The Daily Signal - #528: Baltimore's Streets Are Cleaner Because of This Conservative Activist

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

On today's episode of The Daily Signal Podcast, we talk with conservative activist Scott Presler about his recent work to cleanup the city of Baltimore.When President Trump tweeted that Baltimore was “a disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess,” Americans erupted with the usual torrent of opinions. Presler, however, was determined to do something about it. He organized a cleanup day in the city to pickup trash. It went so well that he has scheduled another one for Sept. 9. Also on today's episode, we look ahead to next year’s elections and something few are talking about today: the integrity of America’s system of voting. Unfortunately, there are no shortage of challenges. Heritage Foundation legal expert Hans von Spakovsky speaks to why it’s so important to stop the Left from corrupting America’s electoral integrity. We also read your letters to the editor, and share a good news story about one little boy’s love of the American flag. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. All of our podcasts can be found at dailysignal.com/podcasts.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, August 19th. I'm Robert Blewe. And I'm Virginia Allen. Today we are talking with conservative activist Scott Pressler, who launched a number of cleanup days in Baltimore after President Trump called the city a disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess. We also share Hans von Spakovsky's commentary on election integrity, and we will read your letters to the editor, plus a good news story about one little boy's love of the American flag. Before we get to today's show, Rob and I wanted to tell you about one of our favorite Heritage Foundation resources, called The Agenda. You bet, Virginia. That is a weekly email that breaks down the top issues that conservatives need to know about each week. It's the call the agenda because it's the agenda that we think they should be focused on. You can sign up on heritage.org. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the subscribe to email updates.

Just enter your email address and you'll be all set. You'll be able to get the latest news from the Heritage Foundation plus our experts' television interviews and the important events that are happening in Washington. We encourage you to sign up today. Stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. I am joined on the Daily Signal podcast by conservative activist Scott Pressler, who, after President Trump's tweets about Baltimore's critical condition, launched a number of cleanup days to better the city of Baltimore. Scott, thanks for joining me. Thank you. I'm a big fan of the Heritage Foundation, so glad to be here with you, Virginia.

Oh, that's great. Well, three weeks ago, President Trump took to Twitter to highlight the gravity of the situation in Baltimore. The city has one of the highest crime rates in America and is struggling economically. And you responded to the president's tweets, not with words, but with actions. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about the work that you have done in Baltimore over the the past few weeks? Sure. So, yeah, President Trump, I'm thankful that he brought national attention and discussion to Baltimore.

You know, we live in the greatest country in the world, but we have to be pragmatic and we can't look at the world through rose-colored glasses. We have to say, okay, cities like Baltimore do need love and attention. So after President Trump tweeted about Baltimore, everybody was doing a whole bunch of talking and nobody was doing. So I was fed up, and I said, Virginia, I tweeted out on social media. I didn't realize what I was doing at the time. But I tweeted out, I'm going to go to Baltimore, even if it's just me standing on a street corner alone,

picking up trash. And I had not known that I unleashed the floodgates at that moment. And people all across the country were saying, God, what can I do? How can I contribute? How can I be a part of cleaning up Baltimore? So within six days, literally, less than a week, I organized over 170 volunteers from all across the country, including West Baltimore, to go out on Monday. And we picked up 12 tons of trash in 12 hours in West Baltimore. Wow.

That is absolutely incredible. What was people's response as, you know, you were walking around their communities picking up trash? Oh, gosh, it was incredible. Within five minutes, I'm telling you, we're still sitting up the darn canopy to have all of our, you know, water station and people sign in. And this woman comes over, Lisa, with her chihuahua, because she was dog sitting. And she said, what are you guys doing? I said, well, Miss Lisa, we're out here. We're going to pick up trash for the next 12 hours. And she was blown away. She says, after I'm done dog sitting, I'm going to come back. And she did. And we not only spoke to Ms. Lisa. We spoke to Grace, who told us about the problems in her area. We spoke to Louise, an 81-year-old, 4-10 residents, and so it was pretty funny having her stay next to me because I'm 6'5. And then we talked to Ms. Dupree and Mr. Lawrence. The entire community came over to talk to us. And in that moment, we were a family.

