From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Q&A With The Duffys: Ron's Boots Weren't Made For Walking

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

Sean and Rachel weigh in on Hunter Biden's op-ed piece in which he argues that Conservatives are "weaponizing" his drug use against him. The Duffys lay out why the focus should not be put on Hunter, but rather on the alleged wrongdoings of his father, President Biden.  Later, they answer the question on everyone's mind, what's going on with Governor DeSantis' boots? Follow Sean & 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 in life and my wife, Rachel Campos. Duffy and Rachel. Hey, Sean, we're back. It's Friday. We have some like hot topics to do for our Q&A, like getting our thoughts on the hottest topics of the week that are not related to the war or World War III. So some serious and also lighter topics. I'm having fun with my hair today because, as you know, I hosted Jesse Waters last night. So I had post primetime hosting hair. Which is a lot of product in your hair. It's a lot of product. So it just kind of does its own thing. It looks better than if I don't do it, but it's definitely a little more wild and I'm kind of liking it actually. Well, today besides Rachel's dirty

hair, we're going to talk about what I talk about. Does Ron DeSantis wear lifts in his cowboy boots? That's taking the Internet by storm. It's a mystery. It is a mystery. We're going to unpack that mystery. We have a conversation on Speaker Johnson and the allegations that Speaker Johnson with four kids lives paycheck to paycheck. But before we do those two stories. He's just too poor.

He's just too poor to be the speaker. We, let's talk about Hunter Biden. Yeah. You know, so we actually covered this a little bit last night and I'll bring in some of the perspectives of my guests last night. I had Molly Hemingway and Batya Ungar Sargon. We love both of those ladies a lot. And we had them on last night when I hosted for Jesse Waters to talk about this incredible op-ed. I mean, the gall of Hunter Biden, who's living in a $30,000 a month Malibu house and has made so much money. He and his uncle and his dad and his stepmother, Dr. Jill Biden, have made so much money selling out our country, but we're supposed to feel really sorry for him, Sean. Here's what he says. He says, my struggles and my mistakes

have been fodder for a vile and sustained, I love this word, disinformation campaign against him, meaning Joe Biden, and an all-out annihilation of my reputation. Hunter Biden has a reputation he cares about with all those hookers and Eminem pictures that he's taken on his junk. All right. Through high pitch, but fruitless, hardly fruitless congressional investigation and more recently, criminal charges for possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days five years ago. Charges that appear to be the first ever of their kind brought in the history of Delaware. Sean, so many lies in one sentence, a long sentence, albeit, but so many lies. Let's just start with the last lie where he claims that his possession of the gun that he illegally had because he's a felon and wasn't allowed to have and lied on it, essentially.

But he lied on the application. He said he didn't have drug use. And we all know that he did. And I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of black men behind jail for this behind bars for this,. And he's claiming that he is the victim of some sort of witch hunt. Misinformation campaign. Disinformation campaign. So let's unpack that. First, I think what he's doing is, in essence, saying, I'm an addict, and I've made mistakes, and you are persecuting me with some truth and a lot of disinformation to attack me and my addiction and through my addiction, then therefore attack my father. And if you're an uninformed or lightly

informed American, you could read that and go, oh, you know what? That's true. I feel bad for Hunter. We feel bad for all addicts, right? We do. And if you're an addict, I mean, give the guy a break. We feel bad for all addicts, right? We do. And if you're an addict, I mean, give the guy a break. He was a foreign agent. He didn't register as a foreign agent and hadn't been charged for not filing as a foreign agent for a foreign entity in foreign government. Number one, but number two, he never paid taxes on the money that he made. And so I guarantee you, if any of you listening or Rachel or Sean make millions of dollars and we don't pay taxes on it, two things will happen. One, we're going to get

prosecuted. We're going to go to jail. And number two, I'm going to be charged fees and interest and fines on the money I didn't pay to the federal government. They don't take lightly to people paying their taxes. But for Hunter Biden, this went away. He never paid taxes on the money he made for Burisma. He was never prosecuted, never even had to pay interest on the money he didn't pay, and no fines or fees on top of the money he didn't pay. So Hunter Biden wasn't treated like any other American for not paying his taxes. But he doesn't talk about that. He wants to go to the gun charge. He goes to the gun charge. But he also, of course, goes to the sympathy card and he's trying to distract and go, see, this is really about my addiction and these mean people who don't care about people like me who are addicts. And I'm just

like you. I'm just like you and your son or your nephew or your dad who has an addiction problem and you have love and compassion for them. Why don't these mean Republicans have compassion for me? And I'll tell you, Sean, in politics, as you know, timing is everything. And so what has happened over the last few weeks? We've had a biography, Memo, uh, uh, biography, uh, autobiography by Britney Spears come out kind of tracking her own struggles with mental health and also addiction. And then of course, what I think is really the trigger here was the death of Matthew Perry, who we all know was the, um, superstar from the hit show friends. And he died very unexpectedly and had a long struggle with addiction. And this past week, so many clips have come out of him, you know, talking about his addiction, saying he wants to be remembered for wanting to help other people through his addiction

and not for being, you know, a Hollywood star. And a lot of people were shocked by his death because he was fairly, fairly young. And there was this sort of conversation around addiction, by the way, not in the way we should be having it, which is why it's all a lot of stuff coming across the southern border because of Hunter Biden's dad's policies. But he wanted to, I think, ride the coattails of Matthew Perry and the sympathy and the attention around addiction and muddy the waters and create the impression that all of this hoopla about Hunter is that we're mean on the conservative Republican side or on Fox News or at the New York Post. We're mean and we don't we don't care about his struggles and his triumphs of having overcome this drug addiction. And that's my that's my feeling about it.

