Congressman Byron Donalds on Getting Government to Work Again 55:27

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to Breaking Battlegrounds with your hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Another great program for you folks today. Starting off...

We have Sheriff Joe Lombardo. Hopefully his title is not Sheriff for too much longer, Chuck. Absolutely. So Joe Lombardo is sheriff of Clark County in Nevada, head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. And right now looks like he might be leading in the polls to become the next governor of Nevada.

Sheriff, welcome to the program. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. You have had one heck of a race there. That has been, it's been pretty brutal. I've seen some of the attack ads that are flying back and forth. These races are getting heated.

Yeah, it's unfortunate. It seems like there's no truth in advertising anymore when it comes to politics. The attack ads have been over the top, and the integrity or the truthfulness associated with them has been missing. And they try to impugn your...

I guess that's what it boils down to. But back to the core of it is we are. We are leading in the polls no matter what they've thrown at us. And it's because of their past performance and lack of performance here in the state of Nevada that has brought us forward.

Sure. For our listeners here in Arizona and across the country, we're on in five different cities right now. Tell folks this. How much has your experience as a sheriff driven you to make this run right now with everything that's going on in the country and in your state?

Yeah, great question. And it is. It's totally related to my experience as a sheriff in fighting crime and providing that quality of life that people deserve in that space. And as a result of the last two legislative sessions here in the state of Nevada, we had really a soft on crime towards attitude, you know, and the

restricting the ability of police officers to do their jobs to have an effect on crime and as a result we're suffering as a state and as a country. And you can see those numbers across the states, United States, double-digit increases in crime, double-digit increases in crime in northern Nevada,

from single-digit increases in crime in southern Nevada, and that is directly related to the soft-on-crime policies of the Democratic Party. And we're all suffering as a result of it. And so with that in mind, and seeing that happening, and no pushback by the current governor made my decision to throw my...

name in the hat and as a result people are listening to our story, the story we have to tell and what we stand for and they can see that there needs to be change affected in the state for us to move forward as a state.

We're with Sheriff Joe Lombardo. He is the sheriff of Clark County and the head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He's the Republican candidate for governor. Sheriff, your budget's $1.3 billion annually, 6,000 employees. As governor, you deal a lot with budgets. And one thing that always stands out to me is public education spending, how much we spend on it. And so, for example, you average 25 students per classroom in Nevada, and

which at the average you spend per pupil $9,847. That averages to $246,000 per classroom. Now, when you average teacher salaries about $57,000, that gives you $189,000 left in the classroom. As a gentleman who has run a billion-dollar department,

Where's that rest of that money going? Where's $189,000 going left after you paid the teachers? And is that something you're going to attack on so the money's used going to the kids?

Yeah, you're exactly right. We have a gluttony of administrative functions within the school district, so you have to defer all those costs, building maintenance costs, infrastructure costs. All those are added into the classroom costs. And so when you said 25 to 1, that is a statewide ratio. If you come down to southern Nevada, where the majority of the population is, we're pushing sometimes 35 to 1.

And so the quality of life in the classroom is deplorable both for the student and the teacher. So, you know, there's a couple things we need to address. One is the infrastructure, first and foremost. You know, we have a...

one of those attitudes towards we're too big to fail. Well, in our case, we're the opposite. We are too big and we are failing. And so, you know, my proposal is to break up with the school district in southern Nevada to better manage it, less gluttony in the administrative function and cost in the administrative function, and two, to expand upon school choice. In other words, increase workforce development and give students

ability to make a decision where their kids should go to school, not their zip code. And, you know, Arizona, as an example, has done a fantastic job in that. They found the funding, appropriately placed the funding in the education space, and that wasn't long-term, and now I know it's in recent history because of my conversations with Governor Ducey, and you seem to have to figure it out, and we're just slow to the...

getting it done here in the state of Nevada. So that's my plan. Let's talk about the economy for a moment. So basically, Governor Sisolak shut down Nevada's economy. And it's one of those things where Democrats always like to point to some statistic, but it's basically, are you going to believe me or your lion eyes, right? And I remember working in Nevada in 2020 and just seeing so many...

businesses boarded up basically and you've lost tens of thousands of businesses not to reopen again. What are you going to do to help those Nevada small businesses get back up on their feet? What are you going to do to help the economy be more diversified away from gambling? What is your plan for the economy?

Yeah, you're right with what you're quoting on the response to the COVID and the failed response to the COVID. As a result, the number is right around 95,000 businesses permanently closed. And, you know, the governor...

The governor right now is professing that we have unemployment is back to pre-COVID numbers, which is a false flag. The measurement tool on that is both your unemployment and your underemployed. He's failing to mention the underemployed. So a lot of our employees that have come back to work post-COVID, they're not working full-time. They don't have their health benefits.

or the retirement benefits that they used to have because the companies had to make the adjustments because of the economy. So our underemployed, to include unemployed, the U6 number is 10.3%, which is the highest in the nation.

