Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #019- "You All Have Our Back Everyday"

Transcript

#019- "You All Have Our Back Everyday" · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_05: The only job in America where when you get up in the morning and put the gun on, you have already made the decision if you have to step in front of a bullet.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_05: We owe it to all of you to be supportive in the legislature.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_05: Supporting you all and the men and women out there is just easy because you have our back every day.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, TMPA family.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the uh Blue Grit Podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have got a uh special guest today, a uh distinguished Texas uh guest, co-host, Mitch Landry, Deputy Executive Director for Texas Municipal Police Association, and uh just got uh kind of a unique guest today, Lieutenant, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome on, man.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_05: Good to be here.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_05: This is very nice.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_05: I was in the radio business for almost all of my life, and this is nicer than the studios at my radio station.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure who should be hosting who, or you you really should be hook uh, I guess, hosting us, and you should be teaching us something here today.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's been a long time.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh when I came into the Senate, I was able to stay on the air for the first or second session because as a freshman and a sophomore, you're not as busy.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_05: You're not a committee chair, you're not on finance, and so you have a little bit more time.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: But in the second year, really had to start backpedaling in it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_05: And since the second year, I haven't been on very often.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_05: So uh particularly hosting.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_05: So you know, I go on to guest, but that's it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_05: So that's crazy.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and that and that's where we're we actually are going to dive off into that today, kind of how you got your political career and and uh what really kind of sparked your interest to really get into politics.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to really kind of do your intro and and talk about that and and what what got your interest in that.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_05: So it was late in life, uh, to be honest, in my 50s, um, that I was told, I I wasn't even aware, I wasn't tracking it, that John Lindsay, who was the senator on the west side of Houston, uh was retiring and the district was open.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_05: That was back in 2005 or six I found out about that.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_05: And from my background, uh it's it is mostly radio and television.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: I went to the University of Maryland.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: I've been here in Texas now for 42 years, but I went to the uh the Baltimore County campus and I worked my way through college as a country western disc jockey.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_05: So I did that in Maryland.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: In Maryland, in Baltimore.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_05: And then uh I finally got my first television break in Scranton, Pennsylvania, uh, when I was in my twenties.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_05: I was a weather caster and sportscaster, and I was very fortunate.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_05: You can languish in a small market for a long time and never get that shot.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I was only there six months, and there was a news director from Washington, D.C., skiing in the Poconos, which is where Scranton is, and he happened to see me and liked me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_05: And so they were looking for two young guys in their 20s that they could hire less expensive than a experienced anchor in D.C.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: So they hired me and a guy named Al Roker.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know whatever happened to Al.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_05: He was in Syracuse.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_05: So we started on the same day in Washington, D.C., so big step up.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I'd only been in the business six months, he had been in it about a year.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_05: And so we worked together in Washington, and then I came to Houston with the CBS station, KHOU, and I was a sports director there for five years.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: And then uh I bought this little radio station.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of people were broke in the mid-80s, uh, and the station was in bankruptcy.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_05: It was in Tombaugh, Texas.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: So we bought it, not really having a plan, except we're starting at the bottom.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_05: There's nowhere to go but up, and we think we can make it work.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I'd been running the station, we were doing sports talk and business and talk, and a guy named Rush Limbaugh called.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Rush was unknown in 1988.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: He was just starting his national radio show.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_05: And the way the radio business works is that to have a syndicated show, you need to be on the top ten markets uh to attract a big enough audience, and then about 90 other markets.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, it's called 10100.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_05: And so Rush was struggling to get on in big markets.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_05: I had nothing to lose.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_05: We had more cows than people listening to us back in 1988 when we started the station, literally, because we started from zero.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_05: And within 90 days, uh, we were number one between 11 and 2 when he was on.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, wow.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_05: And Rush, who really I call him the Babe Roots of Talk Radio, he saved talk radio.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_05: There are about 11,000 radio stations in the country, and uh a large portion of them, maybe half, I'm not sure today, but back then, AM stations, and they were all struggling.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_05: FM was really coming on strong.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_05: And so Rush is the guy that saved talk radio, and and so he turned our station around.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_05: I moved over from sports to politics and topical issues, and I followed Rush, and uh, and so I did that for a number of years, never really thinking about going into running for politics.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_05: But when the opportunity came in 2006 that Lindsay had retired and the seat was open, I was prepared on the issues uh because I had really studied the issues for years and talked about them on air.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_05: And so the opportunity came and and I decided to run for the Senate, and everyone said Dan can't win, he's the radio TV guy.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_05: And then when I won, we got 70 percent in a four-way race against two House chairmen and a city councilman, and everyone was stunned in Austin, uh, for sure.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_05: They didn't they didn't want this outsider on talk radio there.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_05: And everyone said, well, of course he won, he was the radio TV guy.