The Daily Signal - Tim Murtaugh Explains How Press Corps Is Going Easy on Biden

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

President Joe Biden waited longer to hold his first press conference than any other president in the past 100 year. After waiting 64 days, the media had a chance on March 25 to ask the president about his agenda. Tim Murtaugh, communications director for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, was disappointed by what he saw.  “I would give Biden probably about a 'C' on that press conference for truthfulness [and] for how long it took. And the press corps, I would say I would give a lower grade than that,” said Murtaugh, now a Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and Daily Signal contributor. The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.  Murtaugh joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the media’s coverage of Biden, the border crisis, Georgia’s new election-integrity law, and more. Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and share a "Good News Story" about a former Heritage Foundation intern who started a nonprofit organization to clean up communities in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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, April 19th. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, Rob talks with Tim Murta, the former communications director for President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, and now a Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and Daily Signal contributor. They discuss the media's coverage of President Biden, the border crisis, and more. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a former Heritage Foundation intern who started a non-prime. profit to clean up communities in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to tell you about an easy and entertaining way to keep up with the news every day. The Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels offer interviews with policy experts on the most critical issues and debates America is

facing today, as well as short explainer videos that break down complex issues and documentaries that dive deep into the way's policy actually impacts people. Go ahead and subscribe to both the Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels today. You can search for either on your YouTube app or visit YouTube.com and search for the Heritage Foundation and the Daily Signal. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Tim Murtaugh, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and contributor to the Daily Signal. Tim, welcome back. Happy to be with you again, Rob.

There is so much for us to cover since we spoke last month. that you have been particularly busy writing about the Biden administration's approach to China, Georgia's election reforms, and the media's full-scale embrace of President Biden. But before we get to some of those, I wanted to get started by asking you about President Biden's first press conference. So this took place on March 25th. They took them 64 days, which seemed like an extraordinarily long time, at least compared to President Trump and his media availability. And I wanted to ask you as somebody who has observed the media throughout your career, a former member of the press core, how would you grade the press on their questions of President Biden

during this first press conference and any notable differences between Biden and perhaps some of his predecessors? Well, I mean, I think you'd be forgiven if you had expected the press corps to actually show up with an apple for teacher, right? I mean, I think they were gleeful to have President Biden. in front of them. And you noted it was 64 days into his administration when he had his first press conference. That's longer than any other president in the last 100 years to have his first press conference. So it was notable for how long it took. But honestly, if you watched that

press conference, you wonder what he was waiting for because it was really a great reception from the press corps. They were very friendly. One reporter even referred to him in framing her question, called him a moral decent man, right? And that's, you know, you heard during the Trump years, the press corps were always talking about, you know, speaking truth to power, right, and holding the powerful accountable. And here you have somebody loading up the question by praising the president as a moral and decent man. There's a real adversarial press court right there. And I would note that President Biden took no questions from Peter Ducey of Fox, who is, one of one of the reporters who will always ask pointed questions and try to get to an important issue and try to drill down on the truth.

And the fact is, I don't think that Joe Biden was particularly truthful during that press conference. And especially on issues that involved the immigration crisis at the border. He said that nothing has changed on the border since he became president. And he wanted to go back and talk about how this migrant arrivals at the border always goes in cycles. And to some extent, he's right. It does go in cycles. But what we're seeing now at the border is so far out of line with what has happened in years past that to say that nothing has changed is, frankly, untrue.

He also claimed that his administration has been sending back the vast majority of families who arrive at the border. And that's not true because less than half of families who arrived in February were sent back. So that's clearly not the vast majority. He downplayed the number of minor children who are arriving. He said it's been, you know, around a 28 to 31 percent increase, which he claimed was right in line with past years. But it was actually 63 percent up from January to February. That's the highest levels in 20 years.

So for him to say that there's nothing really here out of the ordinary is, you know, really way off base. He also managed to slip in a couple of exaggerations and untruths. about the Georgia election law. He said, again, this is something that he had said a number of times that the polls in Georgia will close at 5 p.m. now under this law, which is not true. Poles can still stay open until 7 p.m. in Georgia. And he repeated this really greatly misleading aspect of the Georgia law by saying that it's now illegal to give people waiting in line to vote food and water while they're waiting in line and making, you know, conjuring images of people passing out from dehydration, while they're waiting in line to vote,

and really, like, torturous situations there as people wait to vote. That's not true. Poll workers can still give people refreshments and food and pizza or whatever. The law prevents campaign workers from wearing, you know, campaign paraphernalia and going and giving people branded bottles of water with the campaign logo on it and candidates' logo. Could you imagine the reaction from Democrats? If Trump campaign officials had been walking around handing out Trump water to people, there'd be outcries.