They wanted help, and we were there to help them. and it was a good bonding community experience. Wow, that is so powerful. And I think it's encouraging that you are boots on the ground actually talking with the local people there. As you had those interactions, what are the residents of Baltimore concerned about? What is on their hearts and minds right now? Well, for one of the women I talked to who's the grandmother, a big concern for her is the, the hazardous building materials, the dilapidated abandoned buildings, the fact that there was a dead rat

right outside of her home in her backyard. And there are needles, there are drug dealers, there's violence. And she said, my grandchildren can't play safely out here. So every resident has their own angle. But for that grandmother, it was her grandbaby. For 81-year-old Louise, it was the fact that all of this jungle and all of the overgrowth is growing into the property, growing into the foundation. For Ms. Grace, same thing with her. Roots were growing into the foundation, causing a water leak onto her property due to negligence. For Mr. Lawrence, he wants somebody to clean up the alley, which we did. So every resident has their own problem. But one of the biggest things that I've heard is that people don't feel safe with the violence.

They don't feel safe with the gangbangers. And it was just fascinating to hear from Ms. Louise that I was there, but Mr. Cummings, Representative Cummings, who has been in the office for decades, she says that he has never, ever once been to her neighborhood. Never has she seen him before. So this was an opportunity for, instead of talking, we came in to listen. We came in, we shut our lips, and we wanted to listen to the. residents of truly how we could affect change.

And now, you know, the response from this has been that so many people in other cities are reaching out to you and saying, hey, come, come organize a cleanup day in my city. Where are you headed next? And if people, if our listeners want to join you in those cities, how can they do that? Oh, it's been incredible. Again, I didn't realize what I have done because people all across the country want to to help. And I'm like, finally, finally, Virginia,

people aren't going to sit at home and complain, but they're going to do something. So I'm working with a gentleman named Darius who lives in Newark, New Jersey. And on Sunday, August 25th, he's going to go out in his local community and pick up trash.

And I'm working with Tyler and Anthony in Los Angeles, California, who are organizing a trash pickup day. And actually, today, after I'm done with this radio show and the second one right after, I'm traveling back to Baltimore from D.C. when I just got in from Iowa today to go organize our second Baltimore cleanup.

Yes, you heard that right, Baltimore, son. We are coming back even after this staving article that you wrote about us, picking up trash. And I'm here to say that we are uninimitated and we're going to go back because it's the right thing to do. and I made a promise to Miss Louise, that 81-year-old, and I'm going to come back specifically and say hi to her and help her fix her problems.

But if people want to get involved, you can go to Scottpressler.org. Scottpressler.org, there's only one S in Pressler, or you can visit me on Twitter. Even though I have 329,000 followers, my DMs, my direct messages are open, and I do take time to read as many messages as possible. So shoot me a message. If you would like to start a trash clean up, let's see what we can do.

I'm already traveling all over the country teaching voter registration, but I guess I'm going to add professional trash picker-upper to my resume as well. Oh, that's great. So exciting. Now, Scott, I want to shift gears for a second and ask you a little bit about your journey to conservatism. What caused you to embrace conservative principles and ideas? Well, I've always been a conservative. leaning. My dad is a retired Navy captain, so he instilled in me values like responsibility, accountability for my actions. And I am very proud to be an Eagle Scout. So I've lived a

life of service to my community and giving back. And my Eagle Scout project was even gathering thousands of non-perishable food items for charity and for a lot of, local food bank. So my dad and my family and my experience being an Eagle Scout, I think, has taught me conservative principles because that's what we're about. We are about service, we're about giving back, we're about love of community. And I have to say it was President Obama. You inspired me, sir, to become a community organizer, but not on the left, on the right side. I created my Twitter account the very day that night that he was reelected as president in 2012, because very much like the Baltimore cleanup, I told myself, Scott, you can sit at home,

you can complain, you can whine, you can sit on the couch, you can be an armchair Facebook warrior, or you can do something. And so I did. I actually started volunteering for Ken Cuchnelli for governor of Virginia in 2013, who's now, it's kind of weird to see him be a part of the Trump administration and he's doing a great job, you know, to see my life go full circle. And in 2014, I told myself, Scott, you're going to get a job in politics. So I did. Scott, I want to ask you a little bit more. As you mentioned, you now travel all over the country talking with groups of people about voter registration. How exactly did you get started doing that? gosh, it just came to me.

