Latest / Man in America Podcast / Will Trump FINALLY Prosecute the 2020 Election Criminals? w/ FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor

Transcript

Will Trump FINALLY Prosecute the 2020 Election Criminals? w/ FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor · Man in America Podcast

• 0:13
  Seth Holehouse: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Man in America. I'm your host, Seth Holehouse. So, obviously, some things have changed in our election from 2020 to 2024. I think that a lot of what allowed the shift to happen and allowed, you know, Donald Trump to be elected wasn't necessarily because we changed all the election laws, we got rid of voting machines, etcetera. I think it was just because the election was too big to rig that more Americans know, took it upon themselves to get out and vote and get their friends to vote, etcetera.
• 0:45
  And so there is such an overwhelming just energy behind that that I think that that was a and we were able to overcome a lot of the systems that they're using to they have used in the past to steal these elections. Now the concern, though, is that these same systems are in place. And so while it's, oh, great. You know, you know, four years of Donald Trump, well, what happens after that? Because if we just get back in the same cycle again where our elections are selections and where our leaders are being just chosen selections and where our leaders are being just chosen and our votes are being changed to make sure that the people that align with the deep state's ideologies are put into power, that's not a good thing.
• 1:23
  And so joining me today is Trey Trainer, who is the former chair and the current commissioner of the FEC, the Federal Election Commission. Now he was put into that position under Trump and actually was initially, he was came in on the Trump administration in the Department of Defense. And then after a few months, he got plucked and put into the election commission, which is interesting, and he'll explain that background. But we're gonna be diving into just some very real and sober questions of how do we fix this system? How do we, you know, kind of fix all the issues that are being allowed that allow illegals to vote with no voter ID, allow the, you know, the fact that California is still counting ballots to this day from an election that was almost a month ago.
• 2:06
  Right? How do we fix these things? And so, Trey was spent, you know, twenty years more over twenty years as an attorney in Texas focusing specifically on election integrity, campaign finance, all the things that, I think that are being massively, massively corrupted in our current system. And so I'm just gonna ask him some real sober questions of how do we fix this? I don't want the hopefully, you know, he's not gonna be getting into what a lot of people they they wanna kind of gloss over and say, oh, it's all gonna work itself out.
• 2:35
  Like, no. I wanna talk about real solutions. Will there be justice? People that are traitors and that corrupted our elections, will they be put behind bars? Will the FBI get involved?
• 2:47
  These are questions that I'm genuinely, curious about. And as much as I'm in mentally moving past the election and focusing on the next four years, you know, it's really important that we don't drop the the ball and become, you know, lose our vigilance as it as it relates to elections and election security. So that's a big point of this interview is to remind us and say, hey. Like, let's not forget, that if we lose focus on this in four more years, we'll think, oh, yeah. We forgot.
• 3:16
  Actually, we didn't actually push very hard, and they're still using these voting machines. They're switching ballots, and all of a sudden, we're gonna have, you know, Kamala Harris, you know, getting in again or, you know, who knows what. So, folks, please enjoy this interview with Trey Trainer. Imagine a future where your wealth is untouchable, a future where every decision you make today creates a foundation of security for tomorrow. Right now, optimism fills the air.
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• 5:04
  Act now. Call (626) 654-1906 or visit goldwithseth.com to get your free gold and silver investment guide. Again, that's (626) 654-1906 or goldwithseth.com. Mister Trey Trainer, it's an honor to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Great. Thanks, Seth. I appreciate you having me.
• 5:30
  Seth Holehouse: Absolutely. So you are the commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, the FEC, but you also you you came in under Trump, and you initially were in defense. Right? So can you give us just a a little background of just how you ended up where you are right now and and what it was like, you know, coming in under Trump and and how you're still somehow, you know, you weren't booted out under Biden. So, you know, walk us through a little bit to help us build a background for you.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Sure. So in 2017, when Donald Trump was first elected, I went to work for his administration as a part of the transition effort and as part of the landing team at the Department of Defense. And so I was there from January of twenty seventeen until I was there for about three months. And then shortly thereafter, President Trump nominated me to the Federal Election Commission for confirmation by the Senate. My confirmation process there was held up by Democrats in the Senate for a long time.