That's what this law prevents. And so, you know, on the whole, I would give Biden probably about a C on that press conference for truthfulness for how long it took. And the press corps, I would say, I would give a lower grade than that. Well, Tim, thank you for that. We're going to delve deeper into a few of those topics that you mentioned. You referenced the liberal PBS reporter who called him a moral and decent man. And that was in the context, actually, of a question on immigration. And I wanted to ask you about this because one of the The biggest story so far of Biden's first few months has been the border crisis that largely he created. And at first, the media seemed to ignore it.

And then they tried to excuse it. Some even blamed the Trump administration for it. Interestingly, the White House press secretary has pointedly refused to even acknowledge it is a crisis. What's your take on all of this? Yeah, well, it is a crisis. By any definition, it's a crisis. And it's really funny. You mentioned Jen Saki there, the White House press secretary.

You're right. She has steadfastly refused to use the word crisis, even though they call lots of things crises. We have the climate change crisis. There's a housing crisis. There's all kinds of crises all over the place. But not at the border. No, that is not a crisis. They call it a challenge at the border. Except one time in a press conference a little while ago, Jen Saki accidentally said the word crisis. When she said crisis at the border, and you could tell she immediately regretted it. And a reporter did, to the racist reporter's credit, sort of pounce on that and asked if the use of that word crisis meant that there was a reflection of a change in the administration's approach or the review of what's happening on the border. And you could tell that Jenzaki was very upset that she had made that slip because when asked, you know, does that reflect a change? She said, nope. And the guy pressed her again and she said, nope. So she realized that she had misstep because crisis when it relates to the border is clearly

a non-word at the Biden White House. And so I think anybody with two eyes and can see just exactly what's happening with the Biden White House, they're preventing access to it. They're not being transparent about it. The numbers are way, way up. You remember we heard so much during the Trump years about kids in cages. And Joe Biden was going to end all that. And now we have far more children in the retention centers down there along the southern border than we ever had under President Trump or any other president and they won't call it a crisis, but it is. Well, it certainly is, Tim, and thank you for your help in making sure that people understand what's really going on there. I think that this is an area where the media has not lived up

to the expectations that the American people have. Some outlets have stood out more than others, and certainly at the Daily Signal, we are trying to bring as much attention to it as possible. Yeah, I want to say, Joe Biden caused this crisis as a matter of fact. Throughout the campaign, and I can tell you, I was the communication structure on the, on the Trump 2020 campaign. Joe Biden campaigned on a variety of things that actually encouraged and entice people to make the dangerous journey through Mexico, oftentimes from other countries, all the way through Mexico, to the southern border of the United States to try to enter illegally. He promised amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants who are already president in this country.

He promised that he would not deport anyone as soon as he became president. He promised them free health care. He promised them work permits. And he promised that he would support sanctuary cities, which are localities in the United States, which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. He promised all of those things if he would be elected president. He laid out the welcome mat. He turned on the vacancy sign of the United States. Of course, it encouraged people to come to the southern border. Heck, a lot of them are they wearing Biden T-shirts, if you've seen the pictures of that. And he says, well, I didn't cause this. They're coming here because I'm a nice guy.

they're coming because you promised them they could get into the country. There would be no repercussions for breaking our laws to get in. And once they got here, we would load them up with all kinds of taxpayer-funded free stuff. That's exactly what has happened. Joe Biden owns this crisis. And it's no wonder that the White House does not want to call it that because that's what it is. And Joe Biden caused it.

Well said, Tim. Thank you for making that point. Let's shift to what's happening in some of the states. You mentioned this in the first answer. You recently wrote a piece for the Daily Signal, trying to clarify the Georgia election reforms and pushing back against this leftist tactic of referring to them as racist and using other words like Jim Crow to describe them. Yet tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is led by Democrats, will hold a hearing titled Jim Crow 2021, the latest assault on the right to vote. You say these attacks on Georgia's law are unfair and also misrepresent the facts. What's happening here?

