Kim Klacik: Baltimore Has Potential. Plus, Jason's Debate Analysis 55:59

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Well, welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us. I really do appreciate it when you give up part of your day. And I think you're going to enjoy this because we've got somebody who's really interesting. Somebody you may or may not have heard of before. Her name is Kim Klesik. She is a candidate for the United States Congress. She's a member of the United States Congress.

Out of the great state of Maryland, she's there in the Baltimore area and she's running for the second time. It's an uphill battle, quite frankly, for Republicans in a place like Maryland and certainly Baltimore. But, you know, I've had a chance to interact with her and she's got a vision. She's got a story. It's different than mine, different than my experience. And I love that. And I

I love it when people step up and put their hat in the ring, not knowing whether or not they're going to win or lose. And I think those are inspirational stories. So I look forward to talking with Kim and I think you're going to enjoy it. We're going to give some thoughts on the news and then we're going to highlight the stupid because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere, as we like to say. And then we're going to get on the phone with Kim Klesik. So thank you so much for joining us. All right. So.

Had the big debate. A lot of questions. A lot of questions in the debate. And I'm trying to hit on some things today.

Uh, that maybe you haven't thought of, um, uh, maybe a little bit different perspective and at least some of least what I'm seeing feeling because, you know, for a week, uh, maybe even, I think it was eight days, Joe Biden had huddled at camp David, no cameras to see him the whole time with 16 of his best aides, uh,

But after the debate, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again because that was an absolute disastrous moment for the president of the United States. And, you know, there was a lot of talk through the last couple of years, quite frankly, that

anything the Republicans were saying or anything, any video that was showing was, you know, there's a deep fakes or they're fake clips or they're, you know, don't listen to the Republicans. Um,

But clip after clip, night after night, there were so many gaffes, gaffes that are bad. Now, anybody who has the camera trained on them 24-7 is going to say something that's out of line, maybe a little silly. Maybe they're going to stumble over a word or transpose some letters or something. I mean, that happens to anybody, right? And probably everybody. But the gaffes that we saw coming out of Joe Biden were just untenable, right?

And remember, you have the special counsel, her, who goes out and it's doing an investigation and comes back to with the conclusion on the documents case, having classified information in a non classified setting that it could not prosecute him because Joe Biden was too old, too feeble. And would a jury just simply would not convict somebody who was that far out of it now?

These are not direct quotes. I'm summarizing in my own words. But that was essentially the case is that Joe Biden is too feeble in order to withstand a trial. So if that's the case, why not release the audio tapes? And I guess that's my deep concern here. You have a duly issued subpoena by a committee that I used to chair, the Oversight Committee.

And the president of the United States and his legal team are claiming executive privilege. See, Joe Biden sat for this deposition or this transcribed interview. I can't remember what the format is, and there is a little bit of a legal difference there.

But when they did the interview of Joe Biden, evidently it was recorded. Now, that is vastly different than when James Comey on July 4th timeframe interviewed Hillary Clinton about a case that she was a potential suspect in or potential, you know, could have potentially been involved where they took no notes and did no video, no audio.

In the case of special counsel Herr, they did do audio. And the American people have the right to see that. See, the president is claiming executive privilege. Executive privilege, in very rough terms, is protected so that a president can get unfettered access to good information in order to go through a decision-making process. Some of that may be classified. Some of that may be non-classified.

But you don't want to impede the ability of a president to get good information to make decisions. But when you're being interviewed by a special counsel about a documents case, that has nothing to do with national security. It has nothing to do with some state secret that may be let out the door. It has nothing to do with potential legislation or a decision-making process.

Remember when Bill Clinton had to testify and go through a deposition about the Monica Lewinsky, all that. There's plenty of videotape there. You can see him sitting there with his Diet Coke, you know, answering questions, sipping away. I mean,

That was out there and there was not this absurd, absurd claim of executive privilege. But in the case of Joe Biden, now they're trying to hide this tape by using any and every means possible. And now we're starting to see why. After the debate performance, it made me.

It was sad on the one hand, but it also made me mad. I felt like we had been lied to by the White House. We had been lied to by Jill Biden and those closest to the president. That executive staff that was there, the chief of staff, the people that are interacting with him, his national security advisor, all those people were lying to us, telling us how nimble and fit and all the vim and vigor of Joe Biden was.

But we saw for the first time in a long, long time, an unfettered Joe Biden, no notes, no teleprompter, having to answer questions. And in the first 10 minutes, you could tell that this was going to be an absolute disaster. Well, there's a reason why the president and his legal team is fighting so hard to not hear the audio tape, because I think it would also confirm what we saw in the debate, which

But you know what? If you believe in justice, if you believe in the rule of law, like they suddenly claim to believe, you know, they do it when Donald Trump, oh, the rule of law, they, you know, use that line over and over. Why don't you believe in the rule of law when it comes to responding to a duly issued subpoena by the United States Congress? We have a right to hear that.

