The Daily Signal - #394: This New Congressman Once Interrogated Saddam Hussein

Episode Date: February 10, 2019

On today's podcast, we’re featuring an exclusive interview with Rep. Mark Green. He’s a freshman Republican from Tennessee who shares his first impressions of Congress and his unique role in the capture of Saddam Hussein (whom Green spent six hours interrogating overnight).Also on today’s show:• Your letters to the editor. Next week your letter could be featured on our show; write us at [e-mail] or call 202-608-6205.• A story about the grandfather of Grace Eline. She’s the 10-year-old brain cancer survivor whom President Donald Trump honored during the State of the Union address. Find out how he is paying back a nonprofit that helped save his granddaughter's life.The Daily Signal podcast is available on the Ricochet Audio Network. You also can listen on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts.If you like what you hear, please leave a review or give us feedback. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, February 11th. I'm Rob Blewey, editor-in-chief. And I'm Rachel Daljudice. Today, we're featuring an exclusive interview with Congressman Mark Green. He's a freshman Republican from Tennessee, and Rachel spoke to him about his first impressions of Congress and his role in the capture of Saddam Hussein. We also have your letters to the editor and a story about the grandfather of Grace E-line.

She's the 10-year-old brain cancer survivor who President Trump honored during the State of the Union address. find out how he is paying back a nonprofit that helps save his granddaughter's life. We're joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Congressman Mark Green, who is elected in November to represent Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me on the show. Glad to be here. So I'd like to start out by talking about your experience in the healthcare industry. Tell us what led you to found three clinics, two free healthcare clinics in Tennessee.

how many patients did you serve with those clinics? And how did all that work starting all that up? Sure. I started my healthcare company, AlineMD, and I wanted to, you know, it was an emergency department, emergency medicine staffing company, management company. And I wanted to make sure that the people that I hired into my company were heart people, you know, people who wanted to serve. So we, we initially wanted the clinic to be an overseas thing where we would have an ER physician work 11 months in one of our ERs and then he would, he or she

would go work in another clinic overseas somewhere. We never really found the right clinic to do that with. So we started, just decided, well, heck, we'll start one right here in our hometown. And we did that at a place called Manna Cafe. And then that was very, successful. We probably gave away, you know, anywhere between $70,000 and $100,000 worth free care a year at that clinic. And so we then opened one in Memphis. And it exploded so much. It's in the, sort of in the, you know, rough, rougher part of town. Some would maybe describe it as the hood. But it was at a Baptist church there. And the demand was so high. and the city kind of came in and said,

we want to help. We closed the clinic down and basically built. I mean, it was in a church. We took their basic, their old school, and they're right now turning it into this massive clinic. So I'm really excited about what the potential of the Memphis Clinic holds. But the company itself was, like I said, an ER staffing company. You know, when I sold the company, we had 52, or when I fully stepped away,

we had 52 hospital contracts, almost 1,000 medical providers. We were in 11 states at that point. So I think I get what's going on in health care. You know, the emergency department is the front line. It's the front door of the hospital now. And so, you know, billing for well over a million and a half patient visits every year that we were seeing those patients. and then billing for services. So I understand both the clinical aspects of health care as a physician and then the business side.

So that's, you know, you ask about my experience and about my clinics. And so that's kind of it. What kind of services as an emergency company did you guys offer? And do you see this as kind of a model that you feel like could be taken to other states for them to use as well? Well, you know, our business in the emergency department was just running emergency department. So we did everything that a patient would, you know, in the ER you see everything. It may be a gunshot wound to the chest, a heart attack, a stroke, or it might be a sore throat. It might be a lesion on the skin that turns out to be cancer.

So the emergency department is, we see everything. I was entering into a very mature market. the emergency department staffing where hospitals outsource their ER management and the staffing of their ERs, emergency departments has been going on for years. I mean, the largest player in the market is Team Health and they're a multi-billion dollar company. So obviously that model is out there and has been out there for some time. What made you decide to become a doctor? My dad almost died and I was actually in command of an infantry company in the 82nd Airborne

Division as an infantry officer and really thought that's all I was ever going to do. I mean I thought I'm going to be a hard charge in infantrymen and command troops and I was in command of the 82nd. Dad almost died. The doctor who saved his life happened to have been an army doctor and he was actually a prior, I think he was a prior field artillery office. So like me, he had been an officer and then, you know, he, he went, the Army sending him to med school. And as I got to know him and hear his story, I was like, oh, my gosh, maybe I could do this too.

