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Republican Senator Admits 'I Was Wrong' About Trump · Unshaken & Unafraid with Joe Pags

0:00
Speaker 1: I was wrong, not a denial, not a dodge. He
0:03
Speaker 1: looked right at the camera and said right to me,
0:05
Speaker 1: I was wrong. Senator John Corne is fighting for his
0:08
Speaker 1: political life in the Texas runoff. He's been called a rhino.
0:11
Speaker 1: He's been accused of selling out gun owners, and he
0:14
Speaker 1: used to say the Republican Party should move past Donald Trump.
0:17
Speaker 1: I put every single one of those accusations directly to
0:21
Speaker 1: his face. You want answers here, they are as somebody
0:24
Speaker 1: with fifteen stations in Texas alone, We've got one hundred
0:27
Speaker 1: and seventy around the country. If I post your name,
0:30
Speaker 1: there will be a tax online. If I post Ken
0:32
Speaker 1: Paxton's name, there will be a tax online. There are
0:35
Speaker 1: people who are digging in on either side, and they
0:37
Speaker 1: love attacking both of you guys. Why is it? Why
0:40
Speaker 1: is it gott nasty between you and Ken? Do you
0:42
Speaker 1: guys have a relationship before this or did you not
0:44
Speaker 1: have one? I don't know what the history is.
0:47
Speaker 2: I knew Ken. I've known Ken a long time.
0:50
Speaker 3: You know, when he was a state representative and the
0:52
Speaker 3: state senator and then he became attorney general. Something happened
0:56
Speaker 3: to him along the way. People who have no own
1:00
Speaker 3: him their whole career. Don't really recognize the Ken Paxson
1:04
Speaker 3: that they see today, given the record that he is
1:08
Speaker 3: as a mass, the baggage that he's acquired through impeachments,
1:12
Speaker 3: through indictments, and now you know, obviously sadly through the
1:17
Speaker 3: destruction of his own marriage, and unfortunately, I think he's
1:22
Speaker 3: just become more and more emboland and to the point
1:27
Speaker 3: of recklessness. And so I had said, I think back
1:31
Speaker 3: during the impeachment that it was embarrassing to me, as
1:34
Speaker 3: a former attorney general, the number one's cheap top cop
1:38
Speaker 3: for the state to have a top cop under indictment,
1:42
Speaker 3: and he needed to get it resolved, and he.
1:44
Speaker 2: Didn't like that.
1:45
Speaker 1: It is Senator John Corny running for reelection. The actual
1:49
Speaker 1: runoff is going to happen in May, so make sure
1:51
Speaker 1: you go and check it out if you're here in Texas.
1:53
Speaker 1: So you're going to want to pick who the next
1:54
Speaker 1: senator is going to be. You've had the seed for
1:56
Speaker 1: a long time. Let me just ask you about that quickly,
1:58
Speaker 1: because professionally, I think Ken Paxton's done a great job.
2:01
Speaker 1: I think you've done a very good job as well. Professionally,
2:03
Speaker 1: I don't know your marital status. I'm guessing you're married.
2:07
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know Ken's wife or ex wife,
2:10
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Does the personal stuff matter, John, because
2:12
Speaker 1: you just brought it up?
2:15
Speaker 3: Well, I think character still matters. I've been married forty
2:18
Speaker 3: six years, Joe, and my dear wife has stood with
2:22
Speaker 3: me through every election and all of the craziness, some good,
2:27
Speaker 3: some bad, and she'stermined. She supports my effort and I
2:32
Speaker 3: couldn't do it without her, so I'm grateful to her.
2:36
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think character does matter because eventually, you know,
2:40
Speaker 3: it comes down to trust. And of course politicians say
2:43
Speaker 3: a lot of things that I know most of us
2:45
Speaker 3: take it with a grain of salt. But you learn
2:48
Speaker 3: through experience who you can trust and whether they are
2:50
Speaker 3: interested in self promotion or they're interested in producing results
2:55
Speaker 3: for their constituents. In other words, are you serving the
2:58
Speaker 3: public or do you want the pub like to serve you.
3:01
Speaker 3: I think my record is one of serving the public's interest.
3:05
Speaker 3: I've done the best I could. Am I perfect? No,
3:08
Speaker 3: But I do think character does matter, and I think
3:11
Speaker 3: Kin's kind of giving up on that and he's become.
3:15
Speaker 2: Sort of treats it with impunity.
3:17
Speaker 1: It is Senator John Cornen Grace stated Texas in a
3:19
Speaker 1: runoff against Attorney General Ken Paxton in May, and we'll
3:23
Speaker 1: see who ends up getting the the nomination. We're gonna
3:25
Speaker 1: have to talk about James Tallerico in a second as well, John,
3:28
Speaker 1: because the guy is formidable. He's a horrible guy. I
3:31
Speaker 1: think he's an incredible liar, but he's formidable because a
3:34
Speaker 1: lot of people are listening to what he says. So
3:35
Speaker 1: we'll get into that in a second. Let's talk about
3:37
Speaker 1: what's happening right now before I get into the criticisms
3:40
Speaker 1: from the right as far as your record, and you
3:42
Speaker 1: can clear up that record certainly right here. But let's
3:44
Speaker 1: get into what's going on right now. The Save America
3:47
Speaker 1: Act has to be passed or else. I don't trust
3:49
Speaker 1: that we'll have free and fair elections in this country.