Just as we had this debate and we're able to see and hear for our own selves. And now you hear the Democratic spin. This is spinning fast. A lot of a lot of leaders on the Democratic side of the aisle saying Joe Biden should step down. A lot of people saying, oh, well, you know, maybe he should forego another another run at the presidency.

Here's the second part I want you to know about. I have an association relationship with the Heritage Foundation. They started what's called the Oversight Project. I'm involved in that Oversight Project. And about four months ago or so, we started this project in order to do an analysis, state-by-state analysis of what it takes to get on a ballot.

And can you just simply change out? Can the Democrats meet at their convention in August and just say, well, rather than Joe Biden, we're going to go with whoever, you know, doesn't matter the name. But can we make the change? That's not how this process works, folks. The process works on a state by state issue, a state by state basis. For instance, RFK Jr.,

is trying to get on the ballot, furiously trying. You have to meet different benchmarks in different states at different times. And he's been unsuccessful to get on a lot of state ballots. He just doesn't qualify.

In many states, like key states, like Nevada and Wisconsin and California, you can't just simply say, well, rather than Joe, it's going to be Kamala or it's going to be Gretchen or it's going to be Gavin. You can't just do that. In many states, you have to meet a threshold. You either have to die or you have to state a medical reason why you're dropping out or

Even then, you can't necessarily be replaced. So this whole idea and notion that Democrats can just get together at the convention and nominate somebody else, and then they automatically slide their name in as the Democratic nominee, that ain't the way it works. These will be massive legal battles that will go on as to whether or not he can get on the ballot on a state-by-state basis. Some you can, but many you cannot. And that would sway the election. Democrats created this...

They created this mess. There was an opportunity for Joe Biden, Joe Biden, the Biden family to step out. Now, I was in that camp a year ago, said, I don't think Joe Biden's going to be the nominee because he doesn't have the mental acuity. He just doesn't have the you just can't do it. But somehow he convinced himself that he was the only person on the planet that could beat Donald Trump. But it was fiction. It was built on a bed of sticks that was a lie.

And the vanity of all that. And I've joked that, you know, in a kind of semi-serious, but a joke that, you know, Jill Biden really likes being the president of the United States. I did release a book last year called The Puppeteers, the people who control the people who control America, because it was obvious that Joe Biden was not in control of the White House. That should have been obvious to all of us a long time ago.

But I blame Jill Biden. I blame those that are closest there in the White House to the president. But I also blame the media because, you know what, they lack the intellectual curiosity. They did not do their deep dive reporting that they should have done. They gave them a pass. They just swallowed hook, line and sinker. Everything that Karine Jean-Pierre was telling us, even just the week before the debate, she was out there saying, you know what,

These are deep fakes. These are you're cutting these things. This is not really who Joe Biden is. And remember, Joe Biden's the one that said he he wanted to debate. Donald Trump was the one that said, I'll debate anytime, anywhere and accepted the invitation that Joe Biden wanted to have, which is to have it on CNN and the format that they wanted to have.

So they got what they wanted. It'll be fascinating. This is changing hourly from the time I'm recording this, but it'll be fascinating to see how this plays out. But those are some of the things that I'm thinking about that I just really wanted to highlight. You can't just go out and switch the names. And Democrats, you created this mess. And isn't it? Well, I'm going to save this part for the stupid. So let's move on to there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.

It's kind of hard not to find the irony in what the Democrats are saying. Weren't these the people that were pounding on the desk that they were worried about democracy and the fall of democracy if Donald Trump was elected? It's they're like falling over each other to figure out now how to bypass all the voters.

The primaries, the caucuses, everything that went through. Remember in Florida, they didn't even have a contest. They said it's not even close, so we're just going to deem Joe Biden the nominee. You had people like Dean...

Phillips and others trying to run, wanting to have a debate. And they were just kind of laughed off. RFK Jr. was just pushed out of the Democratic Party. And it was all done with this idea that, oh, no, Joe Biden's our nominee. End of story. We're not going to have a debate. We're not going to have a discussion. We're just going to make this happen.

Isn't it funny now that their belief in democracy and empowering people to vote, they're willing to bypass that in a heartbeat because, whoops, we had a bad debate for performance and it looks like we're going to probably lose to Donald Trump. I just find that to be in the category of flat out stupid. All right, let's move on with the conversation I want to have here with Kim Klesik.

She is, well, I want to hear her own story, but she's running for Congress in Maryland. So let's dial up Kim Klesik. Hello. Kim, it's Jason Chaffetz. Hey, Jason, how are you doing? Thank you so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it. You know what? I was guest hosting for Jimmy Fallon on his Fox Across America, his radio show. And you've joined me a couple of times and you've always been a good interview. And I thought, oh, that would be great.

It would be really good to have you come join us on this Jason in the House podcast. Well, I appreciate it, and this is a good look, because we've got a lot going on here in Maryland. There is a lot going on, and gosh, you've thrown your hat in the ring again. Look, it's tough as a conservative or Republican to be running for political office. Anybody who puts their hat in the ring, hats off to them, but...

