The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - November 15, 2024

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses:Hurry Up and Wait: Texas House Speaker Race Gains Post-Election SteamDemocrat John Bryant Enters Texas House Speaker RaceSchool Choice, Other Education Bills Filed for Upcoming 2025 Legislative SessionChinese Land Ownership, Border Security, Gender Privacy: Legislative Filing Opens in TexasTrump Selects Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan as New 'Border Czar'South Dakota's John Thune Elected U.S. Senate GOP Majority Leader Over Texan John CornynTrump Taps Former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe for CIA DirectorTexas Sues Department of Justice Over Federal Trump Investigation DocumentsTexas Legislature Gains New Crop of Pro-School Choice Republicans After November ElectionTexas Medical Board Reiterates Abortion Law Exceptions, Physician 'Rules and Responsibilities'GOP Judicial Victories in Harris County Spurred by Business Community's Massive $18 Million PushLadies and Gentlemen, We Have a Winner: SMSS Ep. 9

Brad, will you check and make sure it's recording? I'm 99% sure. Yep, we're good. Okay, great. We're good. This is a very professional operation. Well, howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie Jalulo here with Brad Johnson, Cameron Abrams, and Mary Elise Cosgrave in

person for the first time in a very long time. Last week was supposed to be my return to the in-person podcast and um brad wasn't it oh yeah because last week we had the election you're totally right i was like that does not seem like i'm right hang that on a banner maybe that'll make an appearance i was gonna say hang that on a banner that sounds like a really good fodder because i do need some fodder for my newsletter if you aren't reading our newsletter, subscribe to The Texan. This is my first time back in person with you all. And notably, Maslin is taking so much deserved time off the latter portion of this week,

leaving us to our own devices and ensuring that the cameras are on, that the microphones are all hooked up. So this might be a disaster. That Mary Elise is recorded accurately. Yeah, for those watching the podcast, you might notice little sticky notes placed around our podcast studio here. All over the floor.

They're all over the floor. On the camera. You can't see those, but Maslin left a very detailed map for us to follow. I think she knows who she's dealing with. Yeah. I think that's the moral of the story. Did I appreciate every single one of them?

Yes. Yeah. It was a little nerve-wracking pressing record on the camera today, which is the easiest part of it. It's just pressing the red button. Yeah. Brad, will you check and make sure it's recording? I'm 99% sure. Yep, we're good.

Praise the Lord. Okay, great. We're good. Well, gentlemen. This is a very professional operation. This is very professional. We know exactly what we're doing here, and it's not like we're left out to see when one person leaves for three days.

It feels a little bit that way. Oh, wait, Mary Louise, I want to see your mug. Yeah, it's a Bass Pro Shops mug. Had it for a long time. My husband would love that mug. And that's a really good stocking stuffer idea. I'm putting that in the back of my head. Yeah, you should write that down. Okay, I actually am going to. Cameron Bradley. Yo. Cameron Bradley. Yep. How, I don't know, disconcerting was it to be joined by a third person in this studio today for the first time in a very long time? Well, we got the recording studio feng shui all worked out throughout, you know, your very inconvenient absence.

But now you're here throwing a wrench into it. And frankly, I'm against it. So you're saying no matter what I would have done this would have been inconvenient for you. Maybe we could go back to you being on the screen. You could be in your office, stream

into the pod room. Right. Keep the timeline the same. Looking at Mary Lee's Andrew Christmas gift ideas. Bass Pro. Great idea. What? Why do you have the smoke grin?

There's a lot of news this week. There is a lot of news this week. One piece of news I do want to highlight, folks, is that this January, as we did two years ago when the 88th legislative session began, we hosted an all-day panel discussion with the lawmakers from all over the state. This year we're doing the, or I guess come 2025, it's wild that we're thinking in 2025 now, but that will happen again.

So we're holding an all-day panel discussion here in Austin. Subscribers are able to sign up now. We've had an awesome response so far. People are already signing up. So make sure to go check it out. It's on January 28th, which is a Tuesday. Yeah, and this is a great event for newcomers to Texas politics and veterans because my first week starting here at the Texan was the 88th launch.

That was a crazy day two on the job for you. Well, you know, it was a great experience because I came in not knowing anyone, not knowing their policy positions, and I got to sit there all day and listen. And you learn a ton. And for people who are already familiar with Texas politics, you get to understand what could be coming up and how people have moderated oppositions or change or where they're really secure and cemented on certain ideas. So they get pushed on that stage on some things. It was really fun to see our reporters here talk directly with the lawmakers. So that's really fun for people to watch. So I'd encourage everyone to come check it out. Absolutely. And subscribers get a steep discount. It's like 40,

it's over 50% off tickets if you go and you are a subscriber. And like I said, subscribers aren't the only folks who can take advantage of this first wave of ticket sales. So I'd encourage folks, they're actually going pretty fast too, in terms of what we're allotting for sponsors, for folks at the event, for subscribers. So I'd encourage folks to they're actually going pretty fast too in terms of what we're allotting for sponsors, for folks at the event, for subscribers. So I'd encourage folks to go buy their tickets now. Are we allowed to say where it's happening? Yes, of course. It's live.

It's here in Austin. It's at DBPF's Texas Public Policy Foundation's theater. Yeah. It's a good location for members, staffers coming from the capital. Yeah. Nice short walk. Absolutely. And for a lot of folks who come to session from different parts of the state

to advocate for policies for different bills, this is a place that they're very familiar with and very close to the Capitol too. So an easy walk over. It'll be awesome. So make sure to come check that out and be part of the action. It's a really fun event, and we had a lot of fun with it last time,

and I think this time it's going to be even better. I agree. Okay, folks. Wonderful. Well, let's jump into the news. Oh, one more thing to tease. Black Friday is coming up. We're going to have another steep sale on subscriptions.

Keep an eye out for that. What about merch? Merch. What about merch? If you do subscribe to The Texan Now, you get a free merch item for an annual subscription. Oh. Yeah. But Black Friday is a 50% off situation, which is a pretty sweet deal.

Yeah. But teasing that for right now. Okay, Brad, I think it's very apt that your first article we're talking about starts with hurry up and wait because that's what you've been doing the entire time while we've been chatting all through this stuff. Let's talk about the speaker's race post-election. I think that's a lot of what is on the minds of lawmakers here in Texas. What's the biggest update this week in the speaker's race? So as soon as the election concluded, there were just phones were buzzing off the hook because everyone knows now who actually has a vote in this.