3:51
Speaker 1: I truly believe it's that existential for our future in
3:55
Speaker 1: this republic. Is that going to get done? Why aren't
3:58
Speaker 1: we doing the talking filibuster? Why don't we say we've
4:00
Speaker 1: got the majority, let's get this done now.
4:04
Speaker 3: Well, Mike Lee, who is the chief proponent along with
4:07
Speaker 3: Chip Roy in the House, I'm an original co sponsor
4:11
Speaker 3: of the bill.
4:11
Speaker 2: In a normal world, you wouldn't have.
4:13
Speaker 3: To pass legislation to make sure that only American citizens
4:17
Speaker 3: could vote and that you had to show a photo
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Speaker 3: ID when you cast your ballot. It makes me wonder
4:22
Speaker 3: what the opponents are up to, because I guess what
4:25
Speaker 3: it means is they don't care whether only American citizens vote,
4:29
Speaker 3: and they don't care whether fraudsters can dilute your ballot
4:35
Speaker 3: by vote casting an improper ballot. So we're currently debating
4:40
Speaker 3: that bill. We've been on it all week. We're here
4:43
Speaker 3: this weekend in Washington, d C. And we're still in session.
4:46
Speaker 3: We're going to stay on the bill through the next week.
4:49
Speaker 3: And my hope is this talking filibuster idea works.
4:54
Speaker 2: It has not been It hasn't been.
4:56
Speaker 3: Tried before because it really depends on it essentially exhausting
5:01
Speaker 3: the opposition. And so what I've said to President Trump
5:06
Speaker 3: and others is I support the talking philibuster if that's
5:09
Speaker 3: going to get us to where we need to go,
5:12
Speaker 3: and if it doesn't, then I'm open.
5:13
Speaker 2: To other reforms.
5:15
Speaker 3: The philibuster is at sixty votes, as you know, but
5:19
Speaker 3: it's not sacricyanct. In other words, in the early days
5:22
Speaker 3: of the Senate you couldn't close off debate, and then
5:26
Speaker 3: eventually became sixty seven votes. And then back in the
5:29
Speaker 3: civil rights era, when a bunch of Southern Democrats prevented
5:32
Speaker 3: civil rights legislation from passing, it was reduced to sixty
5:36
Speaker 3: and it's helped us stop a lot of bad stuff,
5:39
Speaker 3: like packing the Supreme Court, like making Puerto Rico and
5:43
Speaker 3: the District of Columbia states each with two Democratic senators.
5:47
Speaker 2: But I get it.
5:48
Speaker 3: President Trump doesn't want to just sit there for two
5:51
Speaker 3: and a half years the remaining time of his term,
5:54
Speaker 3: and let Democrats decide whether he can he can pass
5:58
Speaker 3: legislation that is part of his agenda for which he
6:01
Speaker 3: was elected, for which he received a mandate. So I'm
6:04
Speaker 3: doing everything I can to be helpful to him. As
6:07
Speaker 3: you know, I've supported his ninety nine point three percent
6:11
Speaker 3: of the time. If you happen to have seen any
6:12
Speaker 3: of my advertising.
6:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have, because I get it into my mailbox
6:15
Speaker 1: all the time. John, I have seen that. It is
6:17
Speaker 1: Senator John Cornyn. He's in a runoff against Ken Paxson
6:20
Speaker 1: for to continue as the US Senator. But let me
6:23
Speaker 1: throw a couple of things out there, because you know
6:25
Speaker 1: that I talk to the public every day for three
6:26
Speaker 1: hours a day. This is where they're confused. John Thune says,
6:30
Speaker 1: we have the votes to pass the Save America Act,
6:33
Speaker 1: but we don't have enough support to do the talking filibuster.
6:36
Speaker 1: That doesn't make sense to me. You don't have to
6:38
Speaker 1: vote on the talking filibuster. You just have to do it.
6:40
Speaker 1: But the majority leader can just do it whether he
6:41
Speaker 1: has the support or not, and force the other side
6:44
Speaker 1: to really make their case until they fall asleep or
6:47
Speaker 1: are too hungry to continue, and then you get to cloture,
6:49
Speaker 1: then you get it to the president. So how can
6:51
Speaker 1: both things be true. We have the support to pass it,
6:54
Speaker 1: we don't have the support to do the mechanism that
6:56
Speaker 1: would pass it.
6:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we were all on board now for
7:01
Speaker 3: the talking filibuster. That's why we've been on this for
7:03
Speaker 3: a week, and we're going to do it at least
7:05
Speaker 3: another week. You know, it comes at a little bit
7:09
Speaker 3: of a cost because there are other things we'd like
7:10
Speaker 3: to do, like pay the TSA agents and the Department
7:14
Speaker 3: of Homeland Security employees, and confirm Mark Wayne Mullen as
7:18
Speaker 3: the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. But
7:22
Speaker 3: I think Dune's giving everybody a fair opportunity to make
7:26
Speaker 3: their case on the Senate floor. And that's essentially what
7:29
Speaker 3: the talking filibuster is supposed to allow. You don't put
7:32
Speaker 3: any artificial time limits on it. You let basically the
7:35
Speaker 3: parties wear themselves out. I think what he's saying is
7:39
Speaker 3: that he doesn't count. He can't count the votes to
7:43
Speaker 3: change the filibuster itself, the traditional philibuster, the sixty vote requirement.