But to run in essentially inner city Baltimore, explain to us where exactly your district is.

Yeah. So, you know, in 2020, we ran pretty much all in Baltimore City. And so for those who don't know, it was a D plus 34. So for every 34 Democrats, there's one Republican. And so since then, in 2022, we ended up having redistricting here in Maryland. So now we have Baltimore County, Carroll County, which is actually a little more red,

and then just a piece of Baltimore City. And so now the district is much better. It's competitive for a Republican. So I was nervous before in 2020, and I have to say I'm a little less nervous this time around. It's an open seat. Dr. Ruppersberger, who has been serving for close to 30 years in Maryland's 2nd Congressional District, he's not running for re-election. So it's an open seat, and like I said, it's much better odds. Well, thanks for putting in to do that. Do you

So what do you find? What are people in Baltimore talking about, concerned about?

Well, crime and violence, I think, has always been number one. And it's been that way for close to 40 years now. And it's sad because even though there are those neighborhoods that seem to get overlooked by basic government functions, whether it's vacant housing, whether it's trash pickup, just the basic things you think government could do, unfortunately, those areas are plagued with the most violence.

And so, you know, you've got the open air drug markets, you've got violent repeat offenders on the streets. And there are some people that are afraid to leave their house. Right. And they work their entire lives to be able to own some of those row homes in Baltimore City. And they're afraid to walk out the front door because there's an open air drug market right outside their door. So, you know, crime and violence, I think, will always be number one. But now you have this other piece to it where Baltimore is somewhat of a sanctuary city. Right.

And so just like you see in Chicago and New York and other areas, they're moving a lot of illegal immigrants into this area as well. And so now you've got these two components where now you've got illegal aliens, some of them homeless, looking for shelter, some of them you have no idea who they are, criminal backgrounds, you name it, and then you put that on top of what we already have. So absolutely none of this can be sustained. And then of course,

When you follow that up with the education piece to it, we're spending a ton of money education-wise. But the results, we had 23 schools in Baltimore City where kids were zero proficient in math, zero proficient in reading. And so now they're also trying to seek a lot of those. Say that number again. That number is stunning. What percentage were zero proficient?

Zero out of 23 schools in Baltimore City. And again, in these same neighborhoods where they don't have the basic government function. It almost looks like a third world country in some of these areas. This is not a, hey, this just happened last year phenomenon. It's been like this for a long time. Why do they keep, I mean, if you want different results, you got to do different things, correct? Am I off base there? I mean, this is, I guess, core to your message.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, we've got the third highest per pupil spending in the country. So at Baltimore City students, you've got $22,000 spent on them per pupil annually. Okay, so we're right up there with Boston, Massachusetts, New York, you name it. Yet the results are kids can't read or write, right? They can't do basic math. And so I think the Democrat Party has convinced a lot of these residents that it's the money piece, that they're just not –

funded enough. You know, they need more money to get this done. Well, that's not the case. You know, you need parent involvement. In this case, we need school choice. You also need, honestly, some of these schools have been run down. None of them have been fixed in quite some time. You've got some schools that still don't have heat or air conditioning. And a lot of this money is going to the administrators. Oh, yeah. Still been going on for many years. I mean, how can you be spending that much money

And not have basics like heating and air conditioning in Baltimore. I mean, it gets hot and it gets cold. Yeah. Well, the administrators, you know, they make a ton of money. So our CEO of public schools, she actually makes over $330,000 a year.

Now, I don't know why, but she does. And it's the same thing with many of those that are just, you know, right below her. Right. So some of the CFOs, things like that, they're making, you know, close to half a million dollars a year. And so a lot of this money is being spent on administrative salaries rather than the students.

Okay, those numbers are just stunning. And, you know, there's good people in Baltimore. Explain... Okay, so I think I understand the drug component and how intimidating and bad that is. But explain to people, because I had to learn this, what a food desert is. And what happens with that? Because a lot of people who don't live in a big inner city, they have no idea what a food desert is. And I...

I had to learn this and see it, and now I'm like, oh, gosh, that is just – should never happen in America. Right. No, yeah, again, it's like a third world country. So a food desert, you can find that in East Baltimore and West Baltimore. It's an area where they don't have a grocery store or even a quarter store for miles.

And that is because of the crime and violence. So, you know, we used to have some stores that would come in. They would try to set up shop, whether it was a grocery store or Target. And then, you know, when it comes to the theft and dealing with the crime and violence right outside their front door, you know, a lot of businesses just pulled out. They said, look, we can't operate here because everything's flying off the shelves. We're not making the money and our employees are scared to come to work.