Well, this is a grand strategy, I believe, that the Democrats have. It's two tracks, and it's to get at one final result. The first is they have to brand the Georgia law as racist. And to call it Jim Crow is the obvious tactic that they're taking. It's a very shocking thing to charge and say that this is Jim Crow. But let's remember what real Jim Crow laws were. They legalized racism. They legalized discrimination and racial segregation.

in education, in employment, in public facilities, buses, water fountains. We all know those stories. The judicial system. Even cemeteries were segregated under Jim Crow laws. Black people and white people were not permitted to mix, really, in any meaningful way, under Jim Crow. That's what Jim Crow was. Now, when you say that asking someone to show ID to vote, to prove that they are the voter that they claim to be, is the same as legalized racism and segregation of schools and removing any chance

of opportunity for black people under Jim Crow laws. When you say that those are the same to ask actually that somebody provide identification, which, by the way, is provided to you by the state at no cost to you. To liken that the Jim Crow really diminishes what Jim Crow really was. And so, this is the beginning of their plan. They want to label the Georgia law as racist. Then on a separate parallel track, they also have to label the filibuster as racist. And then call that a relic of the Jim Crow era, even though the Democrats used it more than 300 times against President Trump while President Trump was in office. Now all of a sudden, the filibuster is racist. So why do they have to call the Georgia law racist and also the filibuster racist? It's because they want to pass HR1,

which is the federal takeover of elections. It will cement the liberal dominance in Congress and in national offices generally and in states for decades to come. And the only way they can do that is by eliminating the filibuster because the HR1 will never get 60 votes as required right now for passage in the Senate. So they got to get rid of the filibuster. So the filibuster has to be racist. And the reason why they need HR1 is because laws like Georgia's laws are racist. That's their big, that's their big grand plan. Well, President Biden himself has outright lied about the Georgia law, whether he was doing so based on bad information he was provided or simply didn't read it, I don't know. But we're also seeing major corporations step into this debate with false statements.

If major news organizations aren't going to correct the record on this or hold them accountable, what can we do to make sure that the American people know the truth? Well, you know, a podcast like this is a good step in the right direction. I think we need to have people who have actually read the law. I know it's a crazy notion. that we might expect people who are going to comment and opine on a law to actually have to examine what is actually in it. So the more people can and can avail themselves of the information about what the law actually says, I think so much the better. The press corps really fell down on the job on this one. And I really blame the press corps as a whole.

You saw lots of them, even the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which is the home of the Georgia law, they had to issue a really embarrassing correction, correcting their earlier reporting. And I think what happened is you have activists like Stacey Abrams who gave a really distorted description of what the Georgia law did. And again, going back to their big grand plan to get HR1 passed, that's what her goal has been. And the media just took those criticisms at face value and didn't even look into whether they were true or not. Like this idea of not being able to give people food or water while waiting in line, that really

took off and was just became accepted as fact. And the idea that voting has actually been constricted and restricted in Georgia when, in fact, it has been made easier for a lot of people to vote and is much more permissive than lots of other state laws. And so corporations, Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta, and a whole bunch of others just fell in line because when the liberal outrage mom rears its head, they jump and ask questions of fact later. And I think you see some of that softening because there's been a great. backlash against those. President Trump, for one, former president, has called for boycotts of these companies. And I think you saw Coca-Cola just yesterday issue a much more conciliatory statement. So I think they probably realized that they jumped a little bit too soon. Joe Biden, I think he knows it too. Stacey Abrams says that she wishes that the MLB did not pull the All-Star

game from Atlanta, because guess what? Atlanta is a 51% black city. And there's a lot of black-owned businesses that are going to get crushed by not had they were counting on a hundred million dollars of revenue coming in because of the major league baseball game that's that's not happening now it's going to denver and stacey abram said whoops i didn't really want that to happen and joe biden went on esPN prior to mlb making its decision went on eastpn said i strongly support it if if melb would pull the all-star game from atlanta and then they did and then jen saki was asked about it and she said no that's not what he said that's not what he meant he he meant uh he supports the idea that Major League Baseball has the right to do that if they want to. That's not what he said at all.