7:49
Speaker 3: He's toll President Trump numerous times. I don't have the
7:51
Speaker 3: votes in the Republican conference to do that. So that's
7:56
Speaker 3: I think my understanding of where we are.
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Speaker 1: But isn't that a rule, John Because in twenty thirteen,
8:01
Speaker 1: Harry Reid didn't have to make a legislation. He just said,
8:03
Speaker 1: I'm gonna nuke it. And then I believe that at
8:06
Speaker 1: some point, you know, are Republican nuked it in twelve
8:08
Speaker 1: or something like that, but not in twelve some years later,
8:11
Speaker 1: like in twenty or nineteen. So why not just do it?
8:14
Speaker 1: You know as well as I do that. James a
8:16
Speaker 1: Polk when he put the filibuster in, when he forced
8:18
Speaker 1: that rule was to get the cloture. It wasn't to
8:21
Speaker 1: let people never do anything in legislation, and then somehow
8:24
Speaker 1: we made it where somebody could just say I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: filibuster then go to lunch. The American people are tired
8:29
Speaker 1: of that. That's not doing the job.
8:30
Speaker 3: You know, well, this is this is a rule. You're right,
8:35
Speaker 3: And the two ways that basically rules get written here
8:39
Speaker 3: in the Senator is one through a formal process and
8:41
Speaker 3: the others through precedent. The nuclear option that you referred
8:45
Speaker 3: to earlier, that we used at Harry Reid used first
8:48
Speaker 3: to get Democratic nominated judges confirmed, and then we used
8:53
Speaker 3: on Neil Gorsich to get him confirmed. So it's been
8:57
Speaker 3: gradually eroding, particularly in the area of nominations. It hasn't
9:02
Speaker 3: in the area of legislation, because both parties have found
9:05
Speaker 3: it useful when they're in the minority to be able
9:07
Speaker 3: to make sure that they have to be consulted and
9:11
Speaker 3: you have to go through the process of building consensus.
9:13
Speaker 2: But I've never.
9:14
Speaker 3: Seen anything quite like where we are today, where the Democrats,
9:18
Speaker 3: because of Trumpet derangement syndrome, are reflexibly opposed to everything,
9:23
Speaker 3: whether it's taking out the number one state sponsor of
9:27
Speaker 3: international terrorism, that's developing nuclear weapons, or whether when the
9:31
Speaker 3: President asked people to stand up in support of law
9:34
Speaker 3: enforcement who are enforcing our immigration laws and all the
9:37
Speaker 3: Democrats sit on their hands during the State of the Union.
9:40
Speaker 3: This is the most polarized situation I've seen. So if
9:43
Speaker 3: we're going to get anything done, I think it calls
9:46
Speaker 3: for serious consideration of whether the rules are currently serving
9:50
Speaker 3: our needs as a country.
9:51
Speaker 1: It is Senator John Cornyn, a senator, what is the
9:54
Speaker 1: website for being able to go and support the Candida.
9:56
Speaker 2: Safety Johncornyn dot com.
9:59
Speaker 1: That's easy to remin umber, John corn dot com. Go
10:01
Speaker 1: and do that. Let me finish on the filibuster this way.
10:04
Speaker 1: Should the Democrats get controlled back, and I pray to
10:06
Speaker 1: God they don't. I mean, just yesterday JB. Pritzker of
10:09
Speaker 1: Illinois sat down in an interview and said, if we
10:12
Speaker 1: get the presidency back in twenty twenty nine, we're prosecuting everybody,
10:15
Speaker 1: because this is an administration that is breaking the law
10:18
Speaker 1: every single day. We're prosecuting everybody. You and I both
10:21
Speaker 1: know that the Democrats and Republicans will look at polling.
10:24
Speaker 1: The polling on this one on the Save America Act
10:26
Speaker 1: is eighty twenty. The Democrats are on the wrong side
10:29
Speaker 1: of that. It's actually over eighty twenty for Republicans, it's
10:32
Speaker 1: seventy four to twenty or twenty six for it for Democrats.
10:35
Speaker 1: This is overwhelmingly wanted and desired by the American people.
10:39
Speaker 1: I don't think the American public wants a packed Supreme Court.
10:42
Speaker 1: I don't think they want DC and Puerto Rico to
10:44
Speaker 1: become states, So I think it'd be harder to get
10:46
Speaker 1: those done. Why are we so worried about what they
10:48
Speaker 1: might do? Because they for four years they prosecuted Trump
10:51
Speaker 1: and anybody anywhere near him. You know they're going to
10:53
Speaker 1: do it anyway. Why don't the Republicans dig in and
10:56
Speaker 1: say we're going to do what we want to get done,
10:57
Speaker 1: and if you want to undo it, you can try to,
10:59
Speaker 1: you can try the majority back.
