From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Q & A With The Duffys: The Number One Threat To America

Episode Date: August 19, 2023

Sean and Rachel sit down to discuss China rehearsing military operations in the South China Sea and why they believe the United States will not be ready for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.   Later, they answer listener questions, from what the proudest moments of their lives have been, what their advice is to students returning to school and college, and they weigh in on what they believe is the number one threat to America. Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy along with my co-host for the podcast, my partner and wife, and my life, Rachel Campos Duffy. I got that a little wrong, but that's okay, Rachel. Good to be with you on this Friday for Q&A between the two of us. Yeah, it's that time of the week. We love it. It's actually our highest rated episodes of the week are Q&A. People love them. We love them. But before we get going on the questions, and they're great this week, by the way, we just have to cover this topic because we woke up this morning we were in a good mood we were having coffee together preparing for q a and i looked down at an article

and my hair was like on fire like she saw it burn your hair i could see my hair burning fire shooting out of my eyes because of course i mean this should be no surprise but it but but it still it just makes you mad and that of course is that article that's now showing that china is rehearsing for an invasion with taiwan um they're they're basically showcasing showing off um bragging in our face they're showing videos military videos videos, first of all, of some of their training, their individual training, the People's Liberation Army training, but also the exercises that they're now doing in the South China Sea with the Russians together, something that we've been saying forever would happen. We would bring China and Russia, our two greatest enemies, the most dangerous threat to America. We brought

them closer together because of the Ukraine war, a war that we refuse to find a peace. In fact, our government and our State Department have thwarted any efforts to bring peace in that battle between Russia and Ukraine. And now we see them working together. What was really infuriating to me, Sean, was I looked at the video. If you haven't seen it, you could go. It's on the Internet. I know the Daily Mail has the video as well. It's got this Chinese music behind it. The lyrics are like, go through over the wall, get the enemy.

It's like the video know, they're the video looks like Top Gun. Really? They're doing these training exercises. So first off, so the enemy of my enemy is my friend philosophy. That is what has brought China and Russia together. They both uniformly hate the United States. The United States is the enemy of both of them, which has brought them together to major superpowers that makes American foreign policy that much more difficult. But you're referencing this video. And again, you have soldiers storming the beach, SEAL-esque, you know, driving through the desert. And again, this is all, we would argue, in anticipation of an invasion, preparation for an invasion of Taiwan.

And the Taiwanese are preparing for that as well. They are. They're hunkering down, almost air raid style sheltering. Practicing. Like we did in the 60s and 70s for nuclear war. Get under your desk as the air raids come. They know this is imminent. That's right. the air raids come, they know this is imminent. That's right. And what I find fascinating in this conversation is that the Chinese almost look American-esque from the 80s, right? Strong men

working out patriotic, fierce warriors. And you compare that to today where we have a conversation in the military about, you know, the transgender and gay and we want everybody in. And it's a great green energy is the other thing. I mean, they're they're focused on our tanks and our and our sustainable being sustainable and EV and electric and that are our ships, our battleships, we got to make sure they're green as well. And by the way, the Russian state news agency also releasing video showing these joint exercises. So they're showcasing to us, they're letting us know they've got nine large vessels sailing in diamond formation with crews standing in attention on the decks. They include practicing the replenishment of fuel reserves by the ships. They're transferring cargo. They're showing all the things they can do together,

the People's Liberation Army and the Russian forces. By the way, the Russians are doing this as they're fighting actually pretty effectively in Ukraine as well. As the Ukrainians are vacationing at the beaches, buying villas in Italy, all going very well. And as we're sending more money to Ukraine, we're running out of ammunition here and our enemies are getting stronger. And I'll tell you, Sean, if you are the Chinese in particular and the Russians, too, but more so the Chinese, this is the time to do this. more so the Chinese. This is the time to do this. If you were ever going to get get on,

take advance on on on America, on the United States of America and on their military, if you're ever going to make that move with a bumbling administration like this, that's focused on, you know, trans and green when you have admiral American admirals in dresses. trans and green, when you have American admirals in dresses. I mean, of course, this is the time that you would want to attack. It's right now. And people, it's in our faces. Well, so I think if you're the Chinese, you're just like, it's a matter of time. When is the right time? When have they fallen so far that they can't respond to what we're going to do? And again, they look at our streets burning, our borders open, our military is gay and LGBTQ plus, we're transitioning kids, we're teaching our kids about trans and global warming as opposed to math, science, English, the hard sciences. Millions are being addicted to fentanyl as well.

But if you look through history, if actually this philosophy of, if we could be an inclusive trans gay society, right, where we have, or if this is what built strong societies, those societies would have prevailed throughout history. But actually, when Rome and other societies did what we're doing, they failed, they crumbled, they fell. That's what's going to happen to the United States of America. And you look at what really works right now and throughout history is when you have strong men that are patriotic, that want to fight and defend their way of life. And that's what you see with the Chinese right now. And in America, we're doing something completely different. The Chinese, if you're America, we're doing something completely different.

The Chinese, if you're them, they're like, we are going to win this war against United States without firing a shot. Yeah. I mean, the military needs to go back to its mission and its mission is to make us strong. Its mission is to protect our country. And we have just allowed so much social engineering and leftist progressive social ideology, cultural Marxism creep in. Our generals are more concerned with diversity training than they are with physical training. And the Chinese are seeing that they're taking advantage. I don't think this story is getting enough attention. That's why we wanted to bring it to your attention. This should be, frankly, issue number one in this election. Listen, we have the situation burning in Maui and Maui, too.