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_05: So that's how I got into the Senate, and then eight years in the Senate, and then ran for lieutenant governor.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_05: Once again, they said he can't win.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_05: He's up against uh the agricultural commissioner, the land commissioner, and the incumbent lieutenant governor at that time, David Dewhurst.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_05: And and we finished first in the first round, and then we won two to one uh 66 percent uh in the second round.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: And so people keep saying you can't win, Dan, and we keep winning, and uh and I'm very blessed, very blessed.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's the best thing I've ever done in my life.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_05: I love it, and it's an honor to represent the people of Texas and law enforcement particularly.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I was gonna pick up too, is just fascinating to me, is that your your overwhelming support for law enforcement.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you this.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So last week, my son, and I'm you you have children.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Two children, eight grandchildren.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, growing up, you always ask your kids, what do you want to do when you grow up?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so my daughter's always telling me, I want to be a doctor, nurse.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that changes monthly.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Month to month it changes.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so my son's always wanted law enforcement pretty much with the son, me being a cop.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's always dad, what do you want to be when you grow up?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so what do you want to do whenever you after you retire?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so mine, I've always I've always had an interest because I've always looked up to you.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've always been, I've always been a huge supporter of you.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because your values, you've always you're a steadfast.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he found out last week that you were coming on, he found out the other day.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Dad, what are you gonna tell him?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What do you mean what am I gonna tell him?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said, How are you gonna tell him that you're gonna take his job?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Dun, he's just coming on the show.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know where this is gonna go.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so he was just fascinated by that.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: How old is he?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: He is seven, up to seven.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, his name's Parker Owen.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's a Parker fan.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So both my kids are, but I've always had a huge, you know, you you've always shown interest in law enforcement.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had any law enforcement in your family?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't have any brothers or sisters, but I grew up uh my with my parents, I have great I had great parents, World War II parents.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um I'm part of that um that baby boomer generation, and but my mom and dad worked hard and they worked extra jobs.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house after school uh every day.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_05: And my two cousins, two guys, um grew up with me.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_05: They were a few years older, and my oldest uh cousin, and they were like brothers, he he was a Baltimore police officer, he was a canine officer.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_05: And so that was my first uh really uh seeing police and the family, someone coming home with a uniform on.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_05: And uh he loved his job.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: He was hurt on the job in his first year, year and a half, as I recall, um, and they he had to go to desk duty, and so that's not what he wanted to do.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_05: He wanted to be on the street.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_05: But I remember that, and I was probably uh probably 10, 9 or 10, or a little older than Parker, uh then, and that had an in influence on me.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_05: And back in the 50s and 60s, um, we had a cop on the street, you know, with a nightstick on the beat in Baltimore.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: I grew up on the east side of Baltimore in Highland Town, the marble step homes you see in the movie Rocky, you know, that little, you know, I kind of grew up in that neighborhood and they had the same kind of homes in Baltimore as they did in Philadelphia.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_05: So you knew the you knew the cop on the beat.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: And if you got in trouble, which I stayed out of, but if you did, you know, they came and talked to your parents.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: And the last thing you wanted to do was have the police officer in the neighborhood knock on your door and tell your parents, um, we got a problem with so-and-so.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_05: So I just always grew up with a respect for the police.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_05: My mom and dad, my dad was a Marine, and that's just who they were.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_05: And so it was very easy.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_05: I'm see, I I I feel like we are incredibly blessed as a country and as a state to have men and women who want to do this.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's the only job outside of the military, the only job in America, where when you get up in the morning and put the gun on and the badge on, you have already made the decision that day if you have to step in front of a bullet or step into danger to protect a total stranger, and then sometimes a total stranger who's protesting you, that you're willing to do that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_05: That's a that's a rare person who does that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_05: You know, in Texas we have now 30 million people.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_05: I believe we only have about 80,000 in law enforcement, Mitch, you would know.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, that that counts constables, sheriffs, police officers, state troopers, school police, you name it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_05: That's a very thin blue line.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_05: And so I feel like um we owe it to all of you to be supportive in the legislature and and just as citizens.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_05: And unfortunately, the last couple of years, uh there's been this anti-police, surely not in Texas, I don't believe.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_05: I think 85 percent of the public supports police, but nationally and politically, and uh so I think it's even more important for us to stand up now with police and say, we have your back.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_05: Doesn't mean you guys are perfect, we're not perfect in the legislature, doctors aren't perfect, no profession is perfect.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_05: But day in, day out, just look at what's happened this week with the shootings in in uh Louisville the other day.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, a 26-year-old officer, I think on the job five days, yeah, correct, is is critically wounded, running to the danger.