And so these are areas where they can't actually attract any business because of the elements. Now, meanwhile, if you had prosecutors and judges that would lock up these repeat violent offenders, if you didn't have all these people on the streets committing all these crimes and do whatever they wanted to do, there wouldn't be food deserts. But it's interesting because the residents, for some reason, they're unable to connect the dots. It's the environment. It's not that, you know, these corporations like, you know, whether it's Giant or Walmart –

It's not that they don't want to be in the area. They can't actually be in the area because they would lose so much when it comes to product or money in general. But they're blaming the big corporations for not coming to Baltimore City. And of course, then you have the government officials, who are all black, by the way. They'll then tell the residents, well, they're not coming to your neighborhood because they're racist.

They're not coming to your neighborhood because it's a predominantly black neighborhood. And for some reason, the residents and the voters, they believe it. Wow. No, and the consequence here, I mean, so you have a whole generation of kids, and it's happened for a long time. Look, not only can they not get the food that they need and the basic things like fresh vegetables and fruit,

But they also, some of the drugstores. So, like, if you need basic medicine or over-the-counter products, think of what those might be, or get a prescription, not everybody has the income to go to a whole other neighborhood in order to do that, not to mention the inconvenience. And then, as I saw it, like, the kids...

They're just basically eating, with all due respect, Doritos and Cheetos and whatever you might find at a liquor store. And that's the essence of their meals. Right. You're absolutely correct on that. And so, of course, if you don't have basic nutrition, I mean, what do you expect out of them, right? And so a lot of these kids, this is why I think they have so many of the food programs in the schools, right? They now feed the kids both breakfast and lunch.

because of the situation that they're in. But again, we wouldn't be in this situation if government would do their job. Now, of course, law enforcement, you know, BPD has been doing a great job, you know, getting some of these people off the streets. But, you know, they get a slap on the wrist and they're right back out there committing crimes. And so then you have a situation where you've got a lot of police officers leaving the force because they feel at this point, you know, what is the point?

What am I doing here? If you're just going to allow these people right back out. We also had a change in the juvenile laws that happened in 2022. If you're under the age of 13, you can get away with basically murder at this point. They feel as though a child under the age of 13, their minds aren't developed enough to know that whether it's carjacking or robbery or any of those things, their minds are supposedly not developed enough to know that that is wrong.

And so they'll usually release them back to their parents. The problem is these juveniles know this, and so do the gang members. So now you've got a lot of gangs recruiting 10, 11, 12, 13-year-olds because they know they can commit their crimes and not do any time. Wow. So, okay, so is this the heart of why you're running, or how is this being received? I mean, how— Yeah, well—

I will say this is a large piece of why I'm running. Obviously, education is a huge point, as we talked about, but also the open southern border. And I know it's hard to think of that on top of the crime and violence here in Baltimore. But like I said, it's exasperating the entire situation. We just ranked number one in overdose deaths. Jason, I don't know if you saw that, but the New York Times put that piece out two weeks ago. No.

And we've got a lot of fentanyl on the streets. And, you know, with the open-air drug markets and some of our prosecutors believing that selling drugs isn't really a crime, it's a way for people to survive, you know, you've got all of this endless supply of fentanyl going out. And unfortunately, those are the results. So, you know, the crisis when it comes to the fentanyl, when it comes to crime and violence, when it comes to the criminal illegal aliens, you know,

There's just so much going on here. And of course, like I said, back to getting hopefully to a point where we can push school choice. We have some people in Annapolis here at the State House that try to push on the local level. Unfortunately, it's always voted down, especially by progressive Democrats. So these are more things that we need to talk about. And if we have to talk about it on the federal level, then that's what we have to do. Another piece, which is huge here in Baltimore County, is

is the attainable quote-unquote affordable housing. And a lot of that is now increasing because of the illegal immigrant situation. We're at a point now where we can't even sustain the amount of Section 8 vouchers that are coming in and being spread across the county. And then, of course, those illegal aliens being able to take advantage of those vouchers

And so we've got schools that are over capacity. Our hospitals can't maintain. We are short police, firefighters, EMTs, you name it. So now we're in a situation where the population is so large and many of these people are burdened on the taxpayer dime that we are just, you know, we're in a situation where it cannot be sustained.

Well, scary stuff. I mean, you're not giving us much of the reason to take our tourist dollars and go hang out in Baltimore, for goodness sake. But you're also reflecting reality. And like I said before, if you're going to expect different results, you better darn well do something different. So, yeah.

So let's go back and understand where you came from, who you are, and why you want to do this. So start with, I was born in, and I'm not talking about the year. I'm talking about where you grew up, what was life like, and, you know, brothers, sisters, were you involved in athletics? What was life like when you grew up? Oh, okay. So...

Believe it or not, I was born in Massachusetts. I lived in New York, Buffalo, New York for a while. And then we moved to Acne Creek, Maryland, which is southern Maryland, when I was about third grade. So I moved around in the very beginning there a lot. My father, who has since passed, he was an executive for IBM. And he actually grew up in foster care and had a very traumatic childhood.

And so he always taught us, look, no matter what your childhood is, no matter your circumstance, you can overcome that. You know, hard work, dedication, consistency. He was luckily adopted by a man that was in the military, a former Marine. And he said because of that, he thinks that helped shape his life because he did enforce so much discipline. And he felt as though he was a mentor and a father figure.