We have the situation burning in the Ukraine. I don't think our military could handle an invasion with Taiwan right now. I think just the Chinese will have the advantage in this because of everything that's going on geopolitically. Republican and Democrat leadership and American businesses, how stupid they've been that we have for an increase in profit, we've sold our countrymen out and we've gone to China and we've invested in China. We've given them our technology when we've invested there. We've allowed them to steal our technology. We've allowed them to buy farms in America, buy companies in America, buy technology from America when we can't invest anything in China. They send spy balloons, spy planes over our country. We do nothing. They set up bases in Cuba, spy bases in Cuba, right on our border there. We think that there's a peaceful world ahead of us that can all be focused on green.

ahead of us that can all be focused on green, this is insanity. The world in which Bill Gates and John Kerry envision is fairyland stuff because this is breeding weakness in the U.S., strength in China, which by the way, they're playing along a little bit as they build, you know, what, 10 coal fire power plants this year alone, they don't give a damn about green energy. They care about world dominance. And again, you have stupid people running America, stupid businessmen investing in China. They're not stupid, Sean. They're self-interested. They're saying, I'm going to make generational wealth for my family at the expense of the well-being of this country and and they don't care they're just they're just thinking of themselves their kids you know paying off their kids uh you know college and and having their house paid off in the hamptons that is all they

care about um and that's what they're thinking of and meanwhile this thing is I mean, it's burning. It's right in front of us. They're they're they're practically they're practically bragging. Can I tell you what happens to me, Rachel? Can I just say this before you say that, Sean? I look at this training video from the Chinese versus remember that animated, you know, LGBTQ. It was like my mom. I have have two i have a lesbian moms and this is and it's all about me and military is a welcoming place to me yeah i mean it's like you're not you're not attracting warriors with these kinds of messages and it's just it's undermining our country because

peace comes through strength and we are weak right now. Can I have one point that I made? I don't care if you want to be a warrior and you're gay or trans or I don't give a damn about any of that. I just care that you're a warrior. But if all I care about in the military is I don't care. They don't care if you're a warrior. They just care if you're gay, trans, they care about equity or Hispanic or black or whatever. That's the point I'm making. I want warriors focused on being warriors and being strong. I don't want the focus on something else, which is not about being warriors. It's about the social structure. Sean, you have to be united under something. And the flag you unite under is the American flag.

You unite under the American flag. You cannot unite soldiers under the rainbow flag. It's just not going, it's not what the military is built to do. And so we're weaker than we've ever been. Recruitment is collapsing at a level. By the way, they also lost a lot of people because of COVID and all the ridiculous rules that they had.

A lot of you and i both know multiple strong amazing young men who wanted to be navy seals who said no who said i'm not going to join because i don't want to take the vaccine because i i don't like the direction of the military i think they're actually purging patriotic minded young people from, from the forces. I don't think I can advance in this diversity, um, prioritize military. So they just say, I don't want to, I don't want to join.

And I look at it too. And just, and I know we're going to go to questions here in a second, but I, I see this and I, like you, my hair's on fire. I see the,

I see the trouble that's on our horizon, whether it's on the economy, whether it's on the what I would talk about this in a previous podcast, but about the persecution of Donald Trump, the conviction and the jailing of a lead presidential candidate, a former president, that is going to have global economic consequences. And I look at this, this is what's happening with the Chinese and their strength, global economic and security and freedom consequences. But I can go back in my everyday life because it doesn't, it's not happening right now, right? I kind of can, by the afternoon, forget this is happening as we have our kids in the summer and they're getting

ready for school. And you can kind of let it go because it's not in your face right now, but it will be in your face. It is coming. And again, you can prepare for it and you should be concerned about your elections, be concerned about your leaders and what they're going to bring to the table that's going to breed security and safety and freedom for your family and your future generations. going to breed security and safety and freedom for your family and your future generations. I'm sorry, I'm seeing these images, Sean. These images are frightening to me. I see how strong, I see how one track minded the Chinese and the Russians are together. And it's frightening. China rehearsing invasions of Taiwan. They're storming sea defenses. These are war games that should frighten America because we have never seen it on this scale. And again, I don't want to be alarming, but we need to be on fire alarm here. Let's be clear. When China invades Taiwan,

we will do nothing about it because we can't do anything about it because we're so weak. And so you might say, well, why do I care that China invade Taiwan? Well, a majority, the largest producer of computer chips, the micro and macro chips that go into computers and phones, the micro and macro chips that go into computers and phones, a majority of them are made in Taiwan. Taiwan has a massive manufacturing base for these computer chips. And how will that affect our life, Sean? Then China controls.

So not only do they have all of the critical minerals for batteries that are going to be in your electric car that you can only buy in eight years because the gas-powered cars won't be here. Joe Biden's outlawed them. In eight years, we're outlawing gas-powered cars. Yep. So they have the critical minerals. They have the technology to build the batteries, which we do not have. But they'll also have all the chips, the manufacturing that goes into the cars, the computers, the phones.

goes into the cars, the computers, the phones. This is a massive security risk, which is one of the reasons why we're so concerned about this invasion of China into Taiwan, because of the strategic importance of Taiwan to the rest of the world in regard to these really important components of our everyday life. So just a backdrop on how it impacts us in one small segment of the manufacturing base, which is really important for everything we use. TVs, computers, iPads, cars, everything these chips go into. And then just to think that that's happening, Sean, as we're shutting down our own gas and oil production and going into electric, which makes us even more reliant on China because of critical minerals. It's criminal, actually.

It is. So be concerned. This is the biggest story of the week. It's huge. We'll have more of this conversation after this. The world of business moves fast. Stay on top of it with the Fox Business Rundown. Listen to the Fox Business Rundown every Monday and Friday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com

or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Let's talk about a couple of questions that have come in. And so I think this must be on the minds of a lot of people as we're going into the new school season. Our kids are either, you know, freshmen especially are off at college or they're about to go to their freshman year in college and orientation. Or those who are sophomores and seniors that are all going in. But we had a question about what's the best advice we have for that smart student going into college or also that student that's graduating from college and

going out into the workforce? For these young people, what's the best advice that you have, Rachel, for a young person either entering school or entering the workforce? What should they think about? What should they do? What's your advice? So I've had a lot of time to think about our own kids. Some have chosen to go to college. Some have not. And so I think the question to ask yourself as a parent and also as a student going into colleges, why am I going to college? And am I going for an education or am I going for a career?