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: And so supporting you all and the men and women out there, it's just easy, quite frankly, because you have our back every day.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it's easy.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, thank you.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Tell him your story about being in the working cop.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: You were telling me earlier, right before you got here, about how you felt on the streets and looking up to the Lieutenant.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so in 2016, we're gonna talk about really two incidents.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I've I've I was in law enforcement about 20 years, uh, and when this anti-law enforcement rhetoric really started, uh really Ferguson's really what kicked it off.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you had the follow-up with George Floyd, uh, and then there's several other incidents.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But me as a street cop, you and other law enforcement, well, other government leaders within Texas, you would stand up against it, and you would you were not bashful about saying this is not right, this is this is BS, and and and you're gonna call it what it is.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, as a guy that that that worked nights, that uh drove around in a patrol car then that was not as heavily involved within you know TMPA, I'm telling you right now, man, it meant the world to me.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I want I'm looking you dead in the eye right now.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know, and you may you may know this.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was so impactful for me as a 30-year-old man with two children at home, the impact that you had on a on a on a guy that that that drove a patrol car that was enforced in the laws in the state of Texas, it gave me a purpose.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it it it it reinstated the fact that somebody at that state capitol in a position of yours, my chief may not have my back, but I damn sure knew the lieutenant governor of this state did.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're very kind, but um uh I just felt it was time to step up.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was just time to step up during that time, and and we have to be a voice.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_05: Look, I'm not gonna get into politics here.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: Your officers across the state are Republicans, Democrats, probably more one than the other, independents across the board.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_05: But when it comes to law and order, and when it comes to supporting law and order, that should be a nonpartisan issue.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I think for most people it is.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_05: And you have the loud voices, the anti-police, um, social justice, let everyone out of jail crowd.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: Uh you know, there's a lot of that.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of that.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: And and so we can't we can't sit by quietly.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: We have a responsibility at the state to take a position, and so it was easy to do.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_05: And one of the things that happened, the other impact, and I and uh I'll try not to get choked up on this, but since I've been in office, I believe, Lieutenant Governor, since 15, I believe we've had close to 60 police officers killed in the line of duty, mostly by gunfire.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: Is Mitch, is that about right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Uh you're probably from 16 to 15 a year.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't go to every funeral.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_05: I go to as many as I can.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe I've been to two-thirds of them.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: I I never speak, I don't ask to speak, I don't want to speak.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's for the family.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: Um they usually have us sit in the front row, otherwise I would sit in the back row.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I just go there to pay my respects.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_05: I I've I've been going to Second Baptist Church for a long time, and before a long time ago, I asked Pastor Young one time.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_05: I said, and it had nothing to do with with uh my job or this.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_05: I but I had someone who was very ill in in the hospital and dying, and I said, What do I say when I go?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: And he said, just be there.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's all that counts.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_05: They won't remember what you said anyway, but they'll know you were there.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so I try to go to those funerals, and every funeral that I've been to, far too many uh for law enforcement.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh it's a heavy toll on that family um of the children, of the I'm always I always make sure I go up and hug the dads.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um, because they've lost a son and men are supposed to be tough.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_05: And so there is the mother of the police officer who's been killed, the wife, the children, and the dads, I think, uh need an extra hug because they're they're supposed to hold the family together.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_05: So this experience has really only steeled my support because when you go out on the street, like I said earlier, you're taking your whole family with you.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I can't imagine how your wives or husbands uh how they feel while you're gone that day.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_05: Are you going to be home with or your kids because they see the news?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so in 2016, we had that uh terrible shooting in Dallas in Dallas.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_05: And Frederick Frazier, who's now in the in the in the Texas House, um uh told me about uh, you know, the bulletproof vest wouldn't handle a rifle round.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why we put 25 million into providing vest.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_05: And now this last year we had two troopers shot through the windshield uh and killed, and so now we're putting bulletproof uh uh windshields uh in the troopers' cars, and I want to do it statewide.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_05: Um after the shooting in Uvaldi, uh it was clear they didn't have enough of the plastic shields, not plastic shields, the the bullet resistant shields.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_05: So we put money into that, 50 million.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: So when I see those kinds of things, I always relate back to that Dallas situation, which was the the first group of funerals that I went to.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: I want to go back to July 7th, 2016, because there's more to that story, and I want you to tell that because when that shooting happened, the lieutenant governor showed up at the hospital in Dallas, Texas at three in the morning, two in the morning to be with those families.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that means a lot to us.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: But take me back to there, the decision of you know, I was talking to your security personnel.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, that night we're going.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so just take us back to that, because that means a lot.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_05: So that was uh my 12-year-old, my oldest grandson is 12, so he would have been uh four or five, and it was grandfather's weekend, grandpa's pop-up's weekend.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_05: And we were watching a movie early uh that night before he went to bed, and Abbott was Governor Abbott was in Wyoming.