVs are better. They're cheaper. We can't have oil and gas. And by the way, the gas is $7 a gallon in California. And there is not a revolt and revolution in California on the price of oil. I mean, who can pay $7 a gallon of gas? But by the way, in California, that's what they want. They want you to transition to an EV. They want you to go get yourself an EV and not get gas

powered cars. So they artificially inflate the price of gas at the pump. So you're like, it's a better decision for me to go get a Tesla. And I look at that and go, again, oil and gas could be $2.50 a gallon, not $7 a gallon. And the gas part of the car is cheaper, but they don't want that. And again, it goes, but you're right. This is about complete control. It's important to remember back. I mean, inflation under Donald Trump before COVID hit was 1.5%. 1.4, 1.5%. 1.4, 1.5%. Look at where it's at. Where is it right now, Sean? It's at...

We're at 3.7%. But if you do this, it was up at almost 9% under the height of inflation. But if you take from Joe Biden's first day in office to today, prices have gone up 18%, right? And so when we say inflation comes down, that doesn't mean that prices are getting cheaper. It's just that they're not going up as fast as they were, but they're still going up way too fast, which is why the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates, trying to tamp down the economy. They're trying to actually put us in a world of stress.

Which is why it's so hard for people to buy homes now. And so if you're concerned about your home mortgage prices or your car prices or your credit card rates, you have Joe Biden to blame. Joe Biden has brought this on us. And again, under Donald Trump, you had none of this. Their policies won't work today and they're not working, but they never have worked. These policies have never worked in human history. And that's why Donald Trump was such a threat because he wasn't talking, you know, he got in and it's amazing. I mean, we had the best, if just before COVID hit, we had the strongest economy we'd ever had in 50 years, most of our lifetimes. And, you know, and it was the, you know, he keeps, you know, Joe Biden keeps saying, I'm building it from the bottom up, from the middle out.

And all these like slogans he has. Truly under the Trump economy, that was the economy where Hispanics were doing better than they ever have. Blacks and the working class, the wages were rising. Transgenders were doing, like pick any category you want. than they ever have, blacks and the working class. The wages were rising. Transgenders, pick any category you want. But the wages were rising faster for the working class. Yes, than the wealthy. Than the wealthy. That's an amazing feat that he did.

We'll have more of this conversation after this. Can I ask you one other question? Sure. That was me off the top of my head. Go for it. Have you followed this fight between Elon Musk and AOC at all on Twitter? Yeah, very interesting. Where Elon Musk basically said AOC was not that smart.

Yeah, he said she's dumb. And she came back with this whole list of things that she said that she's done. Like I'm the youngest member elected to Congress and I passed the Green New Deal and kind of talks about some of her successes, which is interesting that again again i i'm not a fan of aoc i think she's a she is a communist she's a socialist but it's interesting that elon musk the richest man in the world is like i see some little seeds

of cancer in the country and i'm going to call them out. I'm not afraid to say, hey, AOC, you're stupid, because the policies that you promote and have tried to pass are crushing the very people you're saying you're trying to help, and whether it's the Green New Deal or it's even the immigration issue. At the border, she was the, everything that's happening at the border, remember, people forget she was the very first person to say defund ICE. And that was kind of really the beginning of what, you know, this whole defund police movement. She is now complaining about Biden's policies at the border in that and her complaint is just that the border's open, which she likes, but there's not enough federal money in her district to help alleviate the problems that that's caused. But

nonetheless, she's complaining about a policy and its ramifications when she was at the tip of the spear on that. I mean, she was at the border crying, calling for, you know, an end to Trump's policies, which were closing the border and stopping and stemming illegal immigration. She wanted these open borders. Now they're here. People in her district are unhappy. I think it's a really it's one of the most underreported stories is how the people in her congressional district are hurting, how angry they are, how angry they are at the money going to Ukraine, that she's also behind