And so as you go in and you pick your classes and when you're a senior i mean i believe now that you know unless you're going to be a doctor which i think that's a very valuable thing a doctor an engineer those are careers but in the humanities um i think it's it's about getting an education and it's about learning um building on think, the great classical works that have informed great minds for centuries. Tried and true information, history, literature. It's about enlightenment. It's about enlightenment in so many ways. And I think that, you know, our daughter's school at the University of Dallas, because it's a classical school, is setting that curriculum up for them. But most students going into university are getting

sort of this vast array of choices that they can make. And so if you're going to a typical university that's not based on the classical curriculum, I might do some research and say, what classes should I take? Because no one's going to guide you. You're going to have to create your own education. Our oldest daughter, Evita, went to the University of Chicago, and she wishes that it didn't take her until her senior year to figure out that she could have taken classes on Thomas Aquinas, that she could have taken courses that would have helped her and history classes that she thinks would have been better for her. She didn't figure that out until later on. So maybe find a mentor, a professor that shares your point of view about what education should look like and have someone help you create that curriculum. Because even liberal colleges

have great teachers and have great coursework. And so it's up to you to find those classes. stupid stuff that was, we were looking at what she was reading and it was, I thought, idiotic, where our daughter, Lucia, who's at the University of Dallas, it is really great books and classic in history and Western civilization, a huge difference. And so if you're looking for just the credentials, that's a really expensive credential. Maybe you want to take a different path. If you want to be enlightened and educated, think about where you're going. You've already made that choice if we're at this point in this conversation. You can find that. You can find that classical. There's things I don't like about the fact that you can tailor your curriculum in that way, but I think that there is a good thing, which is that you can tailor it and you can find that coursework that matches.

And I also think just as we kind of look at whether they're in school or out of school, I think taking risks is so important. Not being afraid to fail, doing something that you fail at and actually you may not like it. And it might put you in a different direction. But knowing what you like and don't like actually comes from success and failure and maybe not doing things, you know, the best at the start can be really powerful in your life. Like my first trial that I had as a DA was a child sexual assault case. I was I actually had hives before it. I was so stressed out and I lost it. It was a camp counselor who was there was some abuse with children. It was I lost it. It was a camp counselor who was, there was some abuse with children. It was, I lost it. I was devastated about it. I convinced he did it. I didn't lose one of those cases after though. I lost that one. I didn't lose any other child sexual assault cases after it because, you know, I learned a ton from trying that case and it was a hard case. case it was a hard case yeah um but i i could have settled it i could have never tried it but i did it and i was i was better for it and other victims of sexual assault were better for me being

a better prosecutor and putting away their you know their bad guy our bad guy yeah no i think that's a great lesson too i think also when kids go off to college, they have an idea of what they want, what they think they want. I mean, I was one of those people that changed my majors. And I think that it's really important, go in for the first couple of years, really open-minded, ready to see what you really enjoy and love. And I think that's the key.

I thought I wanted to be a social worker. Listen, I have a heart for that stuff. And when I meet social workers and people involved in that line of work, I have nothing but respect for them. But when I went in, I realized that the classes that I was most excited about were my economics classes. I loved economics. And so I knew it would be harder. I knew it would require me to get into math classes that I thought I couldn't do, but I somehow, you know, managed to do that. And I think I don't have any regrets about changing my major. I think it was the right major for me.

And so, again, just being open minded to two different different majors and seeing what you're really what you're really good at. I know that's that's the we're what you're not what you're good at, but what you love, what you love to do. Okay. So here's another question that came to us. What is your proudest accomplishment, Sean? So again, there's a lot of like big life accomplishments, but I'm going to tell you, when I won the 90 foot professional speed climb, it was the most remarkable moment in my life. Again, this is the small little sport of lumberjack sports. Big deal for me. Like, listen, I was willing to break my back and be paralyzed. That's how dumb you are at like 20 years old, 21 years

old. Literally said that to yourself. I thought that I'm like, I will go to any lengths to win. And if, listen, the rest of my life, I'm paralyzed. I'm okay with that. Literally. to win. And if, listen, the rest of my life, I'm paralyzed. I'm okay with that. That's a crazy ass thought. And I, but I worked really, really hard. I trained really hard. And put it all on the line, including your back. My back and my ability to walk the rest of my life. That's so insane.

So stupid. But listen, I won. It was, it was an amazing accomplishment for me. I was on like cloud nine for a very long time. It was very cool that, and, um, winning the, winning the house seat was one of the coolest most, because listen, that was, I mean, that was months and months and months of work, a year and a half of work and sacrifice for both you and me. And when we, when, when we won, I don't know, it was the most gratifying, cool, like I couldn't, I was like having out-of-body experiences because I never thought I ran, but everyone said I couldn't win. And I didn't even want to let the thought of me winning slip into my head. I didn't want to be so let down, should I lose? Then I just worked my heart out and never let myself actually believe that it could happen.

And so, yeah, winning that race was so cool. Just a quick side note. Dick Cheney came and spoke to our freshman class. It was 87 new freshmen that won in 2010. And as he spoke to us at the first retreat we did, he said, listen, I was a congressman. I was secretary of defense. I was what he was secretary of defense. I was been vice president. Like he's had all these positions in government. Um, they were all really cool. And he said the greatest, the greatest part of my service, the highest

emotional experience I had in government was when I won that first house race, which you guys just had, it doesn't get better than this. It's pretty flipping awesome. So I still remember the first you were at orientation. So you hadn't even been sworn in yet. So it was two months before you were sworn in. But they have an orientation right after you win in November, like a few weeks later, they send all the congressmen and their wives down to get an orientation to find out what's this all about before you actually get sworn in and move and you know start working in dc baby congressman camp yeah it's kind of like it's like congressman camp yeah and um you just thought you were going to get classes for this and this and this and they had a few interesting fun dinners and so forth but they surprised you at a dinner by allowing you to walk into the house

chamber for the first time and so you've seen that on television where people where you see the president come for the uh state uh state of the union and he walks through this sort of says madam speaker or mr speaker the president of the united states of america and then the doors open and the president comes in yeah before he walks in all the secretaries and cabinet members walk through and then at the end the president walks through well that was the same place the same doors the same doors that they allowed you to walk into the chamber i was not allowed to walk through there. But you did. Before you were even elected. And Sean Duffy cried like a baby.

I did. And actually that's not true. You were with me. You came in with me. I was not allowed to walk through, was I? We walked in. And we sat in the first two chairs. On the left-hand side of the aisle.