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_05: So he was out of state and almost kind of out of touch, he was in an area that was hard to reach.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_05: So the first we heard was one officer down, then two, and I called Steve McCrawl of of our state police, our colonel, our director, and I said, Steve, fill me in on the details.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_05: And and by then, um it was three.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_05: And so I said to him, uh, I want to go.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_05: And this is early on being lieutenant governor, statewide official.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: I said, I want to go, but I don't want to look like I'm going there for the wrong reason or be a distraction.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_05: Because I don't like politicians who go and mug the camera.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um it's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_05: Where are you?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, or why are you here?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so by then it was 10 or 11 o'clock, and I said, I said, Steve, what do you think?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to upstage the governor.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_05: Again, we'd only been working together about a year, um, but I feel like I need to be there.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_05: And he said, I think they would welcome that.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, Can you get me a plane?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_05: He got me a plane, and we got up there late.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_05: But I said, Steve, I want to go in the back door, I don't want to be in the front door, I don't want to go up where the cameras are, I don't want anyone to know I was there.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_05: And that night, Mitch, um, standing in that hospital, and when I got there, uh, it was the time that they were taking several of the bodies out on Gurnies with families behind, and the hallway was lined up with hospital workers and law enforcement, and people were in shock.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_05: I I would say for the first time, um, I saw fear in everybody, civilian law enforcement.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: What do we have here?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_05: Five police officers ambushed and murdered.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_05: Where are we going?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_05: And um so that was that's how all that happened.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_05: And the next morning I went with, I think it was Frederick, um, to a house.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um, officer, well, I won't name the officer, but one of the officers killed, and the police union took a check for, I think, ten thousand dollars just to um, you know, help the family know, you know, don't worry about expenses this week, or you don't need to worry about next couple of weeks, because you all are such a brotherhood and stand together.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: And then um when we walked in, and it was a normal, nice middle class neighborhood, upper middle class neighborhood, nice home, and the daughter said, uh, Mom, are we gonna have to sell the house and change schools?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_05: Because that's when it hit you that, and that's when it really hit me, and ever since, um it's real lives.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, these are real people.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_05: They're not superman or superwoman because they wear uniform.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_05: And so from that day on, um, not only was I already supportive of law enforcement, but that really changed everything.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know the the story that night that I was told the next morning was one of our guys called me and said, uh Lieutenant Governor was in the uh hospital room holding hands with our member and praying.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's um it's always difficult.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_05: And then uh and then another really incredible thing happened.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if you know about a young man named Tyler.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_05: We have you and his picture in the hallway.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'll show you.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_05: So I was there last night.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Tyler's dad was a Houston police officer killed in the line of duty in 2015, um, putting out spikes, and the and the thug low life went around the spikes and and uh hit his dad and killed his dad.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I didn't know them, but every year and every year we celebr we sell not celebrate, we honor officers falling on the line of duty at the Capitol, the governor and I.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_05: And this young man who was, I guess, in the seventh grade, then Tyler, uh, had a uh a velvet badge he had cut out of his dad's badge uh with a blue line.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_05: And he was handing it to people because that particular year the officers lost.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_05: Their kids were either older because they were older or they were very young.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: But he was the one that was kind of by himself.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_05: And um so I I said uh so he handed me the badge.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_05: We were back in our in our office, and uh I said, here's my cell number.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_05: If you ever need anything, I said, Nobody gets my cell number, but you have to call me.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_05: The next week his mother called and said, Tyler wants you to lay the reef with him uh at his dad's uh funeral um ceremony in Houston.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, I can't do that, I'm not a member of the family.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_05: And uh but he wanted to do that.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_05: So since then, and that's been you know going on eight years, uh he played football and baseball at Katy, outstanding athlete, outstanding student.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and uh now at uh University of Mary Harden Baylor he plays baseball.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_05: They were playing in Georgetown last night.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_05: I I was able to get up to the game.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_05: And so he's become a part of the family for eight years, and we don't see each other a lot, but maybe maybe sometimes once a month, sometimes once every three months.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, we've gone to Disney World and we've gone to a lot of baseball games, and and um he's part of the family.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, those those things change your life.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and and one of the things that that I admire most about police officers and firemen in the same way, it's a brotherhood.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a brut you all stick together.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I don't know of any other profession that does that.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: When one man or woman is down, the rest of you are there for that family.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_05: And it's uh it's impactful to me.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's impactful for us that you know, uh elected officials, especially somewhat uh at your level uh stand up for us the way you do and the way that you Stand behind us because you don't have to do that.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to stand with us in the manner that you do.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that the way you fund us, the way you stand with us, it's definitely noticed and and greatly appreciated.
