Carley Shimkus Is Cooking With Friends 47:10

It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. Well, welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I think you're going to like this one because

We're going to sit down with Carly Shimkus. Now, if you don't know Carly, you've probably seen her on the network. Certainly anybody who's watching Fox and Friends and Fox and Friends First, you know her. This lady, she is perpetually happy. She's happy. She has a smile on her face. She's so fun to be around. It's one of the pleasures I've had at being at Fox News is getting to know her a little bit. And she's going to come sit with us here in a moment. We're going to talk through, she's got a new book.

It's a cookbook. It's a Fox News cookbook. And we're going to talk all about it. It's great for the holidays, good gift giving. And yours truly, Jason Chaffetz, and well, really more my wife, Julie Chaffetz, has a, we've got a fun recipe in this cookbook. It's kind of taking all the different cooking segments from Fox and Friends and then putting them together, but kind of telling the backstory too with some photos. And it's really pretty cool. So we're going to talk about that.

But before we get into that with Carly, we want to talk about some stuff in the news and then we're going to highlight the stupid because as we always say, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. So let's start with some things in the news and, you know, we're right around Thanksgiving here. So a couple of things to highlight. One is I saw that Lee Greenwood is retiring. Now, Lee Greenwood, if you recall, he retired.

sings God Bless the USA. It's one of the great patriotic songs, certainly a more recent

patriotic song. When you say it, you can hear it in your head. He's just this iconic figure, patriotic man. I've had a chance to meet him a couple of times, shake his hand, have a chat with him, get a picture with him. Just a great, amazing talent. He's getting a little bit older, so he's going to retire. Good for him. An incredible singing career. But Lee Greenwood, just hats off to you for

Being a patriotic American and sharing your talent with all of us in those patriotic moments. Just a great artist overall. Also out there in the news, another artist is Taylor Swift. Now, T-Swift. I mean, their stuff happened all the time.

But there's a trend out there that ain't so good. And she kind of highlighted at a concert recently, which was, will you stop throwing things out on the stage? Now, she said it in the very, very nice way. But I've seen this in all different genres, people throwing things, bottles, you know, stuffed animals. Who knows what it is? This has got to stop. I mean, I'm not saying anybody that's listening to Jason House podcast is doing this, but

you know as taylor swift said look somebody can step on this it can ruin a career can severely hurt somebody including me so quit doing it um folks can't be doing that but uh i thought it was interesting that she had to highlight this all right another thing in the news gavin newsom the leaders of san francisco come on folks come on you got president xi of china coming to town right by the time this podcast airs he will have already been to town

But they went and they cleaned up all the homeless stuff on the routes in which he was going to drive a world leader coming to visit the president of United States. You have the world leader and President Xi from China. And what do they do? They hose down, clean down, get rid of the homeless on the streets. So so San Francisco looks like this super clean, nice, desirable place. It's a facade.

Now, somehow the imperative to get those streets cleaned wasn't good enough for the regular residents, the people that pay the taxes, the people who live there all the time, the businesses that are there. Oh, no, it's just got to be this world leaders. And then I'm sure they're going to let it go and become the disaster that it is before President Xi and President Biden showed up in a town. It's just it really does bug me. It needs to be highlighted out there. And

It's just anyway, the other thing, last thing I want to mention in the news is Olivia Dunn. I think that's how you pronounce her last name. Pronounce her last name. D-U-N-N-E. She's the LSU gymnast. She has 7.8 million followers on social media. And there was a headline in, I think it was foxnews.com about what makes her swoon.

and she, being the marketer, master marketer, she's like giving master class lessons on marketing. Her lesson was that you gotta be a gymnastics fan and come to the gymnastics meets. And I thought, oh okay, that's what makes her swoon. She just packing the house, getting tickets sold. Good for her in that way. Alright, time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. Alright.

I'm going to own up to this one. I'm going to win this contest. Somebody always doing something stupid somewhere? Well, that's going to have to be yours truly because I actually clicked on that article that says, Olivia Dune, what makes her swoon? The fact that I clicked on it and read it, that's about the stupidest thing I've done. What a waste of time that I did. Not that that wouldn't be interesting to some people, but...

I can't believe that I clicked on it and I looked at that and that is just absolutely stupid wasted time on my part. So I am crowning the stupidity of the week. I'm going to go ahead and award that for clicking on that article and wasting the, I don't know, 45 seconds that I took looking at that.