And so let's get to the heart of the matter. First of all, in politics, a family that's involved in politics, it can be very hard on a family. It sure can. It takes a lot of work. You know, one, parents gone a lot, you know, running for office,

but then also serving in office. There is undue scrutiny or due scrutiny on the family member. The ads are run in your local TV. We had millions of dollars of ads that are running against me negatively. And when that first happened, it was so stressful. It's hard. So it's hard. It's hard on kids. And there's a lot of politicians who have kids that are kind of messed up. That happens. But I don't care about Hunter Biden or Hunter Biden's addiction. That's not why this story is being told. And we all know that if you follow the news, the story is being told about Hunter Biden, not about addiction. It's about the

money that he made by selling his father to make millions of dollars in this enterprise. And when we saw his laptop, we saw that he had emails that the big guy, we believe is his father, was taking 10%. And there are many references in the laptop to his dad. And so the problem that we have is not Hunter's addiction, it's that the sitting president of the United States was selling out America to make money through his son for himself. That's corruption. That's impeachable. Just a real quick, Rachel, James Comer just came out because Joe Biden said, show me the money. Where did I make the money? Well, they can show. Shell companies. Well, no, money that came from a Chinese entity that came into a Hunter Biden owned entity.

A shell company, right? A Chinese shell company. And then it went to James Biden, Joe's brother. And then from there, Joe's brother's wife, Sarah, sent Joe Biden $40,000 out of the cash. So they have a link up in the lineup. And it just happens to be 10% of the original amount. 10% for the big guy. Because $400,000 had to come out of Biden's account. Right. It was 10% for the big guy. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. And to give these

Republicans credit, Sean, because a lot of us were cynical and didn't believe we all knew what was happening. I mean, the laptop had it all there. I mean, anybody else other than Hunter would have gone down with just the laptop. If that was Donald Trump Jr.'s laptop, he'd be in jail already. But of course, because he's a Democrat and he plays by different rules, they had to really, you know, dot their I's and cross their T's. And so when luckily the Republicans won in the midterms and the, you know, the House was, you know, the Republicans were in control of the House, these investigations could go forward. And a lot of us, because everything takes so long or never gets done at all, we're all very cynical about all this stuff. We weren't sure it was going to happen.

But you have to give credit to James Comer that he is delivering. And you always said from the beginning, honey, you always said, this is easy. This kind of stuff is done all the time. It's called a forensic audit. And if the FBI and the FBI does this all the time with mafia people and drug dealers, they just don't want to do it with Hunter. And so criminals, white collar happens all the time. They refuse to do it. And, you know, we know from whistleblowers that they were told that any investigation that could possibly lead to Joe Biden, they were not allowed to pursue that,

which makes no every investigation you follow wherever it goes, wherever it leads you. And they weren't allowed to do that. And now, you know, James Cameron, it takes time because the FBI is an expert at this. Congress isn't really designed to do this kind of work. And yet they did do it and they deserve credit for that. Congress is designed to make laws, not investigate crimes. The FBI is set up to investigate crimes and the Department of Justice is there to prosecute those crimes. There's the separation of powers. But because the FBI and the DOJ won't do it,

now the House itself has to investigate. So now what happens, Sean, now that the House has done these investigations, now what does the DOJ do? And we know the DOJ doesn't really want to do anything. And so I think what the House is doing here is very simple. They're going to build a case against Joe Biden. They're going to show that he was making money and selling access when he was the vice president, and they're going to present that case to the American people. And then I think they're going

to move forward with an impeachment. They're going to have to impeach instead of- Prosecute. Instead of prosecute. And so just to put a button on this. That's so sad. Nobody cares about Hunter Biden's addiction. His family does. And I'm happy that he's gotten better. They're good for him. And I hear it's really challenging and hard. One of the hardest things someone will do is get clean. We're concerned about Joe Biden. And if you look at what Joe does, whether it's green energy movements that are actually making China rich, green energy bills with massive amounts of money that go to Chinese companies, a lot of the things that Joe Biden

does really benefits and helps China, not the United States of America. And so it begs the question, if they have information that Joe Biden made money off these deals. If the Chinese have that information. Or the Russians or the Ukrainians, or then they can say, Joe, you do what we want or else we're going to expose what you did. And that means he's compromised. That's our concern. When we think back, you remember, Sean, with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and that whole ordeal. One of the things that was was of concern during that period,

a lot of people get caught up in all the sex of it. Right. And same with Hunter Biden. They get caught up in the drugs and the prostitutes and the baby mamas and the crack and the, you know, the tons of naked pictures of him. He's a complete exhibitionist. He's a total weirdo. He's sort of dating his dead brother's wife. Right. I mean, there's so many weird things that it's easy to get caught up on that. But it really is about being compromised. And same with the situation with Monica Lewinsky. I mean, that was such a gross affair and cigars and all the seedy stuff that happened in the Oval Office. And we all got caught up in that. But really, the problem with that was that I believe that Monica Lewinsky's the phone calls between the president, Monica Lewinsky, at that time were being tapped by foreign governments. President Monica Lewinsky at that time were being tapped by foreign governments. And there was a concern that he could be compromised by this information. And it was better than it came out, you know, in Congress and in the ugly way that it did, then, you know, some foreign government

