The Eric Metaxas Show - Attorney General Ken Paxton

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

Attorney General Ken Paxton from Texas covers current-event issues, including big problems at our southern border, and the funky election results from November 2020. ...

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:10 To the Eric Mattaxas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Welcome back. Final segment with my guest, Barbara Quito, from mafia princess to God's princess. So we're getting to the good part, Barbara, where God comes into your life to stay. Yes. So your mother, as you said, after all these years, she somehow, she finds God. She found Jesus, she'll tell you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:37 Through the Catholic charismatic renewal. Right. at the time. So she brought him home. We all got to experience that. But of course, the damage had been done. My father by this time was sober, again, miraculously. As I was telling you earlier, God didn't just drop miracles left and right because God is present with us. And if we look and ask, he'll do these things in our lives. That's what I've discovered through these years. So, okay, I was back at the Pekas Benedictine monastery where I had wanted to stay before it, broke my heart they wouldn't let me stay i thought i had something to do with when you were 18
Starting point is 00:01:13 knowing who i was you know isn't interesting though you always feel like that's so but that's so interesting that we we think about that but we'll we'll put that to decide i don't even know if you think about it you just always feel like everyone can see what's going on which which should be the very reason they would welcome you because you know your heart desires not to be that person and on the contrary that you think they see that but god really does see it and he goes i love you anyway baby girl yeah you're everything to me and he reaches out to show you that and over and over and over again if you're knucklehead like me so um i went back to the monastery and everything had changed it was as if god came and met me there the same abbot he i'm a musician so he came right up and approached me how are
Starting point is 00:01:58 you you know uh you know i'm a musician too and sought me out in a crowd of i don't know 100 or so and just presented this picture of god to me after all these years all the food was my favorite. It was just incredible. And then one night they had a healing service. And I had come with the throbbing toe. It was like I had injured my toe. You had injured your foot. I could barely walk. So you go to a healing service? And I went to a healing service and I thought, you know, I'm going to go up there and pray that God will heal my toe. But when in that moment, when I stepped forward to get my toe healed, he healed my toe. But that wasn't the miracle. He healed my heart. It was like scales fell off my heart.
Starting point is 00:02:41 It was as if all of a sudden it was like, why are you hurting? What? I forgave everybody. It was just like from one minute to the next. So it's so interesting because everybody's story is different. You're saying that you go there for a physical healing. For physical healing. And you get the physical healing?
Starting point is 00:03:00 I did get the physical healing. How did you know? That didn't even blow because it was right away. I could walk. I could walk normally. So that must have amazed you. but you're saying somehow simultaneously all this other stuff is happening.
Starting point is 00:03:12 And how does it feel? Are you experiencing, you know, some people talk about feeling like energy or, or I mean, or was it just, you just suddenly felt. Just peace. It's like there was a, I was in the eye of the storm all my life.
Starting point is 00:03:26 And all of a sudden, you know how you see videos of tornadoes and afterwards everything's just calm. Yeah. That's how I felt. Yeah. I was just calm. I was, I had joy.
Starting point is 00:03:36 You know, you don't know. Like, Pop gave me joy. Pot is an artificial means of joy. Yeah. That's Satan's counterfeit to God's joy. And that used to give me joy. I'd smoke a lot of pot. And first thing in the morning, first time I smoked pot, it was the first time I felt joy.
Starting point is 00:03:49 This is, I mean, this is why we have to have mercy and grace and love for people struggling with addictions. Because we have no idea the pain that they're anesthetizing. So when this happened at this healing service, did it, how did you know that it would be? permanent because it has been permanent. It has been permanent, but it wasn't. First of all, you see that God did something that you can't do. Even healing a toe, you'll say it. It's called a miracle.
Starting point is 00:04:20 It's a huge miracle, but you tend to look at the physical miracles. God saw that I needed something more. He's like, okay, you humbled yourself, you came up, you asked for help, and I'm here. And so after that, I didn't just immediately stop doing things. I kept, you know, your habits are habits. And you have to work at getting rid of them, just like you worked at getting them. So I tried to, you know, I would still party and do all the things because I wrote with my friends. We were songwriters and we'd get together and just...