You're so right. I didn't even walk in. I walked in and sat in the first chair. You're right. By the way, I had never been to a Capitol. Because it wasn't in session. But generally, if it's in session, only members and anyone under the age of 12. You can bring a child. You can bring your child in. Yep. Or if you have a friend of the family, if you're under 12, you can go while in session, 10 years old onto the house floor, 11 years

old onto the house floor, which is really cool for kids to be part of that. But we went on, we cried. I cried. And then we were allowed to sit in the speaker's chair. I was so amazed that I had the opportunity and the honor to sit in this great institution and be part of it. It was really, really neat. By the way, we were in Statuary Hall.

If you've been to the Capitol, Statuary Hall is right next to, it's right in between the house chamber and like the center of the Capitol. We had a dinner there. I had no idea where we were. I didn't know. We had never entered into the U S Capitol until after Sean was elected. I was a member elect. I went into the Capitol for the first time.

So yeah, I'm like, where's the, where's the house chamber? Like it's right there. Anyway, a little bit naive. And that was a big one. Definitely a proud achievement. Was. How about you? Well, you know, it's been interesting as I get older and I'm able to see our children get married. We now have a son who's engaged as well. So we're kind of entering in, even though we have a child still in diapers, we have enough time that we can see, me as a mom, I can see the work that I've put in and the fruit of that work. And for me, that's the greatest accomplishment is having

a marriage and a family that is, you know, big and has lasted this long and is still growing and moving forward. I still, you know, every time Evita calls and says she has something to tell me, I keep thinking I'm going to be a grandmother, which makes me excited. Before this podcast, she called. I'm like, listen, listen stop call her after the podcast the podcast right now i know um but can't you put a lot of effort thought energy both of us do and and again nothing is perfect in life but you have to put time and thought and energy and effort into those things that matter and last and we have put a lot of time effort energy thought into our marriage into our kids into our family, no doubt.

It's hard sometimes when you're in the middle of it with little kids and it's that sort of day-to-day constant, you know, go, go, go. But as you get older, and I still feel like I'm go, go, go. But as I get older... You're looking under the go-go girls. Yes. And I can see some of the fruits of that you know as they go off to college as they get married as they get engaged and that's super rewarding for me

to see what what we've created and so i would say that's that's been um that's been the best part can i make we can i go back in a prior prior question we're talking about school and advice and whatnot i just i think that so often, this even goes to this conversation, it's so important to work really hard. Work really hard at your marriage, work really hard at your family, but work really hard in your career. And I think so often that people today, young people today especially, think that things just come really easy. Success in your career comes easy. Money comes easy. Relationships. Love, relationship, families, all of that stuff comes really easy and should just happen for you and just should be plopped on your lap. And maybe for some people

that does happen, but very, very few. Yeah. If your dad is rich. If your dad's a billionaire, that might happen for you. But most people- You get a whole other set of problems. That's not the case. And you have to work really hard at those things. And it takes effort. And I think, I don't know why this is now the case, but everyone expects easy street on all of these issues.

And then they're let down. It's like, well, I didn't get the promotion. I'm not making the money. Or I don't have love. What's going wrong with my family? Well, the reason is you thought it was going to be easy and all of it takes work and all of it gives you great joy in the process.

And then the end result is really rewarding, but you never get it without putting that effort and work into it. Yeah. No, I think that's an excellent, excellent point. Not that your work, because you're easy. Yeah, no, I think, I think that's an excellent, excellent point. Not that your work, cause you're easy. Yeah, sure. Let's talk about, this is an interesting question. They said, what is your love language? So I guess there, there are these, these love language. I want to pull up because when they, when they said that I need to pull up, what is the, the different love languages. So let me set that up. Go ahead.

So you and I have had a lot of conversations about language of love because I think you should speak my language. And we kind of have different languages that both of us use. So I'm very physical and affectionate, right? So I will hold your hand. I will kiss you. I will put my arm around you. I'm a, I'm a very affectionate spouse slash husband, um, with you. And you're, I would say, sorry. Okay. Rachel's Rachel's point up the love language thing right now, as she, she's, the love language thing right now as she, she's, she is amazing as she taps at her,

at her phone. She works magic on that little thing. She spends a lot of time with in her hand. Okay. So the five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, active acts of service and receiving gifts. I don't think that they say that's the five love languages, but I think it's missing a

few in there. But yes, so Sean, more affectionate than I am in general, but I'm more affectionate with the kids. That's true. Pretend like I'm five years old. But yeah, but I love that about Sean. I think all of us marry people that help fill in those gaps. And I think that in that regard, I think Sean has made me more affectionate, which I love.

And I think I've made him more affectionate with the kids, which I think he loves. It's not in here, but it's loyalty. I wish loyalty was in there. Because that is a big, I know I took a test once, like a personality test. And it said that my strength was my loyalty. And so if I, you know, if, if a friend or somebody betrays me, it hits really hard because I really value loyalty. I don't know why that's not on there, but cause I think that's a language of love that when you're loyal to somebody. But in any case, I think words of affirmation are good. And I think acts of service. I'm not big

on gifts, either receiving or giving. It's just not that important to me. So great. Such a great part of our marriage. For me. But acts of service are, and I know where I get it from. My dad is somebody who's very big on acts of service. My dad is a super gentle soul who is that person that, you know, without asking, can look around a room and see what what someone needs and does it, you know, whether it's a cup of coffee or, you know, I remember just this summer, a quick something for lunch for someone that might be hungry or went to the store and bought all the great ingredients to make his famous chocolate cake

for our son's birthday the other day. I mean, that's sort of his thing. And it's such a beautiful. Yeah, you do. You do a lot of wonderful, nice things that are above and beyond for people in the house. It's it's it is acts of service. That is one of the ways you show love. You mentioned this, the test that you took. We did that with my whole campaign staff at one of our retreats. Yeah. And it was yours come up. So I forget what it came up as, but they did. It's a story of of how all of these different things happen. And we're supposed to talk about who's who's the bad guy in through the story. And based on what you value, you'd have all different people who are, you know, the bad guy or the villain. And and that kind of helps determine what your values are. I remember doing it. I was like, we had different villains in this test that we went through. But anyway, yeah, I was like, how could anyone not see that this is the villain? And you had someone completely different. It's interesting how people think about different situations.