• 6:32
  There was a lot of back and forth. There was a national review article about how I was too Catholic to be on the FEC. So, they were they were kind of poking fun at the Senate for for holding me up and that was about the time that Amy Coney Barrett was was having her initial confirmation hearing. So, anyways, I was nominated to the Federal Election Commission, confirmed by the senate under President Trump. The Federal Election Commission is made up of six commissioners.
• 6:58
  There are three Republicans and three Democrats, and you serve a six year term when you're appointed to that. So I'm now little over four and a half years into a six year term coming back into what is now a new Donald Trump administration.
• 7:16
  Seth Holehouse: And this is curious. So you're you're working in the transition team, and you're working within the Department of Defense, but only for a couple of months before Trump plucked you and put you into election in the election commission. What do you think that what do you think Donald Trump saw in you that made him pluck you out of that role so quickly and put you into the the election related role?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Well, so my my background as a lawyer, I've practiced campaign finance and election law for over twenty years. And so that really, this really is my background and my area of specialty. My connection to the Department of Defense, really, I had very little connection to the Department of Defense other than I had served in the Army Reserves. I was a member of the Corps of Cadets at Texas A and M. So, I kind of grew up in that world and and my early stages of my career had some military experience.
• 8:06
  My job at the Department of Defense mainly was to work with the White House on looking at other individuals, primarily lawyers, who were going to be coming into the Pentagon and what jobs they could fill. And so really, was It's a glorified term to say that I was a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense. What I really was was kind of an HR manager and eyes and ears for the Trump administration on the ground. And, you know, however, that's a very important role as we face this transition is for the incoming president to have eyes and ears at each of these agencies, because these bureaucrats will run amok without political leadership in place. Outgoing administrations do a very good job of burrowing in kind of low level political appointees into full time bureaucrats spots and so you will see programs that will continue to move forward that the new administration doesn't want to have happen and yet somehow they're miraculously continue to move forward and come to find out there's a burrowed in former political appointee who's kind of back channeling a lot of some of the same programs.
• 9:22
  So, you know, it's really important to have these transition elements on the ground.
• 9:27
  Seth Holehouse: And so, you know, diving into the election topic, I mean, just to pull up just for almost how comical this is. Right? California is still counting ballots. Right? And this is just it's absolutely ridiculous
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: that Absolutely.
• 9:41
  Seth Holehouse: I I and so and and I've I've so many questions about the election, but I also know that at the federal level, you know, you're not supposed to be dipping your hand in the election pies. I mean, really, it's it's supposed to be at the state level, and and, you know, it's how constitutionally should be set it's set up. But, obviously, we have we have a lot of things that are, you know, really bending everything possible about the constitution, right, which is really the deep state. I think, because a lot of times, it's really, I look at it as this massive blob of of people and organizations that are outside of the constitution yet not necessarily breaking the constitution because they find all these ways around it, which hopefully, you know, with the the the Department of Government Efficiency under Vivek and Elon, we see a lot of that cleaned out, obviously, under Trump. But looking at the elections specifically and and especially with your background in election law and election integrity, how do we how do we fix this?
• 10:35
  Because I was, you know, very involved in in covering a lot of what happened in 2020. I was one of the, you know, the the people that was covering the Arizona audits, the Maricopa audits, the cyber symposium, and I was really focused on looking at that. And I even received, you know, kinda threatening a threatening legal letter from one of the big voting machine companies for publicly questioning their integrity. And so looking at, you know, from 2020 to 2024, not a lot has changed from my perspective. And in fact, we're now seeing a lot of states that are leveraging the illegals, you know, not showing voter ID, which is crazy.
• 11:12
  I mean, you you need an ID to go, you know, get a book from the library. Yet you can, you know, vote in a federal election, with nothing. And so do you how do you see the the the path forward changing this? I mean, do you think that under what Trump is doing and and, you know, perhaps yourself and what you know, any people he's bringing in, do you think that we could actually bring our elections back to a place where it's single day hand counting, and and that's that's it? Paper ballots.
• 11:38
  I mean, even Elon Musk, who's obviously a big tech guy, says he doesn't even trust blockchain for voting. Right?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Which is
• 11:44
  Seth Holehouse: blockchain's the supposedly the the most secure place to store all your assets in bit Bitcoin and crypto, but he doesn't trust it for voting, and he even recommends paper ballots. So what do you see as as a path forward to that?