Starting point is 00:04:50 You were still in that lifestyle, but you had had this experience that you knew was real. Right. And so the Piers de Resistance, if you will, is one day I was laying in the park near my mother's house. And I was just laying there and I was just loving the sun on my face and everything. And I was asking the Lord, because once you keep on doing that when you've been, when you've experienced something like that, you know it's not right. Now all of a sudden, all the things you did without thinking about, they hurt you spiritually. It's like, I don't want to hurt you anymore. God, this person living inside of me, I don't want to hurt you anymore. So I was laying in the park, and then I had my eyes closed, and I felt the sun get really, really bright.
Starting point is 00:05:30 And then I was like, I could tell even under my closed lids. And so afterwards, I got up to go back, and I was like, Lord, was that you? Was that present, that son? Was that you? And then I heard that voice again. I heard when I was in the mountains. And he, I was like, first I said, how can I follow you? I want to follow you so desperately.
Starting point is 00:05:52 Please show me how to do it. Show me how to do it. And then that voice said, stop drinking and doing drugs and smoking for 120 days, and then you can follow me. But I was like that rich ruler in the Bible. He thought he was following God, but he couldn't give up his treasure, and that was my treasure. And then when I was leaving the park, I was like, was this really you, God? Jesus? Was this really you?
Starting point is 00:06:15 And there was an ice cream truck circling the park at that time. The song that they were playing was my favorite song of all time. What child is this? It was like in that clanky little thing. Yeah. As I was singing. On an ice cream truck. This is Christ the kid.
Starting point is 00:06:33 On an ice cream. On an ice cream truck. So, and, you know, people will tell you that was a coincidence or whatever. I never heard that ice cream truck again. Oh, can I tell you? I've lived a pretty full life. I've heard a lot of ice cream trucks. I've never heard any ice cream truck play anything near that.
Starting point is 00:06:48 That is amazing. So that day you took this next step. That day I started on the quest to trying. God led me to Teen Challenge. I don't know if you heard of Teen Challenge. Oh, I know Team Challenge. Listen, my goodness, the man who performed my wife. wedding with my wife 25 years ago is Don Wilkerson who headed up Teen Challenge.
Starting point is 00:07:10 David's brother. And my wife and I met at David Wilkerson's church. So we know all about this. So we only have a couple of minutes left. So you, after you got clean and sober and are walking with God, you are now. And went to AA too. Because I said I would never do that. Right.
Starting point is 00:07:25 I'd do anything else but that. But you are now involved in helping people dealing with addiction. So tell us about that because we just got a couple of minutes. want to hear about that. Well, you know, barbaraqueto.com, Barbara C-U-E-T-O.com to learn more about what I'm doing. Barbaraqueto.com, C-U-E-T-O. Go ahead. Yes. Because so many miraculous things happened three times. If you read the book, you'll not just lost in the forest or being saved. Yeah. But I host in the mountains of New Mexico, where I live, a retreat for men and women in drug, I'm sorry, women in alcohol addiction. And we bring them up there because former addicts have something that most people don't realize that we have fought. We are courageous.
Starting point is 00:08:11 You know, we'll do anything for our addictions. I will crawl over broken glass on my bare knees to get to my, I would have to my drug dealer. You know, I was only afraid of running out, really. But so we have that quality about him. I feel like the Lord has asked me to try to instill that, to bring people to Jesus and turn that around and use it for his glory. Because, you know, Jesus said, in order to come after me, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And so I think that, and so anyway, it's the warrior princess retreat to make warriors for God.
Starting point is 00:08:46 This is just such a happy, such a happy ending. I'm glad you have a website so people can, because there's so much more to this. And I want people who are interested to know they can go to Barbara Quato, C-U-E-T-O, Barbara Queto.com. And the book is from mafia princess to God's Princess. So we've got like 25 seconds left. You have two sons. Are you married now?
Starting point is 00:09:14 Yes. Very happily. And happily. Wow. God bless you. Yes. This is just, you know, now and again we do these Miracle Monday stories because people need to hear what people have been through. They think they're the only one or they don't think there's hope.