And so, of course, you know, we always talk on the grand scheme of things about father figures in the household. Well, guess what? It is very important. And my dad could attest to that. And so we moved to Maryland. I actually played soccer. I played soccer throughout high school. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big soccer fan. Yes. Okay. I wasn't the best soccer player, but I can run fast. And so...

My coach would always joke with me. He goes, Kim, if you could just stop and learn the dribble, you would be so much better. But what I did, Jason, I would kick the ball so hard. I knew that I would be the first one to get to it. So that's what I would do. And I would score that way. But yeah, so, you know, I played soccer. I ended up going to Bowie State University. I played there. I did not like Bowie State very much. Ended up going to the Southern Maryland College of Southern Maryland back towards where I grew up.

And unfortunately for me, I had developed what they call alopecia. So at a very young age, yeah, my hair fell out. It was absolutely awful and devastating. But, you know, when you're young, you think like, oh, now my whole world is over. Well, meanwhile, it's just hair, right? But, you know, when you're young, you're not thinking of it. Yeah, and alopecia is one of those things, right? They really don't know, like, what causes. It just happens. And they're like, wait, what happened? Yeah.

And in spots, right? It's just, it's really an odd, but it is, you know, socially, you feel awkward, right? Yeah, yep. And unfortunately, I felt like my life was over. I ended up dropping out of college. I was completely depressed over it. It just really changed my life. I ended up working for Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center. And I just told my dad, look, I'm just going to work. I'm going to, you know.

I'm going to climb the corporate ladder and I'm just going to work. And he said, you know, it's going to be hard without a college degree. But he said, I think you can make it, you know, you can make it happen. You've got critical thinking skills. You can do this. So I did work. I didn't realize that just showing up on time and being prepared for work, you really, you know, be consistent. He's going to differentiate you in every way.

Yeah. I mean, it's so crazy. I tell people all the time, if you just show up on time and do what you're supposed to do, you could outwork at least 50% of those on the job. Yeah. You know, it's crazy. But anyway, so that's how I went from, you know, just a front desk to reservations. And I was in the hotel industry for a while. I ended up meeting, which is now my estranged husband, but we were together for about 10 years. And he lived in Baltimore. So that's how I ended up in Baltimore. Okay.

And of course, still working in the hotel industry at the Baltimore Raider Harbor,

and really not making a ton of money. There was a big difference, pay gap, I should say, between working in Georgetown, D.C., of course, and then Baltimore. And so he said, you know, I don't even know if it's worth you going to work at this point. He had kids of his own. So I said, all right, well, I guess I could stay home. So I was then a stay-at-home stepmom. It was kind of a really cool job, Jason. Yeah, yeah. And they blame it all on you.

All I have to do is make sure the kids are great and clean the house and cook. Are you serious? This is great. Well, anyways, for me, it honestly got a little bit boring after a few years. I said, you know what? I got to do more. So I started this nonprofit called Potential Me. And what we did is we helped women go back to work in Baltimore City. We had met so many women that said, look, I don't really know how to fill out a job application. I was incarcerated. I don't really know how this works.

I had women that were out of rehab, all these different women from different backgrounds. And so many of them said, I honestly do want to work. And I said, well, you know what? Let's help them. So I did that for eight years. And honestly, it was so great. I loved it. But while working for the nonprofit, I realized that a lot of the obstacles some of these women had

came from their interaction really with local government. And so you had some women that were living on, whether it was section 8 housing, they had the food stamps, all these things. They were very afraid to get well-paid jobs because they thought they were going to lose their assistance, which is true.

And so you had women that were afraid to lose their assistance because now they're embarking on the unknown, right? They're not sure if they're going to make enough to pay rent or to hopefully one day own a home. So they're not sure. So we had a lot of obstacles there. And I was trying to work with the mayor's office, some of the city council members. I said, look, what can we do?

to make this temporary for these women, but still allow them the opportunity to keep the assistance for a little bit while they're getting back on their feet. And then they go into full-time work and they understand that they can't afford to be financially independent. Well,

Apparently, when you bring that idea to the table, they're not so happy about that. They want these people to be dependent on the government. And so with all the obstacles in the way, I thought, you know what? Here's where I need to get involved. This is the issue. And after that, I started commentating, whether it was One American to Lose. I ended up volunteering on Capitol Hill. And my first interview was with Congressman Trey Gowdy.

And it was the day before. I am so sorry. Let me just apologize on the people. I'm not even a South Carolinian, but I, on behalf of the people of South Carolina, I got to really apologize to you. That's so sorry. You had to go through that.

Yeah, I know you guys are friends. Oh, yes. Well, you know, sometimes the court asks you to do things and help out, you know, in your community. And in this case, you know, trying to...

undo the damage that I'm really sorry about that. But go ahead. Yes. Well, it's interesting because, again, I was just a volunteer on Capitol Hill helping out with the tours and things like that. But that volunteer badge, Jason, you know, it's similar to a staffer badge. So you can go anywhere in the Capitol with a volunteer badge.