And so I asked the Army and they said, if you get accepted, we'll pay your way. And so I started going to night classes because my undergrad degrees in economics, you know, my master's was in information system. So obviously it was sort of a surprise to do this. I volunteered for recruiting command, which would allow me to do night classes that you don't deploy when you're in recruiting command. And I remember going to, you know, working all day recruiting for the Army and then going to school until 10 or 11 o'clock every night. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. So you were, you're studying to become a doctor while you were serving in the military. Yeah, absolutely. I had to do all my medical school prerex. And so I did those. And then,

You know, finally got accepted and the Army gave me the scholarship to go. They paid my way and did my ER residency down at Fort Hood, Texas, which was a great place to train. Best ER residency program in the country as far as I'm concerned. And then, of course, the war broke out and I had to pay back my scholarship. And here I am a newly minted ER dock. We're at war. So I get this phone call from U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and they're basically, are you that X Army Ranger now in ER Doc? Yes, that's me. Okay, you're coming to the dark side of the force.

And that's how I wound up, you know, in special operations. So. Wow. As a doctor and as a cancer survivor, too, what do you think about all the enthusiasm we're seeing on the left for Medicare for All? and do you think that is a solution? No, Medicare for all. One, it's too expensive. If you look at the healthcare systems that are sort of universal type care, like the VA, and you can look at some of the systems outside the country

in Canada and places like that, you know, the government or the, they wind up having to ration care somehow. And, you know, whenever the government is the one making those decisions, it usually isn't best for the patient. It needs to be the patient and the doctor making those kinds of decisions. The cost estimates are $32.6 trillion. So we don't have, we just don't simply don't have that money. And then if you look at quality, you know, it just never, it never works in those kinds of systems. For example, prostate cancer mortality in England is significant.

significantly higher than in the United States because we detect earlier because we don't ration care the way they do, because we don't have a universal payer. So, you know, that's the issue of quality. The whole, you know, Medicare for all thing will also, as Senator Harris said the other day, it will destroy the insurance market. And what happens for the insurance market is it gives the middle class an opportunity to have Cadillac type care because there's, spreading risk. And so the insurance system provides that opportunity to get better quality care. So I think it's a bad decision for many reasons to go to a universal health care system in America. What would you say are some of the things that can be done to improve health care in this country? Well, the most important thing is that we reinsert a free market into health care.

And people often make the argument, well, you know, it's health care. You can't have a free market. Well, LASIC eye surgery, it seems to work pretty well. There's no third-party payer paying for LASIC eye surgery. It's a pure market-driven thing. And the price over the past several years has significantly decreased while technology has gone through the roof. So we've improved, we've had improvements in technology. We've had a significant decrease in price. And the ophthalmologists at the market price are doing just fine. So if we can get that in the rest of health care, and we're going to, one, decrease cost, but two, it'll also, you know, add quality or keep quality at least the same. So you've been in Congress for just about a month now,

maybe just a little bit over. Could you share with our listeners your path to Congress? Well, my path to Congress, I guess, really began when I ran for the state Senate and did that job. And serving there for the past six years, I've had a blast of, I feel like I was a pretty good legislator and served my constituents well. The opportunity came available when Bob Corker decided he was not running for re-election. Marsha Blackburn decided she was running, which opened up my seat. And, you know, I jumped into the breach, so to speak. I love the country. You know, what really works for me is, and made me serve in the first place was I love our country. And I love Tennessee, and I've always lived a life of service. At 17, I took the oath, you know, to serve

the country on the plane at West Point. And it's interesting, the oath that I took for this office, January 3rd, is the same exact oath. Kind of, kind of cool. But only six years of my life have I not been in some form of service either in the military or in government. So it's just my heart and it's always been there. It's just finding the right spot to do it. Well, thank you so much for your service. How would you say that your service in the military has shaped the way you think about the United States position on the global stage national security stuff that you've seen happen? How has your experience influenced that? Well, you know, I can give you some examples. When it comes to making healthcare decisions, I've been on both sides of the stethoscope. You may

mentioned that I was a cancer survivor. So I've been a physician and I've been a patient and I've also been the guy running the business of health care. And I bring that experience to the discussion of health care in America. And of course, you know, many trips to combat overseas being an officer in the military, you're constantly learning about and studying history. You're looking at, you know, national defense. You're looking at international relations, the world order, obviously the huge disruptions in the world order over the past 20, 25 years, with the emergence of non-state actors and how they're impacting the United States and the security of the United States, I've been an integral part of that. I mean, so, I mean, I've looked

to terrorists in the face. I've pulled them into a helicopter after they've been captured and flown them somewhere and given them medical care. So I think I have a perspective on terrorism, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, insurgency, and also the big things like Russia and China. You know, clearly there are near peers in some areas now. Sequestration and the last administration really hurt the military. And in that instability, it created opportunities for those two countries to actually become near peers in some areas. So when you think of international relations, I kind of look at it and what are the threats to America's sovereignty?