11:02
Speaker 3: Well, we have done that, but we have done that
11:05
Speaker 3: with the existing rules on the Working Family Tax CUNTS Act,
11:08
Speaker 3: the one big beautiful bill. But admittedly that the budget
11:12
Speaker 3: reconciliation process is limited because you can only use it
11:15
Speaker 3: for budgetary matters, not for policy generally. So, but you're right,
11:21
Speaker 3: the Democrats already did that to a President Trump during
11:24
Speaker 3: Biden's term of office, yes and now, And I'm I
11:28
Speaker 3: have no idea, given this hatred that the left has
11:32
Speaker 3: for Trump, that they will try to do it again.
11:34
Speaker 3: He said, if we lose the mid terms, uh, and
11:37
Speaker 3: we lose the House majority, that they will try to
11:40
Speaker 3: impeach him again. And I have no doubt that they
11:43
Speaker 3: that they will. So what I'm what I'm saying is
11:49
Speaker 3: that we don't currently have the votes to change the
11:51
Speaker 3: existing rule. I think the longer this goes on and
11:55
Speaker 3: the more obstruction there is, that we may well see
11:58
Speaker 3: those numbers change. And some times it takes weeks or
12:02
Speaker 3: even months to get things done up here. And I'm,
12:06
Speaker 3: for one, I'm not going to give up because I
12:08
Speaker 3: think this is fundamental to our entire system, our democratic republic.
12:13
Speaker 1: Well, it is because we're finding out more and more
12:14
Speaker 1: information about some real irregularities and places like Georgia and
12:18
Speaker 1: Michigan and Wisconsin and Arizona, and we need our elections
12:21
Speaker 1: to be fair and free and my franchise should be
12:23
Speaker 1: protected at Senator John Cornyn go to John Cornyn dot com.
12:26
Speaker 1: Let's talk about something you brought up a little while ago,
12:28
Speaker 1: the DHS non funding by the Democrats. They're stopping that
12:32
Speaker 1: in the Senate. It's already passed in the House of Representatives.
12:35
Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense because their claim is to
12:38
Speaker 1: stop ICE from doing what Ice is doing. You and
12:40
Speaker 1: I both know because of that Reconciliation Bill, the One
12:42
Speaker 1: Be Beautiful Bill, Ice and CBP are paid through through
12:47
Speaker 1: Trump's term, So they're not doing anything to affect ICE.
12:50
Speaker 1: What they're doing is they're messing with American with the
12:53
Speaker 1: Americans out here who want to go and fly around
12:55
Speaker 1: and for spring break, we want to go. We want
12:57
Speaker 1: to go to an airport in Austin and not wait
12:58
Speaker 1: for four and a half hours and a line going
13:00
Speaker 1: around the block. So what exactly are they trying to accomplish?
13:03
Speaker 1: And can you do something to push the funding crew
13:06
Speaker 1: They want to piece meal it. Like the great Kazar
13:08
Speaker 1: guy came up to you the other day at the airport.
13:10
Speaker 1: It was so stupid. You're trying to feed people and
13:12
Speaker 1: he's complaining about that. You won't sign a bill that
13:13
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be signed because TSA is within the DHS.
13:17
Speaker 1: So what do you think the Democrats are trying to accomplish?
13:19
Speaker 1: Because the hardship is on us. The American people.
13:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think two reasons President Trump got elected in
13:26
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, in my opinion, one was inflation forty
13:29
Speaker 3: year high inflation under bite. And the second was our
13:32
Speaker 3: open borders. Yes, President Trump shut down the borders. Didn't
13:36
Speaker 3: need to pass new laws, just needed a new president
13:39
Speaker 3: who was willing to enforce the law. And fundamentally, the
13:42
Speaker 3: Democrats don't believe in enforcing our immigration laws. This are
13:45
Speaker 3: the same people who said defund the police, abolish ice.
13:49
Speaker 3: This is just another backdoor way of accomplishing that same
13:53
Speaker 3: thing by not trying to cut off the funding. But
13:57
Speaker 3: the White House is currently negotiating. Tom Homan is meeting
14:01
Speaker 3: with the Democratic members here and hopefully we'll get this
14:05
Speaker 3: result in short order. But it's just to me shameful
14:09
Speaker 3: because these TSA agents and the Homeland Security Investigations and
14:14
Speaker 3: FEMA and the Coastguard, they it's not their fault and
14:18
Speaker 3: they're being used as pawns in a political stunt, and
14:22
Speaker 3: it's just it's unacceptable. And you know Congressman Sazar who
14:29
Speaker 3: wanted to try to sell the narrative that this was
14:32
Speaker 3: somehow Republicans blocking this, that's just that's just not true.
14:38
Speaker 3: And the facts are clearly to the contrary.
14:41
Speaker 1: It's as untrue as the Republicans for some reason wanted
14:44
Speaker 1: to take healthcare away from people. That wasn't true the
14:46
Speaker 1: last time they shut down the government. This government shutdown
14:48
Speaker 1: is squarely on the Democrats. So you think that because
14:51
Speaker 1: Homan is meeting, and Homan is a very common voice,
14:53
Speaker 1: he's meeting with some Democrats, you might be able to
14:55
Speaker 1: get it done.
14:57
Speaker 2: I do.
