Latest / Breaking The Meta / She Hunted Terrorists & Traffickers. Now She's Running for Senate in Montana. | Alani Bankhead
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Wins and today we are sitting down with Alani Bankhead who is running for Senate in the state of Montana. Hello Alani, how are you doing today? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Hey brother, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited for this conversation. Breaking The Meta: I am so excited to have you here. ⁓ You know, every once in a while, let's start off. I'm excited about everyone I get to talk to you because everyone I talked to is so amazing. But when I was looking over who you were as a person, your background, there are just some really amazing things that I feel like I need to jump in on a little bit and we'll get into them. But The first thing I do want to start off with, because obviously not many people know a lot about Montana or any of that. And obviously we want to learn about you. So could you start off by just giving us a little background on you and why you decided to run for Senate in the first place? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: For sure. So I'm a retired lieutenant colonel and supervisory special agent. So I've hunted terrorists, spies, and child sex traffickers all over the world. I was a senior Pentagon bodyguard. So I was in all the rooms on Capitol Hill, the White House, all the most senior levels of government. I never saw myself in politics, but I'm here because I was looking around, seeing at my community suffering. I'm a retired lieutenant colonel and supervisory special agent. So I've hunted terrorists, spies, and child sex traffickers all over the world. I never saw myself in politics, but I'm here I was looking around, seeing at my community ⁓ suffering. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm. Mm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: and knew that we are the solution to our problems. and knew that we are the solution to our problems. And so I'm running because I want to restore government to being one of the people by the people for the people, because certainly my experiences in and out of DC proved to me that the only difference between us and those elected officials we have now is they think they deserve to be there and we don't. ⁓ So it's about restoring government to its original function, which is serving the people, not just ⁓ abusing of Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: constituents. So yeah, we're doing the race. I'm super excited to be in the fight because we're going to take some ineffective legislators down. Breaking The Meta: Heck yeah, heck yeah. So as you have walked around Montana and talked to people, which by the way, I don't think most people realize. So could you give us an idea of how big Montana is? Like how far is it from one end of Montana to the other lengthwise? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: ⁓ my gosh, it is massive. So it's actually the fourth biggest geographical jurisdiction in the United States in terms of Senate races. And it's not like in Texas or North Carolina or DC where you have highway that is just clear and free and open all the time, because we get a lot of snow and ice here. So you'll have roads closed down during the winter and winter goes from September till April, May, June sometimes. So actually when you talk about Breaking The Meta: Right. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: GPS says it only takes four hours. No, no, no. You have to, it could be eight, nine hours to get from end to end on the state if the roads even open. So it's really tough to maneuver around here. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ Right. So did you grow up in Montana? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I did not, I'm third generation military. My family has served America going as far back as World War II. Everybody in my family is military law enforcement, both or married into it, even my dog. I have a police canine named Lulu. Yeah, so Lulu finds evidence in child sex abuse material cases. But so we ended up here because my husband was active duty as well. He retired after 20 years of service and we moved to Montana because Breaking The Meta: Okay. Mm. Yeah, I saw the picture of that. Mmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Our values most aligned, so Montana is very community oriented in a way we've never seen anywhere else in the world. ⁓ It's all about freedom, democracy, ⁓ family values, hard work is another big one. So our values are just super aligned with Montana's, which is what brought us here. Breaking The Meta: Gotcha. So as you go around Montana and you talk to everybody, what are those pain points? What are the things that Montana needs from you as a senator? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: without a doubt, number one housing, number two healthcare, period, end of story. They're fed up with the status quo. They're fed up with legislators that aren't listening to them. One of the reasons why I decided to run is because, so Dane's the current guy in the seat that I'm running against who's now dropped out of the race. He has not had a town hall in a year and a half, probably more. ⁓ He does not vote. a lot of the time. So in December we had the Affordable Care Act subsidy extension. He didn't mark himself present. He just didn't vote at all. so literally to me, I'm like, if you're not doing your job, you get fired. So we're going to fire you from the job. so not only do they is housing through the roof and health care is through the roof, but they're not even being represented in a state with a little over a million people. Right. And oftentimes we hear from folks Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: They feel ignored and underrepresented in DC because we're Montana. Nobody really kind of knows outside of Montana that we're here. But the reality is the Senate is the brilliant creation of our founders who found a way to allow the population to be represented in the House, but equal representation in the Senate and 50 % of our delegation in the Senate is not voting on behalf of the people. So those are kind of the three big things that I hear from folks everywhere. They're just fed up. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mm. Yeah. One of the other big things that we we as voters have struggled with probably for decades, even though I think it's coming out strongly, especially in the last 10 years or so, is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our our representatives. How do you see accountability in your life? How do you see being held accountable by the people of Montana? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I love that you brought this up because accountability is my number one platform item. I first and foremost believe that we're here as a country because there wasn't accountability when it was small, right? So housing's a great example where if there had been accountability in terms of regulators overseeing Wall Street appropriately, we would not have had the 0809 housing crisis, which we know has contributed right now to the crisis that we're in right now, right? Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: chose child exploitation and child sex trafficking as my primary passion area because it's one in four girls, one in six to 10 boys are sexually abused. That's between 68 and 75 million Americans. If I can remove the impediment of sexual abuse that allows that child to grow up healthy, not having to deal with the trauma, right? Because I think it's our birthright as Americans to create whatever life Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: of joy and impact that we can. And sexual abuse is the number one way that people are impacted. So I am a root cause person. Accountability is my thing. ⁓ And in terms of how that impacts government and the governance, one thing that we're lacking is accountability of our government officials, right? And I need to be held accountable, which is one of the reasons why historically over my career, I've worked with journalists. because journalists are kind of the fourth unofficial pillar of governance and accountability in the government, right? This is why we hear about whistleblowers, because when something's going wrong, a journalist brings light to this really dark subject, and then the public can give their opinion and hold those folks accountable. And that's something that was unpopular in a lot of jurisdictions I worked in, where my bosses would say, no, we don't want to talk to the press, right? They're snaky, whatever. And I'm like, we have to, because it's Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: our duty to tell the community what we're doing. And I even had bosses that would say things like, well, we don't want the perpetrators to know that we're working these cases. I'm like, I want them to know. Because if a guy thinks twice about going online to find a kid to abuse, that's mission accomplished to me. Right? ⁓ Right. And so it's all about accountability. And government needs to be held accountable in the worst way right now. And so Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Ha ha ha. Yeah, that's true. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: platforms like this where we can talk about what that looks like, right? Another example is I hear a lot on the road. People are calling their representatives and mailing, you know, letters to them and emails and they're like, I don't hear anything back and it's frustrating, but I'm like, I know you're not hearing anything, but they are feeling the pressure and they don't like it. So I'm like, Just because you're not getting the immediate response you want, don't give up because that's the accountability that they deserve. If you feel called to that, you do that. If you want to protest, you do that. If you want to run for office, you do that. If you want to run a podcast and shed light on this topic, you do that. We all have a part to play in holding government accountable, and it starts with me. So if you have power and responsibility, you better wield it to the highest levels. And that's what this campaign stands for. Breaking The Meta: Mm. So that brings up an interesting question, and I think it's one that really... It's not an easy answer, especially for someone running for Senate, but I think it's something that's important to talk about. So we're dealing with a partial shutdown of the United States government because DHS still is not funded. And there has been a lot of complaints about the filibuster, and I know we could probably go into... We could do a whole episode just about the positives and negatives of why the filibuster exists. But one thing the filibuster does do is make it hard as a senator to make any promises on any side of the aisle and on any side of the situation. Because you can have a simple majority, which allows you to pass certain things, but not everything, not most things. So how do we move forward? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: you Breaking The Meta: And even that, how do you interact with people with the knowledge that everything you're talking about still falls under this issue of Congress not being able to work together because they're not going to, we're not going to be able to fix that in six months, no matter how much we like, we would love it if that were the case. How do we go forward knowing that something like the filibuster still exists? Why there are Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Right. Sure. Breaking The Meta: There are potential good reasons for it, but it's also in many ways hampering our ability to do anything. And that's been that way for, ⁓ especially the last 10 years. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Totally. I love this question. And I actually think the answer is pretty simple because you're right, the current way things are functioning, well, they're not functioning is the point. people are doing their best, right? And even if I try to be as impartial as possible, I can see some of the reasons on the GOP side why they might be pushing certain things, right? Nobody's going to disagree that border security is important, that we want to keep bad actors and narco traffickers out of our country. Nobody feels any differently on any side. But what it comes back to is the original intent of our founding fathers and I think introducing civility, right? Which there's a few things happening in the space that I think are going to contribute to that solution that you're bringing up. So first and foremost, I actually want to remind the listener of our history as a country. This is not the first time we've had these deadlocked drag out fights with each other, right? When you look at how the framers frame the constitution and the bill of rights, they were like button heads in the worst way, but they were committed first and foremost to coming to that consensus. And I think that's one thing that we're really missing that we need to get back to. Now I've worked in and out of Capitol Hill for years. I understand how those spaces work. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: The second thing that happened, I think, which is to your point that you're alluding to, is a lot of our congressional representatives stopped being about the greater good of the country, and they focused instead on just their jurisdiction and just their efforts to get reelected. Right? Because they're thinking about job security. And there were many times... So I was the senior bodyguard for the secretary of the Air Force, who used to work on the House Armed Services Committee. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. Yes. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And I remember them getting off the phone in the limo saying things like, gosh, back in the day, people would work across the aisle. People would understand that they had to sacrifice a little bit for the greater good. And people just aren't willing to do that anymore. And so I think bringing back the camaraderie and finding that shared space is the most important thing. And I'm going to suggest something that sounds a little simple, but I know will yield profound dividends. And I'm going to give you a little background. I'm a counter-intelligence, or I'm retired now, counter-intelligence agent for the Air Force. So the people in the movies with the briefcases full of money that met with their informants in secret and got intelligence and like, that's what I used to do. So I used to hunt senior Al Qaeda leaders and I've busted a lot of bad guys that killed a lot of people. But one of the key tools that we use in developing relationship and trust is food. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Okay. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And why that is is because food is a subconscious acknowledgement that we all need to eat to survive. So when we break bread, I used to say there's something magical that happens, but breaking bread is a way that we can just sit together and have a shared moment of we both need the sustenance, right? And actually on Capitol Hill, they removed the... Breaking The Meta: you Mmm. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: congressional food spaces, the common food spaces years ago. So I think even bringing that back would be really important and a critical tool to helping restore that bipartisan tool to have conversations, right? Because when I'm breaking bread with you, we can talk about that bill and how we might disagree. ⁓ And that might sound silly, but the solutions we often seek are very simple solutions, but they're very powerful. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And so I would love to bring that back. And in combination with we were talking before you hit record about the number of veterans and people in national security that are running, we understand shared mission. We understand how to bring the right experts to the table. So it just feels, think, statewide and nationally, there's a movement towards we need to go back to who we were as a country. And we have the tools to create that. We've done it before. We can restore it again. And it's up to the voter to decide. that they want to go back to that system in November or not. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, it's interesting when you were talking about that. It reminded me of the recent interview with Tom Tillis, Senator Tom Tillis, where he talked about he was asked, you seem more free now than you ever were. And he said his response to people when they asked that is, fuck yeah, I am. And the reason he said that is because he said up until the point where I said I wasn't running anymore, every vote I took, every statement I made, I had to weigh the amount of extra money or votes I would have to get in order to counter one way or another, whatever I did. And if that's not a blaring example of how the system is currently broken, I don't know what else is. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Absolutely. And you know, to your point, you made me think of Jacinda Ardern, so the former prime minister of New Zealand. I read her book recently. It's called A Different Kind of Power, I think. But ⁓ she talked about, and I'm going to butcher this, right? But my memory ⁓ serves me enough that I remember New Zealand's parliament runs, it's something like five or six weeks. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: So they're working and then everybody stops to run for a short period of time. And I think the max they can fundraise is something like $25,000. And it's just so logical. It's like, do the work, don't focus on the reelection, because everybody's got the same level playing field. And then we stop and we focus on that and then we can get back to governing. And that's definitely a change I'd love to ⁓ offer when it comes to dealing with Citizens United and campaign finance reform and stuff like that. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Sure. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: ⁓ But the point is that when we talk about, historically what I've seen on Capitol Hill, and you do have amazing legislators, you have the brilliant Condoleezza Rice's and the Colin Powell's that get things done, but those folks think that they deserve to be there. We don't. They get there and then they bring their buddies in and they scratch each other's backs. Well, what I wanna do and what my fellow vets and other national security professionals wanna do is, We want to bring our people that get shit done on behalf of the American people that understand the policies, that understand the impacts, that are willing to get that grassroots feedback. And it's funny because you see it with Mom Donnie right now, right? People are like, ⁓ my gosh, Mom Donnie's moving so fast. Like, this is a miracle. It's not a miracle. It's just Mom Donnie's not a corrupt, like, Breaking The Meta: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: ⁓ and he brought his folks in that get shit done. That's all veterans and national security professionals have done. And that's what America and Montana want. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. As someone who has been a veteran or is a veteran, not has been, who are a veteran and who spent who spent time hunting terrorists and people that have obviously Iran was probably a a big name on your list, especially when it came to the idea of terrorism. I am very interested in not only your thoughts on what's going on over in Iran, but also what kind of response you are getting from other veterans as you go around and talk about what's going on. over there. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Yes. So for context, I want people to know it's March 26th and we're in the middle of the ceasefire, like the five day ceasefire or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So first and foremost, I was the commander of the unit responsible for stopping all terrorists and espionage attacks in Kuwait. So the three F-15Es that went down, that would have been in my jurisdiction. And that was my worst nightmare come true. Breaking The Meta: We, ceasefire. Mmm. Yep. Okay. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I mean, just watching that news unfold gave me heart palpitations because it's on us as counterintelligence professionals to stop any kind of harm from coming on U.S. people. I mean, any innocent person, right? ⁓ So without a doubt, I'm completely opposed to what's happening in Iran. It is an illegal war on a couple of different fronts. Number one, we didn't get congressional approval. Number two, Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Right. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I have a master's degree in international relations with a national security concentration. You cannot, international law-wise, go into another country unprovoked and remove their leader. And Trump himself has said there was no imminent threat. So these are his words. And I normally don't like commenting on investigations or national security things that ⁓ I'm not privy to because I don't have all that information. So I'm using the words from the actual commander in chief. But the bottom line is we shouldn't have been there to begin with. ⁓ Again, with housing and food insecurity and health care being such a top priority, it makes me livid that we are spending a billion dollars a day with another 200 plus billion dollar request to Congress to fund this thing when I have neighbors that are going homeless or struggling, right? There was a legislator running here locally who? had his electricity turned off for a couple weeks because he couldn't pay for his freaking electric bill and And so to me and here's the thing as a veteran I have the bona fides to say I know exactly where we're gonna get the money for health care and housing from the defense budget, right? so so ⁓ last week we had all the big news came out about Breaking The Meta: Yes. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Hegseth and the Pentagon spending $90 billion in September of 2025 on lobster and pianos and all this stuff. So that's what we call use lose funding. every right people get a budget. If a unit doesn't spend it all you lose what you didn't spend you get less than next year. Ever since I was day one baby lieutenant I'm like why are we doing this? This is you know this is not good for the American public. And so I've run the calculations. We could claw back hundreds of billions of dollars with zero impact to national security just with that one change, right? ⁓ And so I can sit there and say that, especially Montana people are very pro veteran, pro law enforcement. And I'm saying with that authority, we can pay for this and we can do it without increasing taxes, but people have to vote the right people in, so. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. And also, ⁓ the Department of Defense needs to pass an audit, like, at least once in the night. Can we? If we could get that, I think a lot of people would be kind of happy, Yeah. ⁓ We're not going to raise your budget until you can pass an audit kind of a thing. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: ⁓ my gosh, please. Yes, accountability. That's accountability is passing an audit. Congress. Exactly, exactly. And Congress, they like to use the military as, you know, a little hot button issue that they can get votes on, right? They love to say we're pro-military. There are a ton of veterans running right now, myself included, that are like, no, we need to rein this in because it's not helping the people. We did not, I did not deploy and get shot at and bombed so that my neighbors could struggle to put food on the table. That's not the American dream to me. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So going along, at least with this in a more broad sense, ⁓ the United States has been at the head of the table pretty much since World War II because we had a nice ocean between us that helped protect us. In the last year, this administration has systematically destroyed our seat at the table, whether with tariffs. or Venezuela or Greenland or threats to our NATO allies or leaving the WHO or leaving the Paris Climate Accord or just a myriad and now Iran, obviously, and everything that we're doing with that. Regardless of what this administration thinks, are not either we are not at the head of the table or our allies are doing whatever they can to try and make us no longer be at the table with them in the things that they're doing. How do we move forward? in terms of foreign policy, knowing that there is a supreme lack of trust by some of our closest allies that anything we say will go past the four years of a presidency. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Absolutely, that's such a good question. And you know what, I'm gonna take it back to my counterintelligence days. You build trust by telling someone who you are and then showing up consistently in your behaviors for as long as it takes until that person decides to trust you again. And maybe they won't, right? That's the gamble that you take. But it's very simple, right? Oftentimes we want these really complicated big time solutions. No, because and in counterintelligence, we run human informants, that's what we do. And we don't start immediately with, let's get business done. It's tell me about you, tell me about your kids, tell me about your family, tell me about what's important to you, because I'm trying to identify what their motivation is for working with us. Because in our world, it's all about creating wins for everybody, right? And so that's one of the reasons why I've been so successful professionally. And you know, it's really funny when people, so to give you a little bit of context, in one jurisdiction alone, Breaking The Meta: Mm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: over three years, I arrested, it was almost 100 pedophiles and traffickers. have a 96 % conviction rate in court. found ⁓ we recovered more than 25 kids. I mean, this was in task force, right? But I ran these operations. But the point is the work continues and people are like, how did you do that? It's so miraculous, Alani. And I'm like, because I brought other people in who wanted to be part of the solution, I let them offer their gift. Breaking The Meta: Whoo! Heck yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And then I taught other people how to do the same thing, because I don't gatekeep information that's going to help my community. And people think it's revolutionary. But coming back to what you're talking about in terms of building trust, it starts with saying, we care about our kids, and this is what we're doing to protect our kids, and we want your feedback. And it took a year and a half of getting blown off, getting ignored. I had law enforcement agencies that Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: told us to go pound sand, as soon as we got the first results, which by the way, in that jurisdiction, the first person we arrested was a police officer, right? After that, everybody was on board, right? And so what I'm saying is it takes one person to stand up and say, I believe we can build trust. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Yup. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: and it's going to be hard, but who wants to join me? And the success I've had in any jurisdiction, and I've run operations on every continent except for Antarctica, it was always with less than five people, just like you and I. They weren't special in any way other than they said, I want to be... ⁓ yeah, no, we're totally special. We're totally special. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: I think we're special. Yeah, I know what you mean. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: But the point is that they wanted to help, And we messed up and we had things that didn't work and we got back up and we learned from it. And then when people saw the success, now these same folks are teaching across the nation and internationally and replicating those wins. And they're no different than the listener right now, right? And so with building trust, it's you find your core people that you trust, you make a commitment that we're gonna work on this. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And we're working some initiatives here in Montana to better protect children from sexual violence because it's so pervasive. But I've told folks, I'm like, this is a multi-year thing. You cannot be in it for the short haul. We're talking one to three years for the initial push and then three to five years for the bigger stuff that we're working on. But it's about building trust and telling people in the community, this is who we are, this is what we're committed to. And if you just beat that drum, People come around, they see the results, they want to be part of it. Breaking The Meta: Do you think, and this is something that I've asked a few different people because, so I think one of the other issues that comes with gaining that trust is, no one can hold us to anything. And the reason I say that is we don't fall under, the International Criminal Court, where we helped create the International Criminal Court, and yet we're like, nah, we'll just do whatever we want. Do you think something even to that level might be necessary, especially for the world stage? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: without a doubt. I have friends that work at the UN and at the ICC and I'm like, get ready, I'll see you in Nuremberg. Because we have to be held accountable for what we've done. And we have to pay the price for the decisions that we made. Absolutely. I fully believe in the justice system and we have to set the example in that even if that means that our reputation suffers short term. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: damage. And actually another thing I wanted to say is I know the headlines are loud, right? We know that the algorithms prefer that, but I'm retired so I can say whatever I want. I don't have Hatch Act and UCMJ working against me, but there are so many amazing federal government employees and military professionals working right now to build that trust and maintain those relationships behind the scenes. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: There is a, I don't wanna call it a resistance, but there is a massive effort to hold fast to the Constitution and who we have been historically as a country. So I want folks to know those people can't say anything publicly because they're bound by law not to, but I'm not bound by law and I will be their mouthpiece. And these are incredible people. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: that I encourage them as much as I can. like, just total, I'm like, honey, we're coming, like midterms are coming and just hold on a little bit longer, you know? And it's really, really hard for them. It's dark times for them too. But I just want the listener to be encouraged. There are amazing people fighting for democracy behind the scenes right now. And I have no doubt we're gonna win because of them. And I have no doubt that we're gonna win because of the listener who's gonna vote in accordance with their conscience and who they want America to be. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. So I think the other thing, just based on your history, that I think it would be, I would be ⁓ neglect if I did not talk about it, is the Epstein files. Because I am sure that based on your history, you've got some very big thoughts about it. And so you should. And so a lot of us do. How do you see us? having to go forward, especially based on a lot of the revelations that have come from the Epstein files, which I will say, not surprising to anybody. I think the surprising thing for me, and it probably shouldn't be, and maybe it's because I'm who I always say, it's probably because I'm a white man that grew up in Massachusetts in a little area that surrounded by other white people. It was surprising to me how little it ended up affecting anything in the long run. And especially with other countries, them holding their people in the Epstein files responsible, and yet ours are just like, you know what? Forget about it. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Yeah, yeah. Okay, this is a very layered topic, but I love that you brought it up, right? And first of all, as someone in that space, know, people are like, what'd think when the Epstein files came out? And I'm like, it's Tuesday. Like this is just another day for folks in that space because we see that kind of stuff all the time. And I think what is important to convey is it's massive. Breaking The Meta: Very. Yeah. Sure. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: But it started because there wasn't accountability on the small things. And when people talk about how do we address this, there's no accountability happening at the federal level, obviously. And I tell them there is ⁓ a range of options. And you get to choose how you want to play in creating the solution. So number one, at the most basic grassroots level, I mentioned the stats. It's one in four girls, one in six to 10 boys is sexually abused. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: That's the biggest army the world has ever seen of survivors. the perpetrators are terrified that survivors are going to reclaim their power because they are hosed, right? That's why they are working so hard to make Epstein go away because they're scared. ⁓ So at a grassroots level, it starts with if you're a guy, right? To your point, you're like, I have privilege as a white male. ⁓ If I hear a guy make another inappropriate comment, you can something as simple as, hey dude, that's not cool, right? A small accountability thing that has massive impact on Epstein down the road, right? The same thing holds true with, ⁓ I'll say from a justice system standpoint, the biggest barriers I had to success, it was never the traffickers, it was never their defense attorneys, it was my own law enforcement, prosecutor, judge folks, right? Breaking The Meta: Right. Yeah. Mmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I've had prosecutors, I had a case, I'll tell you a story of a case. Somebody was trying to buy three kids between the ages of three and 15. It was a silver platter case, man. It was so great. I had video, I had audio. He was walking up to this house with all the gifts that he said he was gonna bring, including Happy Meals, total, total psychologically wired bad guy. The judge wanted to release the suspect with no bond. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: because he said the guy wasn't a threat to the community. And I'm like, my dude, where are you looking? I have. Breaking The Meta: I think we've got different ideas of what threat means. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Yes. And I've worked cases where prosecutors and judges told me child sex abuse material, which is the proper term for child pornography, is a victimless crime. Like, what's the big deal? It's a victimless crime. And I'm like, tell that to the kid in the video, right? I had a case where a deputy assistant US attorney, so this is at the federal level, calls me crying. And they're like, Alani, the first chair prosecutor is telling me they don't think this is a good case. very similar to the case I just told you about. And she's like, I don't understand why would he say this? And I'm like, because he's abused kids in the past, honey. So we have an investigative technique in the interview room where if you're not sure if somebody committed a crime, you give them a piece of paper and a pen and you're like, hey, if somebody committed this crime, I want you to write the five things that should happen to that person. If they didn't do it, they'd be saying things like cut off their penis, Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: like they should be killed. If they did do it, they'll say things like, I'm sure it was a mistake, give them a second chance, right? So when people minimize the crimes, you and I are like, ⁓ we don't understand why. I'll tell you why, because they've done it before, right? So all that to say, there's a range of options. We can get in the fight in whatever way we want. And you, as an example, are shining a bright light. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Right. Yes. Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: through the platform by having the conversation so people can hear this and decide, do I want to address comments by my homies? Do I want to become a lawyer and fight for these kids? Do I want to work at a nonprofit? Do I want to go cook food at a foster kid shelter? Do I want to write? There's a million options. You don't have to run for US Senate to create the change. And I need everybody listening to get on board. If you want to be part of the solution, just pick a direction and move towards it. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to do just a little bit of future casting if you do not mind. So your primary comes and you win. Congratulations. November 3rd comes along. You also win by 30 points. It's amazing. No one ever thought that would happen in Montana, but it did. January 2nd or January. I don't want to end this for centers, but January comes along and you were sworn in as. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Thank you. Yes, thank you. Breaking The Meta: the representative senator for the state of Montana. What are the first things that you want to do as senator? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: So there are two things that are tied for first place. ⁓ Number one is we're gonna impeach Trump in his cabinet. There's a group called Citizens Impeachment. They're rallying a bunch of candidates, right? ⁓ And the idea is create change day one. And in tandem with that is we need to restore checks and balances as the founders originally intended. So we have to get the foundation for the ship right before we continue to sail the ship. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: And ⁓ so clawing back a lot of that power that Congress has ceded to the executive branch will be the primary ⁓ focus of mine. obviously through that, we will address housing and healthcare and all that stuff. But part of why we're struggling is because our democratic framework is very fragile right now and we have to restore and reinforce ⁓ how it should be. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. I think that actually, because it made me think about the ⁓ Senator Schumer, is the ⁓ minority chair of the Democratic Party, if you are sworn in, would you support Schumer as the head of the minority or majority, whichever it ends up being in the Senate? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: That's an interesting question. what I will say, so I'm a good soldier, right? I know how to take orders, but I know how to critically think too. ⁓ If Schumer is still there and still the boss, yeah, I'm going to do what I need to, right? And in terms of getting that coalition built so that we can start creating that change because collaboration is the only way forward. However, I do believe that people Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: want a complete overhaul of the party. And Schumer is establishment to me. And he's, ⁓ he's actually doing some things here in Montana that are very sneaky and ⁓ I don't appreciate. ⁓ And so ultimately, if he's not able to get on board with what the new crop of legislators want in terms of creating unity and actually creating change for the people that isn't solely focused on just hating on the GOP, because I don't believe in that either, then he's gone. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: I will do the work to get him gone as well. Breaking The Meta: So for everyone that has listened for the last however long we've been going so far and heard everything that you have talked about about what you hope to do for the state of Montana. What do you hope? What are one or two things that no matter what you would want people to walk away with knowing about you and your campaign? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: So the campaign really is me holding a mirror up to my fellow Montanans and my fellow Americans. I, as a veteran, have had the privilege of traveling to over 80 countries. I've lived in over 20 states. It is an incredible miracle that we were born American. ⁓ So I'll give you an example of ⁓ one of the terrorists. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: that I worked with, was a car bomb maker. And I mentioned the building trust bar. You have to build trust with these people because they're literally ratting their communities out. They're committing treason. And I realized very early on, this guy's no different than you and I. He just had the misfortune of being born in Iraq. And he wasn't ideologically aligned with Al Qaeda. They paid the most in his town. And he had to put food on his kids' table. so that was... one of the most humbling moments for me. And I share that because I want the listener to understand that it is a gift that you were born or were naturalized into being a U.S. citizen. And the power that you have as a U.S. citizen to create the government you want is something that I think the powers that be want you to forget about. They want you to feel powerless. And the truth is you are so much more powerful than Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: than you fully understand. And even in Montana here, so the she he tester race last cycle brought in over $200 million. It was one of the most expensive in the history of Congress. People don't spend $200 million if your vote doesn't matter. It absolutely does. But the question is, and the hard part is, I think people are a little scared to... to demand what they want out of their government, because it's easier to say, ⁓ I don't have any control over that. It's harder to have hope and then potentially still lose. But what I want people to walk away with is not only is there hope, but you're so much more powerful to create the community and the government that you want, that you deserve. You just have to decide, and then you have to get behind that person 100%. And that includes. Donating to their campaign. Please. We are grassroots. We don't take a pack or dark money And it's hard to fundraise ⁓ During a recession, right? ⁓ But the same thing applies to you know, if you look at World War two with victory gardens, right? The poorest people still did victory gardens share your love for a candidate to ten people around you share their posts share the hope that you have about that person, go knock on doors for them, whatever it is you feel led to, that is what you bring to the table. And frankly, I'm going to hold my fellow citizens accountable. If you are complaining about these things, rightfully so, but you're not being part of the action arm, then you are part of the problem. And I say that with love, right? And to encourage you and because accountability goes both ways. I expect people to hold me accountable, but I need your help to create the country that we need to get back to. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you've taken most of the end of my of my lines for the for the thing, but that's OK. I think it was better that you say for people that want to learn more about you and ⁓ volunteer potentially or or donate. Where can they find you? Alani Bankhead, D-MT: You can find us at Alani4mt.com. So it's F-O-R-M-T.com. And we're on all the social media places at Alani4mt again. And just follow us on socials. We also have a podcast called the Montana Matters Podcast. It's hosted by a local Hellenite amazing young woman who ⁓ she's bringing young folks into the fold through that medium. And so you can follow us via the podcast as well. Breaking The Meta: Nice. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: But I actually answer all the DMs personally, which I know is a shocker. I believe in talking directly to the people who are voting for me. I know. So yeah, people are always surprised. like, ⁓ my gosh, I can't believe it's you. I'm like, yeah, no, this is how it's supposed to be. But ⁓ yeah, so Alani4MT in all places. Breaking The Meta: It's crazy. Alani, thank you so much for spending some time with us today and allowing us to get to know you and what you hope to do for the state of Montana. I appreciate it. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: ⁓ my gosh, thank you so much brother for this. This was such a gift. Thank you for inspiring me today and we'll see you on the campaign trail. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, and for everyone else that listened this far, thank you so, so very much. Please consider hitting all those buttons down below, like, subscribe, share, all that stuff helps make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is talking to amazing people like Alani and all these other amazing, amazing people that are running across the country that want to be held accountable, that want to ⁓ break the status quo, that aren't taking... ⁓ pack money that are doing grassroots that are doing things the way that we keep saying that we want things done that we've been doing it for the last 20 we've been complaining about it for the last 20 years there are people across the country in numbers that you would be amazed at that are trying to do this so please like share do what just just like Alani said watch share That's what gives the visibility and the name recognition necessary for these people to defeat people that are bringing in millions and millions of dollars and doing things in a way that we want to end. So please help out. And for those of you that may be new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity and safety. Alani, thank you again for being here and for everyone else. We'll see you next time. Alani Bankhead, D-MT: Thank you so much. Breaking The Meta: on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.