So there was one day where I just walked into Congressman Trey Gowdy's office, and this is during the Benghazi hearings and all that. I walked into his office and I said, hey, I'm here to interview the congressman. Of course, his staff is sitting there. They're like, well, who the heck are you? And I said, well, I'm Kim Klesik. And so at that very moment, that very moment, Congressman Trey Gowdy walks out of his office and he says, hello? Hello?

And I said, hi. And so his chief of staff, she said, she said, she's here to interview you, but I don't have her on the calendar. And he laughed and he looked at me and he said, you know what? I got 10 minutes.

So we did that interview, Jason, and because of that interview, I ended up commentating on Fox News, you name it, because there were so many people that were like, well, wait a minute, how did you get a chance to sit down and talk to Trey Gowdy the day before he interviewed Secretary, at that time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Benghazi? And I said, you won't believe it, but I just walked into his office. Yeah.

And it just, it went from there. And I started getting more and more involved in politics, even on the federal level, understanding HUD and how the Section 8 vouchers worked, how that was affecting us here in the Baltimore region, you know, looking at the Department of Education, how that was affecting here in the Baltimore region. And ever since then, it's just, it took off. I then, you know, doing videos and documenting what was going on in Baltimore City, I

By 2019, it caught the attention of President Trump. All these videos that we're posting showing the illegal dumping, the rat infestation, the vacant housing in Baltimore. And President Trump went to Twitter and says, this is to delay the Elijah Cummings. He goes, hey, we're sending you millions of dollars to fix this situation. What's going on?

And it just kind of blew up from there. Unfortunately, the congressman, Elijah Cummings, passed away. They had the special election. I got a phone call from the MDGOP and they said, Kim, are you ready to go? And I said, not really, but here we go. And so that's how I ended up running in 2020. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Kim Klesik right after this.

The world of business moves fast. Stay on top of it with the Fox Business Rundown. Listen to the Fox Business Rundown every Monday and Friday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Wow. That's quite a journey. That's quite a story. And here you are again. So you've gotten a nomination, right? That's already been. And how do people find you? Like what's your website? Yeah.

Yep, they can go to kimkforcongress.com and they'll see my points there. We have events. We just had an event with Congressman Burgess Owens. It was schooled out.

5 p.m. on a Monday, believe it or not. And so there are a lot of people very excited. I think they want to see this change. My Democrat opponent is the Baltimore County Executive, Johnny Osheski. He's one of the guys that allows these illegal immigrants to really just run amok on our streets. And there are some people very upset about it, even moderate Democrats. So I think we're going to win this thing, and I'm excited about it. Well, good luck to you. And let me ask you a couple of things here, because...

I'm always fascinated by people who step up, have the gumption, and just walk into Trey Gowdy's office and just say, hey, I'm here to interview him. Good for you to do that. It does sound like the Trey I know. All right, okay, we'll take 10 minutes and we'll figure this out. So Trey's nice that way, even though I do like to joke with him and poke him a lot. Yeah. You know, tease him.

He is awfully nice that way. Let's go back to, you know, it's one thing to be outgoing, but, you know, you've done work on television, radio, and you could just tell in this podcast, not everybody can do the public speaking part of it. Like, where did that come from? I mean, when you were little and growing up, did you like, were there experiences that think, yeah, you know, I can speak in public. I can do that.

Believe it or not, I was very shy. I have two brothers and a little child. I was very shy growing up. I was always very thin, so I got teased a lot for having chicken legs and just being so skinny. And so I kind of just faded in the background. But like I said, after I had the situation with alopecia, there were so many days where I just had these pity parties with myself. And so one day...

You know, I was thinking to myself, I always say, you know, why me? Why me? Why did I have to go through this? Until one day I finally turned it around and thought, you know what? Why not me? Because if this would have happened to any of my friends, right, whether it was my best friend or anybody else like that, I don't think that they would have been able to get past it. And I said to myself, maybe...

Maybe I ended up in this situation because the Lord knows that I could get through this. And, you know, working with the women in Baltimore City, seeing how much their lives were just impacted by a lot of things out of their control. I said, look, it's time to speak up. You know, and so, yeah, I'm a shy person, believe it or not. I know a lot of people say, no, you're not. I'm like, yes, I am. I'm shy. But what was the first instance where you got like, all right.

I got to put together a little talk here. I'm going to step out of my comfort zone and do this. What was that experience? Because for a lot of people, you know, it's like the scariest thing on the face of the planet.

It is scary. It is scary. So my nonprofit office, I had one in Parkville, and it was connected to my estranged husband's office. That's where I was running the nonprofit out of. But he's an accountant, right? So you can imagine, you've got these women coming out of rehab, people are donating clothes, all these things going on next to his accounting office, right? Yeah.

