Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 1/27/22 Dan McKnight on Defend the Guard and the Ten Seven Club

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Scott is joined by Dan McKnight of Bring Our Troops Home to discuss the prospects for Defend The Guard legislation in 2022. The legislation seeks to recognize the proper use of the National Guard as laid out in the Constitution by allowing States to block the deployment of their National Guard forces to foreign combat operations unless Congress declares war. McKnight gives an update on the effort and discusses the Ten Seven Club, a new way for combat veterans and concerned citizens to join the push to get these bills passed.   Discussed on the show: Bring Our Troops Home Ten Seven Club Dan McKnight is the founder and Chairman of Idahoans to Bring Our Troops Home. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, three years active duty with the U.S. Army and ten years with the Idaho Army National Guard, including a one-year deployment to Afghanistan in 2006. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, y'all, welcome to the Scott Horton Show. I'm the director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of anti-war.com, author of the book, Fool's Aaron, Time to End the War in Afghanistan, and The Brand New, Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terrorism. And I've recorded more than 5,500 interviews since 2004. almost all on foreign policy and all available for you at scothorton dot for you can sign up the podcast feed there and the full interview archive is also available at youtube.com slash scott horton show all right you guys introducing dan mcnight from bring our troops home dot us and defend the guard i think also dot us and he's a former marine former army and former national guard if i I remember that right. And he's trying to prevent, well, no, he's trying to encourage the states to prevent the federal government from nationalizing and misusing the National Guard.

And from what I gather, you've been making some real progress lately. Welcome back to the show, Dan. How you doing? Good, Scott. It's good talk to you. What's the latest, man? Oh, man. Last year, I think we hit, you know, in the mid-30s for a number of states that had sponsors for our bill, defend the guard.

And we're excited to announce that we just hit our 44th state. yesterday for this legislative session. And we've had hearing, we have a hearing in Kansas House and Kansas Senate next week. We've got sponsor, we've got endorsements from national figures like Justin Amash and Don Huffins in Texas and Joe Kent and Washington. We're making some real progress. And we've, we've, I feel like we're going to actually get something push through this year. That's our third year trying. I think we're going to get it done. All right. Now, so you mentioned a couple of important characters there, Joe Kent. Don Huffeins, I don't know what the polls look like.

I know he's running to the right of Greg Abbott and the primaries here in Texas. How serious are these guys about supporting your position, do you think? So Huffins put out a full press release about supporting Defend the Guard and reclaiming the state's rights and control over their own militia. So I would take that as a pretty serious statement. And we know in Texas, the Republican Party has a plank in their platform that says that they support, defend the Guard, and that the National Guard should ever be deployed to combat absent a declaration of war from Congress.

And so if the party says it, and a candidate from the Republican Party puts it out in an official press release, and another candidate, you know, Alan West, who's a Republican, also says the same thing that if you don't support the platform, you're not a Republican. I feel like that's a pretty strong endorsement from those that are running against Abbott. And like you said, they're running to the right of Abbott, both West and Don Huffeins. great um so actually just pulled up a poll here um oh there's a guy named ricky perry who's running that ought to help that's funny uh hoffines has 5% support so far right yeah we know he's we know he's running in third place but uh any it's any any news is good news right any attention absolutely and obviously you know what obviously abbott is a pretty popular republican incumbent governor and

Alan West, of course, whatever you think about him, is a famous character from TV and all that. Huffings is coming from pretty much, you know, the starting position here. But as you say, it's important that both of them, obviously Huffines or Huffines, more so than West, but they both have essentially come out in support of this, which, you know, in the state of Texas, especially that sets a real important example for the rest of them, I think, should. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Abbott hasn't been terrible on the National Guard.

issue. You know, he did call the Texas National Guard home from D.C. because he felt they were being misused. And he is threatened to use the National Guard for border security, you know, in the southern part of Texas. So he's not terrible on the National Guard issue. He just hasn't, he hasn't opined yet on Defend the Guard. And we're still working to get an official statement from his office. I don't know if we'll get it or not, but we're trying. And now our same guy that introduced the bill last year promises to do so again. Well, I mean, actually the legislature is only every two years in Texas. Yep. Yep. So, yeah, Representative Brian Slayton from the Texas First Legislative District,

he has already committed to bring it back next year. He's already building a coalition of co-sponsors, and he's become real aggressive in the state of Texas for a freshman legislator. He's doing a really good job. And he got kind of hoodwinked in the process last year. You remember that. We were there testifying, and the committee chairman swapped his bill out in place for a garbage bill.

and put it in his place instead of defend the guard, he changed it to notify the guard and basically said that National Guard enlistees would have to sign a piece of paper that acknowledges that they may, that they do have to swear an oath to the Constitution, and then they may have to fight for wars that are unconstitutional, which it was like the hoodwark of the century. You know, he went to go by a Cadillac and ended up with a Dotson. Hey, man, ain't nothing wrong with a Dotson. I love the old Dotsons. I mean, mine's a Nissan, but they're not.