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Well, Seth, if I could just step back from what you put up just a few minutes ago with regard to California still counting vote votes. For me, it is just it is unfathomable that we are still counting votes. You know, I tell people this all the time, but if you, you know, if you go look at the history of the presidential election in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected, probably the most controversial presidential election that we've ever had. I mean, it resulted in a civil war based on the outcome. But Abraham Lincoln, in a time of the fastest mode of communication was via telegraph.
• 12:32
  When Abraham Lincoln went to bed that night in November in 1860, he knew that he had been elected president of The United States, and so did the country and so did the world know that. In fact, it was so prevalent that he had been elected that folks in South Carolina were already gathering arms and and and planning to secede. I mean, that's how well established it was that he was elected and yet here in 2024, you have California still counting ballots with a much smaller population compared to the nationwide population in 1860 for those congressional districts And they're using the this mail in ballot system that was created in California is abysmal. It needs to be done away with. And all it does is it is rife with fraud and abuse.
• 13:20
  And I think you're seeing that play out in these last two congressional seats that are still being counted out there. It's amazing to me that you know, as a as a lawyer in Texas, we talk about the Johnson election and we talk about Duval County in box 13 and that's probably the most famous stealing of an election that there ever has been and I think what you're seeing is the ghost of Box 13 in Duval County has appeared in California with with these last minute mail in ballots that they happen to find that oh just happen to have postmarks on them from dates that they can count. And it's it really is just unheard of that you would have these type of ballots coming in this late in the process. And really holding holding Congress hostage as to what the majority is going to look like, what decisions that can need be need to be made. I mean, think about it from the aspect of somebody like Florida who is now looking at three special elections to fill seats that are going be vacated January 20 with with appointments.
• 14:21
  The governor there, Governor DeSantis had to call those special elections really not knowing what the outcome of the elections in California were and what it might do to upset the balance of power in congress and yet he took the step to say, well, the law requires that we set these special elections. We're going to set these special elections. We're going to do it. So, you know, great for him to be able to take that step and and and luckily, it looks like the majority there will stay in the hands of the Republicans with without having any negative effects from from his decision to set those elections but at the end of the day, it could have had catastrophic effects and and ultimately affected the decision of other states. So, you know, we're getting to the point where it's not just a state level institution that that is being affected but it's starting to affect national politics and decisions of other states.
• 15:14
  But as you said, you know, the federal government has very little role to play here. It would take a constitutional amendment to allow states to be able or to allow the federal government to come in. I'm not in any way an advocate of that. In fact, I am a very big advocate of what you laid out where we have one election day where we vote on paper ballots where they're put into boxes. As a lawyer who practices campaign finance and election law, I love having paper ballots.
• 15:40
  I like going to courtrooms where I can hold up evidence and show a judge or a jury that here's the ballot. Here's how it was marked. Here's what the voter said. I can do all of that without talking about who the voter was. I can just look at the physical evidence and say, well, look, you know, they marked it with a pencil.
• 15:57
  Clearly, they erased it here. They marked in somebody else. They wrote directions on the side of the ballot that said, please don't count my first one. I'm trying to erase it, but my eraser's broken. I mean, these are actual things that I've seen on hand, you know, on written ballots where people have written instructions to the people who are counting and and that is the most secure way to make sure that you follow the voters intent and as you mentioned as well with this, you know, we're we're importing hundreds of hundreds of thousands of of illegal voters and there, the federal government can do something and I'm and I'm proud to see that the Trump administration is looking to deport criminal aliens as fast as possible and to keep them out of our electoral systems.
• 16:43
  For me, it's been very disturbing to have places around the country like New York and other places in their municipal elections to allow non citizens to vote. You really are letting the camel's nose under the tent when you have that happen because you're starting to impart the rights of citizenship on those that aren't citizens and allowing them to affect the outcome of what happens in the country. And you know it it may sound harmless when you think about some place like, okay, well, New York's a relatively liberal place and they're probably going to continue to put in place liberal politicians. And it's really not so much the the politicians that I'm concerned about. I'm more concerned about with policy decisions, you know, initiative and referendum type things that happen there because effects in New York City have have national effects and international effects on commerce.