Starting point is 00:09:28 for them. You've been through just so much. And to be sitting with you here and to hear about this happy ending, it's just wonderful what God is doing. So Barbara Quato, thank you. God bless you. And folks, the book is for Mafia Princess to God's Princess. Go to Barbaraquato.com. Hey, folks, are you concerned about memory loss for you or a loved one? Viva Lord's founder prayed that God would show her the solution to memory loss because her mother had dementia. After many divine encounters combining faith and her background as a pharmacist, Susan Gibson created Vivalore memory support. Vivalore is a premium quality, all natural supplement with five to 20 times more nutrients than any other memory supplement. It won awards and has three books independently written about it.
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Starting point is 00:11:57 I use it. It works. Check it out. Hey there, folks. As promised, I have as my guest, the current attorney's, General of the great state of Texas. Ken Paxton, I know we've hung out, but I've not had you on the program. Great to see you again. Hey, good to see you again sort of by video or whatever we're going to hear. Well, it seems like you're in the same room. Yeah, well, it's good to see you again. The last time we were together, we were at the Texas ball of President Trump's inauguration in January 2017. And it seems like yesterday. and yet it seems like another era.
Starting point is 00:12:47 But I have so many friends in Texas at this point, I kind of feel like an honorary Texan. I just want you to know. Well, we're glad to have you because we adopt all kinds of people that we like people that have the right views so we can continue our freedom in our state. Well, yeah, that's the thing. And I think that every time I come to Texas,
Starting point is 00:13:06 I just feel like I'm home, even though I live in New York. But, you know, also, just to be clear, about once a year, literally about once a year, year I will be introduced to someone, Eric Metaxus, and they will say, once a year it happens, they say, oh, really, what part of Texas? And I said, no, no, Eric Metaxis, not Eric from Texas. But anyway, listen, you have been the Attorney General of Texas since 2014,
Starting point is 00:13:32 and you're now in a race with George P. Bush, is that who it is, one of the Sions of the Bush dynasty? Yeah, yeah. That's, I guess, Jeb's son. Jeb's son. And where do you and he do? I just want to start in on this because where do you and he differ? Because I have to say that, you know, Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and you have just been heroes in so many ways in the state of Texas.
Starting point is 00:14:04 Heroes not just in Texas, but for the country, sort of helping the country see what leadership can and should look like. So why is George Pee? Bush who is a Republican primarying you. I guess that's what he's doing. Yes. And look, I don't I don't totally understand it. I think, you know, there's sort of a manifest destiny with the Bush's, with him in particular, as to like, I'm destined to go higher, whatever that means to him. I feel like we focused on the right issues. I ran for one reason. I was in the Texas Senate with Dan Patrick. We ran at the same time. And the reason I ran for attorney general as opposed to anything else is I felt like Texas had.
Starting point is 00:14:43 to be the state to go fight the Obama administration. And then, of course, now we have the Biden administration, which I did not expect a year and a half ago. So I felt like we had to defend those freedoms that other states, we either don't have the resources to do or won't do. And that's why I want to continue to fight. I feel like this is a critical time in our history, not just for Texas, but for the whole nation.
Starting point is 00:15:07 And if we don't have the right person and the right people in the Texas spots, I don't know, I don't know where this country ends up. but I don't think it's good. What is your biography? Where were you raised? How did you grow up? And, you know, what brings you to where you are today? How did you get here?
Starting point is 00:15:22 Did you think when you were a kid that you might be in politics? You know, I never knew. I grew up in an Air Force. My dad was an Air Force pilot. They're actually New Yorkers. My dad was born in Queens. And then they moved upstate New York and he met my mother. But my dad was beat in two pots.
Starting point is 00:15:38 So I lived in like eight states from Florida and New York, California, Oklahoma. So, but I chose Texas. I came here to go to Baylor. I met my wife here. I got my MBA here. I got my law degree at the University of Virginia, practice law for 25 years. And I'd also run for the Texas House, which I was in the Texas House for 10 years while I was practicing law.
Starting point is 00:15:58 And then I also was in the Texas Senate for two years. And now I've been Attorney General for seven. So that's sort of my background. But, you know, I was more about helping other people. I never necessarily anticipated running because I had four children. And I felt like I had an obligation to them first. and just through various people encouraging me to run, including my wife, I ended up running for Texas House, and it sort of led to this. And I was really happy in the Texas Senate because I could still keep my job and do the Texas Senate.