And they fail to tell you that as they're out there campaigning. They say, oh, we're in full recovery, but better than anybody else, which is a total falsehood. So how do you fix it? More importantly is you have to diversify the economy. So you have to have a stable tax environment and regulatory environment. And under the current governor, he's,

That's the opposite stance they take. They increase taxes three separate times, even though in their campaign they said they haven't done it. And it's well-defined, the increases in taxes. And the regulatory environment has become so cumbersome. When you decide you want to open up a business, an occupational licensure that goes along with it is, you know, it's...

It's an 18-month cycle where it should be in a three-month cycle. That's how you fix it. So you make a business environment where people want to come here and put roots down in your state because of the tax environment. And subsequently, you expand, spread out the wealth, and not have all your eggs in one basket like we do here currently with gambling and mining.

How would you treat crime differently than current Governor Sisolak? Obviously, you deal with this day to day. What will you do differently than what he does?

Well, that's a really simple answer, and that is the repeal of the failed policies that came forward in the last two sessions. You know, the example being is they increased the threshold on misdemeanor and felonious larceny from $650 to $1,200. So that's a big deal if you have a small business, somebody comes in and steals money.

$1,199 worth of goods and you charge them with a misdemeanor. And on top of that, you have to repeal the ability of the cops to effect an arrest versus issue a citation. That's one of the other changes they did. And if you're a small business owner, $1,100 in a day is probably more than you're going to make in that day. Right, exactly. Or a couple days. Yeah.

Yeah, you're exactly right. But, you know, it boils down to this. You know, you have legislature, and I applaud them, you know, wanting to put their name out there and run for office and do the right thing. But you've got to have some qualifications to go along with that and some understanding of the process.

gravity of your decisions and that's what's not taking place. We have a lot of junior freshman legislature. We've lost a lot of tenure in the legislature and as a result we've had some bad decisions. So how does this boil down to the governor? Well he hasn't vetoed any of that flawed legislation. You know he fancies himself as a pro-business individual and supporter of law enforcement but

But he hasn't vetoed any of that flawed laws that have come forward because he wants to be the supporter of the party versus the state of Nevada. Sheriff, one thing you mentioned is Governor Sisolak raising taxes three times, and a lot of people don't realize it. A lot of times the tax code is so complicated that politicians can get away with that.

Here in Arizona, we have something called a truth in taxation law, which any time the government is going to be taking more money, it requires a notice to go out to all the citizens that that's going to be the case. Is that something that you would would consider in Nevada?

Absolutely. I wasn't aware of that, but at face value, without looking into the details, it sounds like a great idea. And that would be important. And you're right, because a lot of times what they'll do is hide it under a fee title versus a tax title, an increase in a fee, which is a tax for all practical purposes and everything.

So one of the increases was a fee. The other one was failing to reduce the tax as a result of the CPI. And the other one was a mining tax that went across the mining industry. And he says, well, that didn't affect every day, every Nevada. And I go, yeah, it does because it's the employees that, you know, and the suppliers for that business and everything else that goes along with it. It's a trickle down effect. So,

Yeah, truth in taxation would be a fantastic idea. Yeah, I mean, when you add a tax on mining, you're...

You're adding a tax on just about everything people buy, right? I mean, at some point that cost comes to every consumer. Right. And what people that work in the mining industry buy. You're right. You're exactly right. Sheriff, we have just about a minute left before we have to go to break here. Why don't you give people how they follow you, how they keep up with your campaign, and how they can support you?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So joelombardo4nv.com. NV is obviously for Nevada, joelombardo4nv.com. I have my full plan and platform listed there at the website. You can sign up to volunteer or you can sign up to profess your support or you can just get general information on what we need to do to be successful in this campaign. And

And obviously, even after the election, it takes financial support to be successful in politics, unfortunately. But that's how people can see what I stand for. Yeah, absolutely. And on top of that, I would add right before we go to break, governors matter. We've seen that in the last couple of years here. It doesn't matter if you're in Nevada or anywhere else across this country. Help this man out. Let's help get him in office, because when you have real leaders in these governor's seats, it changes this country.

Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be back in just a moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren with Sam Stone. Today, we are honored to have with this Republican candidate for governor in Nevada, Sheriff Joe Lombardo. He is a sheriff of Clark County and the head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. It has a $1.3 billion budget with 6,000 employees. And Sheriff, that's got to be one of the largest police departments in the country, right? Yeah.

Yeah, you know, that fluctuates. I think we're right around number nine in the country. So you're top 10. You're top 10. Yeah, top 10. There you go. So tell us a little bit about what you have learned being in law enforcement about yourself, about people. What do people not realize about the men and women who are protecting us daily?

Yeah, great question. I appreciate you asking it. You know, it's all about service. You know, my whole life has been based on service. My dad was in the Air Force for 30-plus years, and then I went into the United States Army for a short period of time and been on the police department for going on 35 years now. And...