• 17:35
  It's it's the banking center of the world still, and and yet you have noncitizens voting in elections there in in a way that may ultimately have some sort of effect on that. So, you know, it really is problematic.
• 17:48
  Seth Holehouse: I I couldn't agree more. There's it's a very unique situation I'm seeing emerging where, you know, the through my understanding, you know, I'm not a constitutional lawyer, and I I took, you know, basic civics in in in high school and what I went to art school. So, of course, I didn't learn much about the government there. Right? But as I understand it, the the constitution has really set forth this structure so that a corrupted and tyrannical federal government cannot overtake the the states, you know, cannot control at a state level, let alone a county level, you know, things are against the constitution.
• 18:21
  But whereas what we have right now that's unfolding is what I hope to see is a much more constitutionally aligned federal government, which I I believe that that's what we're where we're headed with the Trump administration. But what's interesting is that now the corruption is at the state level. Right? So if you look at California, where you've got Newsom, and if not not just California, but a lot of these different governors have come out and said, look, we're not gonna abide by, you know, Trump's immigration policy. We're not gonna abide by, you know, you know, whatever the election rules, etcetera.
• 18:51
  And so it's a very unique situation, which, of course, I'm absolutely against granting the federal government more power than it needs just to, you know, run the basic basic fundamentals of, you know, protecting our country, etcetera. But what what is the path forward when the at the state level, there's a deep state at the state level, that really the only thing that that I would say that potentially is able to take it out would be something at the federal level, but that would require an extra level of authority and power at the federal level because this is how I mean, this is the only way I think I see moving forward, especially in terms of fixing our elections, let alone a lot of the other things that are happening. So I know that you have a a very, very deep understanding of the constitution and and how these things work. So how would that work if there's a a corrupted, you know, basically, a corrupted governor that doesn't that doesn't wanna follow the executive branch of the government? How do you see that playing out?
• 19:51
  It's a it's a weird scenario.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I think we're seeing that play out we're seeing that play out right now on the level of how our immigration laws are enforced and you've seen a commitment from this incoming administration to send in federal officials to enforce what is federal law in those places and to say, well, if the state's not going to do it, we're going to use our federal powers that we do have. I'll tell you one of the things that that a lot of people have not talked much about. And one of the things that I hope that this incoming administration will address are things like the level of federal power that is given to states like California on the basis of census counts. You may recall that under the Obama administration, they eliminated a question about citizenship on the census. And so you have you have census counts in this country that show large numbers of people and we do allocations of congressional seats based upon that census count and we have allocations of people that are not citizens of this country that are being counted in that census and and they may or may not be here permanently.
• 20:58
  They they may be here temporarily but we don't have any idea who these people are. I mean, and and this really gets to that immigration element of of not knowing who it is but I'm hoping that this new incoming Department of Commerce, leadership, and the Census Bureau will ultimately decide to put a census citizenship question back out there and ultimately, look, if these numbers are far askew, they need to be readjusted immediately to recognize under regular constitutional principles of one person, one vote that we have that we have a congress that's out of whack. We have an oversized delegation from California or New York or these liberal states that have oversized representation of illegal aliens that are that are there. And so ultimately, I think that's one way that it can be addressed. You know, the other way that it can be done is the constitution does allow for congress to have some oversight of the, you know, time, interplace type.
• 21:59
  Regulate I mean, not that, but they do allow for some oversight as to what's going on of the elections. And I think the biggest tool that they have is the ability to call in and say, you know, we need these numbers decided sooner. So in the case of California, they can say, look, we're all because Congress ultimately is the decision maker as to what their membership is. And they can call and put forth to places like California and places that are using these mail in ballot systems that are being manipulated and say, we need we need these numbers sooner. We need these numbers within, you know, three days, five days, ten days, whatever it is, put a number on it, pick a number, and say, we need these numbers then in order to be able to make a decision about what our membership is and clearly, the constitution gives them the authority to decide their membership and so they can say, this is the amount of time that we need in order to be able to do it.