that and has voted entirely for the Ukraine policy and all the money being sent there. And her constituents are hurting her district. Sean, I money being sent there. And her constituents are hurting her district. Sean, I've been down there. I've done reports from down there. It's filthy. It's one of the ugliest areas probably in the country. I mean, both of us are from areas that are beautiful in the country, clean, fresh air. She's in this dirty area. And for all her environmental policies, why isn't she... She should just start right there. Go pick up your own city. Pick up your own neighborhoods. No, I agree with you. And what I find

interesting is the politics behind this. AOC has tried to, again, under Donald Trump, go down in white jeans and cry at the border for all these kids. But even more kids are getting raped and abused and lost and the drug flow and the parents who are losing children, the poisonings. It's horrific. She doesn't go down there. She's trying to be silent as Joe Biden has opened the border. The reason she's saying anything right now about the border is the politics at home in her district are people like, what the hell is going on? This isn't working for us. And so she's had to come up with an answer. And the answer is not the right answer, which is we should close the border. Her answer is, as always, we should spend more money. And so I think, again, kudos to Elon Musk.

I know some people say that he's not the greatest. He's not going to actually do what he says he's going to do. He's partnering with government and with China. He does. He has some really, really, he has some big ties to big government or subsidies, and he has ties in China. I'm always a little suspicious of him, but I will say I like many of the fights. By the way, this week, he is in, he's down in Eagle Pass, down at the border where Joe Biden has refused to go, bringing attention there. Remember, this guy has- Congressman Tony Gonzalez. has refused to go, bringing attention there. Remember, this guy has- Congressman Tony Gonzalez.

Yes, he's with Congressman Tony Gonzalez from a Republican from that Eagle Pass area. And he's down there shining a light on the border issues because if you're not watching Fox, you're probably not seeing what's happening. And that's why, and by the way, that's why Joe Biden won't go down there. People go, does he not care?

He cannot go down there and allow the media attention to follow him. Because ABC and NBC, CBS, they're going to have to report on it because they travel with the president, which if he doesn't go, then they don't have to go and report on this as well. Just one last thing on Elon Musk. Again, I'm a fan. Again, there might be some imperfection there, but you'll never see Bill Gates. You'll never see Mark Zuckerberg, other rich people trying to say, you know what, I'm going to fight for people who deserve to have their opinions expressed. And I'll buy a platform myself for $44, $42 million and say, I'm going to do it because I think you should have one platform that you should be able to talk on. You should be able to communicate freely. By doing that, we had the Twitter files which exposed that our government has a censorship industrial complex and they work with big tech companies and their allies that leave the White House and go into the boards of these big tech companies and into high level positions. And they work to censor you. And that is against everything that America stands for. It is one of the most scandalous things that's ever happened, that has ever come to light in American history.

Cue the DOJ. The DOJ has to now go after Twitter, right? And all the powers of the federal government have to come to bear on a platform and a guy who said, I want the average American to have a platform here to speak their mind. So good for him for calling out AOC. He is one unique cat. Yeah. And I've enjoyed watching him. And again, yeah, I'm good for him for a couple more questions here. Okay, Sean. Yep. No, a couple more,

just a couple more questions. As you get older, Sean, name something that one thing that you've learned about yourself. So we're now, you know know we're both over 50 that's not um you didn't tell i didn't get this question before we actually sat down here okay just think about what's okay well um as i get older i actually haven't this was my question to you um something that i've learned about myself um is that I'm learning to be more conscious about my time and what really matters. So caring less about what people think, because I have to say no to certain things, and focusing on what matters. I think that probably comes with understanding that, you know, our time is shorter. One of the things that I've been really enjoying, Sean, is, you know, I am a very much of a to-do list kind of person because I have a lot of things on my plate. Having my

parents who have been living with us for the last four months has been really interesting because they don't have a schedule, right? I mean, my dad has a small job that he does online. He's a teacher and he has an online class, but it only requires, you know, an hour or two out of his day. But, you know, they are at a different pace. And so, you know, they'll do, you know, things they have to do and then they'll sit down and they'll have a cup of coffee or, you know, they just take some time. And I've been trying to join them when I can, when I'm here at the house in those just connecting moments, like where we just sit down and talk about what's happening in the news or we talk about,