And, you know, it's not cliche when people say, hey, I'm here to help people. It's true. It's true. And I think that's what a majority of your police officers believe in. And that's what I personally believed in my whole life. And, you know, because there's a lot of people that can't help themselves or the inability to help themselves or prevent themselves from being victimized. And I think

You know, I see myself in that space and figured out ways to do that. For most officers, Sheriff, right, it's a call to service. Correct. And that doesn't end, which is why I think we're all grateful for you running for governor and continuing to serve, hopefully, in that role. Because what we're seeing across this country, the breakdown in law and order,

is really foundational. I don't care what economic system you prefer or political system or where you are on the political spectrum. Without law and order, there is no such thing as a civil society, is there?

No, absolutely not. You know, that proverbial deep on the police rhetoric that was going around after George Floyd, and then now the Ds are saying, oh, we never said that. Yeah, you did say that, and you thought there was a different way of doing business. And the bottom line is there has to be rules in society, and people have to know what they are for society to function properly. And now we're seeing that

the ills and the errors and the faults of that mindset that the Democrats brought forward. And they're trying to recover now, but they can't campaign on that because it's all having an effect on them personally. And it is. It's about service. And quite often people try to paint us all with one brush in law enforcement that we put on our boots with intent to go create harm and take advantage of people. And that is not the case. We hire from the human race.

You know, you're going to have some bad apples no matter what organization it is, but the majority of all our folks are trying to do the right thing, and they sign up for service to make sure society is safe and your quality of life and you have the ability to prosper.

That's the reason why I decided to run for governor. Our current governor has failed to identify all those things for a successful society, and I hope to make some change in that space. What percentage of your officers are veterans?

Oh, that's a great question. I was asked that. Let me refresh my memories. Probably right between 10 and 12 percent. That's wonderful. So tell me, how is your family handling campaign life? We talked about early in the show all the negative ads against you. Do they recognize the person on TV or do they just sort of roll their eyes and go, what the heck's going on here? I mean, how are they handling it?

No, it's a lot worse than rolling your eyes. And this is one of the things that's really bugged me about politics. Getting into a partisan space is there's no truth anymore. And it's real easy to figure out who you want to support and move forward with if the truth is told. But unfortunately, the slander laws have been changed. And once you enter into the political space based

People can say whatever they want to say, especially on the media, which is unfortunate. And so my family is negatively affected because they know who I am and what I stand for. And to see all that come forward, especially after 35 years of a strong reputation in law enforcement, may try to impugn you.

I guess that's the frustrating piece for politics is I implore people to do their research and not to make decisions based off what they see on a TV commercial in 30 seconds. What's the most common question you are asked on the campaign trail? First, it's always, how's the campaign going? We all need small talk. Yeah, we all need small talk. But what's the most concrete question you're asked on the trail?

Well, quite often, when you said governors matter, the biggest question is what can you do for inflation? What can you do for the economy going forward? And our current governor always defaults to Joe Biden and his inability to do anything locally. And I push back on that wholeheartedly. I think the governors can make some adjustment. And with smaller government, less fees to the government,

business community, you know, make their lives a little bit easier. You can defer vehicle registrations for a period of time, fuel gas tax. There's a plethora of items that

that you can make people's lives a little bit easier during these hard times to make adjustments for the economy. So probably the most common question is, how can we fix this economy and how can you make my life better? Well, that's probably what most people want, besides what the press tells you. So there's an article out today in the New York Post that says, mainstream media gives GOP negative press 87% of the time.

Kerry Lake in Arizona is at 100%. Do you feel that the media, reporters and articles and news clips on you, is it 87% negative? Is it higher? Is it lower? How have they treated you out there? Yeah.

Yeah, it's probably in that ballpark. Maybe a little bit lower, but not much. There are a couple ones that from day one until now has been negative from the very beginning, which I don't understand it wholeheartedly, but...

partisanship gets into play. And I probably agree with the majority of the media is against the Republican Party. Do they treat you differently when they interview you when you're just a sheriff and not running for governor? Have you seen a difference there? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. More adversarial. Sheriff Lombardo, we're going to wrap up here in just a moment. We have to get to the sponsor read.

that we missed at the start of the segment but um i want to give you a chance again to give all your information how folks get in touch and and support your campaign

All right. Well, thank you. You know, and it's important for your listeners to realize that governors do make a difference. You know, they always thought that governors just cut ribbons for business openings. And that's not the case. And we see that on the heels of the pandemic. And in order to effect change, we need to make sure that we're promoting in the right people. And I believe I'm that person for the state of Nevada. And how you can help and find out about our platform is JoeLombardo.com.

And I appreciate everybody. Here's the important piece, though. I'll leave you with this, Chuck. None of this matters. Polls don't matter. None of this matters unless they get out and vote. Well, good luck to you. We look forward to interviewing Governor-elect after Tuesday. Have a great day.

All right. Well, Chuck, that was a great couple of segments with what we hope is the future governor. It is. And let me talk about it. So the Fed raised interest rates again, 0.75. They're not going to stop. They're on a train. So your inflation is going to kill your retirement. What do you do? You go to YRefi.com, Chuck. You do, you do, you do. You call them 855-316-3087. Tell them Sam and Chuck sent you. You can get a

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. For our next segment, returning friend of the program, Byron Donalds is representative, U.S. House representative for Florida's District Number 19. That's Southwest Florida, Naples area. Congressman, thank you again for joining us. We really appreciate having you back on the program. I think the first question for our listeners who aren't in Florida is how is your district doing in the wake of the hurricane?