All right, time to move on and bring out somebody who's fun. She's put together a great cookbook. I'm really excited to talk about it. She's just so fun to talk to no matter what. So welcome onto our set. Coming in here, Carly Shimkus. Carly, in the house. Thanks for joining me. I feel a little underdressed right now. You're in a suit. I'm in sweats.

You just got off air. Let's paint a visual picture. The reason I put my sweats back on is because I was wearing really uncomfortable heels and

on Fox and Friends first and Fox and Friends and my feet were killing me so I said, I'm going to put sneakers on. And then I was like, you know what, let's just do the whole thing. It does? Oh, we should trade shoes and see. I do a few more flats than you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you look comfortable. You look great. I feel it. And it's Friday. And I'm so happy to be talking to you. Well, thank you. Thank you. No, you've been going. Okay, so when you do Fox and Friends first, what time do you get here?

What time do you wake up? Well, that is a particularly interesting question today and yesterday because of everything that's going on right now. And there is so much breaking news. So our show now starts at five, but we started at four today and yesterday to cover it all. And when we start at four, I set my alarm for 1145. So it's a PM wake up. Oh my God. Yeah. It's a PM wake up. So what time do you go to sleep?

Honestly, around like 8, 8.30. Yeah. That's a solid three hours. I know. I know. That's like an impressive three hours. I am dying inside. But look at your eyes. You're like totally fresh. Thank you. There's no bloodshot. Nothing. Yeah. Yeah.

I try and schedule in a nap. So guess what I'll be doing in my office after this? Yeah. I'm hitting the snooze button a couple times. Let's not do that in the middle of this podcast. Yeah. No, I have some juice left in me. But yeah, normally it's 1, 1.30, wake up. That's tough. Yeah. But it's very important for me to put my son to bed because I don't get to wake up with him. So I have...

It's almost like repeating the same story every single night. So my husband, I'm saying, Pete, tonight you're going to put him down. I'm going to go to bed early. And then it's like 730 and I'm like, what's another 45 minutes? I'll just do it. And then, you know, after you do that, you have kids. Then you've got to kind of unwind a little bit from your day.

Just have a moment to breathe for yourself. And by that time, it's like 830 ish on the early end. And then, you know, hit. It's got to help now that it's getting darker earlier. Right. You know what? To be honest, that doesn't matter because I'm so tired all the time. I could sleep standing. I don't give myself many compliments, but I could truly sleep.

positively anywhere. Like in the middle, we're looking at an elevator bank right now, right in the middle. Just lay me down and I can go to bed. If I see you laying on the wall, I won't wake you up. No, I won't do it here. That would be unprofessional. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What about you? What's your schedule like? You're all over the place now. I have it a lot easier than you do in terms of your schedule. Okay, so you've got a superpower in terms of falling asleep and waking up at 11.45. Yeah.

One of mine is I can sleep on airplanes. Oh, yeah. I cannot. I will tell you the majority of the time I will fall asleep before we get in the air. In fact, sometimes I'll kind of wake up and I'll have to

scoot open the little window shade to see if we're in the air or still on the ground. I know. Isn't it great? Oh, I'm really good at it. Yeah, I know. It's so good. And it can be a challenge, especially if you're sitting where I sit, which is like the back of the plane. And I would pay... And you're tall. Yeah. Yeah, I am tall. And there's no leg room. Yeah. And I would pay up, but it's just so expensive. Like you can't always afford it.

And then you're always in the middle seat. Do you know who Bill Burr is? He's a comedian. It's like poor man's first class when you sit in the back of the plane and then nobody's next to you. So you sort of get to... Oh, yeah. That's why... Okay, there's secrets here. You should always get a window seat. Yeah. Because then you can lean left or right, right? You know? I hate the aisle. Can I tell you something about window seats, though? I do have a fear. It's an unnecessary fear.

But I like aisle because I'm afraid the window is going to crack every time I sit next to it. Really? And then if you're sleeping and you sleep on the window, I'm like, I can't do that. Because you might fall out. Well, what if the window cracks? Right. Because they crack all the time. Well, you never know. What if you're the first? All right. That is an unnecessary fear. And I'm sorry. Well, now I bet you next time you're on a plane, you're going to think it and go, I wish I never. You're okay on that one?