Starting point is 00:16:26 You mean your job as a lawyer? Yes, because, you know, these government jobs don't pay as well as practicing law. So I left all of that because I felt like we were at a critical point in our history. If we didn't stop the overreach of the federal government through the Obama administration, we were going to have. be living in a very different country with a constitution that was very perverted and scaled towards the executive branch. I feel like we're back to that with Joe Biden. Well, that's exactly right. And that's why it sort of falls to the few to hold the line. And that's why I'm just so proud of what you and Governor Abbott and Dan Patrick are doing
Starting point is 00:17:03 because there are states that at certain times have led. And right now, I think many Americans are looking to Texas. I have to ask you about the lawsuit that was brought by the state of Texas, was it the state of Texas to the Supreme Court and they refused to look at it. Were you involved in that or is that some separate thing? No, no. My office, I filed that. I was actually up there with my staff working on that brief for several days, trying to get ready. We'd actually worked on it for about a month. Before you say that, then explain to my audience since you were so centrally involved, which I thought you were, but I wasn't sure.
Starting point is 00:17:40 explain to my audience what that was because it kind of doesn't get too much more important than that lawsuit and what happened. So if you don't mind, take us back to what that was. I'll take you one step back. We had 12 lawsuits in Texas. We were sued by all kinds of organizations in federal courts, state court, and usually in counties where it was hard for us to win. Any one of those lawsuits had we lost, we would have been like Georgia. We would have been counting votes in Harris County or Travis County, which is Austin. Harris County is Houston or Barra County, San Antonio.
Starting point is 00:18:15 I'm sorry, just to be clear, you're talking about with regard to the November 6th election, these were. Yes, I'm talking to. These were lawsuits. The state was sued by whom? By folks on the left? Different groups, Democratic Party, different groups, leftist groups. I figured they were all funded by Soros or something like that. Twelve of them.
Starting point is 00:18:34 It was a very smart plan because I told my staff, I even told the president this, I said, We don't win every single one of those lawsuits. If we lose one, you are going to lose Texas, and we are going to lose our legislature. We're going to lose four Supreme Court justices out of nine. And I said it's going to be a problem. We cannot afford to lose any one of these lawsuits. Okay. So before we move ahead, are you suggesting, because I just, I don't, haven't heard much about this,
Starting point is 00:18:59 are you suggesting that the Democrats had a plan going into this election to fund lawsuits against folks like you all in Texas to cripple the process and to win that way. Is that your understanding now that you've been through this? Yes, I think they did it in numerous states. I didn't know they've done it in numerous states until I saw what was going on in Georgia and other states. But I know for a fact they did it in Texas. And so we had our hands full defending 12 lawsuits at the same time on mail-in ballots and similar issues that Had we lost one of those suits, when I saw what was going on, the night of the election,
Starting point is 00:19:42 we would have been one of those states, one of those counties, Harris, whatever, would have been counting votes for three days, and Texas would have turned the other way. I mean, it's astonishing. You're saying that you won 12 out of 12. Yes. And what does that tell the average listener, right? It tells them that these were not, these didn't have much merit. In other words, they're doing this to tangle you up.
Starting point is 00:20:08 in legal proceedings. They figure, let's just win one out of 12. Let's throw all the money we can at this and they still lost. But that's what they were trying to do. It was genius. I mean, because all they had to do was win one time. As an example, we were in Travis County. We lost in district court. They were going to mail out, I think, over a million ballots to people that didn't request them. And we had an appeals court that was slow-playing our appeal. And we were worried that the mail-in ballots. go out. We couldn't undo it. What was already done? We couldn't let the genie back in the bottle. We couldn't put the genie back in the bottle. So we had to come up with this unique process
Starting point is 00:20:45 that we had only heard of one other time where we actually mandamus, the district clerk of that county, to the Texas Supreme Court. So we could get around the appeals court and have our case heard before it was too late. And we ended up winning that. But it had to be very creative in trying things we'd never tried before. I'm just amazed, you know, to hear that this is our line of defense, folks like you, against losing the Republic. I don't think I'm overstating the case, that it comes down to creative lawyering to figure out how to keep democracy alive. And I thank God for you, Attorney General Paxton, because I cannot imagine what you had to go through, dealing with 12 different lawsuits like this. But what do we make of the fact that the Democrats are
Starting point is 00:21:36 doing this kind of thing. It's, it's, what are the folks who are conservative patriots doing on our side? Are we, are we not playing the right kind of ground game? This seems upsetting. Well, I'll give an example. Georgia had the same demographics pretty much as Texas. If you go back 40 years ago, you'll see that the election in Georgia and Texas had similar margins of victory for Trump.