And then what are the threats to stability? And then what are the threats to the safety of Americans? So the threats to sovereignty are China and Russia and countries like that. The threats to stability are Iran, North Korea. the threats to safety are, you know, ISIS, al-Qaeda, those guys. And if we approach national security from those sort of classifications, one, we can structure the military to handle all of those. Two, we can, you know, develop our alliances such that we're able to leverage those relationships

for our own security and stability and safety. So that's kind of the way I look at it. And I got that from years of, you know, being an officer in the Army and deploying to combat. We'll be right back with the second half of our interview with Congressman Mark Green. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? Then subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a podcast breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. You mentioned having, you know, you looked to her in the eye right after they were captured. One of the missions you participated in was the capture.

of Saddam Hussein, were you interviewed, I believe, Saddam for six hours the night of his capture. Bring us to that experience. What was that like? Yeah, that was amazing, you know. And it's interesting, I did a lot of missions where we thought we had him and we didn't. And of course, you build up this expectation that the mission isn't going to be successful. You know, you always hope that it will be, but okay, you're on your feet.

50th similar mission. But about three weeks before we actually caught him, the operational tempo began to really pick up. And we were getting what we called enablers who were much closer to Saddam. So we began to think, okay, maybe we're going to get this guy. And the whole emotional intensity level in the task force that was searching for him really began to heighten. And it began capturing his, we captured what we thought was his girlfriend. And then I believe it was a, we called it, or called the guy, his secretary. And then his personal physician. And those three missions happened all over the course of just a few weeks as I'm recalling.

And then, of course, we got Saddam. And, you know, going on the mission was unbelievable. Anytime you climb into a special operations helicopter with a bunch of tier one. and, you know, special operators, it's a rush to say the least, right? And then to be in the helicopter, listening to them, describe how they're going over the target, and they have a special way to do that and code words that they use and things like this. And so I'm listening to it over the satellite radio as I sit waiting for a casualty, because I'm the dock that would cover the target.

We were sitting waiting on, you know, in the event that anybody got hurt. and we're listening and we're listening. And then suddenly you hear one of the operators come on and say, you know, we've got jackpot. And the task force commander, who I believe was Admiral McCraven, came on the line and said, do you have big jackpot or do you have little jackpot? Because supposedly he had a cook on that target as well. People asked me about the cook. I'd say, well, I think it was like cup bearer to the king, you know, the guy who tasted his food.

prior. But anyway, so the question was, do you have the big jackpot or a little jackpot? And the operator, you know, very excitedly says, we got big jackpot. We got him. And, you know, I'm in the back of a helicopter, fully kidded up, body armor, you know, weapon, you know, equipment, night vision goggles, flight helm and everything. And we're doing high fives in the back of this helicopter because it was just, I mean, I just took part of a mission to capture a totalitarian dictator. I mean, people went, and the Pats won the Super Bowl this year, right? Somebody's going to win it next year. We're not capturing another totalitarian dictator next year, I don't think.

You know, in history, what have we caught? Maybe you could argue Manuel Noriega. Certainly, Sonam Hussein was that guy. And then that night, I'm back there cleaning my gear, thinking, well, I'm going to go take a look at him, and I go over to the detention facility, and the doctor who had done his initial physical was gone. And McCraven comes out and says, hey, Mark, we, you stay with this guy.

And I'm like, wait, you want me to stay the first night with Saddam Hussein? Yes, sir. And saluted and went in the room and spent the first night with Saddam Hussein. It was kind of cool because he was very talkative. And we just chatted for about six hours. Wow. Thank you for that vivid description. What was it like to be six hours in a room with someone that the president and others

have been trying to capture for years? I mean, what was that like? Well, I mean, just imagine the emotion of winning a Super Bowl, right? So you've seen those guys on the TV the other night. They're weeping and hugging and the intensity of that emotion. I was a part of an elite team who had trained all of our lives. And we did something in history that's, I mean, almost not ever been done. You know, Noriega had, you know, didn't hold a candle to Saddam Hussein.