14:57
Speaker 3: I do, And we're as I said, we're in session
15:00
Speaker 3: right now through the weekend, and I know those meetings
15:03
Speaker 3: and discussions are ongoing.
15:05
Speaker 2: But one of the you know, what.
15:07
Speaker 3: Leads me to the conclusion they don't want us to
15:09
Speaker 3: enforce immigration law is not just what I said, but
15:12
Speaker 3: it's also they want in order to do deportations, they
15:16
Speaker 3: want Ice to have to get a separate court order.
15:21
Speaker 3: As you know, Joe, most of these individuals have already
15:24
Speaker 3: exhausted their their legal process in an immigration judge and
15:28
Speaker 3: so they've gotten the final order of deportation. In other words,
15:31
Speaker 3: they didn't make their case to the judge. What the
15:34
Speaker 3: Democrats want Ice to have to do is go to
15:37
Speaker 3: a criminal court and make a criminal case, and in
15:41
Speaker 3: order to get deportation. In other words, who want to
15:43
Speaker 3: put another obstacle in the way and make it hard,
15:46
Speaker 3: if not impossible, to actually deport individuals who should never
15:50
Speaker 3: have been able to come here in the first place.
15:52
Speaker 3: So this is they're not operating in good faith. This
15:57
Speaker 3: is just very consistent with where they've been from the
15:59
Speaker 3: from the very beginning.
16:00
Speaker 1: Well, well, John, they know as well as you do.
16:02
Speaker 1: I hope they know. May they're dumb, but that Article
16:05
Speaker 1: two covers immigration and naturalization. Article two is the executive.
16:08
Speaker 1: The executive can only do administrative they can't do criminal things.
16:11
Speaker 1: It's the judicial branch. Article three has nothing to do
16:14
Speaker 1: with immigration enforcement because it's literally in the Constitution that
16:18
Speaker 1: the executive does that. So why do they keep on
16:21
Speaker 1: saying it because they think people will believe them.
16:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, they're hoping for low information
16:27
Speaker 3: voters who don't like President Trump will you know, buy
16:31
Speaker 3: what they're selling. But it's just not as objectively false
16:35
Speaker 3: as you point out. It's just not true, and so
16:38
Speaker 3: we have to continue to try to make the case. Unfortunately,
16:41
Speaker 3: the mainstream media is not our friend and is willing
16:44
Speaker 3: to to tell their side of the story or support
16:48
Speaker 3: their narrative. That's why it's so important that people like
16:51
Speaker 3: you are able to communicate and let people know what
16:54
Speaker 3: the truth is.
16:55
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we're doing our best that we possibly can.
16:57
Speaker 1: Here it's John John Corny, US senator. He's running for
16:59
Speaker 1: real in a runoff with Attorney General Ken Paxton. I
17:03
Speaker 1: want to get into some of the criticisms, and I
17:04
Speaker 1: want to give you a chance to clear the air.
17:07
Speaker 1: First of all, do you care when people say that
17:08
Speaker 1: you're a rhino? Does that bother you?
17:11
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know what it means anymore.
17:14
Speaker 3: If I vote with President Trump ninety nine point three
17:17
Speaker 3: percent of the time, does that mean if I'm a rhino,
17:19
Speaker 3: does that mean they're saying President Trump is a rhino?
17:21
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, I don't think they're
17:23
Speaker 1: doing that.
17:24
Speaker 2: A lot of this stuff.
17:25
Speaker 3: Just doesn't make any sense at all, and it's just
17:27
Speaker 3: a pejorative or name calling that people do because that's
17:32
Speaker 3: the lazy way to criticize. So, you know, I've been
17:37
Speaker 3: at this for a while and I developed a little
17:39
Speaker 3: bit of a thick skin. I say, I don't I
17:41
Speaker 3: confess I don't read all those comments, but yeah, I'm
17:44
Speaker 3: familiar with that accusation.
17:47
Speaker 1: Senator, are you for red flag laws?
17:50
Speaker 2: No, I.
17:53
Speaker 3: Negotiated a bill that consciously decided not to impose a
17:58
Speaker 3: federal red flag. And that's a bit of information that's
18:02
Speaker 3: been out there on the internet and elsewhere that's repeated
18:05
Speaker 3: over and over again. I believe that the Second Amendment
18:09
Speaker 3: confers a constitutional right on an individual and it cannot
18:13
Speaker 3: be taken away without due process of law, and that
18:17
Speaker 3: means a hearing in front of a judge, where opportunity
18:20
Speaker 3: to present evidence. But I do think that, for example,
18:26
Speaker 3: background checks can prove very useful. To me, it seems
18:31
Speaker 3: like there is should be a consensus that we think
18:35
Speaker 3: everybody ought to be able to get access to the
18:38
Speaker 3: Second Amendment rights, but we should keep guns out of
18:41
Speaker 3: the hands of people who are mentally ill or criminals.
18:44
Speaker 3: And that's all that the background checks that I've supported do,
18:49
Speaker 3: and I've been an adamant supporter of Second Amendment rights
18:52
Speaker 3: and a gun over myself.
18:54
Speaker 1: You're in the interview, so it's not you saying this.