Like everything else, it's just, I guess, it's divine inspiration. You know, because six months ago, I was thinking, gosh, what am I going to do? You know, I'm completely independent. I'm jobless right now. And I just decided, you know what, I'm going to take my destiny into my own hand. I'm going to create a voter registration guide because I see nobody else in the country talking about voter registration. And I'm just going to start telling people about how important. it is. And so I went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, did my first training, went to Connecticut,

and did my second training, went to Raleigh, North Carolina, did my third. And after North Carolina, that's when it really started to spiral. Because every training I was doing, I was getting more and more people. And I think people were saying, wow, I think Scott Ressler's onto something, and look at the crowds that he's bringing out. And so I've been to, in the past five months, 15 different cities. And the majority of them in Florida, I've been to Deltona, West Palm Beach, Miami, Dural, Tampa, Sarasota. I've just been all over the state of Florida. I was just in Redding, Pennsylvania. Yesterday, I was in Iowa. This Saturday, I'm going to Ohio. Then I'm going to Memphis, Tennessee, Virginia Beach, Virginia, National Tennessee, going to St. Louis, Missouri, Hawaii, New Hampshire. I basically am spending the next year of my life helping to register new voters because I know how critical it is. So basically I'm trying to tell you, Virginia, that I used to be a very unbusy man, and now I've got no time and I don't know what to do with myself, which is a good thing. That is a good thing.

And Scott, as you are traveling the country and speaking with Americans about the state of our nation, what are some of the consistencies that you see people are talking about and really concerned about? I think people are very worried about our immigration system right now. People are very worried and concerned about, you know, a big thing that hit me. And just a year ago, she was murdered, Molly Tippett. You know, many of our American children are unfortunately suffering the results of legal immigration, and some of them have been killed by illegal aliens. and that is a very big concern for people. We have a booming economy right now, thanks to President Trump,

and people want to keep those jobs. They want to be able to support their families, put food on the table. I just spoke with the farming community in Iowa. They're very concerned about the negative detrimental effects of a possible Green New Deal, which would kill jobs across Iowa and the heartland of our country. And I think those are three of the biggest issues, immigration, jobs, and protecting capitalism and not making these socialist policies like the Green New Deal kill jobs. I think those are three of the most important issues that people brought up while I travel.

Yeah, well, Scott, we want to thank you for your work not just in Baltimore, but all over the country, encouraging Americans to not just talk, but to take action. Well, how can our listeners keep up with what you're doing? Well, the biggest thing is the best part about my life is my life is an open book. So literally, everything I do is on social media. So if you want to find out what Scott Pressler's up to today, then please go to my Twitter, Scott Pressler, 1S, or my Facebook, also Scott Pressler, or my Instagram, Scott Pressler.

You kind of see a theme going on here. And if you would like to contribute to support the work that I do, please go to Scottpressler.org. And the main thing that I want to encourage to people is with all of this negativity and this kind of cloud of despair that's surrounding politics right now, the only thing I ask of people is stay positive. And despite everything, stay encouraging, motivating, exciting, inspirational, motivational. Those are all the things that I want you to think of. keep your chin up and like Virginia just said, take action where others are only going to talk cheaply. I want you to actually put your words into actions and to do something to be a change and make the world a better place. That's it. That's great. Well, Scott, thank you so much for

joining the Daily Signal podcast. Absolutely. Any time, Virginia, a big fan of the Heritage Foundation, and whatever I can do. And thank you for this opportunity. Of course. Tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger government, become a part of the Heritage Foundation. We're fighting the rising tide of homegrown socialism while developing conservative solutions that make families more free and more prosperous.

Find out more at heritage.org. As we look ahead to next year's elections or even this year's state races, America's system of government depends upon the integrity of fair elections. Unfortunately, there are no shortage of challenges. Today, we'll hear from Heritage Foundation legal expert Hans von Spakovsky on why it is so important to stop the left from corrupting America's electoral integrity. In the freest nation in the world, our system of government and our very liberty depend on free and fair elections. Whether they're selecting a mayor or the president of the United States, every American must be able to trust the process or the democratic system itself breaks down. When someone commits

voter fraud, the process is no longer fair. Everyone's vote gets diluted and in some cases, election results are changed. Contrary to the claims of many on the left, voter fraud is a very real problem. As the Supreme Court noted when it upheld Indiana's voter ID law, flagrant examples of voter fraud have been documented throughout this nation's history. The National Commission on Federal Election Reform has said that in many close elections, fraud can absolutely change the outcome. Cases of local elections getting overturned because of fraud have occurred in New Jersey, Indiana, and many other states. Although the Heritage Foundation's voter fraud database has detailed cases of hundreds of people who've been convicted in recent years, the fact is

voter fraud often goes undetected. And even when it's discovered, overburdened prosecutors rarely prioritize these cases. Fraudsters can steal votes and change election outcomes in several ways, including voting in someone else's name, registering in multiple locations to vote multiple times in the same election, voting even though they're not eligible because they're felons or their non-citizens, or paying or intimidating people to vote for certain candidates. Unfortunately, many on the left are attempting to make election fraud easier by fighting laws that require an ID to vote.