So the pieces are on the chessboard. Now the two sides are starting to make their moves, right? And so that kind of jump-started everything again. It kind of been in a holding pattern. Well, this week, the biggest outward news about the speaker's race is we have another entrant. We have a Democrat, John Bryant, who is only in his first term of his most recent stint, but he was in the legislature in the House for, I think, about a decade, maybe slightly longer than a decade, back in the 70s and 80s.

So he's a vet. He knows how the process works. He knows the ins and outs. When he joined last year into the house, you all of a sudden saw him at the back mic quite a bit, trying to shoot stuff down, just a lot of questions at the author. He's a smooth operator, and he's very cunning. So this had been rumored for a while that he was mulling it.

He hadn't done anything, but he filed, John Bryant filed paperwork to join the speaker's race. I think it was on Monday. And he did so very quietly. To my understanding, he still has not said anything one way or the other about it very interesting yeah very interesting um which makes me wonder how many conversations behind the scenes are happening right yeah like that is likely where they're happening yep but still very curious yeah absolutely so um he is something to watch in this he's the second Democrat to enter.

Ana Maria Ramos, Democrat from Dallas. Well, Democrats have a very, they're not likely to have a speaker be a Democrat. There will not be a Democrat. So this is really a strategic play, right? Yes. And some precedent to keep in mind when watching this unfold. David Cain, a Democrat from also Dallas area, back in, I think it was the early 80s, he had a group of about 10 or so votes. And this was when Gibb Lewis eventually won. So he had 10 votes locked to him, pledged to him in his run for speaker. And so he made a deal with Lewis to deliver him those 10, 11 votes, including himself. And he turned that into

an appointment to the Transportation Committee chairmanship. Which I think sounds maybe anticlimactic, but it's one of the biggest committee chairmanships in the House in terms of even like the monetary side of what they're allocated, right? So transportation is a huge chairmanship. So you see a lot of that happen, bids for speaker being leveraged into some kind of maybe not cushy but important chairmanship. We saw that with Chris Paddy when he was state affairs chair when Dade Phelan first won in 20, and then the session in 21, he was state affairs chair. So it happens all the time. It's horse trading.

Yeah. Right. Well, so with these two Democrats jumping in the race, maybe they're trying to create their own factions sure between the democrats yeah where do you see david cook and feeling sort of negotiating with these two democrat factions that have popped up well first of all you know there's going into this there were a lot of assumptions that the entire democratic caucus would be just be behind feeling right and that still may happen um because you know of the two options in terms of power sharing, Phelan's

the friendliest to that side. He's not promising to lock them out of Democratic chairmanships. However, the Democratic caucus is not united. There was a meeting, a call the Wednesday after the election, the day after the election, the morning after. And from my understanding, it was mentioned whether they would back Phelan there. And that didn't happen. Still might happen.

Could happen. We'll see. But there is a contingent of the Democrats, the Democratic caucus, who is upset both about being backbenched because they have not – Democrats have gotten eight chairmanships. They've gotten vice chairmanships. But most of these members don't get any of that. All the same Democrats get the goodies from the Republicans, and these guys just go along.

Is this just a difference in the relationship they have with the person in the speakership? Or is it based on an ideological difference, like more moderate versus more progressive? I think you could say both. Some of both. You can't take the interpersonal side out of this. It's all interpersonal, right? But also there's, if you look at the ideological breakdown of those in power versus out, and it's similar on the Republican side too. Not entirely so, but the four furthest right members of the GOP caucus weren't on really anything important, at least in an important capacity. So there is the ideological breakdown.

Some of these members are more progressive, Ramos especially. And they have a different philosophy. They want to just raise hell. They want to blow stuff up. They're sick of watching, of playing ball with the Republicans while the R's in the legislature pass all kinds of conservative stuff. Like Conkerry is a big one. The abortion stuff is obviously a big one, right? The child gender modification, another big one.

So there's various different arguments there and perspectives from why the Democratic caucus is not united behind one candidate yet. Again, still may happen. We shall see. Eventually, the rubber is going to meet the road in both directions, and people are going to have to pick a side, but may happen. We shall see. Eventually the rubber is going to meet the road in both directions, and people are going to have to pick a side. But not yet. And so that does not bode well for Dade Phelan at the moment.

So in terms of where the speaker race is right now, obviously the two main candidates are David Cook and Dade Phelan, right? Cook is the reform group endorsed candidate. Phelan is obviously the incumbent. I have two pieces up this week. One, my newsletter where I run through all the arguments for and against each. So check that out if that interests you. And then I have another one, the one that Mackenzie mentioned,

just an overview of the race generally. So generally it's up in the air. This thing is not decided. Neither candidate has released a list of 76 names because neither candidate, I think, has it. At least 76 names who want to publicly back one candidate. And the reason we don't think they have it is because if they did, it would exist. And the race would be over. Yeah. Yep.

These people want to call it as soon as possible. Right. Is there an opportunity for just a random name to come up in? Of course. Yeah. Of course, yeah. A unity candidate of sorts. Yeah.

Right? The brand. Yep. And there's a lot of talk about a third candidate entering the race. Names have been thrown about. Nobody's acted on that yet, but there is dissatisfaction obviously among the reform group with Phelan, but also with members who have not picked a side yet. There is also dissatisfaction among members who have not picked a side yet with Cook, particularly related to some of his allies of convenience in this race. You know, it has been mentioned to me multiple times,

the fact that, you know, the right wing of the caucus, particularly the outside forces used to be known as Defend Texas Liberty, now known as Texans United for a Conservative Majority, they're pushing Cook here, and that is kind of poisoning the well with some of these gettable reps in the middle. And so, you know, Cook obviously needs the votes of the individuals who are aligned with that, and there's a lot more than there used to be, right, after the primary. But he also needs votes in the middle to get to 53 in the caucus,

and then eventually 76. But, you know, big question, what does Cook offer Democrats if he needs to siphon off 15, let's say? What do you offer them? Because you're not giving them chairmanships. He's already promised that. So what is enticing enough for them to play ball in that regard? I'm not sure. Vice chairmanships is a possibility, but it will vary based on member. Each member is going to have something they want, whether it's passage of a priority bill or a good position on a committee.