I mean, we're rebuilding. A lot of my district is somewhat back to normal, but where we were really, really damaged was the barrier islands, Bonita Beach, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Sanibel, and Southern Cape Coral. They took serious damage. And also some parts...

of what we call San Carlos Island that took serious damage as well, flooding, et cetera. Marco Island took a lot of flooding. The beaches in Naples took a lot of flooding as well. So in those areas, it's still tough. We're still doing debris removal, still working on electric grids getting back up, stuff like that. Most of the district is just getting back to normal. Hopefully most of your people took heed of the warnings and fled that area before the hurricane hit, I hope.

Well, I mean, in Southwest Florida, you know, we're kind of accustomed to hunkering down through storms. I've been there and that struck me as hugely dangerous. I get these people in low level areas that were working for us going, oh, no, we're fine here. Well, I think, you know, the last storm, Hurricane Irma that came through here, there was a serious warning about storm surge. And so a lot of people left. And when they left and they came back, they realized there was no storm surge. They were like, well, that

That didn't happen. It actually had been a warning the last few storms. So I think in this one, unfortunately, there are people who are like, well, it'll probably be like the last. I'll just hunker down. We had some people leave, and I'm really thankful that they did leave. But we had a lot of people who stayed.

And so, you know, those stories are harrowing. People who, when the eye of the storm went over, swam from their house to the neighbor's house who had a second floor. People who rode out the storm in an attic because the water level was 10 feet tall in the house and the attic was the only place they could go. Unfortunately, there were a lot of stories like that. So the rebuild process, especially in places like Fort Myers Beach,

And Sanibel Island, you know, what we in St. James City, the southern end of Pine Island, it's going to take a very long time to rebuild those areas. How has Governor DeSantis's administration done in their response? Oh, they've been fantastic. You know, they've been fantastic. How is that compared to the Biden administration in FEMA?

Are they working well together? Yeah, they are. They are working well together. And I think the one blessing we've had is that, you know, obviously we have political contests coming up in four days, but for three days now, I guess, for four days. But what's happened is everybody put that aside for hurricane response. And, you know, as a federal official representing the area, I'm really grateful for that.

We've got a couple of minutes left here in this first segment. How has Florida changed politically in 2022 versus when you first started running, when you first started running for the state legislature?

Well, I mean, people need to understand we were the bellwether state in the country for probably 15, 20 years. You know, we've always been a 1% state or less than a 1% state if you look at the last statewide elections in 2018. And what's happened since then, my opinion, is a couple things. One,

what I call the great COVID migration, people who are fed up with governorships and leadership in blue areas. And they left and they came to Florida. Our governor opened our state. You know, after we, you know, after we shut down for a couple of weeks, we reopened and went back to life. And we were proving in quality of life and in data that we were actually better off than a lot of the blue states that stayed hunkered down, stayed in complete lockdown mode.

That's one. Number two, we have a governor where he's a conservative and he doesn't get caught up in polls. He just leads and he's not afraid to speak his mind on what the right thing is to do. That's number two. And then number three, this culture war by the left. And this is a culture war by the left and people need to understand this, but this culture war from the left has not sat well with voters across the political spectrum. Nobody wants their kids being indoctrinated. Nobody wants people going after their children like that.

And in Florida, we've stood up to that as well. So what you have is a recipe of governance, leadership, political or political preferences that are shaping up for a big Republican win. Congressman, before we go to break here, we're going to bring you back to the next segment. But how do folks follow you and how do they support your your campaign?

Just go to ByronDonalds.com. ByronDonalds.com. People can donate there. And then you can follow me on basically any social media platform at ByronDonalds. We keep it simple for everybody. So it's at ByronDonalds, B-Y-R-O-N-D-O-N-A-L-D-S.

Fantastic. Congressman Byron Donald's coming right back with us after the break here. He is the representative for Florida's District 19, the Naples, Florida area, and a fantastic member of Congress. We're looking forward to continuing the conversation in just a moment.

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Chuck, continuing on now with Byron Donald. Congressman, so it looks like Republicans are going to get a majority in the House of Representatives come Tuesday night. What do you think and what will you be pushing for the top two or three agenda items that the majority should be working towards these next two years? What would be your priorities? Well, for number one right now is going to be unwinding a lot of this federal spending that we're doing that's caused inflation.