Right. So he's like, he's like, Kim, what can we do here? Because, you know, I got people coming in. I got clients coming in. They're like, what the heck is going on next door? So I said, all right, I got to get my own office space. Well, at this time, if you're familiar with Under Armour, Kevin Plague. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were they were having their base in Baltimore, right?

Correct. Yep. They were hosting this event where they were talking to stakeholders, those in the community and those in the nonprofit sector about what they were trying to do to make an impact in Baltimore City.

And so one of the things that they did is they bought this huge office building. And they said, what we want is we want to call this the impact building. And we want nonprofits to have these spaces and we're going to give it to them for free, right? Or in-kind donations. And so we're going to go ahead and build this building. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So I went to the meeting and I remember sitting there and you had all these people talking, speaking up, whether it was the bankers or the big nonprofits, you

And the guy who was in the meeting, I'll tell you, at this roundtable, Jason, it must have been like at least 60 people sitting there. And he said, all right, is there anybody else before we walk away? And I thought to myself, no.

You know, you remember the Eminem song, you know, where it's like, it's now or never. Right. Now or never. You got to go for it. Yeah. And I just stood up and I said, hi, my name is Kim Clayson. I help people get back to work. And we've got a success rate that I think you'll like if I could just have five minutes. So all these people just look at me because here I am now, this woman out of nowhere. Right. Nobody really knows me in this meeting because they've been a nonprofit industry for decades. Right.

And he said, all right, well, we'll tell me more. And so I thought, this is it. And so I started talking to him about what we were doing for the women. And he looked at me, he looked at his partner and he goes, you're in. And I thought, oh my gosh, I was literally, I was sweating. I was

It was a horrible experience, but we got it. And we ended up getting on the first floor of this building and it worked out for us for years. And I thought at that moment, this is what I got to do. I got to be able to speak up no matter how tough it is. Yeah. Good for you. Good for you. That's, I mean, those kinds of things, that's what it takes, right? That's, you got to step out of your comfort zone, give it a go. You could have easily said no.

Um, but you know, it's those kinds of experiences. And I don't know if you learned that with your, your brothers or your parents or just, you know, somehow got inspired, but those types of things, they work and sometimes they don't. That's what people got to realize is that even when those things maybe don't go the direction they want them to go, then, you know, you learn from it and you get stronger because of it. So.

Absolutely. All right. You are running for Congress. But in order to get to know you a little bit better, I do have some rapid questions. And I don't care how many times you've, you know, done whatever, kick the soccer ball or whatever. You're not properly prepared for these. But I hope you feel good about them at the end.

If you'll walk in and go talk to Trey Gowdy, this is going to be nothing. So, ready? Okay. What was the first concert you attended? Oh, gosh. It was a group called Immature. Three young R&B guys. I was in high school. They're no longer, but it was around the in-sync Backstreet Boy era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. High school mascot. What was your high school mascot?

Oh, or the yellow jackets. Yellow jackets. Yellow jackets. I'll never forget that. Yeah. Well, that's memorable. And I suppose your school colors were yellow and black.

Absolutely, which I didn't love. You know, when you're playing soccer, it's just... You're always looking at your uniform. You know, we do do that still, still as women. Did they make you yellow and black stripes? Is that what you were? No, it was kind of like the yellow shirt, black shorts. When you go to other schools, they've got like the royal blue and the white. It just looks so much cleaner, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, this is shallow Kim talking. That's the problem. Well, I can tell you, though, that – and anybody can go on the internet and look this up. They – if you go to – I played soccer when I was in Arizona. And it literally – they have a team down in the southwest corner called

of the state of Arizona it's Yuma and they were always very good at soccer they were like our nemesis they they were very good um but they are the Yuma criminals because there is a big federal prison there um and uh they were competing for the nation's best mascot you can look this up

but their sign says, Welcome to Yuma High School, home of the criminals. Oh, my gosh. And they have this, like, person with a scowling face on their – that is their logo. So you may complain about the yellow jackets, but you could be the Yuma criminals. And that's – I mean, I don't know. I'd have to look to see what their –

I mean, what their uniforms look like. I don't even know what their colors are. Maybe they're black and white. I don't know. Like, you know, but maybe they're bright orange. Who knows? That's insane. But they have this, like, scowling...

male with a crew cut type of thing anyway it's kind of funny oh wow it could have done that i am gonna look that up yeah so now i'm happier to be a yellow human criminals yes but they were darn good in sports i tell you that uh okay so what was your very first job not you know not your parents telling you to take out the garbage like first time where you actually got a check

Oh, I know this. So, you know, my dad was very nice. He bought us all cars, you know, as soon as we turned 16. I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday. I was one of those kids. And I worked at McDonald's. Good for you. Yeah, he said, I'll fill up your gas tank once, and then it's on you. Wow. And so I got a job at McDonald's literally, you know, right down the street because I was so afraid I was going to run out of gas if I tried to go anywhere else.