He encouraged them to remove the Major League. You have the most powerful man in the world telling Major League Baseball, I would strongly support it if you pulled the All-Star game. And then they do, and he says, well, that's not what I meant. I mean, so it's all over the place. I really do hope and trust that there will be a snap back if people have some sort of sense of proportion and understand that if they're going to react like this, they better be darn sure that they know exactly what it is that's in the law and not take the activist's point of view as fact. Tim, you and I are both big sports fans. It's really disheartening that Major League Baseball took this action. I do think that there will be political ramifications. I'd be curious to

hear your thoughts on that. But I also wanted to get your take on this notion that sports are being so political. I mean, Brett Farve just came out and said, keep politics out of sports. Let's focus on what sports are really about. And as somebody who, you know, is a fan yourself, what do you think about this move among so many athletes and now even the leagues themselves to take political positions? Well, I think this was a gigantic misstep by Major League Baseball.

Look, we know, and I know you follow baseball, and you know that they've been tinkering with all these crazy rules changes, that I'm sort of a purist about it. I oppose a lot of these rules changes. Like the idea of in extra innings, you start every inning with a runner already on second base. And they've already changed it. Where an intentional walk, the pitcher doesn't even have to throw any pitches. The runner already gets on first base.

There's all kinds of rules changes. They're trying to speed up the game. There's a clock now between pitches. The pitcher has to deliver the next pitch within a certain amount of time. They're worried that they've been losing audience. Their TV ratings are falling. They're not catching the next generation of baseball fans because the games have gotten too long. That's what they've been worried about now for a number of years and they're tinkering with the rules to try to correct that, make the games faster and increase their ratings and increase their fan base.

So they're worried that people are tuning out of baseball already. And then they go and do something like this, where they have told basically half the country, we think you're a bunch of redneck racists and we don't really care for your business anymore. And I don't think it's going to help their bottom line very much. And here's another question for them. if they really did truly mean this, that the Georgia law is so egregious that they had to pull the All-Star game out and give it to another city and crush Atlanta with the loss of $100 million of revenue, if they really believe that the Georgia law is that bad, then why haven't they addressed the fact that the Atlanta Braves are still going to play 81 home games in that very same city? Why haven't they pulled any home games from the Atlanta Braves? Why haven't they told Atlanta you have to get rid of your franchise? Your franchise has to move somewhere else? I mean, why draw the line at moving the All-Star game, really. If you mean it about the Georgia law, go all the way. Well, it's a fair point, Tim, and I like how some observers have pointed out that the field, the baseball park in Denver is named after Quarce, who just happens to be a founder of the Heritage

Foundation of all places. But back to the point on Georgia and the backlash, do you think there will be any political repercussions in that state? After all, it was among the closest in the presidential contest in 2020. And I know it's a battleground, certainly from a congressional standpoint, and most certainly will be in 2024. I think there will be. I think you have the brand-new senators, John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. They clearly were on the side of really ginning up the opposition to the Georgia law and screaming about Jim Crow and how awful it was. And then the All-Star game gets yanked from Atlanta. And the Ossoff and others were looking around saying, whoa, we didn't, we didn't think that was going to happen. Well, honestly,

what did they think was going to happen? Everybody's running around calling for boycotts. Of course, their goal is to get the corporations to buckle, and that's exactly what happened. Then he had Warnock came out, and he had to admit, his staff anyway, had to admit that the really inflammatory statement that he had put out about the Georgia law was based on things that were in the preliminary stages of the legislative consideration of it and are not, in fact, in the final law. So his statement that he put out was completely and wholly inaccurate about what the law does, but they put that out anyway. And so, yes, the idea that Atlanta has been hit and black business owned, black owned businesses will be hurt by the All-Star Game leaving Atlanta. That is

absolutely on the hands of people like Raphael Warnock, John Ossoff, Stacey Abrams, and absolutely voters ought to be reminded of that, that it costs the state economically, it costs jobs, it hurt minority-owned businesses when the game leaves and goes to a different state. I think that voters will probably remember this. When the All-Star Game comes to town, you know, Rob, it's a big deal for the locality. It really is. Cities vie for this. They want to get in line.

They say, when's going to be our chance to host the All-Star game? Cities build beautiful new stadiums these days with the idea of one day hosting the All-Star game. And then Atlanta gets it and it's taken away. and the elected officials who caused it to happen are looking around going, oh, boy, maybe we went a little bit too far. And I think they knew they did. Yeah, I think that that's certainly the case, Tim. And it's certainly something we will be closely following. I should give credit where it is due. And the Washington Post did give Joe Biden for Pinocchio's for making those false claims about the Georgia law. So just want to get that in there. I mean, I know that we're really critical on the media, but there are sometimes winning. Once in a while, every once in a while. Well, you know what? That didn't stop him.