That is very fascinating. I'm going to find out what that was. That was Anne gave that to us, one of our friends. I'm going to get that in. Future podcast, I'll give it to you. Here's a question. What's the best investment you've ever made? That's easy.

That would be you, Rachel. You were the best investment I made. I thought you were going to say your cabin. Well, after you, I would say my cabin. I wanted to get a place on this lake that I grew up on for a long time. And when we were able to get this one, it's a place of joy.

And so I love it. It's, yeah. No, that's a good family investment. No question. But that investment would mean nothing if I hadn't invested in you. So we get it. Again, you both of us have said this. If we go there by ourself without the other, it's wonderful. It's great.

It's fun. But it means that much more. When we're all together. Yeah. How about you? What's your, is that? I, you know, I would say obviously you're a great investment. Um, I married you. You had not a penny in your pocket.

In fact, the ring that Sean gave me when we got engaged, um, broke in half because it was so thin and so cheap. And how many times are you going to tell that story? because it was so thin and so cheap. And how many times are you going to tell that story? Maybe a six time in a podcast. In fact, besides my wedding ring, Sean later on felt bad about that.

And when he had money, he bought me a beautiful ring and I wanted to exchange it because I felt so guilty. Like I just, I'm just not a big jewelry person. Like I said, I'm not a gift person. I love it. It's beautiful, but it's not. guilty like i just i'm just not a big jewelry person like i said i'm not a gift person i love it it's beautiful but it's not and another time he bought me diamond earrings and i had me return them i returned them and i said if you're not offended i'm going to return the diamond earrings and for half the price i'll buy this uh rug that I've been really wanting. And he said, okay, that's fine. So I returned the diamond earrings and bought a rug that I had been craving to buy.

Our engagement ring that broke, that was so cheap. We actually took the stones out of the ring. Yeah. The diamond was actually a nice diamond. It's just that the ring, it's not what you put in a different ring. So yeah, you have the diamond in the ring you wear now. Yeah. But that's just just that's not it. That's not important. I want to go back to Kevin. I think we've talked about this a lot, but I think having a place wherever it is. And by the way, this cabin we have is tiny.

It's like you've seen those tiny homes. That's what it looks like. It's a tiny home, but it's not big at all. It's really special. Not extravagant. It is simple. No, it's pretty simple. But it's a place that it's not big at all. It's really special. Not extravagant. It is simple. No, it's pretty simple. But it's a place that it's well designed.

It works for us. And it had to be well designed in order to fit as many people as we are. As small as it was, yeah. And we have a bunkhouse over the garage for the kiddos. But if you have a place that if you're lucky enough to have a place that you can go back to, it could be a place that your family goes camping to every year. It could be a place your family rents every year, the same place. But having something that you go back to that's the same place year after year after year brings really wonderful long-term memories. And it's something that I'm really, again, a lot of, as I'm getting older and my kids are getting older and I'm able to kind of see things from this perspective, looking back. And I think that wisdom is just kind of accumulating, I guess. And I think

that's really important to have this thing that you can come back to year after year. think that's really important to have this thing that you can come back to year after year. And, and, and you, you kind of remember, you go to that same place and you remember when your kid was four, but now they're 14 or now they're 24. Um, it's fascinating. And so when I was growing up, uh, a number of different families and I always thought that was so great. Like we had a little cabin when I was growing up on the lake that we're on now. And I love going there. Like I spent my whole summer on the lake. I broke, I think I told you this, I broke my leg one summer and I had to drive around the lake on a boat.

And I'm surprised if I'd fallen in, I would have drowned because one of those big old casts you used to have. But my other friends would, they'd go camping and they'd go to the same camp ground to the same camp site at the same time every year. And some of the families would go, but that's what they did every summer. It was inexpensive, but they had more fun. They loved it, but that was their place. That was the thing they did every summer. And it was campfires at night and swimming, and that's what they loved. But I think you're right, Rachel, to have that place that your family goes to. And that doesn't mean that you can't have adventure in your life and do different things going to different places.

But you do have one place that you consistently come back to to build those memories off of. Because I think you're right. It's neat to see someone at four years old at this place, but then also 14 years old at that same place. And you see them grow. You know, our friend, and that's why it's been so hard for Will Kane, seeing what's happened in Maui. So when he was a kid, his parents bought a place

just outside of Lahaina in Maui, like a timeshare. And he's been going back to the same place since the 70s. And now the friends that he grew up with have kids who play with his kids. And so again, it's the same place, same place. I think that's a really interesting thing.

And by the way, our hearts are still with so many people there in Hawaii. It's just such a tragedy. I think that place is gone. It didn't have to be that way. Had they had more sane people in leadership making better decisions on how to handle a crisis and a fire, maybe not as much property would have been lost, not as many lives. which is an emergency alarm. Usually it's for a tsunami. But had someone heard the alarm, looked outside their door, they would have seen a massive forest fire coming toward them and they could have gotten out. They didn't ring that alarm.

They didn't have, what, water in the fire tanks. They were debating whether to release the water. I mean, it's just there's so many failures. Stupid people. It's not climate change. It's human failure and really bad misallocation of resources and priorities. Okay. So here's an interesting question.

What's, and this goes back to the wisdom thing. And I think probably what you would say today, Sean, on this question probably wouldn't be the same thing you would say 10 years ago. What's an idea that you have that you think, what's an idea that most people get wrong? Oh, that's interesting. It's such a great question. Well, I mean, it's interesting because you talk about working hard. And I, of course, I believe in working hard. But I also believe that some people work too hard.

And by that, I mean that they believe, and I tell this, probably if my boss is at Fox, knew how many times I told young people who work there to recognize that their company doesn't love them, corporations don't love you. When you die, when you're on your deathbed, you want to be- The corporation doesn't come and spend time with you? Your manager and your boss are not going to come and

hold your hand as you're dying. Your kids will, your grandkids will, your spouse will. And so it's really important to have that balance in life and to prioritize things that last. And of course, jobs have a purpose, but the purpose of a job mostly is just to support the people you love, the family that you want to have and the kind of life you want to lead with that family. And it's wonderful to have purpose and passion. And I love my job and you love your job. But in the end, our jobs are not the purpose. The purpose of our life is our faith and our family. The purpose of our life is our faith and our family. And so I think it's important to remember that corporations don't love you. I tell that to people all the time. I sometimes hear about paternity leave. A lot of young men that I know now are having their first baby and they get paternity leave and they wonder, should I take it?