I have done over 4 million miles just on Delta. Oh, you're a Delta guy? I'm a Delta snob. Yeah. I like Delta too. I do. Well, and they're a hub in Salt Lake City. I've flown them all the time. I think they got the best service. I'm like, I really like Delta. I like Delta. JetBlue, I like because they have snacks. They have bigger size snacks. So that's a perk. But my husband now lives in New York City with me, which is wonderful. It all boils down to better pretzels. No, well, they have like,

those full-size snacks on JetBlue, which I appreciate. But I used to fly Southwest all the time when he was in Chicago going back and forth, and

And I would – I like Southwest. They have sort of a weird boarding situation where you have to – like it goes with how quickly you check in. I pay the extra $15 to get in there. To do like A1 through A15. But I am good at falling asleep on planes too. And there have been so many times – and I'm sure because you fly a lot –

I mean, the delays and then you sleep through the whole delay and it's like an hour. And then you're how how much of a bummer is it when you wake up, though? And you're like, we're still in New York. Yes. Are you kidding me? I thought I was home. That's why I say you put the shade up and you're like, I'm still in the tarmac. I know. What the heck?

Well, that's an amazing schedule. But congratulations on this new book. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Cooking with Friends. Yes. And you are a part of it. I know. Me and my wife, Julie. So, okay. Actually, your story is one of my favorites. So the book, Cooking with Friends, it's the official Fox and Friends cookbook. So it's a compilation of all the Cooking with Friends segments where I...

regular guest or host or anchor reporter comes on Fox and Friends and cooks their favorite family meal. You did one with your wife. And then before you get to the recipe for each person, there's a little backstory to why the recipe is special to you. And your recipe, the recipe that you made, is a family recipe on your wife's side. Yeah, let's be honest. This is all about Julie here. Swedish background. Yes, yes.

And you tell the story of her grandmother who was an army cook. Yes. How cool is she? She was amazing. You know, she passed away, I think it was in 2000. But the coolest thing about Julie's grandmother is she was born in 1899 and she passed away in 2000. She touched three centuries. Oh, my God. And this woman could cook. She was really interesting. She said in her entire life she never wore clothes.

pants. She always wore a skirt. And sure enough, she lived in Arizona. Julie and I were dating and then when we were married and we went over to have these pancakes, the Swedish pancakes. And when we go over to her house, now this is Phoenix, like in August. Okay. It is hot. It is really, really hot. It's probably 8.30 in the morning. You know, it's kind of early, but it's not too early. Mm-hmm.

We pull up and Julie's grandmother is picking weeds in the front yard in her skirt. In her skirt, no pants. And she's in her 90s. Oh my gosh. And I'm just like, I think her husband passed away in the 60s.

Wow. So she had been a widow for a long period of time. But I think that's in part why she lived so long. She was always busy. She loved her family, cared about her family. She always had something to do. She had one of those old-fashioned exercise bikes with like almost the fan, you know, where you move the pedals and it makes this fan go. Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. It was like totally manual. That is so funny. Nothing modern about it.

Wow. There's a picture that we have of her on it, but she did stuff like that all the time. That is so cool. So if you're 90 picking weeds in Arizona before your grandkids come over. That's amazing. That's kind of the formula to live 100 years. And it is cool that she was a woman. What years would she have served in the Army? Gosh, I don't know. That was a while ago. We have some great pictures. One of the pictures in our own personal archive.

kitchen is her with a whole bunch of other women who are cooks at this Air Force base in Arizona. I'm forgetting the name of it. Was it wartime when she served? Is that why? Or was it just a personal choice? She wanted to serve our country. We may need to get Julie to clarify all that. Well, that's okay. She was, needless to say, she, she was this army cook. She was a great, I mean, she was just, she had these Swedish, you know, yeah.

Does she have an accent? Yes. Oh, we were Jason and Yuli. She could not get the J's out. Jason and Yuli. And both of you have J names. Oh, yes. How did you meet your wife?

I'm supposed to be interviewing you about your podcast. Genuinely, when I was looking through all the stories of the cookbook, because they were taken from the segments when you did the segment. And when I was working on that, I was like, this is my favorite story in the whole book. Well, you're very kind. That was really fun because...

I took, I cannot cook. Okay. This is all Julie. Julie's, you don't get a body like mine by missing meals. Come on. Come on. I got a few too many pancakes right here. You're okay. Julie's a very good cook. And that's kind of been passed on to each generation. She loves to cook. She enjoys cooking. Mm-hmm.

And so we were asked to do this and, you know, you have to make something. And Julie said, oh, let's do this. This is kind of unique to our family. Yeah. Yeah. So, but we're both cooking. And I remember, I think I was standing next to Steve Doocy and he,

I decided to go for it and try to flip it like in the pan. Wow. I thought, all right, this is either going to go really well or it's going to be a total flop, but that's probably good TV too. Totally. And I flipped it and I nailed it. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Carly Shimkus right after this.