You know what? An inordinate number of people who have been on this podcast, when I ask them this job, they've worked at McDonald's. And this is what I think lost on a lot of policymakers, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle. They all want to raise the minimum wage and they make these big arguments. But you know what? What you miss when you do that is the opportunity for younger people to have a work experience that's positive, that's away from their parents.

where they learn the value of money, they get a check, they listen to a boss, they learn how to work. And, you know, McDonald's is one of the best, period, in doing this. But, you know, that's the concern is that instead of having like an apprentice wage in this country or a youth wage or something that allows them to go work,

without working, you know, 80 hours a week, we're missing a huge opportunity. That's just me on my soapbox today. No, no, you're right. That's what he learned about taxes, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. What is that FICA thing? Yeah, exactly. So, all right. What's Kim Klasick's, what's your superpower? And what I mean by that is everybody's pretty good at something, right? Yeah.

I mean, everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah, I can do this really well. What's that for you? Oh, wow. My superpower. You know what? I don't know if I have a superpower, but I think at some time I'm a little too kind, a little too nice, because I have a hard time saying no. So I end up in all these speaking engagements, Jason, and...

A lot of times for free. It could be across the country because I care about other people running for office. And I don't say no because I want them to raise money. If they feel like bringing us in will help them, then I want to help them too. That's good. I don't know if it's a superpower, but it's something that I probably will never change. Sounds like it's your kryptonite. Yes, your kryptonite. Yes. All right. Pretty good one to have. Did you have a pet growing up?

Oh, yeah. German Shepherd. Ginger was her name. That'll keep the guys away. Yeah, no, she was great. And of course, I was the kid that had the gerbils and the hamsters. Very good. Very good. All right. Big question for me. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? Oh, gosh, no. No. Are you going to say yes? No, I'm definitely in your camp. You're earning points as you speak. Yes, this is good.

No, you don't put wet fruit on there. And I got all these other excuses people have come up with. I like pineapple. I like pizza. I just don't like pineapple on my pizza. Yeah, same, same. It's a terrible idea. I don't know who even thought about that. Well, I know they attribute it to the Hawaiians, but I don't know how Hawaiian that is. It's kind of morphed into this Hawaiian thing, but they do have a lot of pineapple on Hawaii, so...

Yeah, I guess. So best advice you ever got? Oh, best advice, my dad. He's given me a lot of good advice. Growing up, he gave me so much good advice, but he...

And it's interesting because when I first got this from him, I took it as an insult because I was like, man, my dad thinks I'm dumb. I don't know what's going on. But he always said, he said, Kim, look, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, but you're the shiniest. And in America, that's all that matters.

And I, you know, I took that and I was like, oh my God, my dad thinks I'm dumb. You know? Yeah. So yeah, I, my older brother was a chemical engineer, by the way, straight A's all through school, really like a genius. And so I took that as a huge insult, but what he was trying to say, and I kind of get it now, it's like, look, I

I'm not going to always be the smartest person in the room. But if I walk in there, you know, dressed for success, keeping my head up, very confident, well, you know, ready to speak out when it's time, doing all of those things, right? Owning the room, owning the moment in this country, in America. That's why it's the land of opportunity. You can get very far just by doing those basic things. And so that's kind of what he taught me throughout the years is what I realized is, you know,

He was setting me up for success in a way where success makes sense for me. I dropped out of college. I wasn't going to get those jobs where you need a college degree. I needed to walk into every room and ask for what I want and to own it and to be the best at whatever it is that I was doing.

And so I think that's the best piece of advice. When you go for something, you can go for it, you know, with a hundred percent, all the disciplines, stay consistent. Don't ever give up. Don't let anybody dim your shine. You just go out there and get it, you know, because a closed mouth will not get fed. I hear you, what you're saying. And, uh, I, I think it's, uh,

It's well said. And I yeah, that's that's interesting. Well, thank you for sharing that. Well, thanks for joining us on the podcast. I wish you nothing but the best. We're talking with, of course, Kim Klesik, who's running for Congress. And best of luck to you in everything you do. Well, I appreciate that. Again, if you want to check it out, it's Kim K for Congress dot com in the Maryland Second Congressional District. And we're definitely going to win this. Thank you, Jason. Good luck to you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Kim.

All right. Good luck to Kim, whatever she does in life and certainly this election. I wish her the best. We need people from all perspectives out there. And she seems pretty conservative to me in her approach. So really, really appreciate her taking time with us on the Jason and the House podcast. Now, if you could like this podcast, rate it, we would appreciate it. You can also subscribe to it so you get it every week.

I want to remind listeners you can listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus a subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Thanks for listening to us here on the Jason in the House podcast. I do appreciate it. Join us next week. We're going to have a lot of good, more good, fun discussions. So thanks for joining us. I'm Jason in the House.

Hi, everybody. It's Brian Kilmeade. I want you to join me weekdays at 9 a.m. East as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and, of course, what you think. Listen live or get the podcast now at BrianKilmeadeShow.com.