We have to get all this COVID money out of our economy. A lot of the stuff that they've appropriated that still hasn't been sent out has to go back to the Treasury and unappropriated. That's one. Two, we have to get serious about energy in the United States. And unfortunately, through the budget process, what we're going to have to do is force the administration's hand to make sure that they take our energy system seriously because

Because if you don't have a sound energy matrix in your country, you can't have a sound economy. And then number three is border security. The Democrats want to talk about comprehensive immigration reform, but this isn't about immigration policy. This is about border security. And we have to insist that

on border security. We can't have fentanyl pouring into our cities and our streets. We cannot have 5 million people coming into our country illegally. And we cannot allow the drug cartels to have operational control of the southern border. I was actually with a

You know, county sheriff. And he was basically like, listen, the cartel has operational control of the border. You talk to border agents, they will tell you the cartel has operational control of the border. It is insane to me that this administration has allowed it. House Republicans have to stand up to that.

Yeah, absolutely. Congressman, you brought up a point in the middle of that talking about energy and obviously trying to get back to energy independence and forcing the Biden administration's hand. One of the things I think has frustrated Republicans in the last couple of decades is that when we've had the House and Senate, we have been afraid to force a Democrat president to veto things, to send legislation. Yeah, I know.

I'll tell you, it pisses me off. I totally agree with you. I think that we need to send Joe Biden every piece of legislation. And then also at the same time, and I didn't say it in the first couple of things, but we also need to have the investigation that have been needing to be have about this administration for quite some time. We need to do that too. But if you don't make Joe Biden veto legislation, how can you make him answer for his terrible economic policy? And the only thing I'll add to that is, you know, people need to understand

We lost him. Yeah. Congressman cut out right there. We'll see about getting him back here in just a moment. But I'm glad to hear that, Chuck. Oh, I am too. It's...

Look, you have to force them to start playing defense. Right. You have to force them to do the right thing. Yes. So if the Republicans, for example, really put forward an energy security bill, and you and I both agree on this, when it comes to energy security, you do everything. So we're like open oil and gas, but also these alternative energies. We want it all. We want this to be – we don't want to rely on anybody else in the world. All of the above. Bring me new nuclear. Bring me a hardened electrical device.

grid a new grids i mean we do our grids protect them i mean everything i mean it's it's it should be a american first policy we have congressman donald's back right now hello congressman go go ahead you were talking about putting issues towards president biden and making him veto them

Yeah, we should. We're not dealing with Barack Obama or Bill Clinton here, somebody who has the political ability to come back on our agenda. They were wrong, but they were actually just better at this whole politics thing than Joe Biden has ever been. Even on Joe Biden's best day, they were better than Joe Biden. So we should not save Joe Biden from himself. We should make him step into...

for why he vetoes Republican agenda items, especially after what looks like is going to shape up to be a red wave in the United States. You know, one thing that's always frustrating me looking at Congress is our side always tries to hit a home run. And it seems like there's a lot of legislation we could push that are singles, right? Singles and doubles. So like on the border, there's something, you know, okay, look, we're going to fund 20,000 more agents. That's it. That's the bill. Make them veto it. Right.

I mean, it always seems like let's make this 100 page bill. No, let's make it two pages and say, you know, one, we're going to afford, you know, 20,000 more patrol agents. We're going to put X amount of cops on the street and make him start vetoing those things.

Listen, the best analogy for that is if you watch playoff baseball. Like, I'm a Yankees fan, and listen, I'm still kind of upset that the Diamondbacks beat my Yankees back in 2001. But look, the reality is the best championship teams, we see them every fall. What do they do? They're not really home-run hitting teams. They're

There are teams that they string hits together, a single here, a double there. Somebody gets walked, you get on base, you move runners along. That's what we have to do. I think we have to piecemeal and nickel and dime this administration to death. Amen. And make them catch all of us. And frankly, because we know what's going to happen. The media is going to do everything they can

to call us the radical Republicans and to protect Joe Biden and say how we're tearing apart democracy in order for the foolishness. But if you constantly are sending policy left and right, even the media doesn't know what to focus on. And I think that's the way we actually show ourselves to be effective in the next Congress with the majority. Well, and Chuck, to your point, and Congressman, I'd love to get your take on this, but

I think sending short, simple bills, one after another, that the American public can easily digest and understand makes it much tougher for them than these large omnibus type. It makes it much easier. And then you have wonderful spokespeople like Congressman Donald's here who go back to their district, get on talk radio, talk to the editorial boards and just say, look, we just proposed a bill for 20,000 more border agents, period. The end. That's the bill. Do you support it or not?

And you know they're all going to raise their hands. We unfortunately lost the congressman again. I think he's having some technical difficulties there. But that's the point. You and I have talked about this, and I hope when Kerry Lake's elected –

Just made my prediction. When Carrie Lake wins, I hope she does that as well. There's a lot of singles and bunt singles that we can get done. Folks, stay tuned. Make sure you get to our podcast only segment. Download that because we're going to be talking our predictions for Arizona and around the country in our last pre-election special here on Breaking Battlegrounds. So right now we just got the congressman back on. Fantastic.

Third time's the charm. Third time's the charm, absolutely. So anyway, we were just talking about getting a bunch of singles done, and that's what winning baseball teams do.