And I'm like, heck yeah, take your paternity leave. Maybe you want to break it up a little bit and use some of it in the beginning and use a little bit later or whatever you want to do. But of course, time spent with your family, way more important than time spent working for your company. So first of all, if you're blessed enough to have that in your contract. But having purpose in your work is important. Loving your job is really important. So your job doesn't feel like work, really important. I love that. But your work is important. Loving your job is really important. So your job doesn't feel like work really important. I love that. But your job is not the purpose of life to that point. You can, I mean, just to kind of play on those two, two ideas of purpose, the purpose of your

life is for your family and your faith and passing that off to your next generation. Can I go this, if you ask me, like, what do I think about now? Again, I'm at a little older age and you're going to roll your eyes at me, I'm sure. Or maybe not. I do think you're supposed to, you have to defer gratification matters. I agree with that. And trying to save and prepare for your own retirement, making sure you build a little, some kind of wealth and starting young really matters because you have the longevity of money to grow.

Really important. Now, I knew that when I was young. We didn't do it as much when we were younger. That was hard because we had so many dang kids and they were really expensive and not a lot of money. But I do think that's important. Whatever little bit people can put away for that deferred gratification to have maybe a little more freedom of opportunity to make choices when they're older. That matters. I think a lot of people will spend everything they make and live paycheck to paycheck. And thinking through that more effectively. That's a man's job, Sean.

What's that? That's a man's job. I'm kidding. But it should be our job together. This is the conflict we have sometimes too. I hate talking about money. I hate dealing with it. I get about it. She'll listen for a minute and then it's like she'll fall asleep. No, literally Sean will say, okay, we have to talk about the finances.

Can you please just give me one minute and not fall asleep? And I'm like, okay. And I literally have to put like toothpicks between my eyelids because as soon as the conversation about money happens, it's so boring to me. I just hate it. It's for finances. I don't care. I just, I'm just like, I hate it. But I have to structure myself where that minute has to be

tightly, tightly presented so she can take it. I think it's actually a really fair point. I mean, I talk about, yeah, you got to focus on your family. You got to focus on what matters. Corporations don't love you. But in the end, also being grateful for these corporations that end up paying our bills and, you know, paying our retirements and, you know, give you the ability to save and do away to give me a little cushion, when I'm 45 and I'm like, I have this great idea, I want to take this life risk. It's like I have some flexibility there. I have some breathing room to take that risk because I am not living paycheck to paycheck. Or if you had that little place you wanted to buy, that little vacation spot that you just talked about, you put've you put away and you can actually you can actually do it so so kind of on that same note i mean another thing i often hear people say things like we want to have more kids but we can't afford it or it's too expensive yeah i mean it's just first of all i would say that having or they they either use the money as a reason or they say they're just too busy.

It's just too hard. The more kids you have, I actually think the easier you get better at it. They end up being each other's playmates. I mean, it's really hard when you're your child's playmate. It's very time consuming and it's not satisfactory for them. It's way better for them to have siblings. I mean, it's the greatest gift you can give your child. So I would say and it's an advice that somebody gave me, and I think it's

literally one of the best advice I ever got, which was don't think about the amount of kids you want at this moment. Think about the amount of kids you want around the Thanksgiving table 20 years from now. And that was such a great way of thinking because, you know, when you're around the Thanksgiving table 20 years from now. Yeah, that's a good point. And that was such a great way of thinking because when you're in the middle of the diapers and all the craziness of having little kids, it feels like you're never gonna get out of it. But the truth is, it's fleeting. It goes quick.

You'll actually, believe it or not, pine for those days at one point. And so I think it's important to think that way. Also, we've never thought about the finances of it. It's not a secret that Sean and I are not on birth control. We've just taken whatever kids God has given us. And it's interesting in Spain, there's a saying, it says babies are born with a loaf of bread under their

arms. And what that means is that, you know, God will provide, I guess, right? Like you have the baby, don't worry, you're going to be able to manage. And every time we've had a baby, we've made more money. And like, literally, it'll be like a little windfall of some sort that happens. And it'll happen. And we'll go, oh, thank you, some sort that happens and it'll happen and we'll go oh thank you whichever baby that was that we just had because something always happened and i think trusting in that sort of providence and knowing now that works for us people gotta do what works for them it has it has worked like clockwork for us like clock either we got a windfall we got a raise we got something happened every time we got a raise, we got something

happened every time we had a child. But just in this whole conversation, I remember we ran for Congress. We talked about that earlier. And we, listen, we had to take a loan from my dad. When I quit my job as the DA, you weren't working. It was, we took huge risks there. It would have been nice to have a little more breathing room financially. We didn't have it. We got through it. But I then had the wonderful distinction of going to Congress

and they rated the finances of members of Congress and I was the poorest member. It was us and Marco Rubio. We were the poorest family. I was like, what's the common denominator? Hispanic. I don't know, but it was kind of funny. Yeah, the two poorest members of Congress

were the Duffies and the Rubios. So that was, that was kind of funny. We'll have more of this conversation after this. The last question is actually a good one. Oh, what worries you most about the situation America is in now? I think I know what worries Sean the most. America is in now? I think I know what worries Sean the most. I think this is the Marxism creep, the commie camps that we call our education system. All of those things is a burning rot within the country. But what I think is going to have the biggest impact is this $32 trillion in debt. The fact that we've made so many promises to so many people, so many people get things for free that we can't actually pay for. We'll be at $50 trillion in 10 years.

But you've said, Sean, this week that you are deeply concerned. So everybody's talking about the political implications of Donald Trump going to prison during this election. How will it affect the election if the Republican presidential candidate is running from jail, which is a real serious possibility, maybe even probability. But you've been talking about the financial implications of that and what it will do to the U.S. dollar, the currency, and trust in our American financial system globally that America is imprisoning their opposition. A former president, that's right, and the opposition leader. I think you should walk people through that because I don't think a lot of people have put a lot of thought into it.