holding it over him to use it as leverage. And I believe economically, at least, there are some moves, some policy moves and economic moves that Joe Biden has made that are so bad for the United States and so good for China. And that in the view of people like Senator Johnson and others, there there's no other explanation than that he could be compromised. And I asked this directly to Congressman Jimenez as well. And he said, yes, of course, we're concerned about that. So I look at the press, the press is at fault here. The press should want to tell this story. But Hunter Biden knows he could write an op-ed like this and understands that the press is going to have his back. They will amplify the victim's story of millionaire, yes, drug addict, Hunter Biden, and try to remove any of the connections to Joe,

they're going to play that game. And for me, I get that reporters are people. And newspapers, yeah, they have perspective. And I can see why they would be somewhat resistant. But when the story becomes so big, I'm so surprised that more news networks aren't willing to cover what's happening here. They're so partisan. They're so invested in Joe Biden and the Democrat Party and so opposed to Donald Trump. They're unwilling to tell this story, reporting this story because they think it's going to help Donald Trump. And by the way, it goes without saying, but the FBI and the DOJ threw massive amounts of resources to investigate a sitting President Donald Trump on false allegations. And here on real allegations, they refuse to investigate Joe Biden, which is the indicator that you have to clean this place out more about the personal side of this, because there's another part that when I read this, you know, this op ed, which is, of course, full of BS. And it's a complete who knows who Hunter Biden was working with in the White House.

Again, I believe the timing of Matthew Perry's death and Britney Spears. I think the attention on addiction, there was a timing. And of course, this what you what you pointed out had just come out as well. And of course, what you pointed out had just come out as well. So it was the perfect time to drop this connection between finally James Comer getting the money and the dots being connected for the 10% for the big guy. So that was definitely part of it. But when you read the op-ed, I think it's really damning for Joe Biden. It's very clear that however depraved Hunter Biden is, and he truly is.

I mean, he treated the people that he worked with like crap. He was sleeping with some of his assistants and then fired them and, you know, just degrading them. He just was an aunt. And the way he treated his baby mama, little Navy Biden, and tried to get out of paying, you know, child support and would take private jets to the hearings, to the courtroom in Arkansas, where he's supposed to where he's saying that he has no money. But he took a private jet there and says he has no money to pay child support. I mean, this guy's disgusting. That said, it's very clear when you read the op ed, Sean, that he is he was struggling.

I mean, he was addicted to crack cocaine, probably one of the worst drugs. And while he's addicted to crack cocaine, his father is putting him at the center of this family corruption operation where he has to do illegal things. He has to do shady things. He's in he's getting massive amounts of money, which obviously is the worst thing that you could want, you know, an addict to have right is access to money and prostitutes and drugs. And it's just going to spiral him more. And of course, that's what happened. And to me, Jill Biden and Joe Biden look the worst, just like, you know, I mean, they're they're paying off their beach home on the back of their addicted son who they put in that position. I'm sorry. I read the op ed and I just thought he looked like Joe Biden. The last point I'll make is if Taylor Swift's probably almost a billionaire, she's made five hundred, six hundred million dollars on her heiress tour. 500, 600 million dollars on her heiress tour. Just that tour. All these little kids are like, oh, poor, poor Taylor. I feel bad for her. And she's had so many rough relationships. And I'm like that you can convince people that Taylor Swift is a victim. Why shouldn't Hunter Biden try it? It's like I'm a victim. Yes, I made millions of dollars. And yes, I live in, you know, fine

homes that I rent and I fly on private aircraft. But I'm a victim. Yeah, I made millions of dollars. And yes, I live in, you know, fine homes that I rent and I fly on private aircraft. But I'm a victim. Yeah. I sold your country out to people that hate us. And I'm the victim in this whole universe. It's really rich. It's unbelievable. It speaks to something about the American culture today and nothing positive about the culture.

We'll have more of this conversation after this. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor, editor at large of The Spectator and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. I'm inviting you to join in-depth conversations every week on the Ben Domenech podcast. Listen and follow now at Fox News podcast dot com. All right, let's move on. All right. Well, there's another cultural topic that I've been hitting, and that is the mystery behind the boots. Let's just call it boot gate. Boot gate. So this is not Marco Rubio. Yeah, because there was a Marco Rubio one. You're right. He ran for president in 2016. He was accused of wearing lifts in his boots. And you could see the heels of his boots were really high.

And Marco's not a very tall man. And so he was getting a little extra boost. A little extra boost. Well, I really, listen, I'm five feet tall. I don't, I haven't, have I ever owned a pair of flat shoes since you've met me? I don't think so. I don't own one pair of flat shoes.