Yeah, that's what you got to do. You have to string your plays together. It's not just baseball. It's anything. Championship football teams, championship basketball teams. You have to be able to go on runs. And it's not just by hitting one big three or scoring one big touchdown. It's a string of plays. Nothing more to borrow lives into a defense in a 15-play drive that ends up with a touchdown. It just saps all the energy out of the opposing team. I think that's what we got to do.

Absolutely. So as you've been traveling the country, besides obviously you're focused on your district and taking care of the aftermath of the hurricane and your own reelection, what are you seeing as you're out on the campaign trail for other people? For example, you were in Arizona here a couple days ago. What are you seeing here in other states that people don't realize?

Energy. People are energized about this election. People are fed up. And the crazy thing is, and it's not just the people in rallies, like they're excited. We know that. It's the Uber drivers. It's the waiters. You know, it's people at the airport. You can sense that people are fed up with Joe Biden and with Democrat leadership.

And they want to change. And I think that the key thing for Republicans to understand is people aren't going to put us, prospectively speaking, into power.

because they love us. They're doing it because they're pissed at the Democrats. So Republicans have to understand that we have to answer the bell and actually bring ideas, solutions, and policies that are going to help the American people get back on their feet. That's the way you actually earn their trust. It's not good enough just to sit back and point fingers at the other guy and say, oh, we really can't do anything yet until we have a president.

That's not the way to get it done. You're 100 percent correct. And I just feel like we have two years to prove that we can govern. I mean, that's one thing, too. People you talk to all the time is just nothing works anymore. Everything seems broke that has to do with any type of institution. And the government is the number one example. And it just seems like every level, every level. And it's just people just say, I just want it to work. I just want it to work again.

Yep, I totally agree. Totally agree. That's what people want. And I got to tell you, those are the conversations that in some respects matter more. Like I talked to my colleagues, we talked to pollsters and don't get me wrong, that stuff is good. But a lot of times the other elected officials, the pollsters, you know, news, you know, you know, radio shows like you guys, people in news media, we're all consuming this 24 seven. I want to hear what the guy, you know, who I hopped in his Uber after a dinner, I want to hear what he thinks. You know,

You know, because what he thinks really matters, because that's typically the pulse of the country. It's funny. We have a ground project we're doing in Arizona. And one of the managers is going out and delivering packets for these voting precinct captains to turn out people and yard signs and so forth. And this morning, that individual texted me. She said, you know, I've been to the nicest homes, trailer parks, seems like crack houses, things of that nature.

And I just this person is sort of in an upper middle income area. So that's really America. I mean, you're seeing it. And she says, yeah, it's been eye awakening. And it's just it's it's so comforting. No, you go to these homes where you think everything's wrong, but they have optimism. They think things can change. And she goes, I just hope we never lose that. And I think what you folks like you do and you being I think you are a leader there have to push it. We're here for these people. We're here to make sure the damn thing works again.

Yeah. I mean, again, that's what people want, man. Like, look, in my district, we got hit in the face with a terrible storm. The thing that has really given me confidence, not just here, but about just the country in general, is because people really weren't sitting down and just, you know, crying in their lap. Don't get me wrong, they're devastated. Don't get me wrong, there were tears shed.

But the spirit is, all right, let's build back. What do we got to do? I might need help here. Do you have information to help me do this? How do I get my business reopened? How do I get my family back in my house? When are schools reopening? People want to know that their government is not in their way from them being able to chase their dreams and to live them out. And as long as people know that their government is working that way and in actuality their government's working that way, they're going to be just fine.

And I think that's the responsibility that Republicans have to deliver for the American people. And that's also uniquely American spirit, right? There's no other country in the world that has that type of spirit. That's why you won't see all these other countries build the next Google or Microsoft or whatever major innovations out there. And they're not coming from Europe.

They're not coming from South America. They're coming from the United States because of that type of spirit that those folks that still believe in the American dream. And so it's up to Congress to say, look, we're going to do our part, make sure things work and get the heck out of your way.

Yep, that's absolutely correct. If you have a can-do spirit, can-do attitude, and the rules to the road are clear and they make sense, man, anything's possible. We teach that to our children when they're growing up. And I think that's what people really want to see in the United States. And, you know, we've got to deliver. Congressman, I'm going to ask you for a favor right now because Democrats are already making it clear that

that they're up for a budget fight. They don't want to stop spending. They'd rather continue with inflation and continue spending. They've made it very – they're already signaling that they're prepared to shut down the country. And we've seen them do this before, and they make hay off of closing the parks and all this kind of stuff.

Will you please reach out to all the patriots in this country, all the hardworking Americans, and just say, hey, we need you guys to come out and pick up this trash and clean up this park? Because I truly believe that if you do that, Americans will come to Washington. They will do that. They will clean the Washington Monument. They will remove the trash. They'll do that throughout our red states. Let's show them that maybe the government isn't as necessary as some folks think it is.