That's the same thing as the Dotson, really, isn't it? As an old skater, you probably ran around with guys that had the old Dotson pickups, right? Yep, D-21, man, 1995. That'll be my truck till the wheels fall off, and they're not ever going to fall off. Nope. All right, now, so that's pretty good.

And I know we got to wait a year in Texas, and I'm glad that the legislature is only in section every two years here. That should also set a great example for the rest of them. but um so that's you know essentially on hold although it's still some pretty good publicity from some republican congressman there and um so i guess give us some more examples but also kind of i want to hear from you about you know how you measure the mood here on the right in the republican party at the state level and compared to the federal level and or what because obviously there's very mixed messages on the right these days

whether we're just the toughest SOBs under the sun or whether actually that's all democratic recklessness and we want an America first foreign policy sure yeah that's there's a lot to impact there so let's let's talk about the right are they the toughest SOBs on the block or are they going to follow the constitution right we look at Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney and Dan Crenshaw and even Lindsey Graham and they're beating that war drum you know they're beating it strong that we should be we should be amping up our forces in Ukraine, that we should be doing anything we can to deter Russia, and we should be headstrong into this conflict. That's one faction of the Republican Party. There's a faction of the Democratic Party that's saying the same thing. We have to be tough. We have to be

strong. Our poll numbers are in the tank, so what do we do? We wag the dog and we create our own war. Nobody changes presidents in the middle of a war. And so there's two factions of both the left and the right that are beating that same drum. But then you see more principal people in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party alike that are saying, hey, slow and reasoned discourse. We have a chance to back away from this thing without looking weak, and we can do it by following our own constitutional principles and requiring that Congress declares war before we ever get into this conflict in Ukraine. And so there's two distinct flavors in Washington, D.C. right now. But I'll tell you the one that's the most prevalent is in the states. We're finding that states are open and eager

to reclaim their authority over their militia, over their people, over their rights from the federal government. And in Kansas, your neighbor, two states to the north, they're about to have this bill in a hearing in the Senate and the House next week. And they've added a little bit of language into their bill that it doesn't just deal with war deployments for the National Guard, but it also deals with federal vaccine mandates for the COVID-19 vaccine that the state of Kansas will determine what's best for their for their National Guard, not the federal government. And so that 10th Amendment fight is really kind of burning heavy right now across the states.

Nobody wants the federal government telling us what to do with our people, what to do with our bodies, or what to do with our militia. Yeah. And by the way, would you clarify a thing for me here? I've seen a liberal Democrat saying it's called the. national guard dude get it through thick skull bro and that kind of thing and so but then it is true right that ever since the new deal era that they really changed the state militias to the national guard in most cases i think at texas we have both right a state guard and a national guard with

some kind of legal you know separation between them i'm not exactly sure what the different circumstances for their deployments are but most states i think don't have both they just have National Guards. And how different is that from a state militia? You want to call it one, but is it really a national kind of government project in the first place? And what difference does it really make, Dan? Yeah, I think from a pure constitutional standpoint, there's no one that would argue that the militia that's referred to in the Constitution is the National Guard. However, in 1904, the Modernization of Defense Act codified the National Guard as the militia of the state, but didn't do anything to take control of that militia away from the states.

It just changed the name. And so the National Guard is under state control and the disciplining and the training of the members of the National Guard or the militia falls on the state and the legislatures, believe it or not. But the equipping of the National Guard comes from the federal government. The federal government supplies the tanks and the helicopters and the trucks and the guns. And so the equipment comes to the federal government. But the National Guard, as you know, the militia has three missions that are. laid out very clearly in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15, says that the National Guard of the militia shall be called into federal service to put down an insurrection, to put down an

invasion, or to enforce the laws of the union. And absent a declaration of war, fighting overseas combat is not any of those three missions. Now, a declaration of war changes everything because that does become the law of the union. And the state militia then can be federalized to fight offensively or defensively for the United States of America and so that's kind of the role of the National Guard. It's a state entity funded by the federal government

but under state control. Yeah, sorry, hang on just one second. Hey, guys, anybody who signs up to listen to this show by way of Patreon will be invited to join the Reddit group. And I'm going to start posting stuff over there more. That's patreon.com slash Scott Horton's show. Thanks.