• 22:14
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't tell that story uh about time.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_05: In fact, I would say for most of the last eight years nobody even knew about it.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_05: But it's I'm proud of him, I'm proud of what he's accomplished.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: And so um that that was just one of those things when you say what what impacts you?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's the impact of uh you have it hard enough as it is, um, doing your job every day.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_05: We need to give you all the support we can give you.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll tell you something else good, it's happened right here in Austin.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um we had you know a person killed in Austin several weeks ago, and Mayor uh Kirk Watson and I are friends, and this story's been in the paper, so I'm not telling tales out of of school.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um and I called Kirk uh the next morning and I said, uh, can you cut give me a little detail little details?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_05: There was a woman raped.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't killed, it was a woman raped.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_05: And uh she had been a witness at a committee hearing.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um one of uh Senator Springer's um constituents.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: And so we got to talking and and I thought Kirk had been mayor before, and he's trying to turn things around there in a tough city council and uh replace some people that are pro-law enforcement.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_05: But I said, Kirk, we're here if you need the state police to back up Austin PD.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_05: And so he said, Let me get back to you on that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_05: He called back several hours and he's now told the story in the in the Austin American statesman, and his police chief said, Thank you, we could use the help.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: So for the last three weeks, uh our state police um has has has on, I don't want to say on loan, they're doing their job, they're on you know the state clock, but they're backing up Austin PD because the city council, the leftist council down there, don't want to be political, not Kirk, these people who were there before him, and the mayor just cut the funding out and pulled the rug out from the police in Austin.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so the state, um, you know, we can't protect every town, but we're gonna do everything we can.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think that's been a so far a good program.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_05: I know a lot of arrests have been made already.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: The numbers are outstanding.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's the number of arrests, uh, methamphetamine, fentanyl, the things that have been taken off the street.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, within five days, they had about 280 pounds of meth taken off the streets.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: We had on Mackenzie Kelly, which is one of the only, I say one of the few, well, one of the few council members there on the city of Boston.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: We had her on a couple weeks ago.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's an uphill battle with the city of Boston.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to be and then and here's my thing with with the city of Boston and their politics involved with that.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: I actually had an Uber ride.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my story.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I accepted a job with TMPA about a month ago.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was down here house hunting, okay?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful city.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful city.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm down here ho uh house hunting with my family.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I park my truck in Cedar Park.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: At Cedar Park at a hotel, okay?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the nicer areas of Austin.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Walk out the next morning, my truck's gone.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's stolen.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I ignorantly left both of my key fobs in my truck.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm a cop, and I I'm a living East Texas.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I admitted that on the podcast.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so but Austin PD in Travis County located it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So fast forward.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually had this conversation with my Uber ride the other day because I had to get a rental car, long story short, but this is what I had.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: A conversation I had was this Austin, the city of Austin defunded their police department in 2020.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: A third, a third of their police department was defunded over an incident, over an incident that did not even happen in Austin, didn't even happen in Travis County, much less didn't even happen in the state.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wrap my brain around that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they continue to allow the dangers to happen within their city and watch it occur and don't act on it.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's mind-boggling to me.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, when I when I saw, and we know the the the travesty of the George Floyd incident.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_05: We all we all understand that and recognize that.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_05: But when I saw them actually cancel cops on television, this I mean, that's the extreme that happened that week.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna we're gonna have nothing to do with the police.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: Corporate America, much of it turned turned their back.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um and uh you have people who run for office, and sadly getting elected, uh, even though the public wants police and the public wants law and order, these people are getting elected have a different view of law and order than than we do.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: And and I would say the vast majority of Americans, whether they're Republican, Democrat, black, white, and brown, it doesn't matter where they live, but they have a view that um there's an excuse for everyone who commits a crime.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_05: And so let's let them out.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_05: The judges are all a part of this, the DAs, uh some of them are a part of this, and it particularly in our blue areas, I would say exclusively in the blue areas.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_05: And so in Harris County where I live, I think there are 1800 cases on backlog of murder in the courts.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: 1800?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, murderers get out on a you know, they're held for a short time and let out.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just a mindset of people who believe that um social justice means no one should be in jail and no one's really at fault.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_05: And and if that means real serious felons commit crimes like rape or murder, um, then that's just the price we pay to change the system.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_05: And over time, I think the public will um move those people out, but the public's gonna pay a heavy price until that happens.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_05: And so will law enforcement.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that and that brings up a really good point because the because the the situations with high crime areas, you you you you bring up a good point about Harris County bail reform is a is a huge topic.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh look at the crime rate spikes in in Harris County and and and and rogue DAs.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's talk about it, you know.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so these are these are bad areas.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is these are hot topics across the state that that are there's active bills going on right now.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to talk about politics.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to you're here as a guest and and we want to highlight your pro-law enforcement approach.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, these are these are bad topics in the city back to the city of Austin.