He went out and still keep saying it. That's true. You know, Jen Saki gets that question, hey, what about the four Pinocchioes that Biden got for the – it was on the 5 p.m. closing question, I think. And she stuck to her guns. She didn't even actually address that particular half untruth. She actually went on to list a bunch of other things she thought was bad with the law. But they show no signs of changing their tactics.

they're going to continue to misrepresent it. Tim, one final topic for you today. Your most recent column was on China. Why do you say that President Biden's policy toward China is destined to fail? Well, for one, first right out of the gate, the former defense secretary under President Obama, when Biden was the VP, Robert Gates, said that Joe Biden has been wrong on every foreign policy call over the last four decades. And I don't see why that track record should change anytime soon. The very first international meeting in the Biden administration between the United States and China, it occurred up in Alaska. The Chinese absolutely embarrassed the American delegation. And what the Chinese representative said, that people in the United States have very

little confidence in the democracy of the United States and that the U.S. does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength. That's what the Chinese said to Tony Blankly, our Secretary of State. And instead of defending the United States, our own Secretary of State chose instead to concede the point to the Chinese. And he said, well, you know, a confident country is able to look at our own shortcomings and try to get better. That's what's great about America. Essentially telling the Chinese, you know what, you're right. We're actually a pretty bad country and we don't have standing to talk to you about human rights abuses. I mean, that's outrageous that the United States Secretary of State would not stick up for our

own country when he has been publicly embarrassed by the Chinese delegation. But it's a long, long history of Joe Biden being wrong on China. On the campaign trail, he just was scornful and openly dismissed the idea that anyone could think that the Chinese were economic competition for us. You might remember the famous videotape where he said, what, China's going to eat our lunch? Come on, man, you know, they're not bad folks, folks, but they're not a competition for us. It's just wrong. And with the coronavirus crisis, President Trump stopped travel from China to the United States in the very early stages last January at the end of January. And Joe Biden called it xenophobia and fearmongering at the time. And we know now that that saved thousands of American lives. And Joe Biden was wrong.

And he's already restored funding to the World Health Organization, which President Trump took away and stopped because the WHO helped China lie to the rest of the world about the outbreak and the spreading and the veracity of the virus itself. And Joe Biden so wants to be loved by the international community that he's going to do things like that. And he's naive enough to think that countries like China won't use that and take advantage of him. And we are already seeing evidence that that's happening. That opening meeting in Anchorage, Alaska was really just the first. It sure certainly seems to be the case, Tim, and I know that the colleagues of mine at the Heritage Foundation have a brand new report, which we can link to in the show notes about the Beijing Olympics and the importance of a decision from the U.S. on that, not necessarily to boycott, but to pressure the international community and the Olympics to move those out of China. So certainly a lot to watch on the China front. We appreciate your insights on that. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Daily Signal podcast. You bet, Rob, always a pleasure and happy to be with you once again.

Conservative women. Conservative feminists. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen, and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories in interviews that are a particular interest to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcast.

Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Fred Lucas's interview with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp explaining Georgia's new election law, one of our podcast listeners left us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts writing, If you are tired of hearing hot air and you want to hear the facts, listen to Georgia Governor Ryan Kemp described the new voting law. The Daily Signal is a winner.

And in response to Andrew Trunsky's piece, hundreds of corporations and celebrities voice opposition to discriminatory voting legislation, Rick McDonald writes to us, I am so upset at knee-jerk reactions without reading the facts happening in our country. I went straight to the Georgia law to see what it said when everyone was calling it Jim Crow. I am a small business manager. How can big companies not check the facts like they do when they make business decisions? I cannot watch baseball as I detest the moving of the All-Star game without due process. How could all of us normal thinking people withstand this hypocrisy? Your letter could be featured on next week's show. So go ahead and send us an email

at Letters at DailySignal.com or you can leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today.

Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. Spending your Saturday picking up garbage is not what most college students want to do with their weekend. But Grove City College student Justin Corbyn seems to feel otherwise. Justin founded Clean Up 412 last summer to bring other students and community members together to clean up trash in Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities. The name Cleanup 412 comes from Pittsburgh's area code. Justin is a former Heritage Foundation intern and now a staff member at Heritage,

so I recently had the opportunity to talk with him about why he decided he would take the initiative to pick up trash in his city. Justin, you are still in college at Grove City, so I want to ask you, why did you decide last summer that you wanted to start a nonprofit to organize groups of people to pick up trash in your community on Saturdays? because that's not something that's usually on the minds of most college students. I know I certainly was not thinking about that when I was in school. So what gave you that motivation to say, you know what? I want to take the time on my weekends to pick up garbage in my community. Well, it was a mix of two different things.