18:56
Speaker 1: I guess your team has something else lined up, but
18:57
Speaker 1: I do want to continue on this if you've got
18:59
Speaker 1: a few minutes, John, because the criticism is the Safer
19:02
Speaker 1: Communities Act gives grants to communities. It's not a national
19:05
Speaker 1: red flag law, You're absolutely right. It's not even a
19:07
Speaker 1: statewide red flag law. It's nothing like that. But there
19:11
Speaker 1: is a provision in that law that states can use
19:13
Speaker 1: that grant money to implement red flag laws. Did you
19:16
Speaker 1: know that going in? Because I know, I don't know
19:18
Speaker 1: you to be a guy who's four red flag laws
19:20
Speaker 1: and I've got five guns not ten feet away from
19:23
Speaker 1: me that aren't going to shoot anybody right now in
19:25
Speaker 1: my gun safe John, I don't think you want to
19:27
Speaker 1: come and take my guns. If my wife said, I
19:28
Speaker 1: feel like he might be, you know, somebody could harm himself.
19:32
Speaker 1: So why was that provision in there? Because that literally
19:35
Speaker 1: is in the law.
19:37
Speaker 3: Well, we knew as during the negotiations of the bill
19:42
Speaker 3: that there were some states like Florida, you know Ruby
19:45
Speaker 3: read Florida where Rick Scott and now the current governor,
19:49
Speaker 3: both the great conservative Republicans, they have a red flag law,
19:53
Speaker 3: but Texas is never going to have one. So what
19:56
Speaker 3: we wanted to make sure is that the money that
19:58
Speaker 3: would be distributed to help those states would be available
20:02
Speaker 3: to help the states like Texas with crisis intervention things
20:06
Speaker 3: like our veterans courts or mental health courts and other
20:08
Speaker 3: things like that to help people who are mentally disturbed
20:12
Speaker 3: to get better. But we also heightened the standard for
20:18
Speaker 3: due process, and we said, nobody gets any of this
20:20
Speaker 3: money unless they meet these standards for a due process
20:24
Speaker 3: of law. In other words, what I said earlier, hearing
20:27
Speaker 3: in front of a judge with an opportunity to present
20:30
Speaker 3: evidence and cross examined witnesses, and a judicial determination that
20:34
Speaker 3: somebody is either mentally ill or is a criminal and
20:40
Speaker 3: disqualified by current law.
20:41
Speaker 1: So authorities could not come to my house because my
20:44
Speaker 1: neighbors had them a danger and take my guns. Now, Okay.
20:48
Speaker 1: I wanted to clear that up because people are saying
20:49
Speaker 1: that that's what this was about, and I've read the
20:52
Speaker 1: Safer Community Acts, and I know that it's not about that.
20:54
Speaker 1: It's Senator John Cornyn. In twenty three you said that
20:58
Speaker 1: the Republican Party needs to move past Donald Trum. I
21:00
Speaker 1: know that you change your opinion since then. How do
21:02
Speaker 1: you want to enter to that accusation that we're seeing
21:04
Speaker 1: every day online. I was wrong, Okay, that's pretty simple.
21:09
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting. One of my favorite times that
21:13
Speaker 3: I was with JD. Vance, who I've served with in
21:16
Speaker 3: the Senate for he was a senator before he was
21:20
Speaker 3: vice president. He said back in twenty sixteen, he said
21:24
Speaker 3: that his President Trump's cognitive abilities are extraordinary.
21:29
Speaker 2: This is at a time.
21:30
Speaker 3: Actually, when when Biden's cognitive decline was obvious to all.
21:35
Speaker 3: Jad said, because President Trump remembers every bad thing I
21:38
Speaker 3: said about him in twenty sixteen. But he said, I
21:42
Speaker 3: thought this is very good. He said, well, now let
21:44
Speaker 3: me tell you why I've changed my mind. But you know,
21:47
Speaker 3: whether it's Ted Cruz or Lindsey Graham or Marco Rubio
21:50
Speaker 3: or JD. Vance or even in my case where I
21:54
Speaker 3: that wasn't that was pretty tame by comparison. I just
21:57
Speaker 3: made a mistake. We underestimated the guy who's an enormously
22:00
Speaker 3: successful and who I support on equivocally.
22:03
Speaker 1: You know, JD. Vance says something about he was America's
22:06
Speaker 1: hitler and still became the vice president. So you're right,
22:09
Speaker 1: what you said was tame in comparison. Let's let let's
22:12
Speaker 1: get very quickly because I know you got to go,
22:14
Speaker 1: but I want to get I want to get into
22:15
Speaker 1: James Tallerico. Taller Ico is a problem John. And here's
22:18
Speaker 1: the reason he's a problem. He's young, he's got a
22:20
Speaker 1: deep voice, a very slow to speech pattern like Obama did.
22:23
Speaker 1: He is very, very convicted in what he's saying, but
22:26
Speaker 1: he's literally using Christianity the wrong way to try to
22:30
Speaker 1: sell himself as a candidate. It's this as a Christian.
22:33
Speaker 1: He makes me sick and turns my stomach. But he
22:35
Speaker 1: he beat Jasmine Crockett handily. Are you worried about about
22:39
Speaker 1: Tallerico come November.
22:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:41
Speaker 3: I've said he's dangerous, and mainly he's dangerous because he
22:44
Speaker 3: is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's reading a different
22:48
Speaker 3: Bible than I'm reading. Yeah, when he says that God
22:52
Speaker 3: is not binary, there's six genders, and that abortion is
22:55
Speaker 3: approved of in.
22:56
Speaker 2: The Bible, right, I mean that's that's.
22:59
Speaker 3: Not what it says. So I think he's trying to
23:04
Speaker 3: sell a guloble mainstream media and public into thinking that
23:08
Speaker 3: now he's a new kind of Democrat who can appeal
23:11
Speaker 3: to a much broader constituency. But I think he's dangerous
23:16
Speaker 3: because he is that wolf in chief's clothing. But it's
23:20
Speaker 3: going to take somebody like me with the resources that
23:23
Speaker 3: we can bring to bear and the experience that I've
23:26
Speaker 3: had in order to beat him in November. Fortunately, I've
23:29
Speaker 3: won the last election by ten percentage points. I can
23:32
Speaker 3: help down ballot, including the new congressional seats that President
23:38
Speaker 3: Trump needs to maintain the majority in the House, and
23:41
Speaker 3: I would look forward to that opportunity, but got to
23:45
Speaker 3: win this primary runoff on May the twenty sixth. Early
23:48
Speaker 3: vuilding starts May eighteenth through twenty second.
23:51
Speaker 1: You go to John Corny dot com. One last thing.
23:54
Speaker 1: Everybody brings up Ukraine when it comes to you. You
23:56
Speaker 1: are in support of the Ukrainian people. I'm against Russia.
23:59
Speaker 1: I would like Ukraine to have it sovereignty and not
24:01
Speaker 1: be under attack all the time. But John, there has
24:03
Speaker 1: been very little accounting for the two to three hundred
24:06
Speaker 1: billion dollars that we sent over there. Where are you
24:08
Speaker 1: about our support for Ukraine? And will we ever find
24:11
Speaker 1: out where that money went? Because you guys Zelenski himself
24:14
Speaker 1: saying I don't know where hundred billion of that is.
24:16
Speaker 1: I have no idea where it is.
24:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ukraine has a has a history of corruption, but
24:22
Speaker 3: in this case they were an innocent victim of the
24:26
Speaker 3: attack by Putin, who has these delusions of grandeur. He
24:31
Speaker 3: wants to restore the Russian Empire by force. And I
24:36
Speaker 3: think President Trump got it right. He said America is
24:39
Speaker 3: not going to continue to bank roll this war when
24:42
Speaker 3: the Europeans are sitting on their hands, and so they're
24:45
Speaker 3: going to have to pay up when it comes to
24:48
Speaker 3: support for NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and when
24:51
Speaker 3: it comes to providing weapons for Ukraine, they're going to
24:55
Speaker 3: have to buy them from the United States if they
24:57
Speaker 3: want them to be provided to Ukraine. I think that's
25:00
Speaker 3: a pretty good solution to that problem. But I don't
25:06
Speaker 3: like any of these bullies and aggressors around the world,
25:08
Speaker 3: whether it's Kim Jongong or President Chi and the Indo
25:11
Speaker 3: Pacific or the you know, the the Supreme leader in Iran.
25:17
Speaker 3: I think they're a threat to world peace, and I
25:19
Speaker 3: think they're a threat to the United States and our interests.
25:21
Speaker 2: So that's why I'm adamantly opposed to him.
25:25
Speaker 1: John Corny dot com it's Senator John corn I appreciate
25:27
Speaker 1: the time of the Access Senior Center for the Grace
25:29
Speaker 1: out of Texas. He's in a runoff in May against
25:31
Speaker 1: Ken Paxon, the Attorney General I appreciate all the time.
25:33
Speaker 1: Anything else you want the listeners here, especially in Texas,
25:37
Speaker 1: the voters to know before I let you.
25:38
Speaker 3: Go, Joe, as usually, you did a comprehensive job of
25:42
Speaker 3: covering everything, so I don't have any trust.
25:45
Speaker 2: I appreciate the opportunity.
25:47
Speaker 1: Well, anytime you're in San Antonio, let's sit down in studio.
25:49
Speaker 1: I gave that opportunity to Ken Paxton. We'd love to
25:51
Speaker 1: see you face to face.
25:53
Speaker 2: Okay, well, come see you.
25:54
Speaker 1: So why are all eyes on Texas? What is it
25:56
Speaker 1: about this race that has the entire country and even
25:59
Speaker 1: beyond and very interested. Well, you've got John Cornyn, the
26:03
Speaker 1: long term incumbent who's been doing it for a long time.
26:06
Speaker 1: And we again talked about all those accusations that were
26:09
Speaker 1: out there on him being a rhino or against gun
26:12
Speaker 1: owners or whatever. We attacked all of that, but that's
26:14
Speaker 1: been out there for a long time, and a lot
26:16
Speaker 1: of people who find themselves to be staunch conservatives like me,
26:20
Speaker 1: are going, what's the story with him? And then you
26:22
Speaker 1: get a challenge from the sitting Attorney general. Ken Paxton
26:26
Speaker 1: is a guy who's done the job very very well,
26:29
Speaker 1: but often under fire. They try to impeach him and
26:31
Speaker 1: remove him. There are some issues baggage if you will,
26:36
Speaker 1: in his private life, if you listen to some voices.