Starting point is 00:22:02 The difference between Georgia and Texas this time was instead of five, you're fighting those lawsuits, the leadership of their state decided to sign consent decrees, agreeing to mail-in ballots, agreeing to no signature verification, at least not for most of them, and then to these drop boxes. And guess what? Georgia turned by, you know, a few thousand votes. In other words, the governor of Georgia caved. I have to tell you that I don't get the impression that the governor of Georgia and the AG and Georgia are the kind of leaders we need in America. I'm saying that as politely as possible. We'll be right back, folks. I'm talking to Attorney General Ken Paxton of the great state of Texas. Don't go away. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to the
Starting point is 00:23:13 Attorney General of Texas. Ken Paxton, you're, I mean, you're just giving us an education, many of us, me for sure, on what you do as an attorney general. And I guess I want to say again, especially since we're being primaried early next year, I sure hope the people in Texas. Texas understand what's at stake. You talked earlier about fighting federal overreach by the Obama administration and how important that is. It's amazing to me. Most of us just aren't aware of these kind of court battles. We think of everything as being political. But when you talked about the 12 lawsuits that you won that were being waged against you by whatever Democrats, That's so huge, but we brought that up because I was asking you about the case that you brought, the state of Texas brought, to the Supreme Court about the election, about the November election, that they refused to look at. The Supreme Court justices refused to look at.
Starting point is 00:24:25 Can you explain to Lehman why they might refuse to look at something that important? And how many of them were required? I guess it was four of the nine justices only were required to say, yes, we'll look at it. Yes, that's correct. So the way it's supposed to work in our country is, you know, the founders created three branches of government. They created the judiciary to give everybody a chance to have their day in court. And so everybody's supposed to have their day in court. As a state, we can't sue another state in state court or in federal district court in our own state because that was. seem to give unfair advantage to a state like if I see Pennsylvania or Georgia in Texas. So the founder said, no, you get your day in court, but you have to go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Starting point is 00:25:13 That will be your day in court. Well, so we follow a lawsuit arguing that these four states, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan did not follow the Constitution. They didn't follow their own state law as it relates to elections and mail-in ballots. And therefore, we have a grievance as Texans who were harmed by the rule. results of the election because they didn't follow the constitutional requirements. And we should have had our day in court. And the Supreme Court said seven to, no, you have no standing, which means they never get to the mayor's case. They never even hear our case. They just say, no, you have no
Starting point is 00:25:49 place here. And what does that mean for the layman? What does it mean when a court says you can't even, we're not going to look at your case. So you're not defeated. They just refuse to look at it, not because they say we looked at the evidence and you got nothing. They don't look at the evidence. They simply say you have no standing to present the case. What does that mean you have no standing? It typically means you don't have a right to be in the court. You don't have a right because you haven't suffered an injury or you have a run of an issue that they can hear.