Even my tennis shoes have sort of like a, you know, there's some height to that tennis shoe. That's right. So I can relate Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis. But that did not go very well for Marco Rubio. So now let's fast forward. Ron DeSantis is wearing cowboy boots and it

appears, some have accused, that the cowboy boots look awfully weird. Yeah, they do. They're weird. They're big and weird. And so a couple of boot experts for, I mean, liberal rags like Planet Code magazine

have analyzed the boots, and all of them have come and said, listen, he's probably wearing lifts in his cowboy boots. The arch of his foot is too far back, which means his heel is up. And when you have a lift in the boot, it means it has to be a little bit bigger. And so the front of the boot will push against the front of his pants. They did a whole bunch of analysis. I wish they put that much attention,

the media, into the Hunter Biden case they have on boot gate. But OK, I'm still loving it. Go ahead. And so, well, no. And so Ron DeSantis was actually confronted in a very awkward way. He did a podcast. So somebody asked him directly. And they showed, I think he- What did he say? He was on Bill Maher

and they had closeups of the boots and they do look weird. And Ron DeSantis is like, well, I bought these off the shelf. These are off the shelf. And Ron's awkwardly looking at the video and pictures. And he's like, I haven't seen that before. And the host says, well, I bought these off the shelf. These are off the shelf. And Ron's awkwardly looking at the video and pictures. He's like, I haven't seen that before. And the host says, well, I got a pair of Ferragami shoes and pulls them out.

And Ron's like, I can't take gifts. I can't take gifts. It got to be very awkward, very quick. But by the way, Politico magazine actually reached out to the DeSantis team. It's hilarious what they're doing. They had a... Oh, my gosh. I know there's a lot of attention on this thing.

And the DeSantis team, I love them dearly for their response. But in essence, they said, let me see here. Considering the fact that Politico magazine admittedly spent money to consult boot experts to run this hit piece on DeSantis tells you all you need to know about their, in quote, journalism. The governor doesn't pat his boots, but if he ever needed anything to line a pet cage

or fold up the wedge under a table leg, that would be the highest and best use of Politico magazine. That's a good response. You know, you know who the boot expert is. So tomorrow I'm doing Fox and Friends and there is one. There is. So I know. I don't know who Politico's boot expert is.

There's only one boot expert. And that's Will Kane. Will Kane knows everything about shoes and jeans, by the way. Jeans and boots are like will keane's like space like he should almost just have a website on boots and jeans and he knows every and women's jeans too i'm not it's not just they're not just oh my god can i tell you the funniest will kane story i went to um nash i think it was in nashville for something and uh yeah we're there for uh i think we were there for we're there for new year's when we did the new year show, but we arrived the day before. Yeah. But

before you showed up, I came in first. You remember you flew in later. I flew in first and they wanted me to do this thing that night. And I ended up not doing it because I wasn't feeling well. And, and Will ended up doing it by himself, but I was supposed to go up when I landed, they didn't tell me that. And I'm like, well, I only brought my dress for New Year's. I don't have anything. They're like, well, you got to go get some clothes. You got to go get a shirt and some jeans. So I went down to Nordstrom and I got, I haven't bought jeans in so long, Sean. I'm like, I literally only have work clothes at this point. And like Lululemon, which I run around the house and clean with. So I've like nothing. Right. And so I haven't bought jeans in forever. So I get this young lady to like this. Yeah. I looked for like the, the cutest girl at Nordstrom's to help me find my jeans. And she was so sweet. And she was like,

here's this and this and this. And I bought a pair of jeans that looked the best on me of the like well pairs that she came in. And I, and I, and then I said, looked the best on me of the like 12 pairs that she came and I and I and I and then I said well you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna put I'm gonna put them on and I'm supposed to go meet Will and his family um uh for to have lunch or something like that anyway I go to see him and he goes oh those are nice jeans. Those are mothers, right? Which was the name. The name of the brand was Mother. And I was like, I mean, I don't feel like dumb about clothes. I like clothes. I would never know what brand of jeans a girl was wearing just by watching her.

Let alone a guy. Let alone a guy. Well, he knows jeans. And he's like, and he goes, I just bought my wife those jeans. So anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Will because I would. Well, yeah, you would never venture myself to buy him. I didn't even know I was wearing a new pair of jeans, you know, when I get my hair cut. So so but anyway, that the point is, I am going to get to the bottom of it.

I think here's what's interesting. And I would have liked to have seen that Bill Maher segment because I believe you when you say that he was awkward. And I do think I feel bad for new speaker, Mike Johnson, that he's also moved his position on Ukraine. There must be enormous pressure from the neocon warmongers in our government to get people who, you know, to change their points of view and only really tough people can. So other than Ukraine and his position on that, I would say I am I think he's a legit guy, on that, I would say I am, I think he's a legit guy, but he clearly has, and it speaks to how important personality and your ability to connect to people really still does matter in Congress. And I think that he'd be able to get away with the boot thing if he was a little more likable. And I don't mean, I don't mean that in a mean way, because I'm sure he's a nice person,

but for some reason, you know, maybe he's on the spectrum. I don't know what's going on. But he is not connecting with people. His wife, on the other hand, is extremely likable, connects with women. You know, they lobbed attacks on her, Sean. They called her Walmart Melaniaania the press did trying to bring her down and she was like walmart melania wow that's a compliment you just put melania in front of my associated with me i'll take it which is exactly what i thought about that she is a natural

and he just isn't and boot gate and the way he's handling it shows it. So here's the problem. I have a little different opinion. Okay. Authenticity matters, right? We're human. We're flawed. God made us all certain heights and by the way, certain genders and you can't change it. And so be who you are. Don't be someone else.

Don't try to fake me out. Don't try to lie. If you're 5'11", be 5'11". I'm going to own it and love it. Donald Trump owned everything about being Donald Trump. There's a lot of good, but there's some bad stuff too. And he took it all. He's like, this is who I am. This is what you're going to get. Be 5'11", Ron DeSantis. Don't give me some lifts. Because if you put lifts in your shoes and trying to fake me out about your height, what else are you faking me out on?