you know, what's happening in our families or with the kids or something that the kids said. And I just really trying to savor those moments with my parents, but also just in general in life. I think being around people who are retired is kind of good. It's been a really interesting thing for me to observe and also be able to see where we might be. We're going to be retired, I don't know, 15 years from now. I still think I'm 30. The kids get older, but I keep getting younger. I think one thing I would notice is, so Rachel does have a lot of things that she, she's very productive. She gets a lot of things done. She does a lot of things. She takes on a lot, not just in the family, not just with me, not just with her job,

but other people ask her to do things. And you oftentimes do it. I try so hard. And one of the, and again, I can tell how our life is going if Rachel is doing a to-do list every day, because if she does a to-do list, actually the things come off it and she's far more at peace. If she doesn't do a to-do list, um, all at random points, she's like remembering things and she's far more at peace. If she doesn't do a to-do list at random points, she's like remembering things that she's supposed to do. And it throws my schedule. You know what, that's it. To-do lists are so important and I don't, I'm not consistent, but when I do write it, my life is better. It's just like when I get up early. My life is better when you do it too. Your life gets better. And then this goes back to something we talked a little bit about. And you mentioned, I used to care a lot about what people said about me,

like everybody does. And when I was in Congress, and it took me several years to get through this, but the more mean things people say about you, the more they lie about you, the more nat, or they take something that's partially truthful and they will make it a little bit untruthful with a vein of truth in it. It's campaign stuff is how you got that thick skin, right? So I started to go, you know what? This stuff, it doesn't matter. And in all of our lives, in my knowledge, things come up that I think are unfair, unjust, stupid, and what people are saying. I'm like, I just care less about it, which, and again, I'm not saying I care less. I actually do care less about it.

And that's really helpful to me because I can then focus on, I'm not kidding. Because when you go into the mindset of they said this about me and why they say it and how should I respond? It consumes a lot of energy. It consumes a lot of your time. And I just, if you can let it go,

which not everything, but most things I'm like, I don't, whatever. That gives me so much more of my own time back and mental space back. And that the district he had had been, you know, occupied by a Democrat for 42 years. And then Sean came. And so the Democrats, as soon as he was elected, you know, dumped millions of dollars into attack ads to sort of damage him before he could kind of get out of the gate here. And so they damaged him in the campaign. But then once he won, they were like, we can't let this guy keep going. So millions of dollars of terrible ads. And to the point where like, they were so negative and so bad that, you know, sorry about that. You're calling some rituals. Accidentally calling someone. I apologize.

Ads were so bad that you didn't want to go to the grocery store. They were so embarrassing and they were so not true. And but but you learn to get over that. And it's true. Like the older you get and obviously politics and having been in reality TV, you get a bigger, a thicker skin. I always say my skin is is like an armadillo. Like you can throw anything at me. I really don't care what anyone thinks about me other than the people that matter to me. My friends, my family,

my kids. What you think and what the kids think is the most important thing to me and what God thinks. And the rest of it, say whatever you want. I mean, I just really don't care. And I think it's a little bit of a superpower. So I think that's important. And it's something you have to work on. You have to work on getting to that place where you're like, I'm just not going to care about it. I have to let it go. I mean, some things you have to be introspective of, right? Like there's some things that people will say and I'll go, is that true about myself? But generally when you're just talking about trolling and that happens all the time when you're in the public eye, I don't give a crap

what people say. I really don't. I do believe that forgiveness is really important because if you don't forgive, um, that's not a, that's, that's not something you're putting on the person you're not forgiving. You hold it yourself and you get angry and you get consumed with, um, uh, this, this, this attention towards this, this person that has done this thing to you. And, uh, I think letting it go and forgiving them. And sometimes you got to forgive people on a daily basis. Sometimes when it comes up, you got to go, listen, I already forgave them and let it go. But you're a healthier, happier person

if you forgive people who rightfully have done something wrong to you. I think it's a really important part of getting older is going, I'm not carrying that anger at someone who did something to me eight years ago. That's important for an Irishman. You know, it is. I'm going to hold the grudge for a day or two, maybe.