26:38
Speaker 1: But as far as doing the job, Ken Paxson has
26:41
Speaker 1: been very very good at being the attorney general, suing
26:44
Speaker 1: successfully Biden and Obama and down the line. So he
26:48
Speaker 1: goes after it and he becomes the second place runner
26:51
Speaker 1: up in that original primary. Then Wesley Hunt, a representative
26:55
Speaker 1: from right here in Texas, great guy, great future military man,
26:59
Speaker 1: had him in Stute. He's a guy that got thirteen
27:02
Speaker 1: or fourteen percent of the vote. That probably took away
27:04
Speaker 1: the ability for corn or Paxton to win the primary outright.
27:08
Speaker 1: So now you've got a runoff. But why somebody running
27:10
Speaker 1: in that race on the Republican siding is the guy
27:14
Speaker 1: who's had the job for a very very long time
27:17
Speaker 1: again because of a lot of the chinks in the
27:19
Speaker 1: armor that many in the conservative side say John Cornyn has.
27:22
Speaker 1: And then we look at the other side of the aisle,
27:24
Speaker 1: the complete other side. Remember Colin Allredd ran against Ted Cruz,
27:28
Speaker 1: another sitting senator in the great state of Texas, already
27:32
Speaker 1: did very well, got millions and millions of votes. So
27:35
Speaker 1: the assumption was that this sitting representative, Colin allred would
27:39
Speaker 1: be running against either Cornyn or Paxton. But instead he
27:45
Speaker 1: was told, I believe my opinion to drop out. So
27:49
Speaker 1: he did. He dropped out of his race, okay, and
27:52
Speaker 1: then made way for Jasmine Crockett, the fire brand US
27:56
Speaker 1: representative from the south side of Dallas. She was going
27:59
Speaker 1: to be out of a job because of the redistricting
28:02
Speaker 1: that happened in Texas. It was assumed that Jasmine Crockett
28:06
Speaker 1: would then be coordinated as the queen and she would
28:09
Speaker 1: go on to be the winner of the primary. And
28:12
Speaker 1: then in jumps James Tallerco, a state representative here in
28:15
Speaker 1: Texas who jumps in and out of nowhere, beats Jasmine Crockett,
28:21
Speaker 1: not only beats her, but wins enough votes to outright
28:24
Speaker 1: win the primary. So on the Republican side, you've got
28:27
Speaker 1: a run off. On the Democrats side, you've got James Tallerico. Again,
28:31
Speaker 1: everybody and their mother thought that Jasmine Crockett would be
28:34
Speaker 1: the one representing the Democrats in the Senate race, so
28:37
Speaker 1: much so that I believe it's my opinion. Colin Alredy
28:41
Speaker 1: was told, you've got to jump out of the race.
28:43
Speaker 1: This is for Jasmin Crockett to win. Well, she's out now,
28:47
Speaker 1: and now you've got a guy James Tallerico claims that
28:49
Speaker 1: he's Christian and says the most Unchristian things you can find,
28:53
Speaker 1: like God is un binary, and he loves the trans
28:55
Speaker 1: children or something, and his whole campaign doesn't eat meat.
29:00
Speaker 1: Then there's a picture of him eating a turkey leg
29:02
Speaker 1: This guy will say or do anything. He alleges that
29:06
Speaker 1: the birth of Jesus or the impregnation of Mary somehow
29:10
Speaker 1: proved that Christians are for abortion. I kid you not.
29:12
Speaker 1: This guy is completely out of it. But he's a
29:15
Speaker 1: slow talker, talks sort of like Obama and says things
29:19
Speaker 1: in a very convicted way that people are starting to
29:22
Speaker 1: buy what he's laying down. So this race is going
29:24
Speaker 1: to be watched by everybody, not just in Texas, not
29:27
Speaker 1: just the surrounding southwest states. This is going to be
29:30
Speaker 1: watched by the entire country and possibly the rest of
29:32
Speaker 1: the world, because if you get a Democrat to take
29:35
Speaker 1: this seat, it'll be the first time in a very
29:38
Speaker 1: long time, and if that happens, you might see the
29:40
Speaker 1: Senate actually go back to the blue. So that's the
29:44
Speaker 1: latest done exactly what's going on with this. I hope
29:46
Speaker 1: that we answered every question you had. For Senator John Cornyn,
29:49
Speaker 1: we went down the list. Nothing was off limits. He
29:52
Speaker 1: didn't tell me what I could or couldn't say. I
29:53
Speaker 1: asked him anything I wanted to, and again I think
29:55
Speaker 1: we got some answers. Now you have to decide between
29:59
Speaker 1: Paxton and Cornyn. If you're a Republican or if you
30:02
Speaker 1: vote Republican in Texas, I wonder who it is that
30:05
Speaker 1: you're going to pick. Leave me a comment, make sure
30:07
Speaker 1: you give me any sort of ideas you've got for
30:09
Speaker 1: other interviews like you'd like to see on Unshaken and
30:12
Speaker 1: Unafraid with Joe Peggs again, make sure you subscribe. Another
30:15
Speaker 1: one to drop very soon