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just a bad deal, and we certainly appreciate you allowing DPS to come in and and and back up our our brothers and sisters at APD because it was much, much, much needed.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it was basically putting putting their lives at in danger.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because they they failed them.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: The city of the city of Austin failed the Austin Police Department.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_05: And I appreciate the mayor being open to it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh the last mayor wouldn't have Adler would not have taken the help.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think uh Kirk is trying to do his best, and it's a it's a tough job.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I will say in Harris County, I think we do have a DA there who's trying to do a a good job.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um I can't say that in some of our other big counties, but um uh but our courts are broken in Harris County.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_05: A number of the when the Democrats swept in in 16, a number of them have lost in primaries.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: They've been but you still have a number um there.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_05: I mean it's we passed Senate Bill 6 last session, Senator Joan Hoffman, who's was a criminal court judge, prosecutor, and it dealt with you know, under certain crimes, criteria to keep people in jail.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_05: And the judge actually said in his opinion when he let this person out on a very serious crime in like a day that it was reaction to Senate Bill Six.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_05: Can you imagine that?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_05: So a judge actually says, I'm letting a criminal out on the street because I don't like Senate Bill Six.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and we have judges down my son was a criminal court judge, my son was a prosecutor, my son was a U.S.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_05: attorney, so there's another link to law enforcement.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um uh and it's just it's criminal what's going on in some places.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_05: Not all, surely not in red counties.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_05: And speaking of red counties, the other initiative we put forth this session, uh I did a bus tour through rural Texas um last year during the campaign.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_05: I did 130 cities and and a lot of counties.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_05: And everywhere I would go, I would call the sheriff and say, Where where do I go for breakfast?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: And then where do I go for lunch and dinner wherever we were, because we would make eight to ten stops uh a day.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_05: That's how we got all the cities in.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I would sit down with these sheriffs, to have dinner, breakfast, lunch, wherever at the office.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: And we had a lot of office uh I had one sheriff, I won't say the town, but he's making$31,000 a year, and his deputies are making in the 20s, and he can't hire anybody.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_05: And you go to some of these small counties in Texas that are now seeing the crime come through their counties from the border up, illegal immigrants going through the state, stopping, you know, breaking into cars, breaking into homes, breaking into businesses, uh drugs they have to, you know, catch on the road as well when they pull over some one like everybody else today.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I recognized that they needed help.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_05: They just don't have the budgets.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: And the sheriffs, of course, run the city jails.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I know that's a different association, but you're all in the, you know, you're all working together.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so we've done something in unprecedented.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_05: We're putting$350 million into law enforcement for 235 rural counties.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_05: Uh because if someone does want to go into law enforcement in these counties, they're not going to stay there.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_05: They're going to go to a bigger city where they can make more money.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: And the money has to go to police and to DAs and to investigators.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_05: So we want to raise the pay up, and uh we want to give them the equipment they need.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_05: Some of them don't have the basic equipment.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_05: They have cars that have 100, well, some police departments do too, but a lot of miles on them.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_05: And so we're and and the reason it's unprecedented is because the state has never funded counties.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_05: It's up to the counties to fund the sheriff.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_05: The sheriff funds the jail and the deputies on the street.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_05: So that's something else we're doing in law enforcement.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_05: And with that, we're putting two and a half billion into mental health care.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_05: We don't have enough mental health care beds.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and most of the wait list is for forensic, you know, people who are arrested sitting in our jails.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_05: And so we're trying to build out we we only have 2,500 beds in the state of Texas for 30 million people.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_05: And out of those 2,500 beds, about a thousand are offline because they're either broken or we don't have nurses or psychologists.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: And so this is all tied together.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_05: Law enforcement, um, mental health care, uh, drug treatment, all this is tied together to try to make our community safer.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: You hit on mental health, that's one of the biggest issues that law enforcement deals with on a daily basis.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was talking this was a couple of years ago, uh a chief from a community south of Austin, and he had a mental health patient and they needed a bed.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: They had to drive to Big Spring, Texas.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and in the panhandle where they have really they don't have any beds, they're they're going to get about a hundred, I think, in this program.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_05: They have to drive to Wichita Falls.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_05: Or if you're in the valley, sometimes have to drive to San Antonio.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_05: So if you're a a small county in Texas and you have four deputies, you lose a deputy for a half a day or a whole day.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's if they'll even take them.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_05: And so it's a huge problem.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_05: The mental health, you know, our jails have become the big mental health care.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_05: Those are the mental health beds.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, there are mental health beds.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's where they are.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_05: And so it's all tied together.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_05: And thank God we live in Texas where the people do support these issues, they do support police.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um we just have a couple of rogue DAs and a handful of rogue judges, and we actually have two bills that we passed out of the Senate already to recall DAs and recall judges.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_05: Now, I will confess to law enforcement that this is a hard issue because constitutionally they're elected.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_05: To take away someone and remove them from office when the people have elected them is not easy.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_05: And we all and we all realize as judges and DAs need some discretion.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_05: But we all know what is bad when we see it and what is good.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_05: And so where we have the worst abuse, uh, we have to be able to remove these people.