What else are you trying to deceive me on? Be authentic. And that's how you connect with people, Rachel. And you know what, Sean? You know what, Amy? That is touch. That's a great point. I channeled you on that point.

No, no, no. It's your answer. But you didn't give. I didn't give that answer. I didn't give that answer. You know, there's a part of me that has a lot of empathy because I know what it's like as a spouse to watch your husband have to take these arrows. I mean, my heart goes out to Casey. My heart goes out to him. It is not easy being in the public eye. And so there's a part of me that, you know, feels bad for that. But Sean, only 14% of American men are over six feet tall. So, you know, what your point is so well taken. Own it. You know, most guys actually can relate to not being six feet because they're not six feet.

Only 14% of guys are over six feet tall. And so, um, that is, that, that's a, that's a, uh, I think you actually, uh, really nailed it. I think I allowed my, my own experience and my own sensitivities of being a political spouse to interfere. You're right. This speaks to authenticity and I'm glad you brought up Donald Trump. You know, I, I remember when they accused him of cheating on his taxes and he goes, yeah, because I'm smart and I don't want to give you guys all my money. Or they accused him of making fun of women. And he said, you call women pigs. And he said, only Rosie O'Donnell. I mean, there's so many things where or even like I just told you this morning that, you know, Donald Trump was he's now back in, you know, the witch hunt never ends with the guy. It's just unbelievable what he's going through. But he's back in court. And I guess there's some like sketch artists in in, you know, the witch hunt never ends with the guy. It's just unbelievable what he's going through.

But he's back in court. And I guess there's some like sketch artists in there, you know, in court. This happened this week. And he looked over at the sketch artist and he goes, just just draw me sexy, OK? I know he's in the worst situation ever. He knows how to have a sense of humor about it. And he owns his flaws and he doesn't try to fool you. And the one thing you can say about him

is he's truly authentic. And here's, if you're Ron DeSantis, this is my advice to Ron DeSantis, you're not going to beat Trump. However, these court cases could be effective. This is the plan for the Democrats. It could be effective.

And if they convict Donald Trump and they send him to jail, which is very possible, that is, listen, that could be Donald Trump's poll numbers could go up then, or they could go down. We don't know how that's going to play out, but Ron DeSantis should be working that if something happens. He's the guy. I am ready. I am the guy. Yeah. And he's, he hasn't taken that. He's not, He hasn't got there yet. He still thinks. Is that him or is that his team, Sean? In the end, listen, he's a smart guy. I know he is.

And he'll take advice on a lot of things. I think on this, though, I think he's driving this. Because a lot of people have built him up. Because he was a great governor. You're such a great governor. You're going to beat Trump. All of a sudden, he's running into the Trump wall. He can't get over it. So these stories matter if you want to be the guy when Donald Trump falls. And I say, if Donald Trump was to fall, you want to be the guy. I think Vivek Ramaswamy is way more authentic. I do. And Nikki's not. I don't think Nikki Haley is now, but that's, that's the mindset he has to have that he doesn't have. Give up the boots, give up the boots, wear a pair of regular cowboy boots actually off the shelf. Or I think, I think Sean or steel toe, give some steel toe working man's boots. I mean, I don't think he's a working man. Again, I don't think that, that, that means, you know, who he is, you know, he, you know, one of the things I remember, Victor Davis Hanson told the story about Donald Trump. Because Victor Davis Hanson lives in sort of the food belt area of Northern California. And so he saw Donald Trump come in to town to do a fundraiser, and then he went to go see these farmers.

to do a fundraiser. And then he went to go see these farmers. You know how fun it is in the summer in that area of Northern California, but you're not by the coast, you're in that interior part. And Donald Trump went and it was like 90 some degrees and there's all these farmers. And he said, most politicians would have come with a flannel shirt like the one you're wearing. When I met you, you were wearing a flannel shirt. So this is a real deal for Sean Duffy. But they would put on a flannel shirt and, you know, put a piece of straw on their teeth and pretend like they're in a pair of cowboy boots that weren't, you know, worn in because they just bought them on the way from the airport to the location. And, you know, try and pretend like they are down with the farmers. Donald Trump was wearing a black suit.

With a red tie. With a red tie, you're exactly right. In 98 degree weather with those farmers listening to their problems. And Victor Davis Hanson said, that's authentic. He wasn't going to change who he, and that's why at his, remember. The farmers probably loved him for the right reasons. Because they're like, yeah, I mean going to change who he and and that's why at his remember

yeah i mean this is this who he is and probably because he's a businessman asked all the right questions because that's what businessmen do well remember when the the iowa state fair everyone has to go to the iowa state fair who's running for president and they all try to pretend like they all you know yeah i i'm I'm rich Mitt Romney and I always have hot dog on a stick or whatever they eat. They're writing. They all pretend like they're all down with all the, you know, fried foods at the fair. Not Donald Trump. He came in his private jet with the Trump, you know, across, you know, the plane and he circled around. I don't know how many times really distracting everybody from all the other politicians who were on the ground.