One, I'm a very solutions-oriented person. And at the time, there was a lot of riding and looting, a lot of trashing happening to different communities across the country. And this wasn't a direct response to that. but I realized that we talk about problems so much without actually talking about solutions. And it was something where, you know, I didn't at the time have all of the policy knowledge or a way to promote that. So I figured I could do something in my community, something grassroots, something to, something that you walk around, you turn around and you see what you've done. So I started organizing and started getting people together.

But before we were filing to become a nonprofit, the other portion of it was actually voter registration. So we were helping anyone and everyone who was looking to register to vote before the election in November to get registered, to get information about different candidates in the Pittsburgh area. So it was a mix of just helping people actually beautify and make the streets look clean and as well as just helping people register to vote to become civic-minded people. I love that. It's so simple. It's so practical. you know, doesn't take too too much to, you know, take a couple hours on a Saturday to get out there and grab a trash bag and pick up trash. So tell us what exactly a cleanup day is like. I know you just had one earlier this month. Tell us how that went. So before a cleanup, we connect with the Department of Public Works in whatever area we're in. We've now done nine different cleanups across Pittsburgh, Washington County, Mercer County in Pennsylvania. So we have branched out of the 412. But a cleanup day looks like we hope that people show up.

It is always pretty tough to get a lot of people out there. But that being said, our last cleanup, we had 150 students come out to help us organize and clean up the community. We do a variety of special projects. We'll do some litter routes. And then people can go, we do painting on Main Street in a few different towns. We remulch the flower beds. And really the big thing is just keeping all of that organized. keeping 150 people moving in different directions.

And after the cleanup, we'll have pizza. Everybody will kind of kick back, look back on the hour, hour and a half, two hours of work they've done. And there's a smile on everyone's face. And the one thing I will say for every single cleanup we've done, like I said, we've done nine cleanups, is that the community reception in each of the places we've gone has been amazing. Cars will honk their horns.

People will stop and say, what group are you guys with? Thank you for doing this. So people really appreciate it. And that's, it's honestly, it's nice to hear when you're out there and you're working for sometimes community you've never been to. But another portion we've added since we got our nonprofit filings in, it's no longer voter registration, but it's actually a food drive component. So I'm actually very happy to say that that's been remarkably more successful than the voter registration. And we have multiple vehicles full of food. We're looking at three different food banks now from one different cleanup.

I mean, it's just amazing the reception that people have had to clean up 412. Wow, that's so exciting. So for anyone listening who's thinking, wow, this is great, I want to get involved for any of our listeners who are in the Pittsburgh area, how can they learn more and even come out and help you guys some Saturday? Yeah, if you're in the Pittsburgh area, please go to Cleanup412.com or go to Instagram, cleanup.412. Shoot us a message. You can find me on really any social media channel at Corbyn J.E. and and and but you don't have to just be in Pittsburgh to go on and help your community and and I encourage anyone especially young people who have a group of nine 10 people who who you can wrangle in

with you it starts small we started with with 10 15 people on our cleanups and here we are with 150 and and I think we're still growing so you you if you want to make a nonprofit and make it I don't know if you're from Virginia beach or something clean up 757 I think the opportunities are are there because what we're doing is, while it may be unique, I don't think it's really actually that special. I think anybody can do it if they have the drive to organize and make an impact, make a mark on the community. Like I said, it's something tangible you see. You turn around after you finish cleaning up, you look in the back of a vehicle and there's all that food. And it's a successful day and you know that. Yeah. I love it. Justin, thank you so much for joining us and

thanks for taking the initiative. Absolutely. Thank you, Virginia. You always. a pleasure. It is so great to see young people taking ownership for their communities. I think it's so incredible when someone actually sees a need in their own town and then takes action to meet that need. So again, if you want to learn more about the work that Justin is doing or maybe even volunteer for one of those cleanup days yourself, you can visit cleanup 412.com. Great work, Justin. Well done. We appreciate all of your efforts. That's just fantastic. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rurcashay Audio Network.

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