• 22:52
  So, all of that takes some, you know, some real deep legal thinking as to as to how and it would be implemented and and what the verbiage would look like and and the rules surrounding it but you know, think there are tools in the toolbox to assert some constitutional authority that they already have without amending the constitution to allow them to get answers sooner, quicker, and I think the ultimate way for this incoming administration is just to say, look, if y'all aren't going to follow the law, we're gonna send in federal officials who are gonna follow the law. That can be done on the election front in, you know, currently the National Voter Registration it requires states to clean up their voting rolls. If they're not going to clean up their voting rolls, you can, you know, there there are certain ways to withhold money that, you know, a lot of the money that's used to pay for these voting machines that we that we also despise around the country comes from grants through the Elections Assistance Commission, through various federal programs. And so withhold that money. So we're not going to do that.
• 23:57
  If you're using systems that that we think are are easily manipulated systems that you know, my home state of Texas has banned some of these systems and doesn't allow them to be used because they're easily manipulated, you know, so I have the federal government come in and say, we're not going to fund the purchase of those types of equipment, even though the state may think that that's what, you know, that the state wants to do with state money. Great. Do it with state money. But, you know, I I think they still hold the power of the purse, to be able to control some of these things.
• 24:24
  Seth Holehouse: So that makes sense. That basically that a lot of what's happening at the state let state level is still because it's being funded and allowed at the federal level. And so cutting off that funding, cutting off the, you know, the allowance, basically. It's like if you have a 15 year old kid that buys nothing but, you know, candy at the grocery store down the street, well, just stop giving them money, and they'll stop buying candy. Right?
• 24:45
  And it so that makes sense. It's just crazy that you mentioned the census and how they removed the question of are you a citizen? I mean, it's like, it it seems so wild. I I as soon as I think that when I sit back and especially if if I'm reading historical books, you know, whether it's, you know, the Federalist Papers or, you know, different things about the founding fathers or even going back into, say, you know, Aristotle or Plato, and I think what would they think if they saw our society now, right, where you you've literally got people, like, you know, at the Supreme Court level that won't answer the question of, is there a difference between a man and a woman? Right?
• 25:22
  Or do you know what a woman is? I mean, these are just bonkers things or even, you know, the the the founding fathers that they looked forward and they saw in their crystal ball, like, wait. They stopped asking people whether they were citizens of the country? I mean, it it seems so crazy, but these things have all become normalized. Those so one, you know, one question that I I, would love to hear your thoughts on, and especially with, you know, Kash Patel, you know, now gonna be heading up the FBI who's he's someone I've interviewed before.
• 25:50
  I've I've met. You know, I think he's a very solid, very America First, very constitutional, I in his his approach and his belief system. Do you think that there that we can start to see some justice being dealt for all this criminality? As I know that also Trump put out a very I wouldn't seem to say cryptic, but he put out a very strong tweet that was basically cease and desist. It was you know, from from my perspective of reading, it looked like it was a legal statement saying, you know, preserve you know, basically, records.
• 26:20
  Anybody that like, we're watching you like a hawk. Anybody that's caught interfering with the elections, this is before he was gonna win. He said, I will win, and I will come after you, and and I'll be issuing basically the longest prison sentences that we've we've we've issued. I mean, he really kinda made a pretty strong threat. So do you see do you believe that that moving forward once he once he his administration gets in, that not only can we hopefully clean up some of the elections, bring back same day voting, paper ballots, etcetera, But, also, do you think that there's a chance that we could see, like, real prosecution and justice being delivered to people that I look at as traitors?
• 26:57
  Right? To me, someone that undermines our elections in in this country is a traitor, that they're betraying the constitution. They're betraying everything that this country stands for as a country run by We, the People. So what are your thoughts on that?
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Well, not only are they betraying the constitution, they're actually harming an American citizen. Now it's not a physical harm, but what they are doing is they are taking away a legitimate vote of a citizen of this country. Every so for every illegal vote, it is it is hurting at least one if not hundreds of legitimate voters in process. And it's taking away from our republic in that it is undermining the republic, the values of the republic. It is undermining the processes of the republic by allowing just one illegal vote to be counted in any election.
• 27:48
  I firmly believe that that is problematic. Now, will there be justice? Absolutely, I think that the incoming administration is going to go after these type of crimes. But the great thing is, is it's not going to be in a politicized way. It's going to be a very strict interpretation of what the law is.