Starting point is 00:26:20 I don't understand how that can be accurate though because we have no other place to bring our injury. And I can make the case that we were severely injured. And it went all the way to the Senate. races where we lost the U.S. Senate, which clearly affects my state. So I don't understand the argument. Certainly Alito and Thomas did not agree with the majority of the court and said, no, Texas and Texas and these other states, I think it was 18, have the right to be hurt. Can you speculate? I don't know if you can in your position as AG. Can you speculate why folks like Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and Amy Coney-Barratt might decline to look at something
Starting point is 00:27:00 like this. It's just hard for me to really understand what they might be thinking. Is it possible that Roberts convinced them and said, listen, as the Chief Justice, it's my duty to tell you, this is political. We cannot weigh in on something political. I'm always looking for what might be the reason that as, you know, constitutionalists, they would decline to hear a case. I don't know what types of arguments Robert's made. Everybody presumes he made those. He made those. arguments to the justices you're talking about, but I don't know how we convinced them that Texas and it's not like we just, you know, even if it was just Texas, we should have that right. Think about it. It was, you know, 40% of the states almost filing a lawsuit against
Starting point is 00:27:44 four of the other states. Almost half the country, at least by number of states, was involved in this litigation and to say, we're going to pass on this one. We're not even going to, we don't even, you don't even get to make your argument. It means one thing for them to say, okay, come make your argument. Oh, you lose based on the law. No, we don't even get to make the argument. You have no standing. You have no place in front of us. Well, then we don't have a place as the founders intended, you know, they didn't want states fighting each other. They were supposed to settle their disputes civilly. All the court is saying, well, sorry, you guys have to go fight because we're not going to hear your cases. Well, look, this is all logical. I'm just trying to get into their heads. In other words, is it possible that, Roberts made this heavy-handed case that because the three of you were appointed by Trump, and this is an inherently political thing, you have to recuse yourselves. And if you're not going to recuse yourselves, then you have to at least not look at the evidence. It's somehow an obligation that you have.
Starting point is 00:28:47 I can imagine that he would have made that case and maybe being over-scrupulous, which good people often can be, they might have bought that argument. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like some, it does sound like an argument that Roberts would have made to the others that, hey, you were appointed and, and therefore you have sort of a conflict of interest here. But, but it wasn't really about Trump. It was about these other states not following their law. Well, we know that. We know that. You can see how somebody would try to spin it that way. Yes. I've seen it done before. Obviously, I've not done with Obamacare recently. So yes, I've seen the Supreme Court avoid the issues that they don't want to address. by saying you don't have staining. We're living through weird times, but I'm glad that in the midst of the weird times, we have folks like Attorney General Ken Paxson. We'll be right back final segment.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Folks, don't go away. Hey there, folks. I'm talking to Attorney General of Texas. Ken Paxson, I want to ask you about the border. We, you just said to me off the air that two-thirds of our border with Mexico, two-thirds of our southern border. is a Texan border. Greg Abbott, the governor, it seems to me, under the strange administration that we are sort of having to deal with these days, he has made a decision to try to get the border wall built because the federal government refuses to do the right thing by the American citizens who live in Texas. How is that going?
Starting point is 00:30:55 What is that? Is that a legal battle as well? It hasn't been so far because we haven't actually started that process. They're going to have to go into session and fund it. I know that the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, and I know that the speaker, they feel, I think of all agreed that that is a good use of our dollars. So that they're going to use $250 million. They're also trying to raise private money because obviously that's not going to cover the rest of the wall.
Starting point is 00:31:20 But I'm hoping that over time we can make progress because I know just from talking to border agents, they believe that the wall makes a difference, certainly in places that they, would suggest and with the type of construction that they would suggest, it is very helpful to the border patrol to have these walls in place. Well, it seems to me that the red states, so to speak, would probably be willing to help you fund that wall because you're doing this really on behalf of the whole country. So I hope that that's something that somebody proposes. I don't know how that's supposed to work.
Starting point is 00:31:55 You've been also really involved in working against human trafficking, sex trafficking. There can be no question. Anybody with a cursory knowledge of the situation knows that part of the evil of having an open border or a porous border is that women and children suffer horrific sexual abuse as a result. So how has that affected you as an AG? What are the kinds of things that you can do to combat that? They're tremendously frustrating to me because we were already combating human trafficking as a major problem in Texas. We have the second most human trafficking in any state and country. Obviously, then we have the second biggest population.