So we're $32 trillion in debt. Every country across the globe owns U.S. debt, American treasuries. They own them as part of their basket of currencies that they hold within their country. And how can America sell $32 trillion of debt out into the market? It's based on stability. It's based the market? It's based on stability. It's based on security. It's based on trust. That's why they'll buy in our rule of law.

That's why they'll buy U.S. treasuries. And they'll buy $32 trillion of U.S. treasuries. That's a ton of money. No other country could do it. But we are because of that trust and belief that the world has in this country. If you imprison your former president, if you imprison the number one opposition leader to the Democrat Party, you put him in jail, you convict him, and you're on the way to sending him in jail, that trust that has allowed you to sell $32 trillion

of debt out into the world, that trust goes away. The foundation of why people will buy U.S. debt evaporates. And if people lose that trust, if countries lose that trust, if businesses around the globe lose the trust they have to buy that debt, which they do have that trust now, and they do buy that debt, and they start to sell it, you start to see an economic cascade happen. And it won't just be for America. We're so intertwined, our economy and our debt with the rest of the world, you'll see the rest of the world start to cascade with us. And I think you have massive economic consequences for the imprisonment and prosecution of Donald Trump. So again, we talk politics.

The economics of this are cataclysmic. And that's not, we talked about- So what happens? So Donald Trump's in jail. The rest of the world loses trust in our economy. What happens to the people that are listening to this right now? What happens to your finances? So I think people start selling bonds.

Interest rates will skyrocket. So if people sell bonds, that's based on the market. You mean the international community starts selling bonds or other countries start selling U.S. debt? Well, to finance American finances, we actually do it by selling new debt. Every day we're selling new debt. Well, when you go into the market to sell that new debt- And no one wants to buy it. You have to, one, pay way more in interest to get people to buy that debt or the u.s government has to print more money to buy its own debt right so they monetize their debt so that's inflationary things are both are going to cause wild inflation right and that that inflation is going to crush the economy so that's

going to come at the expense of growth and jobs. And how do families prepare? So this is a real possibility. This has been keeping you up at night. No one's talking about it. I don't know why. But so how should, how, how do families prepare for that? So I can't give you advice how to prepare your family. I talked to you about this a lot, right? You know, like you're probably a little blue in the face over me talking about it. No, this conversation is more interesting to me than the sort of micro finances.

I don't know the answer. I don't know what the perfect answer is to this. Is it gold? Is it? I wish there was an amazing playbook for me to go, this is how you protect yourself. And so, again, I have, I think on an earlier podcast, I told you, I went to Joseph Partners. It's your bank friend. Let us know about this gold guy.

We bought gold, right? Yeah, we bought some gold. But what do people like in Argentina and places that have experienced this level of, you know, this crazy level? I think, by the way, Argentina is in big trouble right now. If you're in their currency, that's a problem, right? So we have Bitcoin. We have a little bit of Ethereum, but I'm in Bitcoin. Just took a crash because Elon Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla sold a lot of their Bitcoin.

So it's down at like $26,000 now. But I'm a long-term believer in Bitcoin. And I think real property matters. Do you have your house? And even if we locked in at 3% on this house that we're in now, and it's at 7% today, well, the first house we bought, we were paying 7% for that first house we bought in Hayward. But this crisis happens, 7% will look great. Have a house. It's okay to have some debt that's locked in at those interest rates. If you have a floating rate that's going to move with the market,

that's a problem. Your credit card debt, that's a problem. So one thing is paying down your debt and make sure that you're not in. Your credit card debt, for sure. And I'm not trying to scare people, but let's say that, you know, and again, I think it's very probable we could see Donald Trump in jail. I'm praying that that doesn't happen for him or for the country. But would would would the bat if you had to protect? And I know you're just predicting and you're not a you're not a you don't have a crystal ball.

But do you think that the things that you say are going to happen financially, globally, to the U.S. currency, to our dollar inflation, etc., are those things going to happen once he is in jail or before or when he's in trial? When do you anticipate that these movements financially will happen? So the markets don't wait until the moment itself. They actually anticipate what's going to happen in the market. So the markets are a pre-indicator of what's coming. Before a recession hits, oftentimes markets will sell off, right? They'll recover and start to come back before a recession's over, right? They're in advance of what's coming. So the first trial, Sean, is in January. Early January, the second, I believe.

So I imagine weeks, whether it's a month and a half, two months before, I think markets will look at this and there'll be some anticipation of... We're talking about the stock market. So I think the rest of the world might hold on a little longer. Because it seems so unreal. So unreal for so long, America's America's debt has been the gold standard, you know, around the world where, you know, countries and companies are buying our debt as an asset that that may take a little longer to change. Did you see the interview with Donald Trump and Larry Kudlow? I didn't see all of it. I saw most of it. So he talked about what he would do because he said his biggest fear is and and this is some this is a serious thing again another consequence by the way of the um of the ukraine war i think that the ukraine war has had consequences people are not even grasping but one of them is the currency issue yeah well

but he also talked a lot about energy it's like how do you deal with it's tied to energy well so so first of all when you talked about currency, he, he, in essence has been like, so China might not be the, the, the goal of reserve currency. So China is trying to undermine the U S reserve currency. Of course they are. And they're partnering part of the warfare, the bricks with us. You know, the, uh, Brazil is part of that. Um, I don't know if as Russia part of bricks as well.