It's just all very fluid right now. Well, it's so interesting how promises can be made in these sorts of negotiations and then how many of those promises are actually followed through on. Yeah, right. You know, it's very much a game of politics at this point. Well, and so I'll just finish with this, that Cook put out an email on Wednesday about the same time that there was a speaker meeting going on trying to figure out who's on Phelan's side still. A speaker meeting meaning the Phelan team. Phelan team.

Yeah, a Phelan team meeting. And making their cases, right? Cook said there's three paths. Either we go with the Reform Caucus candidate, which is him right now, or you back Phelan and continue basically how it's been. Or the third option is another candidate that hasn't even entered yet jumps in. So it feels like the longer this goes on, the more likely that happens, but it's not happened yet, so who knows. And so the questions that members are going to have to consider here and are considering,

this is not me presenting arguments one way or the other for them. They're bringing this up themselves, right? This is being discussed. The Texans United for a Conservative Majority Association with Cook is being discussed. Whether it's fair or not, it is being discussed. And it's hurting Cook. Is it enough to sink him? We'll see.

I don't know. But that is a discussion point. Then there's the question of is breaking with the – breaking from the caucus bylaw that you vote for the caucus-endorsed candidates, which will happen on December 7th, is that even – should we be worried about a primary from that? Are the conditions going to be the same as they were this year where we saw so many incumbents ousted? In all likelihood, Abbott will not be a factor like he was if school choice passes. He's not going to go guns blazing like he did. And everyone expects something to pass. It's just a question of what it is.

But let's say that doesn't. Then you have Abbott back. There's no Dem in the White House causing a Republican fury, groundswell of fury there. So it just will be a different environment and members are considering whether this is something that they should keep them from voting how they're going to vote anyway. So read the whole piece if it interests you. There's a lot more to it. But, yeah, fascinating stuff. It is.

And who knows which way the ball's going to roll. Brad turned in fourth reading this week, which was significantly – well, I don't know if it was significantly – no, the body of it was significantly longer than typical for your newsletter. And he messaged and he's like, this is long, but I could write 5,000 words on this stuff. So folks, subscribe to the Texan, get forth reading, go check out the pieces available at the Texan for all of the details. And Cameron, I want to pivot here because this is the same kind of dynamics at play in a different way. This is a secondary, at least at this point, it will become

a lot more of a story at the forefront of members' minds come session. But secondarily, right now, school choice is what folks are talking about. Because after March, after November, Abbott certainly has a legislature that is more amenable to his big legislative priority. So walk us through post-November 5th. Was it November 5th? I am getting all my dates confused. Yes, November 5th. My gosh. Where we're at in terms of school choice in the Texas House. Yeah, well, Abbott was very excited on election night, came out and saying, oh, we have enough votes to pass school choice. He did a press conference the day after saying that he had 79 true hardcore school choice proponents in the school, in the Texas. Hardcore. So we'll see how that plays out. But on bill filing day, we saw a wide variety of different education-related bills that were filed.

Sort of leading the way was the school choice proposition from Briscoe Cain, the Texas Parental Empowerment Act of 2025. It's a relatively short piece of legislation for how complicated school choice was during the last session, but it's a universal option. It got the sign-on by Corey DeAngelis, the big school choice proponent across the country. I can assume this won't be the final or only school choice proposal that we'll see, but at least it's the first one, and it sort of gets the ball rolling. There was a lot of really interesting education bills that were filed. Representative Troxclare, she's been on the forefront of the cell phones in schools issue. If people remember a couple months ago, actually the TEA during a House committee hearing mentioned the issue with students being on their cell phones in classrooms and sort of signed on and endorsed the idea of

removing them. So she filed a bill that would prohibit students from using electronic devices in school classrooms. We saw some other interesting things, like Jeff Leach filed a bill to allow public school employees to engage in religious prayer on campus. We saw Jared Patterson file a bill to move the start of the school year. That was a big topic. It was probably over a month ago now. But Patterson, during last session, one of his big bills that he was really focused on was the Reader Act, and that was trying to remove the sexually explicit school materials

from public school libraries. That went through a long spat of different legal disputes and going through the courts, and there was different aspects that were said to be unconstitutional and other aspects that were said, be unconstitutional and other aspects that were said, okay, those can move forward. Well, Patterson's filed a few different pieces of legislation trying to bolster that Reader Act, whether it be applied to the obscenity exemption, whether it's applied to how the

review of the books is conducted. So that's going to be another item that was passed during the 88th session that's going to be brought up again during the 89th. A couple other things that I came across that were interesting. There was a bill filed that would make ethnic studies part of the social studies curriculum. You know, with the growing concern over the introduction of CRT, and that was removed in previous sessions, how much will a, quote, ethnic studies portion of the social studies curriculum relate to something like CRT, meaning critical race theory? I'm sure that'll lead to a debate on the House floor or in a committee hearing. Then in the Senate, there was also some education

bills filed. Bob Hall filed legislation relating to special education, another bill related to allowing for handguns to be carried on school campuses. So a lot of different education bills that were filed. I don't know if you want me to get into the new dynamics in the House. We can do that now or we can do that later. No, we can do that now. Okay. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So like I mentioned at the top of this section, pro-school choice candidates won throughout the state. And prior to actually the March 5th primary, like Brad was mentioning earlier, Abbott came in hard for pro-school choice candidates.

Many of those won their primary, and many of those even won in the general. And so there was 26 pro-school choice Republicans that were voted into the Texas House, which resulted in a net gain of two Republicans in the lower chamber, those two being Villa Lobos and McLaughlin. And so with this movement of more pro-school choice candidates in the Texas House really bolsters the idea that school choice will eventually pass in the 89th session. What the composition of the bill will look like, we're still unsure about that. And will it pass in a regular session? Will we have to continue on with these special sessions? We still don't know.

But I sort of estimated by going through votes on the Rainey Amendment, votes on other 88th session school choice bills, there's about 80 members now that are pro-school choice. And I think it really will depend on the type of legislation if all 80 of those swing to being a yes vote. Because as we saw last session, there was rural Republicans that had issues with some of the school choice legislation that was proposed. There was moderate members that had issues with the budget allocations, the different tiers that were being proposed. So it'll be interesting to see. It's going to lead to a lot of fights in committees, a lot of fights on the floor. But it really seems Abbott, with the current composition of the Texas House, this is really his best opportunity to pass school choice.