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we certainly agree with you.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh we appreciate those bills and hopefully they'll get moving in the house.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, hopefully.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I know there we have some bills in the house too that will address the same thing.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully we'll we'll get if yours slow down over here, maybe we can get them over to you and you get away.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_05: As long as long as we can get them there.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_05: We we uh we just want to get good legislation out, good public policy.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_05: Look, the number one responsibility I have as an elected official is public safety.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that's all these other things are important, and there are so many things we're doing that are important, but at the end of the day, if your you and your family are not safe and your property is not safe, then society begins to crack, and and and I see it cracking in a lot of our country.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_05: Look, all these cities that went on defund the police, Portland, Seattle, they can't keep businesses.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_05: I saw yesterday a whole food store opened up a year ago, they're already gone.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_05: Walgreens, CBS, or whatever the drugstore chains are.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_05: They're leaving these cities because of uh DAs that won't prosecute crime, they don't have enough police, they haven't def and San Francisco, which was a beautiful city once upon a time, um, they're now asking for the National Guard.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_05: So all of these policies, it's not like Republicans are saying, Well, we're right and you're wrong.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_05: You've already acknowledged you're wrong.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_05: You already acknowledge you're wrong because you're crying for help.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I agree.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_05: I agree.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_05: Well turned my, I think it was my phone for you.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're fine?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Should have turned that off.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's Governor Abbott calling to check on his CSS.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Mitch, you got anything else?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just uh the deep appreciation that we have uh not from TMPA from all of law enforcement.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we always talk about you and how we appreciate you.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh troopers at the Capitol that I talk to on a daily basis, they tell me every time they see you, doesn't matter who, what you're doing, or what they're doing, you always make time to go over, shake their hand, thank you.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that goes a long way.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not only the troopers, it's everybody, all of our law enforcement.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: They they've always seen that how you make the effort to reach out and acknowledge law enforcement.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it's just the right thing to do.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_05: Just I appreciate I appreciate them all uh looking out for us.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_05: I'll have to tell you a funny story.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_05: We'll close out with this.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe the reason the troopers like me because they heard this story.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um my first session as a senator, I was let me put it this way.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_05: If I had a freshman senator like me, I probably would not would not be happy as Lieutenant Governor, okay?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_05: I was uh I knew the issues, but I was learning the ropes.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_05: And I just so I was trying to make a point of how much money we were spending in the state.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I decided to borrow a million dollars from the bank.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_05: I borrowed a million dollars from the bank, like for three hours.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um, had to put up collateral, which my wife, I didn't really have to check with her.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um really I had to I had to stretch, well, she found out after the fact, I had to really stretch it.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_05: They gave me uh, you know, some of it on personal credit.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_05: I had to hire a Brinks truck, um, or whatever the security company was, but a Brinks type truck.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_05: Because once they give you the money, um, you know, in a in a plastic bag of a million dollars, I think it was in hundreds, it's only about this high and this wide.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_05: But I wanted to bring it in to make a point when when someone says, Oh, it's only five million dollars.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_05: Well, look, how many people divide into five million dollars as taxpayers does it take for your program for five million dollars?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_05: You say, well, it's not really a big deal.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_05: So the troopers, when it got to the Capitol, once it's out of the truck, it's my responsibility.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: So the troopers, I didn't ask, but they were someone assigned them, I guess for being smart, to watch the money.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_05: So they watched the money as it came into the Senate chamber.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_05: It was only there about an hour, and back on the truck.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_05: Goes back to the bank, we're good.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_05: So I only had the money for a couple hours.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_05: So me just being me, um, I go up to the lieutenant or whoever was in charge of the troopers back in 07, and I had six$100 bills.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_05: I said, Would you give each trooper uh$100 just as a thank you?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Senator, I can't we can't do that.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: You can't tip the troopers.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, hey, I just uh appreciated what they did.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe that story's lingered around the uh the the water cooler for a while, but uh they're exposing a hundred dollar bill now.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's what it is.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm almost embarrassed to tell that story, but I just thought, hey, here's you know, here's what you do.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: So do you remember what the interest is on a million dollars for three hours?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh no.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: But I think I made a couple of dollars on that, I think.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_05: I have no idea.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's funny.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_05: Uh but it was uh and people say, You did what?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_05: I said, Well, I was trying to make a point, but I I guess they're right.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_05: You can't, you know, just you know, you want to you want to do what you can.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_05: You know what you want to do, what you can.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_05: So we're great people.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: We typically have law enforcement personnel on podcasts, but we we always close out every show with three rapid fire questions.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And those questions are these your favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie, your favorite cop car, and favorite adult beverage.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_05: Favorite cop movie, I guess, is Dirty Harry.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um classic.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's a good one.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: I know what you're saying.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_04: Did he fire?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: Six shots.