They've pushed to get non-citizens and jailed inmates to vote, and they've sued states that have tried to purge their voter rolls of people registered in multiple states. How can we fix the problem? Well, since states control much of the electoral process, they must put. pass laws requiring government-issued IDs to vote. That ensures people aren't stealing others' identities and their right to vote. States also should join voter registration cross-check programs to identify voters registered in multiple places. One cross-check program has identified hundreds of thousands of potential duplicate registrations across 30 states as well as evidence

of illegal double voting. States should also compare voter roles with government records to identify convicted felons and non-citizens who should be removed from the roles. And the federal government should cooperate with these efforts and make Department of Homeland Security and other databases available to state officials. Preserving this great experiment that is America depends on having free and fair elections where all Americans can trust the process and the results. Something as critical as election integrity can't be left to a simple honor system. the most important roles of government is to safeguard the electoral process and ensure that

every voter's right to cast a ballot is protected. That not only protects our right to vote, that's how we protect the future of our very republic. 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 patriotism 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 ideas and people who've made this country great. Subscribe to the right side of history on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Stitcher Today.

Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in our morning bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Amy Swearer's piece, Gunn's saved these. Americans from assault and robbery in July, Thomas writes, applying the same logic to all parts of our life would have us not just banning guns, but heaters, automobiles, cell phones, etc. I would buy into the gun control debate if the folks who want to disarm everyone could answer one question. Why were there no school shootings or mass shootings back in the 1920s and

30s when a fully automatic gun could be mail ordered with no background check, no age limit, and no carry permits. The availability of guns since 1938 has only lessened, while terrible crimes have increased. Our society has changed. This kind of thing will not cease unless we fix society. And Tom writes, I got my concealed weapon permit in November 1999 and never leave my house without being armed. I have been exceedingly lucky to never have needed to pull my weapon, and that is exactly the way I want it. But I feel safe, and that is also the way I like it. I think everyone should

feel safe on our streets. If I am ever in a situation with an active shooter, I want to at least go down trying to save myself and others around me. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. Send an email to letters at dailysignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608. 6205. What the heck is trickle-down economics? Does the military really need a space force? What is the meaning of American exceptionalism? I'm Michelle Cordero.

I'm Tim Desher. And every week on the Heritage Explains podcast, we break down a hot-button policy issue in the news at a 101 level. Through an entertaining mix of personal stories, media clips, music, and interviews, we help you actually understand the issues. So do this. Subscribe to Heritage Explains on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast today.

We enjoy bringing you a good news story every Monday morning to start your week off right. Virginia, over to you. Thanks, Rob. Many of us probably remember a time when we were captivated by the American flag flapping in the wind. And for six-year-old Finn Daily, this is his favorite site. Finn has Down syndrome and is autistic. And there is something about the flag that has captured. his little imagination completely.

His mom says he could sit and watch our nation's great flag for hours. I think it's the movement. If it's moving, if the wind is blowing, he would sit there for an hour and just watch the flag go back and forth, which is kind of the beauty of Finn, too.

Finn often goes on walks with his parents through the tree-lined streets of his neighborhood in West Hartford, Connecticut. One of his neighbors has an American flag hanging from the tree on the edge of his property. The neighbor noticed that Finn always stops and stares at the flag, often for quite some time. So he decided to build a special little bench just for Finn to sit and enjoy our nation's great symbol of freedom for as long as he wanted. It's such a small gesture, but it's just things like this really restore your faith in humanity.

Like there's still good people out there that want to do kind things for no other reason but just to be kind. Finn certainly serves as a great reminder to us that once in a while we need to slow down and take a long, hard look at the American flag and remember what it stands for and how blessed we are to be free. That is such a great story, Virginia. Thank you for sharing it. You know, we just replaced the American flag at our house. It had become quite tattered over the last couple of years. And, you know, seeing that the bright red, white and blue flying is so refreshing every day when, I'm leaving the house or coming back. So encourage Americans to share stories like this with us at The Daily Signal. You can send us a letter or, you know, leave us a comment on that phone line. It's a great reminder of our great country. It really is.

Thanks for sharing that, Rob. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All of our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, 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 and a five-star rating.

It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Daily Signal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is executive produced by Rob Bluey and Virginia Allen. Sound design by Lauren Evans and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.