Well, I think I agree with that point. And I also would say that if the Democrats want to continue down the line of policy that's brought us to where we are right now, then Republicans can't be afraid to meet that challenge. Listen, do I want the government to operate and to do the things it's supposed to do, constitutionally supposed to do, efficiently? I absolutely do. But if they want to continue a government...

that is wasteful, that is bloated, that doesn't follow the law, that diminishes the future spirits of the American people. Who wants a government like that? I know I don't. And shoot, even Democrats don't want that. And we'll let that be the final word. Congressman Byron Donald from Florida, thank you so much for joining us today. Folks, make sure you download the podcast-only segment for our election predictions. Welcome to the podcast-only segment of Breaking Battlegrounds. If you were confused by the new intro music, yeah, we got in trouble with the copyright people.

I like it, though. I do. I actually do like this intro better. I like it. So we want to do our election predictions, but I want to first talk of all, you know, Democrats and the press, because the press really is just an arm of the Democratic National Committee now. I view most members of the press as Democrat operatives with a byline. And we'll do a show on this tomorrow.

in between the kickoff to the new Congress, just how disappointing it is because you and I love good reporting. Yeah, and the handful of reporters at Left Papers, I consume their stuff that are good reporters. Yeah, and I love hearing an opposing view that's actually well-written. Yeah.

And not just saying all MAGA people are going to drive us to hell. There was a great piece you actually shared on a text thread yesterday talking about the difficulties that Democrats are having with Hispanic voters.

And it was written from a left end perspective. I think it was on MSN. Yeah. And it was wonderfully and it was it was more than 500 words. It was just a wonderful piece. And it's like one of our colleagues said, I've read this a couple of times. Yeah, it was really a very worthy read. Now it comes from a left leaning perspective, but it's intelligent. It was honest. He interviewed people, interviewed people outside their bubble. Right. You know, so so what we have this week now. So the Democrats know they're in trouble.

And I've never heard Democrats bemoan how the real clear politics polling average is probably, I mean, they're doing everything possible to try to suppress turnout. And they truly are suppressing turnout, right? So then we had Biden give a stumbling speech again about the threat to democracy. And I just want to remind folks that a majority of Democrats did not think

Trump was a legitimate president. Right. Okay. We have Hillary Clinton says, Trump knows he is an illegitimate president. I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they use from voter suppression to voter purging to hacking to false stories, he knows that.

There were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did. I know he knows that wasn't on level. You have Jimmy Carter saying it's an illegitimate election. Bernie Sanders, the former John Lewis, Jerry Nadler. Every one of them spent four years. And a majority of Democrats. And so they're like telling people now that,

you know, they're the Alex Joneses. I mean, Alex Jones did a horrible thing. I'm glad he lost. He deserved what he got. But they do the same thing. And, you know, and you want to know what the Democrat mindset is. Just think about COVID mandates. So in January, there was a national poll. And by the way, it's really hard to find Googling it. They really have pushed it down. But,

The search that Google in this cycle is so corrupt is absolutely insane. In January 2022, 59% of Democrat voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times except for emergencies if they refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 78% of Democrat voters support the Biden administration's vaccine mandate.

Half of Democrat voters think local and state government should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question publicly question the efficacy of existing COVID-19 mandates on social media, TV, radio, online or digital publications.

Forty five percent of Democrats favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19. Two thirds of likely voters would be against that. So Democrats talk about it.

Republicans want to get rid of democracy and freedom. They are the worst people to criticize it. They just need to look in the mirror in the morning. Well, but that's what it is, Chuck. It's transference because these are bad people who believe in a fascist, top-down, control, authoritarian state. But they don't want to admit that that's who they are. So they point at Republicans and go, you're me. Well, for example –

The Democrats wailing about democracy is in danger if Republicans win on Tuesday. Oh, for flipping sake. These are the same people. How far are Democrats willing to go to punish the unvaccinated? 29% of Democrat voters would support temporarily removing parents' custody of their children if their parents refuse to take the COVID-19 mandate.

Yeah, folks, remember that when you go to vote on Tuesday, because one in three Democrats would like to take your kids away if you don't want to get an experimental shot. And half of them were probably putting you basically in a concentration camp. Right. I mean, that's what it is. I mean, they can call it is you can call facilities called the concentration camp. And you know what? Those those ideologies.

are probably more prevalent among their political class than they are among their actual voters. Absolutely. I'm telling you, that is probably not what's over the flyover states. That is your West and East Coast cultural hub type things. All right. Predictions. Look, this is a close election. And here's the one thing I hope...

Republicans will take the majority in the House. I think there's a decent chance in Senate, though I'm not going to bet my house on it. But I think there's a real decent chance on it. I actually would now. And what I hope Republicans realize, and again, Congressman Donald is fantastic. I think he gets it. He does. Frankly, I almost wish he was in leadership. He's still too young, but he's wonderful. And he's a gentleman that has a great future. He's someone who should be moved up the ladder as quickly as possible. Yeah.

What Democrats missed after 2020 is there were still 71 million people who voted for Trump. So for these people who say, get over it, you lost, there are still 71 million people

Who voted for Donald Trump. Right. That's a lot of people. Right. Yeah. OK. At the end of the day, this election, we'll call it a sweep of Republicans win by four or five. We still have to realize that there's 46, 47, 48 percent of the country that had a different view. I'm hoping leadership does not diminish their conservative principles and realize there are real issues out there that we do need to work on together.