• 28:09
  And those people that have violated are going to be held to account for the violations that they have. They're not going to go after political opponents and more importantly, they're not going to make the process the punishment. And I think that there are so many people in the incoming administration who have been part of a system of justice where the process was the punishment. They really ultimately didn't care if they served jail time or anything else. So there's that to be said.
• 28:38
  With regard to the the the criminality associated with it, I think we need to look back at 2017 and what happened there. In 2017, when Donald Trump came into office, he put in place a blue ribbon panel to look into, elections and and to make some reforms, particularly with our, voter registration efforts and and voter ID and those type of things. I don't think that he will make that type of appointment to put in place a blue ribbon panel this time because that became the subject of all sorts of media and investigation and those type of things. I think the way that this happens going forward is that is that the apparatuses of government that that currently exist and have regulation over various aspects of the election will be able to go in and have a free hand to look at it. So, for example, in in in my job at the Federal Election Commission dealing with campaign finance issues, you know, my hope is is that there is a hue and cry for allowing individual citizens to engage in more speech without having to register with the government and let them know, hey.
• 29:52
  I'm spending $50 to buy posters to give to my neighbors. I mean, those type of things are just asinine. They infringe upon the First Amendment. And at the end of the day
• 30:04
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• 30:20
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• 30:47
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• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Are things that need to be closely looked at by an agency like mine. You look at the Elections Assistance Commission. You know, they currently give guidance to states on kind of best practices. I think under the Trump administration, you'll see them, you know, be more rigorous in in what it is that they're doing and more importantly, checking on the work that's being done. You mentioned the FBI.
• 31:29
  I think the public integrity unit will be very active in going after individuals that are in fact infringing upon the public integrity by creating these type of fraud and abuse situations that you see. And a lot of those fraud and abuse situations are going to come from government officials who are, you know, on the on the extreme end, they're stuffing ballot boxes on the on the less extreme end. They're just not doing their job. They're just not checking for citizenship when they're supposed to. They're not keeping their voting roles clean.
• 32:02
  They're not maintaining equipment the way that they need to be. They're not running the logic and accuracy tests that need to be run on these on this equipment before it's put out. I mean, all of those type of things I think are susceptible to, you know, some some criminal aspects if if if and when you you get the right people into positions in the federal government.
• 32:25
  Seth Holehouse: And so looking at the, again, the bloat of the federal government and specifically the, you know, kind of the the cascading massive concentration of the federal employees around the DC area. I know Trump has talked about taking these, various agencies and moving them out into the country. You know, why not? Why isn't USDA, sitting in the middle of, say, the the the breadbasket of America? You know, say it's in in the Midwest somewhere.
• 32:51
  Why isn't, the, you know, the FBI out in, say, you know, Texas or wherever? Right? It makes a lot of sense, especially if you look at, if I if my numbers served me correctly, I think it was I think 96% of the District Of Columbia voted for Harris over Trump or somewhere, you know, near that. It was it was, like, only a few points less than a % of people living in the DC area actually voted for Trump, whereas the vast, vast, vast majority, you can see, they're voting to keep their jobs for one reason. Right?
• 33:21
  You know, he which is kinda funny watching Elon and Vivek come in here. Like, look at when Elon took over Twitter, he I think he acts like 85% of the staff. So I would say that for people that are living and working in DC, they're probably chomping their nails right now looking at, okay. So what are my other backup options for a job? Because coming into the office one day a month isn't gonna cut it anymore.
• 33:41
  And so I know that you recently penned an an op ed for The Daily Caller about, you know, how it's time to move the FEC out of Washington. So two two I guess one question I have is how large is the FEC? How many employees are there? And what is your I'd like to have you just explain some of your talking points of what you think would be behind moving the FEC out of Washington.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Sure. Absolutely. Well, thank and thanks for drawing attention to to it. I think it's a topic that's very important and very timely with the incoming administration for us to talk about moving agencies out of Washington DC. And look, I love Washington DC as much as anybody.
• 34:18
  It's we have we have great history there. We have great museums there. A lot of artifacts. Congress absolutely has to be situated there. The White House is situated there.