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Did you really? You know how to flip a pancake in a pan? So I keep trying to do this at home and it's almost always a fail. Julie's looking at me like, what are you doing? You did it once on live TV. You're making a huge mess. That's amazing. But on TV, for whatever reason, I nailed it. It's because when the spotlight's on you, you perform exactly. Oh, and I got taped to prove it. Yes, it was a lot of fun. But it was a cool project. Do you like to cook? Yeah, I do. And...

But I am no means like an expert chef and that's why this book coming into my life at the time that it did was perfect because I was pregnant at the time. So when you're – as you know, you're just naturally not going to go out to restaurants as much as you do when you don't have kids. Yeah, yeah.

So I have been cooking a lot more and now I'm incorporating some of the recipes from the book. Well, they are a good array of recipes because there are a lot of people that really can cook. Yeah. The doosies can cook. Oh, totally. And also Steve is one of my cooking inspirations. I love his cookbooks. Oh, he gave them to our daughters? They're a great gift. Yeah.

This one I think is going to be a great gift because it's just fun. You see other people. You see Todd Pyro. My guess is actually probably a really good, pretty good cook. He's got the personality. I don't know. You got a skepticism on there. I don't know if he's good. His recipe is his grandma's Sunday gravy. I'll ask him if he's a good cook. I think his wife does a lot of that.

But he's a good eater. He would do it with enthusiasm. Oh, he does life with enthusiasm. Yes. That's why I love him. He would be an enthusiastic chef. Totally. But I love... Killmeat? I'm not so sure he's a good cook. Well, he... One of the running jokes on Fox and Friends is there's a lot of food segments that we do and he never eats. He doesn't eat on TV. Did you know that? Okay, I'm going to watch more carefully. Oh my gosh, yes, please do. But I love that about him because then I get to eat his portion.

Which I do. Well, I do it with Pete Hegseth every once in a while on the weekend shows. Yeah. You can't keep Pete's hands off of the food. He has two recipes in the book. One of them is his mom's. It's kind of a surprising recipe. You think like steak and meat and potatoes guy. It's a soup recipe from his mom. Yeah. I think it's a Minnesota wild rice soup for those chilly Minnesota nights. And then another one...

and I will do a little tease for this recipe, is a Thanksgiving recipe that his family has. Oh, yeah. And the main ingredient is pink Jell-O.

But it's a savory recipe. Pink Jell-O. So riddle me that. You know, Utah is the Jell-O capital of the world. Is it really? And so we'll have to... If it's not Utah approved, I don't know how good it could possibly be. Well, I'll check with Pete on that one. Yes. But I remember doing a segment with Pete and somebody brought in ribs. Like...

messy barbecue ribs. He is going at it. No shame. In the commercial. Love it. Haven't gone on the air yet. And I'm like, there's no way I would take the chance. First of all, I'll be on my suit. I'll be in my teeth. I'll be all in my... He did not care. He was like, oh, ribs. Yeah. You know, and it's seven o'clock in the morning. I know. But you, if you're going to wake up

And that really on a weekend, go to work. Granted, Fox and Friends is fun. You got to look forward to something a little yummy on the side. There's usually good food. Yeah. And I think Fox and Friends weekends feeds you even more than regular Fox and Friends. There's always a food segment on the weekend. Totally. Or a competition. Well, somebody will come in.

And they will be cooking stuff, making stuff. Yeah. Or some donut maker will come in and say, hey, we got donuts. Totally. Or sometimes it's gross. I remember on the weekends once it was around the holidays and there were all these candy canes that we ate, but they were terrible. It was like pickle candy cane. Terrible flavors. And you just got to try it. You know, if it's food. This is a fun cookbook. And there's a lot of rest. Like it was bigger than.

Yeah. We set this up. We were going to do this podcast. So I got it. I'm looking through it. I'm like, there are a lot of recipes. I know it's a lot of, yeah, it's really cool. And I really like the pictures too. It's a fun, it's just a fun book to have in your kitchen. There are genuinely great recipes. And if you watch Fox, you will now know more about the people that you see on TV through what they like to eat and their favorite family meal. Absolutely. And, and it's, it's just a fun book. I love how it turned out. Harper Collins did

all the fun little Americana details of it as well. So yeah, it was a great project to work on and put together. And it's made me a better cook working on this. So when you grew up, like,

So let's go back. Where were you born? So I was, I'm from New Jersey. Sorry about that. Well, you know what? I grew up about, I would say about two, depends on traffic really, but about two hours outside the city. So kind of closer to Pennsylvania. Right. It's beautiful out there. It really is. I mean, it's called the Garden State for a reason. A lot of, it's horse country, a lot of farms. Right. And.