He never did the typical tour. You know what he did? He planted his plane and he gave tours of the plane to little kids whose parents were probably thrilled. Right. Did he even helicopter rides at one point to kids? No. Was it plane tours? I thought it was on that case. I know it was a plane tour. I wouldn't, but this is the kind of, he is who he is. He's got gold, gold, you know, faucets and, um, you know, he's not going to change who he is. Every, everybody just accepted. And so back to your point, if I go to the fair, corn dogs, dogs on a stick, like I spent

more time on in fairgrounds than anybody so when i met sean he was a carny yeah what's up when i met sean he was working at car at state fairs doing lumberjack exhibitions and so the first time i went i went to the calgary stampede um i was coming back for a trip from a summer in india and you i'd run out of money. I flew you out. And you, you flew me over to Calgary. Um, and, and I spent about 10 days at the Calgary Stampede, probably more time than I would have liked. I think a day or two would have been enough for me, Rachel, but I stayed there the whole time and kept you company and, um, got a taste of carnival food and, and what it's like to be at a state fair. The Calgary Stampede is amazing. If you haven't been, you should go.

It's the greatest outdoor show on earth and it's wonderful. But so this, we kind of have fans to ourselves. It's a really great show. It's really athletic. But our show at the Calgary Stampede was in the middle of the little pig races. In the exhibition, there was the little piglets and they could do these races. It was so fun. Kind of embarrassing.

Anyway. It kind of, you know, if you thought you were an athlete, after you climbed that tree and watched more people interested in the piglets racing, then you race to get the tree. That was a good point, because they're busting the pigs. But the pigs did have a great draw. We'll have more of this conversation after this. Okay, let's move on to our topic. All right.

This is interesting, too. This has a political... So, yes, the Speaker Johnson... The little speaker. No one cared about Mike Johnson, you know, two weeks ago, but now he's a speaker. So now there's all this scrutiny on him. And some of the stories that have come out, They've commented, because as a member of Congress, every year you have to do reporting on your income and how much money you have. And you do ranges, right? So they don't give you an

exact dollar amount, but it's a range between, you know, $5,000 and $10,000 or $10,000 and $50,000. Like how much you have in savings, how much you have in investments. Right. And so, and again, you have to report every account. So they went back and looked at Speaker Johnson's report, financial reports for Congress, and they noticed that he, they say, well, he doesn't have a checking account. He doesn't have a savings account and he doesn't have any investments that trigger the reporting. So that doesn't mean he doesn't have a checking account. It means that he might not have enough money in his checking account. What's the minimum before you get reported? It was $5,000 or $10,000 you need.

So they're saying, so their beef with Speaker Johnson is he doesn't even have $5,000 in his account. So he could be compromised. Well, he's poor. He's poor. And he therefore lives paycheck to paycheck. So he's susceptible to fine. He's susceptible. And so. Sean, I think we probably had less than $5,000

in that shot when you ran for office. When I was in Congress, I think it was the Duffys and the Rubios. Yeah, we always switched this. So they make a list, right? Of the richest and poorest members of Congress. From the richest all the way down to the poorest. And we were always at the bottom of the list.

No, I had more kids than the Rubios. That's for sure. It was like the Rubios. I was a state prosecutor. Rachel was a stay-at-home mom. Make much as a prosecutor. I love the job. I love the work.

And I had all these kids. So we didn't have any money. And they were in Catholic school. And so, yeah, for a while I was embarrassed by it. But after a while, I'm like, you know what? I don't care. Yeah, I don't have any money. I do remember when it first came out, you were embarrassed.

And I was like, why are you embarrassed? Like, I mean, whatever, you know? We'll tell you this. I would move money just before I had a report. I'd move money between my checking and some of the accounts so I could get above certain thresholds. So it made it look like I had no money. You had faith a lot, Sean. But it's really interesting that the press has logged onto this because, first of all, I would love to see those reports for Nancy Pelosi

over the years. It is so obvious. I mean, Jesse Waters has done an excellent job of reporting all the changes in that family's income because she obviously has insider information and has tipped off her husband, who supposedly is the most amazing. He's better than Warren Buffett in investing. His ability to predict what stocks are going to go up is so well known to be good, Sean, that literally there was a tick until recently they had to stop doing it or whatever. But there was a tick tock account that was an investment account that wouldn't just track what people started to invest in. And whenever, whenever Paul Pelosi was investing in there, like, that must be good. Let's get in. Let's get in on that.

It's not just so Jesse Waters, cousin Maxine Waters. Maxine has become very wealthy. There's a lot of Congresswoman from California, California. There's a lot of especially Democrats who become very wealthy while serving in Congress. And just I want to be really clear. You don't get rich in Congress. It's impossible. They pay you a really fair salary. It's easier to live in Wisconsin on your, it's $174,000 a year. It's easier to live in Wisconsin than it probably is in New York City. Yeah. Right. But people don't get rich in California. And if someone got rich in Congress, something's going on. Which is why we're talking about Joe Biden, which goes back to the original conversation about Joe Biden and Hunter. Yeah, or who's the senator from New Jersey? Menendez. You have gold bars and half a million dollars in cash.

That doesn't happen. The senators make the same amount as House members, 174 each. I look at Mike Johnson, I'm like, most Americans love paycheck to paycheck. Yeah. Right? Mike Johnson has four kids. And so he doesn't have some massive wealth. And he comes from, you know, the side of America

where you don't have a pot of money. You're not one of the heredities. Yeah. And you you should be able to relate to the people who are also living paycheck to paycheck and who probably make a lot less than he does. Yeah. And good for him and for any of the press to hit him on not having a lot of money. That's, I can't say, that's BS. I think I said that earlier in the show, didn't I? I don't know. I might have.