Yes. India is. So they're trying to, it's, it's brazil russia india india china by the way we helped put can i just make a note on this we helped with big tech and our flippant cia and state department we helped put in this leftist criminal into brazil um getting rid of of of of um bolsonaro and there was a lot of corruption in that election and we fueled it and we put in somebody who's now partnering with china against us this is the kind of stupidity that we have in our country but let me go back just go back sorry about that i

had to say that so just to make it just to explain so if a transaction is done between let's say france and brazil oftentimes those those governments or those companies that are doing a deal with each other's businesses in each of those countries, they'll use dollars as the exchange. They won't use their home currency as they use dollars. And so about 70% of the transactions in the world are done in dollars, not in the currency of the country in which the company resides. So dollars are used everywhere in the world. And so the BRICS countries want to say, well, we shouldn't be using dollars. Let's actually use a different basket of currencies for these global deals that take place. Real threat to the US economy. When Saudi Arabia decided to sell oil to the Chinese, not in US dollars. Saudi Arabia was only selling oil in US dollars. They've just recently started selling oil, at least to the Chinese in the

Chinese yuan. Historic move. So you see different signs that the world is moving away from the dollar because the dollar is less secure, less safe. And our credit rating is less stable. Right. Our credit rating just dropped. Moody's dropped the U.S. credit rating. At this point, there's nothing better than the dollar. Dollar falls. There's no better currency. I mean, again, where do you go? It's a problem. However, if this happens with Trump, watch for global economic problems, not just American political problems. How you protect yourself, those are questions you have to answer. I'm thinking through that myself. Don't have the most brilliant answers, but I do go to gold. I go to Bitcoin and I go to real property. Yep. Three places that I think can help you preserve some kind of wealth should a crisis come. And also just sort of tightening our belts. I mean, we've been talking about that too, like being prepared. so you actually have you know cutting yeah learning to live with less um and learning to you know save a little bit more so that if something happens you have a little bit more of a nest egg here's what burns me that the liberals they don't they don't care

what they're doing to america to the american norms this might make people angry. Remember the chant, lock her up, lock her up. I went on with Megyn Kelly like a week after Donald Trump was elected. I was a member of Congress. She's like, so now are you going to lock her up? And I said, no, we don't lock her up. That's not what you do. Because if you lock Hillary Clinton up for way, way greater crimes than Donald Trump has ever committed. Her bleach bidding, her computers and her hard drive and smashing her cell phones when there was a preservation order from the court and from the Congress. I mean, listen, and she had top secret information on her private server that the Chinese could access far greater crime than what the documents Donald Trump had secured

in a basement in Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service on the property. But I said, no, don't prosecute her, because I think that sets off a chain reaction in this country that we don't want to have. And you might say there's two different standards for, you know, the Trumps and the Clintons and the Obamas than the rest of us. In some respect, yes, there is. So if we're going to prosecute a political enemy or what could be perceived as a political enemy, they probably should have killed somebody or they probably should have taken bribes to sell their country out. Well, that's happened.

I know that's what maybe in those cases, that's what gets you kicked out of office. That's what gets you prosecuted. But the crimes that Donald Trump's been charged with, I've never heard of them. No one ever heard of these crimes before. Novel interpretations on all of this. Again, if you incited an insurrection, that's a crime. That wasn't charged.

They all claim he incited an insurrection, but he wasn't charged with that. As far as these prosecutors wanted to contort the law, they couldn't contort it into charging Donald Trump inciting an insurrection because there wasn't proof of it. And so they're they're wrecking this country by this prosecution because there will be retribution. There will be. OK, no one's off limits now for the smallest crimes and the we can control laws as well. We're coming for your people

as well. But on your show last night, talk about what Sean Davis said, which is he was spot on. And this was in the context of this. So, you know, we have Ted Cruz, who has an excellent podcast, by the way, which you and I both listen to because no one can break down the law, especially constitutional law better than Ted Cruz. He might be the smartest man in Congress. And yet he was asked about whether or not Republicans should go tit for tat on the situation that what they're doing to Donald Trump. And he said no, because, of course, he's a lover of the law and the Constitution. He knows what they're doing is unconstitutional and is bad for America. But he doesn't think the Republicans should go tit for tat. Sean, what's your thoughts on that? Well, we've had a lot of conversations on this, and I believe that normally we shouldn't go tit

for tat. We shouldn't use the law as a political weapon. But you had Sean Davis on, you hosted Jesse last night, and he made a really good point. He's like, listen, during the Cold War, there was something called mutual assured destruction. No one launched nuclear weapons because they knew that the other side would launch them as well, and that everybody would be wiped off the face of the earth. You could never win that war if a nuke was launched. You had detente. It was a peace through this idea that you all die if you launch them. Democrats are able to launch nukes at Republicans and Ted Cruz and others who believe like Ted, who, again, I have a lot of respect for and I think is really smart. But in this one, they can launch nukes at Republicans knowing that they'll never launch them back. You don't get detente. You don't get a Cold War standoff because of the way Republicans are playing the game.

They have to switch and go, you know what? You want to launch nukes? We will, too. And maybe at one point, everyone will go, wait, hold on a second. This actually isn't the way our government should work. Maybe we shouldn't use the law to prosecute political enemies. Maybe we should go back to the way we had it before, where we didn't actually use the law to try to put people who we disagree with in jail. That was a really great way that this country worked. Let's go back to that. Liberals, Democrats will never get there unless their politicians are on trial. Their politicians are going to go to jail. And once that happens, maybe we'll go back to a place where actually we don't do this in the country. So every state AG Republican should be looking at a lot.

Every state should be looking at all the election deniers. And there are massive amounts of them from Stacey Abrams to Hillary Clinton, even Joe Biden is on tape saying John Kerry actually won. They have all had questions about elections, and that's never been considered criminal to have that point of view. When an illegal comes into the country and sells or a drug dealer comes in from Mexico and sells drugs and kills kids or an illegal kills a U.S. citizen in that Republican state, maybe Mayorkas should be prosecuted and so too should Joe Biden. He's killing kids. He's responsible for it through his policies.

This is how crazy these conversations have become because of the crazy stuff that Democrats have done to this country. You mean Marxist? The Marxist. Yes. The globalist. So it's a sad place. But if you want to fight to get America back to where it once was, you got to play their game. Anyway, listen, Rachel, great conversation.

Good questions. A lot of topics. I always love our Friday conversations from the kitchen table. Go everywhere. They go everywhere. They're kind of free flowing sometimes that's what happens when you sit down and go what questions do you want to take and let's have a cup of coffee but always fun

I want to thank you all for joining our podcast from the kitchen table if you like this podcast you can rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts you can always find us at foxnewspodcast.com. We also like when you subscribe. That's always great because you'll get a notice every time this podcast drops.

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