Were you the only child? Do you have brothers or sisters? I have a sister. She's a little bit older than me. She's great. She lives in a Princeton area still. And I didn't even know about the negative Jersey stereotype until I went to college. I didn't know. I'm here to stand up for Jersey.

So, yeah. Well, there's one. And also, my family, my parents are big Fox News viewers. So, it was like ingrained into my existence ever since I was born. Did they watch every episode of everything? Oh, it was around the clock. Yeah. I mean, I was watching Fox and Friends when I was getting ready for high school. And now, the same with Brock. That child has watched more Fox News than any kid... That's good. ...born this year, because it's always on. He was born when...

when the Chinese spy balloon was flying over. Do you remember that? That was like the day he was born. So you were watching that on the... Well, I remember being like, I was like in a post-labor days and I was like, I know there's something about a balloon in the sky. I'll never forget that news story because it like coincided with him. And so it was like his first days on earth. I was like Googling what's the latest on China and the dangers of this balloon. Talk about...

Talking about that. That's how he came into the story. Oh, and having a baby. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you got to prioritize. So where'd you meet your husband? So we met at a bar in the city on my 23rd birthday. And yeah, we've been inseparable ever since. That's cool. I remember thinking when I met him that we were so old. So no blind date or anything? No blind date. Did he have some good, cool pickup line or did you pick him up? Well. Come on. How did you break the ice? I'll give you the deets.

Okay, so he was with somebody he went to college with. They were there. And then I walk in with one of my girlfriends and the guy he was with

Not the greatest. Yeah. And he kind of, he was hitting on my friend in sort of an aggressive way. So he came in and sort of like, it was like, all right, guy, man, like back off a little bit. Yeah. Sort of saved the day. Yeah. And then we started talking and that's how I met him. So that was a, come on. The knight in shining armor. Bad cop, good cop. Yes. Was it, was that a setup? Was like, hey, you go in and be aggressive. Then I'll come in and be Mr. Nice guy. I wish it were. And they'll like me. Was that like? No, it wasn't a setup. The,

The guy, by the way, who he was with is turned out to be a great guy. I will not say anything bad about him. I think it was just a bad moment.

But yeah, that's how I met him. And then he moved to Chicago, like I had mentioned. So we were a long distance marriage for a decade. Yeah, for 10 years. And then when I got pregnant, he moved back. It was, yeah, it was just Fridays were always exciting. You got to see them. Sundays were terrible. You know, I mean, with going back and forth to Washington. Yeah.

You know how it's hard. It just like takes you out of your comfort. And then you've got to get on a plane and then get to where you're going. And your flight is far. If you love your wife and adore your kids and stuff, it's really hard to be gone night after night after night after night after night. It's just, you know, so and you're newly married and, you know, FaceTime and phone calls just not the same as being together. But thank God for FaceTime, right? FaceTime is pretty neat. Yeah. Like you. Did you have.

What years were you in Congress? When did you first get elected into office? 2008. I was there 2008 is when I was elected and I left in 2017. How old were your kids?

Like, you know, right in grade school and high school. Yeah. I mean, it's just hard, particularly our youngest. You know, she was kind of first grader when I got going. That's such a good age, too. Well, and I kind of missed pretty much everything. Yeah. So that was I mean, that's ultimately why the primary reason that I left is just life was unbalanced. Totally. Yeah. It has to be easier. Yeah.

I never thought about this before. It really has to be easier for congressmen and women who live in Virginia and Maryland. Oh, totally. I was so jealous. That is fascinating, actually. Because they can get on a train or they can just drive. Yeah. And the guys on the East Coast, if they wanted to go home for the night and then come back the next day, they totally could. Oh, wow.

Oh, wow. But us folks out west, you know, it's a haul. So did you have a place in D.C.? And then obviously you have to. It was in the Rayburn building. I slept in my office. No, stop it. I was one of those office dwellers. You're like me. I'm going to take a nap in my office right now. After this. Give me a few more minutes. And I will conk out for a good two hours. No, I won't.

Clearly, I've got a stretch of time right now on my hands. So you didn't have an apartment or anything like that? I had to save money. I know. And DC is expensive. So expensive. And I'm working all the time. It's actually a better deal for the taxpayers because you work all the time. I would call a two-hour time zone difference to mountain time zone. So I could call till about...