But he's had the entire time he's been governor. He's really made school choice his big issue, his main issue. This is his legacy that he wants to leave here in texas and so this is the best opportunity well and i think you can put the number my count was 82 um now obviously it depends on what's in the the proposal but because you had two members who voted for the rainy amendment signed the texas conservative commitment earlier this summer which does include school choice or education savings accounts and And when we say 80, let's say 80 something members, like right around 80, right? We're talking about members who voted for not even close to what a

universal school choice proposal would be, right? So we're talking about looping in a lot of folks who have not made school choice saying, yes, we're, we are for any sort of universal proposal. This will likely take, which Cameron's already mentioned, the form of something much different than what, you know, for example, we have on the table right now. This was the initial bill filing. We don't have, which we'll talk about in Brad's piece probably next, but there are set aside bill numbers, you know, one through whatever in both chambers. It's likely that the priority pieces of legislation, you know,

that includes school choice, the Senate will file its, you know, chosen blessed version, the House will do the same, we'll find somewhere in the middle. And to get those votes last session, it included a lot of money for public schools, right? There was a lot more to the bill than just school choice. Yeah, that was one of the big caveats when school choice was being brought up during the ADA session is there was pro-public education members that were insistent on having public school funding be a part of the school choice legislation. Right. Because the school choice legislation by itself just simply did not have the votes. It still might not have the votes. Well, yeah, and that's one bucket to think about of how the legislation is going to play out.

But another thing to pay attention to is, like you mentioned, is the composition of the bill itself in terms of how school choice will actually be enacted. Because months ago, I was trying to work on a school choice piece, and I was trying to reach out to all these different groups. I didn't end up getting it to work out because I couldn't talk to certain people. But something consistently that I heard is the universal options, that's sort of the end goal of school choice legislation. Some of the experts that I spoke to said the best entry point into school choice legislation is the slow role model, where it's these tiers, where it is prioritizing certain at-risk groups, whether it be by their educational outcomes or income issues. It's bracketed. And that sort of allows for the government, the state government that's implementing the school choice legislation, to understand which

groups need the most, which ones aren't attracted to the school choice legislation to understand which groups need the most, which ones aren't attracted to the school choice legislation, and sort of build it out. So it's serving all the communities that it needs to, rather than just a blanket universal school choice legislation. Or all the communities that legislators could take in the first iteration, right? All the ones that they would be willing to vote for. Budgetary concerns that come up. And if you look at a bunch of other states, that's how the ones that have been successful have been the sort of tiered, bracketed rollouts of school legislation. So it's a complicated issue, but just getting something passed is a huge success. And so with the amount of people who have been voted in, Abbott making it a priority, it really bodes well for it passing this next session. Yeah, the ball is rolling for school

choice advocates, certainly. Okay, gentlemen, we have spent the first 30 minutes on two stories. So we're going to, and it was rightfully so, but we are going to move a little faster down the line here. Brad, let's talk broadly, and Cameron, thank you for that breakdown. It's really helpful. Let's talk broadly about the bills that were filed. We had the bill filing start this week ahead of the legislative session that will begin in January. Walk us through what stuck out to you. So bill pre-filing began on Tuesday. That's the first point at which members and members-to-be can submit bill drafts

to the legislature. And so they started doing that and they, boy, did they start flowing in. There was a record over 1,500 bills submitted on the first day and i think the uh if i saw the numbers correctly the first day had 900 last session on the first day of pre-filing so it's a massive amount both together so most of those uh probably like two-thirds came in the house just because there's more people right right? Five times, the members. Yeah. Yep, five times. So some of the top lines, Terry Leo Wilson filed a bill that would eliminate in-state tuition

for anyone without legal status in Texas, in-state tuition at universities. Ryan Guillen filed a couple border compact bills. You had a bill filed by Will Metcalf that would make permanent the circuit breaker, the 20% appraisal cap for small businesses that was part of the property tax deal last time. Joe Moody filed the handful of bills related to the ongoing spat involving the death row inmates, Robert Roberson, including abolition of the death penalty, which he always files. David Spiller filed the proposal to ban countries like China and their actors from purchasing state land. That's going to be a big fight this session.

Briscoe Cain filed a red flag law ban. You already mentioned the school choice one. Cody Basut filed an elimination of property tax. I guess the Mays Middleton and Ellen Truxclare filed identical versions of the taxpayer-funded lobbying ban. That, I think, has a better shot of passing this time with the new members

coming in, but still going to be a slog and going to be difficult for those on the right who want that. And then, I guess the only one I'll mention, the other one I'll mention is Middleton filed, along with Representative Valerie Swanson, that the Texas Women's Privacy Act, and that is what's colloquially known as the bathroom bill,

requiring the use of bathrooms and other similar spaces, private spaces to be used in public areas based on biological sex. So that was a big fight in 2017. You can read the rest in there. Last thing I'll say on this, Mac mentioned the priority numbers. Last time it was 1 through 20 in the House, 1 through 30 in the Senate, bill numbers that were reserved. And number one, in each chamber is always the budget.

So keep that in mind. The House, I think, leads on the budget this year. But this time, the Senate has 1 through 40, and the House has 1 through 150, which is quite a bit. Dade Phelan put out a statement after that that said this is symbolic of the 150 members in the House, and this is going to be a product, these 150 bills will be a product of the work groups that he started. It's kind of a measure to try and get more support for his speakership, basically, but also get the ball rolling earlier on policy.

So some interesting inside baseball there, some angling. Yeah. Hoping to throw some bones to more members. But, yeah, that's a lot of priority bills. That's a lot of priority bills. Absolutely. Bradley, thank you. Cameron, let's go to the federal side here.

President-elect Donald Trump is beginning to make appointments for his upcoming administration. I feel like we get a dozen emails a day at this point from the campaign talking about it. Tell us about the new borders are specifically. Yeah. So this was one of the first announcements that Trump made. And probably because immigration and border issues has been one of the things Trump has run on over the past nine years. It's been at the forefront of his campaigns. And he selected Tom Homan. And Tom Homan, a former assistant district director for investigations in both San Antonio and Dallas. He's held a variety of different law enforcement positions. He worked as a border patrol agent in 2013. President Obama appointed him to be the executive associate director of ICE.