I can say it, but you can't. You're a Latina woman. You can say things I can't. I'm a white guy. You're right, you're right. You're right. It's interesting, the tension on this that they have. And you know what?

Fighting for the average man because you are the average man is really important. You know what? And that's an excellent point. I think the fact that, you know, we didn't have a lot of money that we, you know, before we were running and while you were in office that we had to think about these kinds of things the same way so many

of our neighbors and friends had to think about it. I think that makes you a better member of Congress. And this idea that, I'll tell you what's dangerous is, and people get mad sometimes about, they go, well, $174,000 is a lot of money. Well, it is, except when you basically are trying to maintain two households in DC and in your district and it's, and there's expenses that, you know, are related to having to, you know, for us, it was like babysitters and things that, you know, cause we had to go to certain events and things like that. They got to be expensive. But that said, the idea that you have to have a salary that's reasonable because what you don't want is for your Congress to be

filled with only, you know, independently wealthy, rich people. You want to have farmers in there. You want to have, you know, you know, county prosecutors like you were before you got in. You want people with families who understand what it's like to, you know, worry about what the bill is when you come out of Walmart or Sam's Club or whatever. And, you know, and you lose that and people lose that. I mean, you and I both know lots of multimillionaires who are in Congress and, and they're good people, but on some level, there's a certain thing they just don't get. There are certain issues that just don't resonate with them because they're not

part of those. They're not part of the working class or they never were part of their network. It's one thing too. Like you meet people who came from working class and built something and built a company and now they're rich. They can still recall what it's like. There are so many people there with generational wealth. So the salary of a member of Congress hasn't gone up for 14 years, 15 years. Because it's hard to vote for your race when American people are...

So the top staffers on the Hill can make two hundred thousand dollars. The staff can make more than the Congress, the the congressman, the Supreme Court makes more than members of Congress. Like all parts of government are making more than members of Congress. And I'm not saying one hundred seventy four. It's a really it's a really generous salary. It is generous. But this is the most important board in the world, especially in our country. And it's complicated. And if you serve on the Coca-Cola board or the pick your company, they pay a lot more than that. You want to pay people, I think, well, to be on the most important board.

And that's also a protection from bribery. I mean, one of the things I noticed in Mexico, Sean, I got to meet when you were in Congress, we got to meet members of the Mexican sort of their equivalent of Congress. Deputados. Los Deputados. And I'll tell you, there is corruption. You think there's corruption here? Whoa. In Mexico, is their corruption. And part of it is they give them a smaller salary, but then they get to then each province or each district. Right. Which would be their each state gets or their district that they represent gets a pot of money that is equally divided. And the member, the diputado, gets to distribute that money. And so he's getting kickbacks. So I had dinner with a group, a Mexican delegation.

We had dinner in the U.S. This is such a great story. I love it. I don't know. I know how much I made as a member of Congress. I felt like, how much do you guys make? Do you remember why you asked that question? Because their suits were so nice.

And you said, that's a really great suit how did you afford that suit so like i have my 25 30 shirt from nordstrom's um and yeah they're nice really nice stuff on so i asked them i'm like how much do you guys make i like had no idea and uh the response was fascinating they said and people we had built some trust. We got along really well. And so they said, in response to my question, how much do you make? They said, officially or unofficially. Yes. It took me like five seconds to understand what he was saying to me. Because what he's saying is they get an official salary.

Yeah. And then they all make money on the side with bribes. And that's in the distribution of these funds, right? Like you give more contracts. Or companies are giving you money. And so the higher position you are, the more money in bribes that you get. And it's a point of bragging rights within their deputados, whatever they're called. Diputados. Deputados.

Deputados. Who makes the most money in bribes is an indicator of how. It's a competition. I'm like, you guys have got no. Mexico is so messed up. Yeah. People take bribes. Yeah.

And that's why it's so important. Like, you know, if if the Hunter Biden family is, you know, the Boisma board, you know, if the Hunter Biden family is, you know, the Boisma board, you know, the firing of that, of, you know, getting involved in country politics so that your son're in war with Ukraine and sending more money there. And God knows what Zelensky knows about what Joe Biden is doing. And we're spending all this. Corruption is so poisonous and toxic to democracy and to representation and fair representation. And so I think, you know, as we close this out and look at this this story of you know of of what's going on here you have to get to the bottom of what's going on with hunter because it is symbolic um and and it's also dangerous what's happening it is symbolic and it is dangerous rachel um and where did we have full circle yeah i did i brought it full circle. Last thing, what was my birthday? What was your birthday? A couple of weeks ago. You turned 39. Rachel turned 39 a couple of weeks ago.