10, 1030 at night, I could still keep calling back into Utah. And then there comes a point where you kind of, all right, let's get, you know, but then if you're going to do the job right in Congress, particularly when I became chairman and whatnot, you have a good hour and a half to two hours of reading every night. Oh, you have to. All the bills. And some of them are like, hot,

committee hearings and you're going to question a witness. You can't just show up and a lot of members do. You can't just show up and read the briefing paper, you know, two pages and then ask somebody a substantive question. Can you tell when people are slacking? Oh, totally. Are there people who slack that are like notorious for it? Oh, yes. Name names. There are a lot of people who just show up and kind of

all right, what question should I ask? And the staff will, you know, oh, here, sir, you might want to ask this. Safe districts, right? Yeah, but then they don't know. The magic of good oversight and good questioning is the follow-up. It's questions two, three, four, and five. Like I would tell younger members, I said, now listen, you're way down the dais. You're going to be two, three hours into this hearing before you get to ask a question. But if you do this right, you're going to listen to the responses of

And then you're going to get the best follow up because you're going to say, you know, sir, you said the border's secure. But let me cite some statistics for you. So what what would be secure? Like if you say secure, how many people coming across, you know, gotaways, how many gotaways is acceptable?

Those are going to be the much more probative and much more. And I said, look, if you want to make a name for yourself and actually get some. And, you know, by then the witness is kind of worn down. They're not up as much on their guard. They're tired and they're more prone to give you a just candid answer because they just want to get to the next. Like they want to get out of there. They just want to move on. So do you think that these hearings are.

effective because a lot of times when you see them on TV, it does become a sideshow where you have congressmen and it happens on both sides just trying to say the thing that gets them on TV. Oh, there's a lot of that. I think social media in general has changed the dynamic. But you actually, when you're in there and say, for instance, it's not a televised hearing.

you actually take something away from them that could help form a policy position for you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think for the most part. Look, you'll see a lot of members, if not most of the members, when it comes time for that member to ask a question, you'll see a staffer just off camera saying,

go right up with their phone and they're filming their boss asking the tough questions so they can post it up on social media. And you're just like, okay, so now we understand what they're doing. Totally. Yeah. But, you know, a lot of that's good. Some of it's a little over the top. I think I agree. Some of it is good, but a lot of it is over the top too. And it does get play. It gets airtime. Yeah.

But yeah, that is certainly interesting. Okay, so we were trying to talk about you. Wait, honestly, you're so much more interesting than I am. No, you keep segwaying all the time. I have so many questions. You're really good at asking questions. It doesn't matter. We're going to come around and let's find out about you. No. Oh, shoot. I had another Congress question. Was this like when your first date? Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. My number one question for my husband was, how do you pronounce your last name? Because there's a silent G in there. And to be honest, to this day, I don't even know how to. We pronounce it differently. I swear. He's from Memphis. And, well, he was born in Dallas.

And his family pronounced it... His last name is either Buccanani or Buccaniani. I'm not... I'm still to this day not sure. You know you're married, right? Yeah, I know. And we didn't even live together for a while. Well, his sister pronounces it Buccaniani. And his whole family pronounced it that way when they lived in Dallas. But then when they moved to Memphis...

They went with Buccananny. I don't know why. And so if I had a daughter, I was like, oof, Buccananny is so much softer. Can we pronounce it that way? But if it's a boy, maybe I'm okay with Buccananny. It's been a whole thing. I'm not sure, Jason, how to even pronounce my last name. When you're easier with Carly. Carly's a little bit. Yeah, Carly is easy. Is that a family name? Shimkus is my maiden name. Yeah. It's my father's name. Why do I have to think about that?

think about my name. Yes, it was your father's name. Yeah, Shookus is my familial name. And then, yeah, Carly's an easy one. No, no, not a family name. But is it Carly? Carly? Yeah, that's just it. Or that's not like a nickname for... No, no, yeah, no. Just call me Carly. Okay, so wait, let's go back here for a second because we only got a little bit left. But you're going to high school, you're watching Fox, friends, whether you want to or not. Yeah, right. When did you decide like,

I want to do that. I can be that person. I know. Well, I think my mom says that I wanted to be on TV longer.

And in a news capacity ever since I was younger, I think she I think I want I was showing interest in it even before I realized it myself. Well, you're an outbounding personality, right? So, yeah. Did you have like a natural curiosity? Because we're sitting here and you've asked me like more questions than I've asked you. So you're so interesting. And I wanted to ask you about the speakers race, but I'll I'll hold myself back from that. So.

I've also been interested in politics. When I was younger, I was in student government. What were you? I was the vice president. Oh, vice president. Yes, I was. Not a vice president. But it worked like you're the vice president if you get the second most votes. So it wasn't like I ran for that position. I just lost. I lost the presidential election.