Trump, in 2017, appointed Holman as the acting director of ICE again, then stepped down from the position in 2018. Then he was actually given the role of border czar back in 2019. And so Holman has a lot of experience working on the issue of illegal immigration and border security. Holman has had some testy exchanges, let's say. I highlight one in the piece we published where during an exchange in a House Oversight Committee, he tried to attempt to explain his concern over the issues at the border. He talked about it being out of control and saying the whole thing needs to be fixed. And, you know, this is really a clear signal from Trump that he's taking the, quote-unquote, mass deportation effort seriously.

Because Homan, people can go check out his interview he did on 60 Minutes, where he addressed many of these questions. It was very enlightening to see his perspective on the issue. So for those interested, I think this is a clear signal that Trump is taking the promise of mass deportations very seriously, as Homan has a lot of experience dealing with illegal immigration. Yeah. And there are obviously a lot of clips being recycled and reposted of different statements he's made in the past that kind of show what kind of quote-unquote borders are. It's interesting that that's literally the official title now. He's the definition of a border hawk. Yes, the absolute definition, right? So it's very

clear that the Trump administration is taking this incredibly seriously and following up on a lot of those promises made on the campaign trail. Cameron, thank you. Mary Elise, bless your soul. We're at minute 37 and we're finally getting to you, Madeira. So let's talk about crazy federal news. It really has been a wild news week and not to mention, you know, the Senate majority contest in D.C. Yes. Talk to us about that whole vote that went down and a Texan at the center of it all. Yeah, so this was especially interesting, I think, to Texans because we had Senator John Cornyn in the running. So it was Senator John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn and then Senator Rick Scott from Florida. So as we know, Republicans took the Senate on Election Day. And then yesterday yesterday they chose a GOP Senate leader for the first time in

18 years, so that's pretty significant. That's because the current Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, announced in, I believe it was February, that he'd be stepping down in November. He is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, which is interesting, fun fact. And so Senator John Thune of South Dakota won the race for the Senate GOP leader. It was a closed door vote on Wednesday morning. And so essentially this means he will be the chamber's majority leader come January. So the first round of voting, so Thune won after the second round of voting. And so the first round went here in 23.

And then our senator, our Texas Senator John Cornyn won 15 votes and Senator Rick Scott won 13. So Rick Scott was knocked out after the first count of votes. And then on the second count on the second ballot, Thune won 29 to Cornyn's 24. So interestingly, before the vote, there was a lot of public pressure on social media from more conservative factions of the party that were opposing Cornyn and Thune and backing Scott. I even noticed it. I posted something on X and it was quoting something Cornyn had written. It was an appeal to his fellow colleagues just explaining why he thinks that his vision is perfect for this role and just kind of outlining what he sees for the future of the GOP Senate. And I saw in the comments it was just flooded. It was saying how much people don't want Cornyn and they were backing Scott and calling Cornyn and Thune never Trumpers and saying that Scott was a Trump loyalist.

So and the pressure did seem to upset some members of the GOP conference. One of them said that it seemed almost as if the voters were trying to bully them and then said, this is not how that works. And Cruz, our Senator Ted Cruz Cruz endorsed Scott just shortly before the vote happened. He said, he posted on X, he said, this morning, I'll be voting for Rick Scott for GOP leader. As I did two years ago in 2022, I helped lead the charge for Rick against McConnell. And I'm proud to stand with him again. For 12 years, I've been unequivocal that we need to change GOP leadership, and now we finally will. And then in his acceptance statements, Thune said that he's extremely honored to have earned

the support of his colleagues to lead the Senate in the 119th Congress. He said this Republican team is united behind President Trump's agenda, and our work starts today. So this will be interesting to see because he was what I like to call chronically online, we're calling him a never Trumper. So this will be interesting to see it all play out, see where everything stands in January. Lots of dynamics at play this week. And that was certainly a huge story, Mary Elise. Thanks for covering it. Let's continue talking about Texans making waves in D.C. this week, Cameron. Trump appointed a Texan to be the next CIA director. Tell us about it. Yeah.

John Ratcliffe, former Texas congressman and director of national intelligence, has been selected to be the future director of the Central Intelligence Agency, or the CIA. And for people who are interested, like the CIA, I know there's lots of rabbit holes you can go down with how the CIA operates, but it's really an intelligence collection agency, right? They have agents and scientists and analysts that are collecting this foreign intelligence and trying to help bolster national security, right? And so John Ratcliffe, he's been tapped for this position. He's been a prominent figure in national politics for a while. And, you know, I highlight some of his comments to try and round out how people can view this appointment. He's described Iran's actions in terms of the alleged hacking scheme and the firing of ballistic missiles through the proxies. He's called these acts of war. He penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal where he called China the greatest threat to America today. So he has, he's a very sharp critic of many of these hostile foreign nations.

And so it'll be interesting to see how Trump utilizes if there's going to be a lot of communication between the Trump team and the CIA, because Trump, he's made it clear that he wants to dismantle the deep state. You know, many people see the CIA and how they operate as part of this established deep state. The intelligence community. The intelligence community. So will John Ratcliffe be an assistant

in this dismantling of the intelligence institutions of our federal government? We'll see. One fact about ratcliffe so last friday connie and i had a over the weekend we had a panel up in rockwall and friday evening before it i was at a bar and guess who walks in john ratcliffe yeah well i didn't bother them to go say hi, although considering what happened, I should have because the rumblings were there. Yeah, the rumblings started as soon as Trump got elected, right? Or even before then. I think Trump's appointments to these positions are very interesting to see because Trump's made a lot of promises on the campaign trail. You know, he made a lot of promises in 2015, 2016 when he got elected. And, you know,

there is some forces at play that prevented him from enacting a lot of those promises. It seems like this time he has the Trump loyalists. He has the mandate from the American people. And I'll be interested to see if these appointments can carry out a lot of the promises he's made on the campaign trail. And he still has more to make, right? We still have a lot more to watch as it all comes in. So Cameron, thank you. Okay. Mary Elise, Texas sued the DOJ to preserve records from an investigation into president-elect Donald Trump. Tell us more. Yes, so more about Donald Trump. Texas sued the United States Department of Justice on Monday in an effort to preserve all of the records that have

to do with special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into President-elect Donald Trump. And this followed previously Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed what's called a Freedom of Information Act complaint that was on November 8th. He essentially requested some very specific records from Jack Smith's investigation. These included all communications from any current or former member of office of Special Counsel Jack Smith to any New York State governmental office since November 18, 2022. And another request that Paxton had was all documents memorializing the final reasoning to request that a trial against President-elect Trump to start in January of 2024. So those were two very specific requests.