• 34:27
  You know, a lot of important things that take place there. And there are legitimate reasons to have consolidated, you know, national defense decisions and and and intelligence community and those type of things in close proximity to the civilian leadership of the government. So, you know, I'm not in any way advocating for that but as you mentioned, the the USDA, my agency, the Federal Election Commission. Now, the Federal Election Commission is about is a little over 300 employees. So, we're not talking about a big federal agency but but for every person that we pay at the FEC in their paycheck.
• 35:01
  They get their salary plus they get an additional 33 over 33% more added to their salary for location pay because of the high cost of living associated with Washington DC and the Maryland Virginia area. And so for every every taxpayer now is paying an additional third on every salary to every employee that works in and around the Washington DC area. So, if you were to move these agencies out, the immediate effect is that for every employee, you are cutting 33% out of that individual's salary. Every month, every single month. That is a huge cost savings for moving these agencies out.
• 35:47
  There are places around the country that are suffering and need tenants in buildings. The the the GSA could very easily do contracts and you could move federal agencies into some amazing facilities around the country. You know, Detroit is a shambles. There's plenty of there's plenty of business property to be had in Detroit. Same thing in, you know, Chicago.
• 36:11
  There's plenty of places to be had there. All of these places are places that you could very quickly move federal agencies out of and you could save the taxpayers a ton in doing it. It's very high rent in Washington DC. And more importantly than that, we have we we've taken government and centered it all in Washington DC, and we've taken it away from the people. Those bureaucrats in Washington DC have no idea what goes on in everyday America because they don't live in everyday America.
• 36:42
  They hang out with other bureaucrats. They go to restaurants with other bureaucrats. That's it. That's all they know. They know the insular world of inside the beltway Washington DC.
• 36:52
  So, in my op ed, I said, look, move the federal election commission to Odessa, Texas. Average, everyday, hardworking Americans in the oil patch, let them be out there, let them converse with them, and let them talk about what what real politics is like and how it affects the American people on a daily basis. And I, you know, I I know people kind of chuckle and said, oh, Odessa, Texas out in West Texas. But look, it's the home of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. So, there's a major, there's a, you know, there's a major higher education institution there.
• 37:27
  The John Ben Shepherd Leadership Institute. He's a former Secretary of State and Attorney General for the state of Texas. He's got an institute out there. They bring in they bring in world renowned speakers all of the time. So, it's not like you were sending them out you know, to to some backwater.
• 37:44
  I mean, these are still legitimate places where things go on. As long as you have high speed internet and the ability to, you know, put together databases and things like that, Texas is a great place to do that. I mean, we, Texas is booming with regard to the ability to be able to handle, you know, the gig economy and Elon Musk is moving all of his operations here. So, it couldn't be that bad. You know, and so, at the end of the day, I think it's an ideal place and more importantly, you get rid of that extra 33% that you have to pay and eventually, I think that the workers in Washington DC are going to like it.
• 38:19
  They're going to have great work life balance. They're going to be able to say, hey, I can take off and go visit some other parts of the country. I can get out. I've eliminated hours worth of commute time because there's not the same type of traffic situation that you have. The the amount of savings on not having to do road construction projects inside the Beltway in DC would be enormous.
• 38:41
  So, all of these things are immediate benefits that are available from moving these agencies out. There are several, there are tons of small agencies like the FEC, three or 400 employees, you pick em up, you move em. America will never know any different with regard to where the organization is housed. It's a it's a matter of changing some addresses on some, letterhead and and people sending in reports to a different place. But, you know, America will be no worse than where for having agencies spread out all across, and there's not some sort of, you know, big confab that needs to happen of all of the bureaucrats.
• 39:19
  In fact, what we need to do is eliminate all of the big confabs of the bureaucrats, and, you know, return more power to the people.
• 39:26
  Seth Holehouse: Gosh. And you you make a really good point I hadn't thought about in terms of just revitalizing, areas of the country that have just destroyed economies. You know, I grew up in, you know, in Central And Southern Ohio where, you know, you go drive. I go drive to, say, Nelsonville, the little little, you know, factory town that my mom grew up in, and it's just it's it's gutted. Right?
• 39:46
  Because all those jobs went to went to China. There's now, you know, fentanyl addicts, you know, dying on the streets. I mean, it's just it's so sad. You mentioned Detroit, which is a prime example. So, like, I'd I'd love to see a strategic that be, you know, one of the criteria for where they're moving these agencies is where does our country need to be revitalized.