So here I mean, I'm elated. I'm on cloud nine. And I'm sitting there looking at him, try to sleep. And then, of course, he sits up and starts talking to me. And I mean, it was just, it was amazing. And he, of course, was very charming, which is, you know, what I would anticipate. You know, anyone who has a cult of personality, which he did. Of course, he was a, a murderous dictator too. But, I mean, obviously, you don't rise in the ranks to become Saddam Hussein without some ability. to have a cult of personality. And he was charming. What a story. Thank you for sharing.

What do you see going into your role here in Congress as the role of conservative lawmakers in the House over the next two years with Democrats controlling the chamber? Sure. Well, we have to show America who Democrats are. I think that's probably our greatest mission right now. Of course, standing up for smaller government, fighting for the things that we believe in is conservative.

We're never going to stop doing that. We're going to fight for life. We're going to fight for small government. We're going to fight for less taxes, preserving the tax cut. We'll probably be fighting against a party that, you know, is really posturing for 2020 more than they are anything else. So the investigations on the president that were announced today are, you know, I mean, that that will be something. But I think our, really our goal is to just show America who the Democrat Party is. So when you have the president of the United States saying that we have the

lowest unemployment in the history of America for Latinos and African Americans and women, and they can't even applaud that, that kind of says something about them, I think. when you have a governor of a party, that's a pretty senior leader in a party who talks about delivering a child and then making the decision whether to let it live or not, well, that, and he hasn't been called out on that.

No one has vilified him from his party for that. We're talking infanticide. That's who the Democrat Party is. America, this is who the Democrat, party is. And so I think that's a critical mission of all of ours over the next several months. Because when you have divided house, it's going to be hard to get things done. You know, I've got a bill for the Coast Guard. Hopefully they'll, you know, care enough about our Coast Guard gold star families to pass this bill. But, you know, expectations are pretty low. We're going to try really

hard, but we have got to show America who they are, and then we've got to win the House back. Coming from Tennessee, it's not a border state, but one of the priorities of President Trump has been border security and building a barrier. What do you see, I mean, even as a physician or just as a lawmaker, as why that should be a priority for lawmakers? Well, you know, it's, I happen to view it as a crisis. Some people maybe don't, but my Uber driver today certainly didn't. We had a conversation about it, but I think it's a crisis. When I see and hear 300 Americans a week dying from heroin addiction or heroin overdose,

and 90% of the heroin is coming across the southern border, I think, well, 300 Americans dying a day, that sounds like a crisis to me. when I hear of families, you know, the murders, and when I hear of, you know, just horrific what's happening to women. I mean, a nonpartisan organization said 31% of the women who make the track north through Central America to come to our border are being raped. 31%. These are the guys, the Democrat Party, they were a few years ago saying,

we Republicans had a war on women. We're the ones standing up for these women. Where are they? They certainly don't care enough to decrease the incentive that causes them to trek across those countries and put themselves at risk. We are, again, defining who the Republican and who the Democrat parties are.

But I think it's a crisis for a lot of different reasons, and I think we should do everything we can to make sure that the border is secured. So you used to be a state lawmaker in Tennessee. How would you say that's different now that you're working in Washington versus the Tennessee state legislature? Well, obviously the issues are different, you know, the stuff that we're talking about. But at the same time, it's a legislative process.

So, you know, I have to go and do a whip count on my bill and make sure I've got enough supporters and get co-sponsors and all this those the mechanics of that is not different perhaps for me the biggest difference is just the fact that I'm in a minority I went from in Tennessee being in a super majority we didn't even need the Democrats to show up to have a quorum in the Senate there in Tennessee they could actually hold their caucus meetings in a shone's booth and boy wouldn't America work if we could get back to that up here but um that is side. Here I'm in the minority, and it's a body of 435 versus 33. So those are the two biggest difference, the size and then the fact that I'm in the minority. Well, I'd like to end with a lightning

round of just fun questions. Do you have a favorite book? My favorite book, other than the Bible, would be 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John Maxwell. And what about a favorite hero or leader? I guess, obviously, you know, for me, Ronald Reagan, maybe Winston Churchill. We talked about the Super Bowl. Do you have a favorite sport and or sports team? When I watch sports, it's usually college football. I love college football. And clearly, I'm in, you know, Tennessee. So I'm a VAL fan. Favorite TV show and favorite movie? My favorite TV show is a series. and it's Game of Thrones.