In the lawsuit, Texas accused the DOJ of having a history that is regrettably riddled with attempts to avoid transparency, specifically referencing special counsel Robert Miller's infamous crossfire hurricane incident, which I believe was in 2020, after his team allegedly wiped their phones multiple times after an investigation into the DOJ's handling of an FBI probe into Trump's allegedly unlawful links to Russia. And Paxton said in the lawsuit that he fears the many releasable records, including the ones that he sought in the Freedom of Information Act, will never see daylight. And he said that's not because the DOJ has any legal reason to withhold them, to keep them from me, but rather that I have a well-founded belief that the defendants will simply destroy the records.

And in the filing, it describes how since Trump won the election, as we know, it is clear that both Jack Smith's office and his prosecution of the president will soon end. This is because the DOJ's own policies don't permit bringing charges against a sitting president of the United States. And this is a pretty complex subject. And I believe that Matt covered it pretty extensively in the docket yesterday. So definitely would recommend checking that out to understand the whole Jack Smith investigation. Jack Smith, a name folks are throwing around a lot this week. Mary Elise, thank you for your coverage. And yes, always a good idea to plug our newsletter.

So go subscribe to The Texan, get access to our exclusive newsletters. It's my second time saying it on the pod, and I'll probably say it a third time. But thank you for your coverage. We're going to stick with you, Mary Elise, after blocking you out of the conversation for 30 minutes. We're sticking with you. The Texas Medical Board sent out a statement regarding the state's laws surrounding abortions and physicians' responsibilities. Tell us about it. Yes, so the Texas Medical Board sent out a statement on Friday just kind of reiterating its amendments to certain rules that enforce Texas's abortion-related laws, just clarifying, which do not require a medical provider to wait until the mother's life is endangered to provide medical care

and does allow for ectopic pregnancy care, which is definitely a topic that we've been hearing a lot about, especially with the election. That was definitely a topic that we've been hearing a lot about, especially with the election. That was something that Kamala Harris's campaign had a lot of ads that definitely talked about abortion in Texas and whether the laws were clear enough and if they would put a mother's life in danger. And so for a little background on this statement, TMB or the Texas Medical Board adopted these amendments on June 21st, 2024, just to clarify abortion exceptions in the state law. And they define certain language about what exactly constitutes an may utilize reasonable medical judgment consistent with the patient's informed consent and with the oath each physician swears to do what is medically necessary when responding to emergency that places a pregnant woman in danger of death or serious risk of substantial impairment of a majorly bodily function so a lot of words there but um he was just reiterating that the amendments do allow for ectopic pregnancy care

and that doctors are allowed to take action when they believe that the woman's life is at risk. And he also, Dr. Zafran reiterated that the amendments define abortion as the act of using or prescribing an instrument, a drug, a medicine, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to cause the death of an unborn child of a woman known to be pregnant. And this doesn't include oral contraceptives or birth control devices. And he also clarified if the intent is one of the following three, to save the life or preserve the health of the unborn child, or to remove a dead unborn child whose death was caused by a spontaneous abortion or remove an ectopic pregnancy. That's not considered an abortion.

So he's clarifying, you know, like Texas does allow care for an ectopic pregnancy. He also essentially encouraged physicians to familiarize themselves with the different rules and statutes in Texas surrounding abortion and to make sure they're really familiar with that to prevent confusion and be able to do the best possible job as these medical providers. So interesting statement. Hopefully we'll provide some clarity in the situation. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Mary Lee, thanks for your coverage. And for, I think there's just clarity that's been needed on this issue for a long time. Folks are talking about it and have talked about it for a long time, even before Dobbs, right? This is a huge conversation in Texas and throughout the country. So thanks for following that for our listeners and for our readers.

Bradley, you and Holly co-wrote a piece this week about the judicial wins for Republicans and who was the driving force behind them, specifically in terms of financial contributions. Tell us about your story. Yeah, so shout out Holly on this. What put me onto it was the fact that in Harris County, the largest county in the state, not a friendly stomping ground for Republicans these days. The top vote getter for Republicans was not Ted Cruz. It was not Donald Trump. It wasn't Christy Craddock, the railroad commissioner. It was David Schenck, candidate for the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. And that was fascinating to see.

And he actually won the county. One of the only Republicans actually won the county one of the only republicans that won the county so um basically that got me looking into you know what happened we knew about this push by texans for lawsuit reform and their backers to flip these appellate court districts and they were very successful i think 25 or 26 of them they they won in these races but it kind of had this uh rising tide lifts all boats effect on the criminal court of appeals that didn't actually happen for the texas supreme court justices so that's interesting um but got me looking and talking to people about it. But this group, what is it called?

Judicial Fairness PAC, which is run by TLR, funded by massive donors like Dick Weakley, Ken Fisher, Mary Maddison, and Elon Musk. They put $18 million into these races, and they made massive gains across the states on these seats. And their messaging, especially in Harris County, was very effective. And they did that through kind of a side group called Stop Houston Murders Pack. And that group ran these ads, these very effective ads.

And I have a link in the story to it if you want to see one of them. But they're all kind of similar. Face to camera, someone whose loved one was killed by a recently released offender from jail by a judge, as they said in the ads, a Democrat judge. They ran those. And clearly those were massively effective. And that kind of, not only did that help the appellate court judges win, but it kind of trickled over into the CCA as well. So an interesting piece of campaign inside baseball. You can read more about it in Holly and I's piece. But TLR, Dick Weakley, they really wanted to flip these seats.