My neighbor, Logan Wensler, won class president. And he's a great guy. We're still friends. But I was VP. He was on the football team. You know, he was popular. And he's also a good guy. Um...

So wait, where was I? Oh, yeah. And then when I... So your mom knew that like... She did. And then when I was in college, I interned for Fox. Oh, you did? In the DC Bureau too. So I met Chad Pergram. I met Griff when I was an intern. You met Chad Pergram. Yeah, he took me into like the underbelly of the Capitol, you know, with all the... Chad does know all the catacombs. Yeah. Yes. Did you serve with John Shimkus? Yes.

Yes. Yeah. No relation. But I met him when I was an intern. And I was like, no way.

We have the same last name. Yeah. He was nice to me when I was an intern. I think he's Illinois. He is. Yeah, he was. Is he Republican? Uh-huh. Yeah. He was a good guy. Yeah. And I've covered a lot of the congressional baseball games and he was on the team. Oh, that's a fun thing. Yeah. So that's a pretty good trajectory to getting to Fox. You were an intern. Did they hire you? Yes. So I was an intern when I was a junior and then my senior year, I knew that I wanted to work at Fox. I did. And I had a couple other internships. Yeah.

I think the most, for anybody that has a child that's going to college or going to college themselves, I think the most beneficial part of college right now is that it leads you into an internship because that's really how you can get your job. Yeah, you've got to start networking and get a mentor. So what was your first job job at Fox? So I was the green room greeter for FBN.

And it's where you pick up the guests from the front. That's Fox Business Network. Fox Business Network. So somebody shows up to do a shot. They ring the bell. They come in. Security. Exactly. And then somebody greets them. And that was me. I greeted all the guests. And very shortly thereafter, I became Don Imus' assistant because Imus the Morning was simulcasted on Fox Business before Mornings with Maria. Right.

And he really early morning, too. Yeah. You know, with each step of my career up the ladder, I've gotten up progressively earlier. Like every promotion is like, oh, by the way, it comes with your alarm getting pushed up by an hour and a half. Oh, but I'm like, thank you for still wanting me to be here. That's how I love. Well, I'm just happy to be here. Figure out how how much you want it. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Yeah. So then, yeah, through I miss he really I'm forever grateful for him.

He knew I wanted to be on air, so he would have me read viewer emails. And then Neil Caputo started having me on and Gutfeld with Red Eye back in the Red Eye days. It's been a great journey. And here you are. Now you're doing cookbooks. And now we're doing cookbooks. But yeah, so I love the cookbook and I love talking to you too. Well, I talk to you in the hall, but this is good to talk with the microphone sitting right here. You're great to know because it is...

No matter how much you cover Congress or politics, the rules of Congress are very straight wonky. They're weird. They are. So how did you. OK, can I ask one more question? Permission to ask. When did you finally feel comfortable with the way it works in Washington? It can't be daydreaming.

Day one? About four years. Right? Yeah. Because the rules are so weird and different. And once you kind of learn the rules... And who teaches you those rules? Do you kind of just piggyback? You know, I think the dirty little secret is leadership doesn't want you to know the rules because they have more power and more control if you don't understand how the rules work. So...

It's not just, you know, your typical parliamentary procedure. There are very specific things you can do and how you do them. And I remember, and the other thing that's really, I purposely asked to be on the budget committee. Paul Ryan at the time was the...

the chairman of the budget committee. And I wanted to learn it because it's not GAAP, like the general accounting principles. Anybody who has a business background or something, throw all that out the window. It's like the opposite of that. There's just, when government can print its own money and can do its own things, the rules are just totally different. And it took me a couple years by being on the budget committee to understand how the appropriations process works. Wow.

So I did that for a term and it was as illuminative. I mean, it really showed me what... How much waste there is? Oh, the waste, fraud and abuse is just stunning. But what you figure out is that the overwhelming majority of our federal budget is automatic programmatic spending. It's not this discretionary spending where, hey, I want to cut a few billion dollars from the EPA and that's going to balance our budget. It's like that doesn't even cover a day's worth of spending in this country. So...

That gets to be like you start to realize how shady and how incestuous and how dirty the business is with the American taxpayers' money. And that gets you more fired up. You're just like, oh, yeah? So is there a way to balance the budget if we really want to just... We're going to need another podcast for that. Oh, my gosh. Shoot. I know. I know. I'm so sorry. I'm commandeering this. You know what? It's very...