And I'm excited to see how that goes about. I agree. But I think it's really important, like we were talking about with Congressman Donald, to push the envelope. Absolutely. Make them stop our legislation. Don't pull back the reins. But one single at a time. We can't. For example, for example, if the Senate majority, when Martha McSally was there, had just simply passed a bill working with the House that said,

Kids, 26, you don't lose, there's no pre-existing condition for insurance. Right. Martha McSally be senator today. Yes. We would not have a Senate race in Arizona. That's correct. People can say all they want, but that's the reality. But because they lump it into something and they say, well, no one understands that. Just do a damn vote. Right. No, look, simple bills appeal to the public.

Because you understand what the intent is and you can form an opinion without any complication. Why do they think when we're in a social media era where it's a hundred characters or less that they need something bigger? Get it short, right? That's why Axios is doing so great with their newsletter. One of the things we're doing for Carrie Lake, frankly, is we've been lining up a bunch of literally one sentence bills to run here in Arizona. That would be fantastic. I mean. All right. So predictions. Oz. Oz or Fetterman? Oz. Oz.

Yeah, I think I think Oz wins, too. But I think that it's going to take a week. Yeah, I think it's going to be close. But I do think Oz. New Hampshire. I think Democrats hold on there. I like Balduke, but I think he's a bad fit for that race. I think Balduke wins. Do you? I do. I think that's close. See, I have a 53-47 is my take. Herschel Walker, runoff or win? Win. I think he wins outright.

There's a lot of people on that. Either way, if he goes to runoff, I think he wins. At the end of the day, I think he picks up that Senate seat. I think he does pick up that Senate seat, but I actually think he'll pick it up on Tuesday. The tribes have spent $25 million against the Oklahoma Republican governor. Win or lose? Republican governor's going to win. I think he loses. Do you? Yeah, I think he's gone.

In Nevada. Does Sheriff Lombardo win? Yes, he does. He does. Yeah. Does Laxalt win Senate? Yes. Yeah, I think he does too. All right. Here, Kerry wins. We both think Kerry wins. Kerry wins. I believe Blake wins also. I do too. I think Blake wins too. But what was I hearing the other day?

It would take till Friday to get 99 percent of the votes counted for Maricopa County. I mean, that's got to change. And that's not the recorder's problem. It's just something's got to change. Well, it is and it isn't the recorder's problem. Right. I mean, part of this is their systems that we have not really thought through how to do. Look, Florida had 2020. I mean, 2000. Florida had the Bush score 2000. It was a mess. They got their crap together. They will know.

Before we even start getting our results in Tuesday night. I think, Chuck, to be honest with you, Florida has the best voting system in the country. I agree. And everybody should just copy it. Yes. Long story short. Look, they spent a lot of time and money figuring this out after the hanging chads. I'm going to say in Colorado, O'Day and Washington Smiley, if they both win, Republicans have just cleaned house. Yeah, they've cleaned house. And I don't think they're going to win. Same thing with Tudor Dixon in Michigan.

Yeah, people are really optimistic on it. Our good friend, a good friend of ours runs an app that people use for canvassing, and he's pretty high on Michigan. He is. And I, you know, I think it's possible, but I think that one's a bit of a longer shot. I agree. Well, it will be interesting, folks. Next week, we will have national pundits with us talking about what happened and what's

And I'll guarantee you there's probably going to be some racists who are still saying, can't they get these darn votes counted fast enough? You're definitely going to. By the time we're on air, they will still be counting votes. There will still be races here in Arizona and elsewhere in the country that are not decided. And that is a travesty. That's idiocy. Last question. How many new seats do Republicans get in the House? In Arizona or total? Total. I'm going to put my over under at 38.

I'm going to say 22 to 25. I don't think we're 30. Again, if we're 30, you probably have won some other states we're not talking about. Well, see, one of the things I think is I think there's going to be some ticket splitting even in blue states and blue leaning areas. Mm-hmm.

Where they may vote for a blue governor, they may vote for a blue senator, but they're upset. They're seeing the same things everyone else is, and there's going to be some ticket splitting and some surprise results. I think you're right on that. And again, I hope Republican majority in the House and if it's the Senate just understand –

Ladies and gentlemen, you just got to get it done. No excuses. Just go to work. Roll up your sleeves. Get the singles. Get some doubles. And let's get stuff done. And accept that a veto is a win. Yeah. Force them to it. Right. Force them to it. Every time you make him veto something, you've just won.

So, folks, if you have not voted yet, shame on you. Get out and vote. If your spouse or partner or family or neighbors are not voted, get them out to vote. You can't complain unless you get out and do your civic duty. This is Breaking Battlegrounds, and have a great weekend and week. The political field is all about reputation, so don't let someone squash yours online. Secure your name and political future with a yourname.vote web address from godaddy.com. Your political career depends on it.