And boy, did they. And to massive effect and even more so than their intended targets with the CCA. So, yeah, it's something that all the Republicans who are very happy about this, they have in large part TLR to thank, which is interesting considering the rest of the political dynamics involving TLR. But they put their money where their mouth was and nobody else dumped $18 million into these seats. So check out the piece. It's worthwhile, I think, and highly goes into the background of these bond problems in Harris County and why this was even such a salient political issue that it was. Why it hit home for voters locally, right?

I mean, this had to resonate with folks to ensure this kind of turnout, really, is what we're dealing with. But very interesting inside baseball and one of the bigger stories from the election that not a lot of folks are talking about. Certainly go check it out. Cameron, I want you to plug Send Me Some Stuff. That's your next task. Everyone should go listen to Send Me Some Stuff.

What is Send Me Some Stuff? Send Me Some Stuff is – How many times can we say Send Me Some Stuff? We can say Send Me Some Stuff as many times as you want to say Send Me Some Stuff. It's our podcast after all. You could have said Send Me Some Stuff in that sentence me some stuff. It's our podcast after all. You could have said send me some stuff in that sentence. Send me some stuff is our podcast. Yeah.

There we go. But me and Rob, our assistant editor, break down all the different aspects of the Trump election. We go through the different demographics that shifted towards Trump. We talk about the issues with the polls leading into the election, all the crying and screaming that happened afterwards. And we talk a lot about what this means for the future of the country, because it's winning the popular vote and the electoral college is a mandate from the American people. So we get into that. We also have a really fun intro to the podcast for people who watch because I made quite a few predictions in the podcast leading up to the election.

And if you want to hear how my predictions panned out, you've got to go watch and listen to Simi's stuff. Cameron deserved to have a victory lap for his predictions. He really did. Spot on. And he really has, because I don't think you take much pride or satisfaction in gloating, which is not true for many of us in the office. So this was his time to talk about it. And it's definitely worth the listen. But very interesting

to you because I think our last weekly roundup last week was awesome. It was a live stream. We had so much fun. But we'd only spent like 10, 15 minutes on the presidential, which is wild to think about. But there was so much that happened in Texas. So this is a really fun podcast to go listen to for more of a breakdown on the federal stuff. Yeah, well, I loved paying attention to this election and seeing all the exit polls and the big shifts from all these different demographics, whether it was young people or Latinos or even young women shifting towards Trump in a significant margin. It's just so interesting to think why this was happening and why the polls initially missed it.

Like, what were they paying attention to? Polls? Missing something? Color me shocked. My gosh. The number of times we've made that clarification is like, polling is just one tool, just an indicator. I think this election, too, which we could talk about this forever, but I think polling, something needs to change in terms of how voters are tapped and measured ahead of an election cycle, right, even just in terms of cell phones

and home phones and the difference that that's made in the last 10, 20 years. So there's a lot to consider there. Well, yeah, me and Rob also go into the how the different uh how both campaigns message to the electorate and how that might have played into the outcome you know with the harris campaign focusing on celebrity endorsements and concerts and you know blowing a billion dollars as opposed to the trump campaign know, really going after that earned media on podcasts. A lot of earned media. Yeah, absolutely.

Just interesting. Fun to talk about. Certainly. Okay, we'll move into the tweeter-y section here. Bradley, we'll start with you. I saw this on Twitter today and meant to text you about it, and so I'm cracking up. This is your tweeter-y.

Brad's trying to get my dog on his lap. So, now he's blocking me from talking. So I saw this today. There's a big hiring announcement at Barstool. The entertaining sports... How would you classify Barstool? Just a sports

content company. It's not just sports though. It's just like a media company at this point. It started out as a sports company. It's not just sports, though. It's just like a media company at this point. That's true. Right? I feel like it's just a media company. It started out as sports. Yeah. But they hired John Gruden. Did they really? The former coach, Super Bowl winning coach, who spent years as the color guy on Monday Night Football. And he was with the Raiders and got fired for saying some things that are pretty at home in a sports locker room but not out in the public.

So Barstool. And Barstool. He fits with Barstool perfectly. But I just thought he was entertaining. He wasn't my favorite broadcaster. What was the ESPN show he had where he'd bring on the college quarterbacks and they'd sit in the film room? Yeah.

I forget the name. Gosh, that was a great show. Yeah, he had Tim Tebow in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a great show. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's – I'll be interested to follow it. I don't watch much Barstool other than clips I see on Twitter,

which are usually hilarious, like the Zach Bryan diss track that Dave Portnoy just put out. I think there's a second one now, too. There is. I haven't watched that one. But yeah, Barstool continuing making interesting...

Do we have any idea how much his contract is for? I did not look. Okay. I don't know if that's probably not public information at this point, but I'm sure at some point it will be. But apparently he's joining the Thursday Night Football live stream with the Barstool guys.

So when this goes out, it will have happened yesterday, but his first debut will have happened, and Poncho is making this very difficult. You invited him up. I just want that to be clear. Cameron and I have been strong the whole time here. I'm definitely taking a photo for my newsletter. This is very good.

Mary Elise, what do you got for us? Yes, I think this was something we were talking about earlier on the staff group chat, but I saw that I think alex jones info wars was put up to auction i don't know if it was today or a few days ago and i saw that the onion has taken it um won the auction so i thought that was interesting because they're i don't read much of the onion but i know they're a satirical site right yeah definitely. It'll be interesting to see where they take InfoWars. I know. It's a very different – they're just two very different companies in a lot of different ways, right?

Like, there's a myriad of differences. And, yeah. Did you see how they bought it? Yeah. Well, right? It was money from every town for gun safety and the parents who won the settlement, the $4 billion settlement from the Sandy Hook thing.

Yeah, so it's a massive troll against Alex Jones. Unbelievable. Yeah, it's the kind of thing that Elon would do. It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny. I will say too that that probably means, because I think, I'm trying to remember, but I remember, I want to say like five years ago, I think the year we launched, I was scootering downtown as many of us are known to do.

I guess not so much as now. I feel like when they first came out, we did that a lot more. But I was scootering downtown and I got behind this truck that looked like a tank. I was like, what the heck is this truck? And it was the InfoWars tank, like just driving. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's definitely probably unlikely to happen anytime soon. But that was, yeah, a vehicle that was often spotted around protests and different things happening in downtown. So very interesting.