• 39:06
  unknown: Did you fire five?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_05: Well, do you feel like it?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, there you go.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: So I love Dirty Harry.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_04: Favorite cop car?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, gosh, that's a tough one.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: I got because Clint McNair, our co-host, he's not here.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's up in DC right now.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna, I've got, I've got some good vibes on what you're gonna pick here.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, you'll never guess it.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_05: What is it?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's any car that Broderick Crawford drove in Highway Patrol.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_05: Ten bar, 104.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_05: If you watch Old Highway Patrol, they took every car that they could get cheaply and put an emblem on the side of it.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_05: And they were driving four-door Mercury's and DeSotos, and it's it's on me TV.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, these are you're looking at that and say, that's not a cop car.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then the third question was favored adult beverage?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I'm not really a drinker.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if I had to say, uh assuming you're adult beverage, I'm not really much of a drinker.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_05: I'll have a margarita occasionally.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_05: I would say uh Bailey's Irish over some Amy's vanilla ice cream around 11 o'clock at night.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_05: Instead of chocolate syrup, put a shot of Bailey's uh Bailey's Irish over Amy's vanilla, which is the best vanilla ice cream there is.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you did the peanut butter whiskey, I can't drink whiskey.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that's just wow.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a whiskey guy.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a it's real sweet, but it's it's oh my gosh.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: So now we have you know, we have the Arnold Palmer drink.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now we have the Dan Patrick ice cream.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Dan Patrick.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_05: And you know where that came from?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_05: The uh I was watching somewhere, someone in a ball game somewhere, and they I said, Boy, that looks good.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_05: I said, What kind of syrup is that?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't look real thick.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_05: And they said, Oh, that's that's uh Bailey's Irish.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_05: I had them put it on.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_05: I said, Oh, I'll give that a try.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's like on a cold day, Bailey's Irish and hot chocolate is a really good drink.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_05: As long as you're not driving.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_05: As long as you're home, around the fireplace.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, look, thank you all for having me on.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_05: This is um I I'm privileged to live in Texas.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_05: I'm privileged to be a lieutenant governor.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's a great blessing.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_05: I take it seriously.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_05: You know, some people run for office, and I'm afraid they stop when they win.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, this is I won.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_05: But you can't only come this far to come this far.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't want to be sitting around on my rocking chair.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_05: Um, literally, I don't want to be sitting around with regrets.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_05: You can't go through life with regrets.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we all make mistakes.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you forgive, you have to be forgiving, you move on.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_05: I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_05: And but I don't want to be sitting around years after I'm out of office saying, you know, when I was there and had the chance and had the power, because Lieutenant, not me, but the office of Lieutenant Governor is a very powerful office, most powerful in the country of any lieutenant governor, um, that I didn't do what people expected me to do because I didn't want to step on somebody's toes.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, I didn't want to criticize.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_05: So I really look at it as I want to go out with a clean record that I tried to do everything I could do.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_05: Do what you say you're gonna do, do what you said you're gonna do, because that's what you're supposed to do.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_05: So that's there we go.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: We'll close it out with this.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Always in the clear eyes, full hearts, you can't lose.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, guys.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and subscribe, hit those, uh that hit that download button, and uh, man, what a great episode.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for coming in.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: You guys stay safe.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you, and as always, may God bless Texas.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're out.