Starting point is 00:32:42 But the cartels are getting such an advantage now because Border Patrol is so busy doing the logistics for all the people that they're housing that they don't have the manpower to. stop all of the human trafficking, the drug smuggling. And so that doesn't just affect Texas. That's going to affect the entire nation. And as the cartels maintain their control, because remember, just about everybody that crosses the border has to make a payment to the cartels for that transportation. So if they can't cover that cost, cartels have control over them as they move around the country and as they get placed in various parts of the country, which we're not being told where they're being put. But all of that will affect the country over a lot. long term, and we're going to see more human trafficking, we're seeing more drugs, and it's based on
Starting point is 00:33:27 the cartels having freedom to do almost whatever they want now. It seems to me that the folks in today's Democratic Party, which is, you know, closer to Stalin than to Walter Mondale, they really have abdicated their central role as guardians, as defenders of the nation, and that there are people whose lives are being affected all across the nation in a dramatically negative way as a result of their unwillingness to do the right thing. It's shocking. I guess I just want to ask you before we go, the things that are going on in Maricopa County and other places right now, what is your sense from where you sit of what can happen going forward, starting with Maricopa?
Starting point is 00:34:15 Well, it's, first of all, it's disgusting that they're allowing this to happen because the, the, truth is that the people on the border are being harmed, Texans are being harmed, even the immigrants who are subject to cartel control are being harmed. This is not the way to do immigration. Oh, there's no question the immigrants are being harmed. That's the irony, isn't it? That if you care about these people, you need to take a stand and have strict border controls, if you actually care about them. But if you just want to pretend you care about them, you can just, you know, keep it open. But then the question is, who's the beneficiary? The beneficiary is the cartels. And their opportunities are tremendous right now. They are making
Starting point is 00:34:49 billions of dollars on drugs and smuggling people across the border. So it is a travesty, and it's hard to understand for an administration that supposedly would care about the people this country, the state, it doesn't look like they do. Yeah, well, that's because they actually don't. Let's be honest. We have to see, we have to, you judge them by their fruits, their works. They don't care. It's obvious they don't care.
Starting point is 00:35:13 It's horrifying. They're fooling some people. I just want to move over to the Maricopa and this kind of thing. What is your sense just from where you sit of where this can go? Because a lot of us just we don't know enough to know what is happening and what might happen. Look, I don't know the ins and outs of how they're doing their process, but anything that provides truth and transparency to the elections is a good thing. And anybody that fights transparency, there's a reason they're fighting transparency.
Starting point is 00:35:41 Why would anybody be afraid? Joe Biden, Democrats, Republicans of finding out what the actual results were, what the truth is, whether there was fraud, why wouldn't we want to know all of that? That to me seems beneficial to our country, to that state, to everybody. Do you think the truth will come out in Maricopa and in other counties? I think there's a resistance to it, both, you know, the Democratic Party for some reason they don't want this coming out. Joe Biden's going to fight. They're already threatening to sue Georgia over there, what they're doing. So there's a huge resistance to finding out what actually happened on Election Day. To me, if I'm president, I'm like, hey, let's
Starting point is 00:36:17 find out the truth. I'm not afraid of that. We should know the truth. But that is not how this is being treated. It's being treated with disdain and almost like there's something wrong with you if you want to know the truth. But that's what proves the case, as far as I'm concerned. Most Americans are pretty sharp. They look at the situation and they think, this is strange. If the election was on the up and up, they wouldn't be behaving this way. Why are they, why are they telling people you can't even talk about this? They're scared to death. And I think they're scared to death for good reason. I think it's going to come out. I really do. And it's going to shake this nation. In a way, we've probably not been shaken in any of our lifetimes. I can't, maybe the civil war would be the last time we would
Starting point is 00:36:59 be shaken because the idea that something like this could happen in America, most Americans don't really want to think this could happen. So if this begins to come out, and if Maricopa is the first of some dominoes, we're going to be in for a very interesting summer and the rest of the year. Final word to you, Attorney General Ken Paxson before we go. My guess is even if we find the truth, even if it turns out to be not so flattering to the election results, there'll be a lot of denial and dismissive of what actually came out as either irrelevant or erroneous. They will, there will be a huge disinformation narrative out there and to try to make it like it doesn't matter. Yeah, I think you're right about that, but I have a funny feeling they're not