This is who you are. I could tell to the core, like you're inquisitive. That's good. That's what it takes to take on your job, right? Well, it's great. Because if you have, I think this is what makes you really good on here. You have this unbounding enthusiasm. You always got a smile on your face, but like, you know, your stuff, you know, it's one thing to be like, oh, okay. But it's a whole nother level to know. And if you don't have that natural curiosity, you're

You're not going to think through these things and you've been doing that for a while now, right? So that shows that's in part why you've gotten this job that I think a lot of people want to have. Well, I was just, thank you. First of all, thank you so much for saying that. That's so nice. Um,

And I was just talking to one of our now, we call them college associates now. Yes. Oh, much more. Yes. Very formal. Yes. College associates. College associates. And if they work in the summer, they're summer associates. Oh, yes. But, you know, the intern position. And I thought what she said was, I know this girl is going to be successful because she said something that I worried about, too, when I was her age.

And she was just honest. She was like, sometimes I just don't feel like I know enough. And I was like, that's because you're 19 years old. Yeah. You're not, you're not supposed to recognize that you don't. Yeah. But because she was worried about it, I was like, but you know, just because you said that means that you're going to be okay. And the way that you learn is through reading, read the wall street journal, read the op ed page, listen to podcasts. Foxnews.com. You go through that. Yes. Yeah.

You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Carly Shimkus right after this. All right. I got to ask you some rapid questions because I have to go get on the air. I know. I was afraid. I looked at the time for you. I know. It's nappy time for me. Okay. What was your high school mascot? We were the Wolf Pack. A lot of wolves in New Jersey. Yeah.

Are there? No. Are there? I don't even know. The Wolf Pack. It reminds me of Hangover. Yeah, I think there are. Are there wolves in New Jersey? The Hangover. There are bears. But for one time, I was actually, I wore the wolf mascot, too. Like the head and everything. Teen Wolf? Yeah, yeah. That was me. You're too young. I never watched the show, but I know the reference. All right. Wolf Pack. What was your first concert you went to?

Ryan Cabrera. Do you know who he is? He had really spiky hair. He was like a pop heartthrob. You still have a crush, don't you? No.

Who was your teenage crush? Who was my teen crush? It will all the members of NSYNC. Well, that's a lot of people. Probably Justin Timberlake the most. You got to be your crush. Pretty cool cat. Yeah. Yeah. I like his music. Yeah. I like him. Yeah. Yeah.

Pineapple on pizza? Yes, absolutely. Carly, we were on such a roll. I'm a big pineapple ham person. I don't have a problem with the ham. It's the pineapple that they got a problem with. On pizza? I like pineapple, but not on my pizza. Put a little ranch on it.

Okay. I do do ranch. Blue cheese is even better than ranch. Yeah? You're a blue cheese man. But no. Carly, you and I need to talk. Listen, I didn't ask for these taste buds. You grew up in New Jersey. They just came with me. No, dude. Come on. You grew up in New Jersey. This is like a Southern California answer. I've always been pineapple pizza. When I was in college, I would get Domino's pineapple pizza delivered to the library. That's how dedicated I was.

Last question. Best advice you ever got. Best advice I've ever gotten. Oh, Jason, what would it be? Well, I just had a baby, so my mom has been giving me a lot of advice. And it's all the stuff that you're like, oh, mom, stop.

But there is this strange thing about how people are like, don't touch your baby too much. You don't want them to be too, you know, dependent on you. She was like, throw all that out the window. Love on your kids as much as you can. That's the first thing that came to my mind. So I will say that that was the best advice. Mom gives good advice. All moms do. Well, you're a mom. Listen to your mom. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to me. Good advice. Cool.

Cooking with Friends. It's a new book. It's like the perfect holiday gift book. I think so. The timing here is great with Thanksgiving coming up with Christmas. Yes. It's really a fun book. So congratulations. It's an easy gift to give people. I could see it under a lot of Christmas trees. Yes. No, it's fun and

The stories, the pictures, and the recipes. So Carly, thanks for joining us. Your wife's grandma, who was in the army. How cool is that? Yes. Thank you for having me. Thank you. All right. You can see Carly is just such a fun person. This cookbook, I'm telling you, it's good.

It's fun. I got one so that I can, you know, give it to the family for Christmas. But it is a good, good gift. I want to remind people to rate this podcast. Subscribe to the podcast. We always have somebody fun, a little bit new, learn a little bit about them. Hope you enjoy it.

So subscribe to it, rate it if you could. And I want to remind people, you can listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon Music app. Thanks again. Rate it, review it, subscribe to it. And we'll be back with another guest. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.

This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.