That's true. It isn't the longest time. No. I think that's a fair distinction. I don't hold things. And listen, I don't. Yeah, I agree with you on that. Yeah.

So anyway. Last question. More questions? Just this is the last one. My goodness. This is a marathon Friday Q&A. What is the most essential part of a friendship? I'm going to answer it first.

I have actually thought about that. And I think it's loyalty. And I have had betrayal in my life. And it's hard. One of the most memorable. And actually, I learned a lot from it. And I had a friend who was a liberal when you and you and I were first married and she was a very good friend, family friend. We consider we'd go to her house for Thanksgiving.

We would, you know, I just considered her a really close friend. And then when Sean decided to run for Congress, this person just really couldn't handle it and got really nasty, actually started campaigning, started opening an office in your hometown because, you know, I don't know why she did that for your opponent I would never have voted for her husband. But I would have never told her that. I would have quietly voted for the other person. But for me, it was such a betrayal. And I think she wrote an op-ed as well. It was really odd. Anyway, it was a really eye-opening experience because I felt so betrayed and it was so hard for me.

And yet I learned a lot from it. I learned, you know, to be much more discerning about who my friends were. And it made me realize how much I value loyalty. And again, I didn't expect her to vote for you or. But what's interesting, you can reflect back on that, which at the time was really painful for me. It was super painful to me. But do you hold a grudge against this person any longer? No, I don't hold a grudge. I don't care.

I see her and it's fine. Whatever. But I would say at that moment that it reminded me of how much I value loyalty and a friendship. And that was a real disappointment. So I think people, I want to know who someone is. Don't lie to me about who you are. Don't tell me you're one thing. And then I find out that you're something else or you behave a different way.

And again, I've seen that in a number of different places in my life. It's like, again, relationships and friendships are built on, again, on honesty. And for some reason, why do I, some of the best friends I have in my life, why am I best friends with them? I don't know. We just, I don't know. We click, we bond, we laugh. We share, you know, common philosophy. Sometimes we'll fight. We have some of the same interests. And so what is it that makes someone a good friend? I don't know the answer to that. I can't put words to it, but I enjoy their company.

We have fun together. Can I tell you what's a sign that somebody is your good friend? If you haven't seen them in a really long time, and yet you see each other and you just pick up right where you left off. I mean, there's just that thing. And I have several friends like that in my life that, you know, and it's hard for me to stay in contact with them, you know, on a regular basis. But when we are, it's like we're back to being, you know, 16 and in high school. I have my friend Marietta is like that.

Yeah. My friend Debbie, Debbie Lulich and Ashlyn, I feel that way about. And so many of my friends that I left behind in Wisconsin are like that. It's just like we get together and it's like time has never passed. So it's a great... Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. So how many questions?

Well, yeah, this was kind of a fun one. I enjoyed this. We had our own questions this time. Our own questions. Listen, thank you guys for joining from the kitchen table. If you like our podcast, you can rate, review, subscribe

wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find us at foxnewspodcast.com. Please subscribe. Get a notice every time we drop our podcasts. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Friday is Q&A day.

Today we did our own Q questions and answers. If you have questions for us, you can find us on Twitter. Yeah, DM me. Instagram. Love to get those questions from you. Rachel's kind of the hub. Yeah, they're coming to me. Don't send them to him. He doesn't look at his DM. DM me. Love to get those questions from you. Rachel's kind of the hub.

Yeah, they're coming to me. Don't send them to him. He doesn't look at his DM. DM me on Twitter. All right, listen. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. We appreciate it. Have a good one.

Bye, everybody. Listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com.