Starting point is 00:37:43 to succeed entirely. It's just wonderful to get to know you a little bit better. Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, God bless you. Thanks for being my guest. I appreciate. Thanks for having you on. Whoa, Albin, it's just about the end of the show, but we've got some very exciting things before people go. And it's got nothing to do with nutrometics.com, use the code Eric. Nothing to do with nutrmetics.com, use the code Eric. Or my store.com, my pillor.com, use the code Eric. Nothing to do with that. I will not explicitly. I will not mention. those things no on this program today here's what I will mention please um there's a couple of people sailing around the world I won't mention their names don't but Brown and
Starting point is 00:38:41 Eileen Council really those are their initials they're in the studio making me nervous very old friends freaking me out by sitting here I have no problem talking to an imaginary audience folks that's how I think of you you're out there someplace but when it's actual people that I know it kind of freaks me out I just want you to know that all right so let me say this. Last night, I watched the Sons of Katie Elder, the movie with John Wayne. People want to know, hey, Eric, what are you doing your sport? What do you do for fun? I collapse. I eat a meal. And sometimes I'll watch TV, but what has TV become? Finally, as I knew it would, TV and streaming and everything has morphed into one thing. So do I flip around rarely unless
Starting point is 00:39:24 TBN, sorry, TBN, Turner Classic Movies, Turner Classic Movies, Turner, T-CM. Turner Classic Movies is my go-to thing. But if they don't have something on, you know, I'll see what I can find on, you know, Netflix or Amazon. We go to Brit Box. So, yeah, so now we're on, now we go to Brit Box. And we're watching Cranston. It's with Eileen. Who's the woman that I'm confusing with our guest in the studio?
Starting point is 00:39:52 It's the British actress. Is it Eileen Atkins? Eileen Atkins, Judy Dench. Anyway, they're in this thing, and I'm watching it's entertaining, but you know it's skewed for a female audience. So I felt a little self-conscious. And after two episodes, I said, I can't do this anymore. I need to watch like a Western or something. So Suzanne and I found...
Starting point is 00:40:13 Get that testosterone going. So Suzanne and I found the Sons of Katie Elder, 1965, Dean Martin, John Wayne. And it's not a great movie, but it's a very good movie. But there were a couple of lines in it. First of all, I always read the opening credits who's going to be in it. And there were a couple of names. What's his name? Kennedy, who always plays the bad guy.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm saying he was, George Kennedy. George Kennedy plays the bad guy. Man, he's just like a wicked monster. He's the bad guy. But there are all of these other character actors whose names I don't know. But then I noticed in the credits Struther Martin. Strother Martin is in all these.
Starting point is 00:40:55 I can't even think, whatever. But there's a scene in the movie. There were a couple of lines in the movie, and I thought the movie was worth it to me for these, like, three lines. One of them was John Wayne is kind of arguing with Dean Martin about when they were kids. He used to always throw me out of the hayloft and whatever. And John Wayne says, that's because you, I think, I can remember the exact line, but he says, he always threw me out of the hayloft.
Starting point is 00:41:16 And he says, that's just because you bounce so good. Now, most people will think that's not funny. I find it funny. And we just want to see you bounce. It was just so stupid. Your John Wayne is freaking people out. If people listening on the radio, they think the Duke walked in here. They think.
Starting point is 00:41:32 But then there was another one. Another one was referring to their mother, Katie Elder, and it said she had more brass than a Kansas City fire engine. I said, that's a keeper. I want to remember that line. And anyway, then there's a scene with Dean Martin where he's faking. He's a gambler and a con man, and he's trying to fool people. This is with Strother Martin. He's trying to fool people.
Starting point is 00:41:55 people that he has a glass eye and he's raffling it off and he puts on an eye patch. So later on he wins it back and they say, well, we want to see you put it back in. And then the big reveal, he takes off the eye patch and he says, I don't think I can do that because it'd be awful crowded in there. And I just thought that's a brilliant way of putting it. But anyway, sons of Katie Elder, we love to watch these movies. I want to remind people before we leave you for the day, in all seriousness, go to the wine patch.org.
Starting point is 00:42:28 The wine patch.org. My friend Keith Junta, one of my dearest friends on the planet, does a lot of amazing writing, but he wrote about my experience at the Sean Foyt event the other day in the Bronx. Check it out. Thewinepatch.org. We'll see tomorrow.

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