And how does it, Rachel turned 52. I did. How does it feel to be 52? Because sometimes when I was young, I would think 52 is kind of old. I remember thinking 39 and 40 was old. Yeah. I can still remember that. So let's say, you know, it was really interesting turning 52 because I feel great. And I, I, my, what I thought of 52, it's not at all what, what it actually is. I don't know if that's because, you know, like they say, like, you know, the cliche, oh, 50 is the new 40 or whatever, you know, they say, you know, there's some of that. But I do think I try to take care of myself. I'm not perfect, as you know, about my workouts, but I do try. You do try. I do try. You're all less than perfect. in the workout department, but I try. I've been trying to do more weights than cardio because I love cardio. I get bored with weights, but I know what I need to do is weights. My skincare, I

switched to oils and your sister makes essential oils for your skin. And I do vitamin C and vitamin A. And I think that's been really good for my, it's better than a lotion or a cream for my skin. So I'm big on oils and I'm loving that. You're well, you're a good eater. I try to eat well, but honestly, I think it's the kids that has helped. I think that, you know, they keep you young. I know, again, that sounds super cliche,

but I think that's true. I will say that the lifestyle that we were living in when you were in Congress was really hard on my stress levels and our family. And I was running around a lot trying to do too many things at once. And that's not good. And I was running around a lot, trying to do too many things at once. And that's not good. And I look at some of the photos from when I was in my, I don't know, mid 40s. And I think I look and feel better now.

And I think it's just like getting more in balance. And I think that's really important too, especially for women. We try and take on a lot and we get anxiety and we get stressed. try and take on a lot and we get anxiety and we get stressed. And I think that, you know, just trying to find a balance between the physical, you know, how you feel, how you're doing physically, workout wise, you know, all that, your spiritual life. And, you know, I think, I think just having, having balance. Well, I would say, I think when you're young, you don't have to take care of your body because it's a young body um and when i went into congress i look pretty good when i left congress i look like crap um i i will attest to that and i i think i've we're like oh that that was congress five pounds more than I do now. Explain to people, what is it about Congress that makes everybody unhealthy?

Some people do it well. Like Paul Ryan did it well. He worked out every day. He did. I didn't. And I should have. In hindsight, I should have done that. But so you go to the conference, Republicans meet in the morning, and there's cookies.

There's croissants there's if i was in congress i wouldn't change that i wouldn't advocate for better choices sometimes they'll have some eggs some fruit too but there's there's really crappy choices and then you have to raise money all the time because money is power to get re-elected and so you do dinners and fundraisers and i remember like one week i think I ate a steak three times, three dimes in a row. Bad choice. That's not a good idea. No, but, and you just get to be really unhealthy. And so as I was leaving, I started to work out again. And I think the point with aging, this is the point I want to make is you can have a spiritual life and you can have

kids and you can have money and you can have time. But if you don't have your health, you can't do anything. And so I do think it's important as you age, you really have to make sure that you focus on having a body that'll allow you to do all the things that you want to do. And that means you got to use it. If you don't use your body, you lose it. That's cliche, but it's true. And so I started working out a couple years ago. I had shoulder surgery about two months ago and I haven't been able to work out. And the consequences of that are dramatic. Yeah, you've seen you've seen you've been able to see over. So first of all, I've lost so much muscle and I've gotten fatter because I'm not working. I know. Well, it's so interesting

because he got out of Congress. He's not lying. He was 20, 25 pounds heavier and he was just not healthy. He didn't look healthy. His skin didn't look good. It was just not. And then once you got out, you started to take care. It took you about a year and a half to kind of ramp up. And then our friend Dan Bongino put you on a new workout. You started working out our daughter's workout routine, which is pretty intense. Her husband's routine was pretty intense. And then you ramped up to the Dan Bongino workout. Which was less time, but more intense. Yeah.

And you were having extraordinary results. But then you had this shoulder injury, not related to the working out, separate. It had to do with lumberjack sports. And then you had to get surgery. And so for the last two months, it's true, you have lost a lot of muscle and you're putting on weight. But it goes to age, right? When you age, you start to lose things more quickly, which means you have to stay on top of it. And if you do, people live longer and they have better

lives. And so I think at our age, that's the things we think about to go. We have a lot of kids. By the way, I'm going to be honest. Sometimes I was telling Rachel the other day, I'm like, wouldn't it be interesting if all our kids were older and we could go to Florida for the weekend? Most of our friends are doing that. Most of our friends are empty nesters, and so they have a lot more freedom. We still have the baby in diapers. And so we think about that. Four-year-old in diapers.

We never change it. It's been great. But once in a while, I've pondered, well, that'd be kind of fun. But it does keep you young. You'd probably get bored of it. I would get bored of that. I got to go to Halloween this past week. By yourself. I had to go by myself because Sean, this is, yeah, Sean was working. He couldn't come with me.

But you know what? I was so happy to have kids that still loved Halloween and didn't think it was dumb. Who still, as we say, still have their sparkle. I was so happy to have kids that still loved Halloween and didn't think it was dumb, who still, as we say, still have their sparkle and they still were excited to go, you know, trick or treating. That was super fun. So I think that all keeps us young. But you're right.

I mean, after a certain age, you know, definitely after 45, 50, you got to prioritize your health so you can enjoy the rest of your life. And, and, and, and I actually, I just want to say to women who are in their forties, especially in their forties, cause you're, you're staring down at 50. It's not bad. I mean, if you take care of yourself and you, and you focus on your, on your kids and your marriage and your health and your spiritual life, better at 52 than you did at 45, for sure. Thank you, honey. Well, that's because your career in Congress was wearing me down.

It was unhealthy for both of us. Great for you. Well, listen, your district helped elect Donald Trump, and I'm proud of that. Good conversation. A lot of topics. We covered the gamut

today. Questions on Friday get to We covered the gamut today. spherical. Questions on Friday get to be a little raucous. Listen, thank you all for joining us. I hope you all have a great weekend. You can find our podcast anywhere. We'd ask you to subscribe, rate, and review. You can always find us at foxnewspodcast.com.

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