• 40:04
  Like, say, take, you know, the FBI, for instance. Go go pluck me. It goes, you know, set them into Detroit. Right? And see what what that does to the economy there to bring in, you know, thousands and thousands of jobs.
• 40:16
  Like, that's that's a great great idea, but I also you make a good point, and, you know, the this idea that that DC is a bubble. Right? And that that the bureaucrats, that they're they're disconnected from people. They're disconnected from the land. You know, like, I, you know, I I grew up in rural Ohio.
• 40:33
  I then moved to New York City of all places and lived in the heart of Manhattan for, you know, a decade or so. So I I hate cities. I hate traffic, and now we're
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 40:41
  Seth Holehouse: Back out in the country. We've got seven acres, and, you know, we've got chickens, and we're getting goats, and we're, you know, homesteading, and we're gonna get bees in the spring. And I just feel like that you take someone and put them in an environment where they can spend part of their life just interacting with nature, and I think something something divine happens to them. Something really special happens when you pull someone out of that energy of these big cities, and you place them back on the land. So I I would I would love to see that.
• 41:09
  I think that would it it represent a massive shift.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Well and that that perfectly aligns, frankly, with the vision that the founders had for the country. You know, the the we talked earlier about the founders. What would they think? I think one of the things that they would find abominable is that all government is concentrated in Washington DC. You know, it it when it was originally constructed and and seated to be the District Of Columbia, I don't think that there was any thought that all of government would be housed there.
• 41:39
  In fact, they were big proponents of having individuals out in the states interacting with the people, recognizing that government that is closer to the people is much better government. And so I agree with you. I also agree with you with people getting out and engaging with the land is important. And look, we all benefit from that. We have cost savings benefits with that.
• 42:03
  We have emotional health well-being benefits with that, which in turn has its own savings associated with it. It also makes it where people can interact with government better. You know, if you have local offices that you can go to where, you know, there's the ability to actually touch your government, then you you as a citizen become more engaged in what's going on and paying attention. I mean, if you move the FEC to Odessa, all of a sudden, there may be a lot of people in Odessa who currently don't really care much about what's going on campaign finance wise, but gonna be in the local news. It's gonna be covered.
• 42:43
  I mean, it's something that they're gonna talk about, and you and you have a much better educated, electorate because of it, because people are out there talking about it. Right now, it's hidden away, you know, in a building in Washington DC that nobody talks about.
• 42:56
  Seth Holehouse: Exactly. And I think that that's how they like it. Right? Because it's you know, darkness is where I think bad things hide, and and how do you get rid of evil? You pull it into the light.
• 43:05
  So Right. Absolutely. I'd love to see that. So as we're we're wrapping up, I wanna pull up your Twitter page here, encourage folks to follow you there. It's TX election law.
• 43:14
  And, Trey, I just wanna see as we're we're wrapping up, do you have any final thoughts or any, you kinda hopes or aspirations for the future?
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Well, Seth, first of all, I just wanna thank you for having me on. It's been a great conversation. I've enjoyed talking about it, and I'm glad that people are still talking about these issues surrounding election integrity. I think it's very, very important that we keep the focus there. You know, I tell people all the time, the reason that we had fewer problems and there still were problems, but the reason we had fewer problems in the twenty twenty four election compared to the twenty twenty election is because Donald Trump made such a big deal out of the problems that we had in 2020.
• 43:53
  I think a lot of those problems are still inherent in the system, you know, and and look, elections are run by humans and humans are flawed and so there's always going to be something you can point to but I think there are also things that can be done to eliminate that and the way that the elimination comes is for individuals to keep talking about it and keep pressing forward to make the republic better. I hope that we see that from this incoming administration. I know that they have a focus on it and are going to do what they can. I think they're gonna be much smarter and wiser about how they do it. So, you know, so I think we'll see gradual changes, but but I think they're gonna continue to be the focus.
• 44:32
  And so really, it's just been my pleasure to be with you and and and, you know, I've I've great hope for the future of America right now.
• 44:38
  Seth Holehouse: I do too. I I I really do. Well, Trey, thank you. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. Take care, and God bless.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much. Take care.
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