Cameron, what do you got for us? Well, we've talked a lot about Trump's cabinet picks, but I wanted to ask you guys, what's been the most surprising pick? There's one answer. Yeah, there's one answer. Yeah, there's one answer. It's Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz. I think it's pretty well reported to you that he was not on any of the lists, right, that were being circulated. And so by and large, I think it's easy to say he was the most surprising. Most surprising. You know, ethics investigation aside. Right.

I saw a report this morning that said some guy, I forget his name, who's involved in the Trump advisor. He suggested Matt Gaetz be the nominee to Trump on a plane, and in two hours Trump had agreed to it. And that was all while Susie Wiles, the chief of staff to be, was in another room unaware it was going on. Interesting. Those kinds of dynamics are so interesting in any presidency, and I think in the Trump presidency it's only compounded because of how he seems to operate as a human. Right. It's just a really fascinating process.

Well, that is really interesting. You know, one of the other interesting appointments we saw during the campaign, this bipartisan coalition get behind Trump. And two of those individuals, RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, were big names. And we've seen Tulsi Gabbard now be appointed to the director of national intelligence. And that's sort of the first domino to fall between those two. I'll be interested to see what happens with RFK Jr. I know where he'll land. It'll be somewhere. Sorry if we're distracted.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, like, is he going to... Is he going to get snubbed? Is he going to get snubbed or is he going to get... He might get snubbed. I don't know.

He's been wanting to take down the FDA or, you know, who knows what he's going to be doing, but it'll be interesting to see where he lands. Would you have suspected DNI for Tulsi? I feel like there are several just based on her background where that made relative sense. But of course, you know, folks are talking about how difficult it might be to get a confirmation through for her.

It's going to be for all of these Trump appointments. But I'm curious who is, which again, there's so much we could talk about, but he's also dealing with a totally different Senate than he did last time. Right. I mean, that's the big. Well, another difficult one is going to be Pete Hegseth, the Fox News. There's nobody happier about the Gates appointment than Pete Hegseth because now he's not getting the attention.

Yeah. It's all on Gates. Well, I saw a lot of people saying stuff on X about, oh, this guy's unqualified or whatever. But if you look just one level beneath the surface, this guy was in the National Guard and served overseas and has a bronze star. He knows what he's doing.

But wouldn't you also say that this is part of why folks were excited about Trump's candidacy in presidencies because he chooses folks like him who have let it fly and unorthodox and have a different background in some way. They're not just somebody who served in government for 20, 30, 40 years. Well, and what's cool too is someone like Hexeth, he and a lot of these other appointments, them being outsiders to this political machine, have sort of built their public persona by going on television and podcasts.

And so if people are interested in understanding who Pete Hegseth is, you can go listen to a two-and-a-half-hour podcast. We have more, like, verbal information about this person. Verbal information is a horrible phrase to use. But that's the only thing I can think of. We have more information on him in terms of what he's said publicly than a lot of these appointees. It's really an interesting time to watch this happen. And I don't want to go on too much of a tangent,

but this was something I brought up during Semi, some stuff that might have attracted the electorate towards Trump is people were not just electing Trump, they were electing Tulsi, they were electing RFK, they were electing Vivek, they were electing Elon. And what was attracting is people have been dissatisfied with the nameless, faceless bureaucracy. And this way, with electing Trump

and people knowing who these cabinet appointments are, whether they succeed or they fail, at least they can point to an individual and say, this is the person who is in charge, rather than some ambiguous blob that runs the government. Right. Well, that's also where it will be interesting to see if he keeps certain campaign promises, like the RFK, let him run amok and do what he wants to do, except stay away from liquid gold, right? That's Trump's whole thing. But it'll be interesting. Mary Elise, did you have any take on the cabinet appointees? I feel like it's a really interesting story.

I was going to ask a question, actually, because I saw, I mean, we've seen a lot of rumors floating around on social media, but I saw that Joel Salatin had potentially been tapped for a position on the USDA. And I'm curious if any of y'all know if that's accurate. That's a good question. Yeah, no clue. Okay, I'm going to have to look into that and report back because I'm a fan of his. I've read a lot of his books about farming.

Oh, that's cool. That's super cool. Yeah, Joel Salatin, I was familiar with him because probably eight or so years ago, I read Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Are you familiar with that book? No, but I've heard of it. But yeah, because it was really interesting, this regenerative farming idea.

And alongside Joel Salatin was the name Thomas Massey that was floated to be a part of this appointment. And Thomas Massey, if people don't know, he has a farm that he lives on back home, and he has this really interesting device called the clucks capacitor that's hilarious so like for his chickens in a chicken coop usually it's stagnant stationary and the chickens just eat off the grass that's on the ground well this clucks capacitor is a mobile chicken coop where it's like every 10 minutes it moves one inch. This is Thomas Massey? Thomas Massey.

Oh, but it contains the chicken. That contains the chicken. So they always have fresh grass to eat throughout the day. And they're fertilizing. Yeah. Well, a Texas angle to this about the USDA, obviously Sid Miller, Agriculture Commissioner, has been rumored as part of that. He is among those being considered.

I have no idea if this appointment has gone down yet, so maybe it's moot at this point. But when all these started dropping earlier this week, I called Commissioner Miller and asked him. And he said, well, I know I'm on the list, and I was interviewed, and I sent in my whatever the paperwork requirements are. And he said, I just haven't heard back yet. So I'm sitting here waiting, an old pattern. So maybe at this point, Friday morning when this goes out, he's still in that holding pattern. Maybe he's been notified.

Maybe we know anyway. I don't know. But, you know, that's a Texas angle to this. And Paxton obviously didn't get the U.S. Attorney General position. Well, I was going to say that his response to Gates' announcement was, you know, Paxton's response was, like, immediately met with folks theorizing different behind-the-scenes conversations or strategies. It was very interesting because folks folks you know ken paxton was certainly um floated as on the short list for folks i'm sure it was on the short list so it's uh it's just interesting to watch it all trump the real curveball major okay folks well gosh that

was a fun podcast episode um it's good to be back with you boys and mary lee's one day we'll get you in the office make that happen one day Yeah, one day. In person. Thanks for letting me sit at the back of the table. And at the head of the table? Just the table. Oh. Okay. Brad always has to make it weird.

I make it weird. All right. Definitely. Definitely. Folks, on that note, thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next week.