I'm a Game of Thrones person. Go John Snow. Do you have a favorite tie? A favorite tie? Yes, I have a favorite tie. It's red and blue striped and yeah. Very patriotic. Very patriotic.

And what about your hobbies? Are there a few that you particularly like to work in? Yeah, I'm an outdoorsman. I think it comes from growing up in the country in South Mississippi and then being in the military, being an infantry officer. I love fly fishing and hunting. I don't big game hunt. I bird hunt, but I love to duck hunt and upland bird hunt and then I love to flyfish. Fly fishing is really my passion. Well, Congressman Green, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. Yeah, thanks for having me. I had fun. Thank you.

Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? I'm Rob Bluey, editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal. and I'm inviting you to share your thoughts with us. Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at dailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature some of our favorites, both on this show and in our Morning Bell email newsletter.

Rachel, what do we have? William Downey wrote to us about a commentary from the Daily Signals, Jared Stepman, on the Green New Deal. It's the new proposal Democrats officially unveiled last week. Dear Daily Signal, those congressmen who support the craziness described in Jared Stepman's commentary obviously have not paid attention to their civics and government or economics classes. They have no idea how this country has developed from colonies to the world's great economic

and freedom engine that inspires people to want to migrate here. Do they have any idea what goes on in Venezuela? Part of the problem in the U.S. is that those who flirt with socialism have lacked the education in civics and government and economics that we have had prior to our alliance on standardized test scores and the result that we now have to teach the test. My personal mantra is, if you don't like our economic and political system, get out of the country and move to a socialist one. And Mary Jo Schumberg writes about last week's interview with Black Lives Matter leader Hawk Newsom. She says, this is a wonderful interview, so helpful to see how this man thinks instead of all the stereotypes we see in mainstream news and blogs on both sides. We need more understanding of our common humanity. Please do more of these interviews.

They will help heal the division and save our beloved nation. Well, thank you, Mary Jo. That's one of the reasons we wanted to talk to Hawk and why we plan to do more like it. Well, your letter could be featured on next week's show. send an email to letters at daily signal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Do you own an Alexa? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily flash briefing. It's easy to do. Just open up your Alexa app, go to settings, and select Flash Briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signal podcast and add it to your Flash briefing

so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't. covering. We're joined in our studio today by Michaela Stedman to talk about some uplifting news this week. Michaela, what have you found? Thanks, Rob. Many of you who watched or listened to President Trump's State of the Union address this Tuesday heard him introduce Grace Eline, a 10-year-old brain cancer survivor.

Every birthday since she was four, Grace asked her friends to donate to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. She did not know that one day she might be a patient herself. That's what happened. Last year, Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer. Immediately she began radiation treatment. As Grace bought her cancer, she received a lot of assistance from the Valerie Fund, which is a nonprofit organization that offers support to children and their families during their battles with cancer or blood disorders.

We are insanely thankful for the Valerie Fund. She has beaten a brain tumor, which is not something most people can say. But there's even more to this story. Grace's grandfather and best friend, Dan Reichert, could not contain his gratitude for the Valerie Fund. So he decided to turn the mansion he was planning to flip into a designer showhouse to raise money. I have to give back. I have to pay back something for them doing that for my granddaughter.

Local designers who donated to Reichert's cause were given a room to renovate. The 7,000 square foot home, which is called Grace's House, will go on display starting in April. Any proceeds will go directly to the Valerie Fund. Thanks so much, Michaela. What an inspiring story. It was great to see that little girl at the State of the Union address. I agree. And beautiful to see how our grandfather's giving back.

We're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast is broadcast from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurkishay Audio Network along with our other podcasts. All of our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review or give us feedback. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to others.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Daily Signal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News. The Daily Signal podcast will be back tomorrow with Kate and Daniel. Have a great week. You've been listening to The Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com. Americans have almost entirely forgotten their history. That's right, and if we want to keep our republic, this needs to change.

I'm Jared Stepman. And I'm Fred Lucas. We host the Right Side of History, a podcast dedicated to restoring informed patriot and busting the negative narratives about America's past. Hollywood, the media, and academia have failed a generation. We're here to set the record straight on the ideals and people who've made this country great. Subscribe to the right side of history on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Stitcher Today.