Hey, y'all, Libertaspella.com is where you get Scott Horton's show and Libertarian Institute shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and stickers and things, including the great top lobstas designs as well. See, that way it says on your shirt, why you're so smart. Libertas Bella, from the same great folks who bring you ammo.com for all your ammunition needs, too. That's Libertasbella.com. You guys, check it out. This is so cool. The great Mike Swanson's new book is finally out. He's been working on this thing for years. And I admit, I haven't read it yet. I'm going to get to it

as soon as I can, but I know you guys are going to want to beat me to it. It's called Why the Vietnam War? Nuclear bombs and nation building in Southeast Asia, 1945 through 61. And as he explains on the back here, all of our popular culture and our retellings and our history and our movies are all about the height of the American war there in, say, 1964 through 1974. But how do we get there? Why is this all Harry Truman's fault?

Find out in why the Vietnam War by the great Mike Swanson available now. I mean, I was probably to believe, I guess, more from just the TV ads than government school or I don't know. And maybe just from kind of hearsay in the neighborhood where essentially the job of the National Guard is sandbags in the event of a flood. Right? Or if you're like an earthquake prone state, maybe evacuations from neighborhoods that get hit really hard. and natural disasters like that, tornadoes, something like that, or, you know, in the event of a red dawn scenario, right? They're the National Guard.

They're here to defend the country from, which, of course, there are no powers anywhere in the world that could ever invade this country in a million years. But anyway, I mean, that's what they're essentially supposed to do, is sit around waiting for a day that never comes ever anyway. But the idea was, isn't it two weeks a month, or two weeks a year, one weekend a month, and the rest of time you're essentially just drinking beers

and hanging out with your friends and nobody told you you're going to go patrol the Helmand province sure you know the it's been one of the greatest marketing campaigns of all time you'll serve your country serve your state with nothing more than one weekend a month and two weeks in the year all right in the summer and the national guard though it's it has been a bit of a misnomer the national guard doesn't train to fill sandbags we train for war the national guard's job is to defend the nation the ancillary benefit of the national Guard is that they are there in a ready force that's available to participate in floods and hurricanes and fires and pandemics. But they train every time they put their uniform on, they are

training for combat, for defense of America. And so, you know, we all think of the National Guard as the sandbag fillers or the weekend warriors, but I'll tell you right now, the National Guard is one of the most well-trained and well-equipped fighting forces in this world. I mean, there's as good as any active-duty military in the United States. And so it is a bit of a misnomer, but their job is to guard the nation. It's in their name. It's in their creed. It's in their title. And so if there is a war that's worth fighting that's so important to America, that America's national interests are threatened and we have to commit our sons and daughters and our treasure to defend that Americanism, the National Guard should go fight that war, but only if it's done the right

way. And that's where we differ from the National Guard Bureau, the Department of Defense, the Warhawks, all the people that are beating the drum, they feel that the National Guard should be able to go and fight a war just because the president says so. And as you know, our organization absolutely opposes that point of view. Hell, even if we were to fight in Ukraine right now, you don't see anybody talking about, well, we better assemble the Congress and have a debate over whether to declare war on Russia or not or any of these things. The question is, what's Biden going to do? What's I'm going to do?

And then how's Biden going to respond? Yep. And we see what Biden's going to do. He's going to write a letter and put his thoughts down, you know, and some beautiful penmanship. You know, so, you're right, no one's been called. I hope he'll leave it at that. It would be nice, but we know that's not going to happen. He's going to make himself, he's going to peacock a little bit.

We all know it. But you're right. No one is calling for the Congress to reassemble and to debate this because, one, Congress doesn't want it on their shoulders, right? They don't want to have to go home and look at their constituents and explain why little Johnny and little Susie are going off to fight in a war in Ukraine. You know, that all of a sudden American security interests are 3,000 miles to the east of the Alba River where it's always been. That's been our line in the sand, right?

And now we're saying it's all the way over there. And so Congress is never going to take that rollback unless we force them to do it. And that's our goal here is to force Congress to reclaim that authority to declare war, to take it back from the president. And if they want to go fight these endless wars and misadventures all over the world and they want to take the National Guard to do it, then Congress has to do their job first. And we know that that hurdle, that obstacle, is going to create two things. Pause, right, and make people actually come together and discuss it. And two, a little bit of time for the president or the secretary of state or the diplomats

for cooler heads to prevail. Yeah. Well, and you're right to do that. You know what, let's just say for the sake of example, never mind that. I'm anti-war.com guy here, but let's say maybe we would need to have a war. Congress still needs to take their responsibility for it, as you said, even if they are going to one where I would prefer to emphasize your points about that'll give them time to cool it off and maybe force them to take responsibility will mean they won't do it then if they'll have to take

responsibility for it but if they do have to do it then they better take responsibility to you know that's a huge point here absolutely and I think that's that's a big portion of our organization is we have a lot of us that are that are adamantly anti-war because once you've seen war you can never truly be pro-war and and then there's a part of part of our organization that is purely constitutional and they say hey you know what we'll fight a war if we need to we're warriors that's our job but let's do it the right way you know if i swear my an oath to defend the constitution then you should use that same constitution to give me the legal authority to go to war kick the crap out of somebody and come back home don't make me stay forever and you know what

i got to be honest too as much as i resented them at the time it was my seventh grade social studies teacher who taught us not just that this was the american system but that they There was a real reason why Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and George Washington and Alexander Hamilton and all of them agreed that the war power should be separate and divided like this. And that the House of Representatives of the people that's accountable to the people every two years for re-election would be the ones to decide whether we get into a war or not. They would be in on it. You could not have a war without them. Correct. Yeah, you're right.

It's the aid or the department of the government that most likely and most eager to go to war is the executive branch. And we all know that. And that's why that power has been taken away for her, has been vested in the people's house. And so, yeah, no, you're absolutely right on that. Yeah. Let me ask you this. What's the 107 club? Yeah.

Yeah. So our organization bring our troops home. We're a nonprofit veterans organization. And we spend a lot of time in the States lobbying. and trying to affect change, right? We have people on the road. We have advocates that we send out. We make phone calls, flyers, mailers.

None of that's cheap, right? So the 10-7 Club is just our supporters club, people that want to donate and help the cause. So it's 10-7-T-E-N-S-E-N-C-Lub.com. And the 10-7 is the date, October 7th, that the United States began our endless and illegal war in Afghanistan. That's the day the first boots hit the ground.

And so we never wanted to forget that date. That was kind of the beginning of the modern veterans fight to return to constitutional principles. So the 10-7 Club, it's a place where people can go. They can sign up for the newsletter there and they can make a monthly contribution as little as $10 or one-time contributions, whatever they feel that they can handle. And we do some fun things there. For all the members, every couple months, we do giveaways.

We've given away some custom-built AR-15s. We're getting ready to give away a concealed carry sidearm. We do some fun things for our members, but most of the money, almost every penny of it, goes to support the Defend the Guard efforts and bring our troops home.us. That's great. And how many members do you have now of your organization, and what percentage of them are actual combat veterans of the wars like yourself?

I don't have a hard number for you, but I think including our followers on social media, our members of the 107, those that subscribe to our newsletters and those that are on our email list, it's over 100,000. And I bet 75% or 80% are global war on terror veterans. Yeah.

Man, doesn't that say something right there? It's a place for veterans to come, man. This is a place for veterans who have seen their friends' lives wasted, for veterans who have come back from their third or fourth deployment, to a broken home or a broken marriage, it's a place for us to come together and say, not again, not again for another generation. You know, World War I veterans,

they did a really good job of coming home and taking care of the World War II veterans, right? They set up things, they set up benefits, they set up, you know, the Smiley Butler led them on their pay strike. You know, they did things to help the next generation of veterans. World War II came home and set some things in place

for the Vietnam veterans, right? The Vietnam veterans came home and, did a good job of starting this peace movement and built up a little bit of an organization for the desert storm veterans. And it's kind of died from that point. And we want to create this legacy for the next generation of veterans

to say that we did something we weren't proud of. We fought an unconstitutional undeclared wars and we don't want anybody ever to have to do that again. Yeah, man. All right. So now if somebody listening to this wanted to join, first of all, they don't have to be a combat vet, right? But secondly, how do they join? Sure. My first thing to do is I would send them to Bring Our Troops Home.U.S. and just sign up for the newsletter. That way you'll start getting our regular emails and things like that. And then go to 107 club.com. Sign up for the 107 club. You don't even have to give a penny. You don't have to do anything. If you just sign up for the 107 club newsletter, you're going to be thrown into a hopper for our regular giveaways, like a range bag and some other stuff. And you'll get messages, emails, social media posts, and things like that.

There's going to come a time where we're going to reach out to you if you have signed up and we're going to ask you to maybe write a letter or make a phone call or testify in a hearing. We're creating this network. But don't let that be a deterrent. We are going to tap you at some point. But join us. Get our regular updates. And as you see fit, you can jump in the fight.

But 107club.com click on the sign up for newsletter. If you want to become a reoccurring donor for $10 a month, you'll automatically be under to win the guns and things like that. but just just get your name in our in our list so you can start getting our regular updates great well as you know man i think this is the most important project in america other than antiwar dot com itself and maybe even including that is bring our troops home dot us defend the guard dot us and 107 club dot com that's all spelled out right yep t-en s e-e-n-c-l-u-b dot com yeah listen it's not just the work you're doing but it's the example that you're setting here that It's so important, Dan, and so the best of luck to you.

And thank you so much for what you're doing here, ma'am. You bet. Thanks. Thanks, Scott. The Scott Horton Show, Anti-War Radio, can be heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. APSRadio.com, anti-war.com, Scotthorton.org, and Libertarian Institute.org.