Goodbye 2022 And Hello 2023 48:17

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'm Jason Chaffetz and I appreciate you joining me. You know, we're turning the corner. It's hard to believe another year has passed and

Well, Happy New Year. And as we get into 2023, it's always good if you're going to try to figure out where you're going, you got to look back and see where you've been, right? So we have a whole new list of exciting guests to dial up coming into the new year. But as we phone a friend and talk about the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere and the news. But you know what? I thought it would be good to take a little moment and review some of the conversations that

I've been very blessed. I just love doing this podcast with Fox News.

And I want to take a trip back because we've been talking to some of the most amazing people I know. And so I want to just kind of go back and listen to some of those. And really, there's some great, great moments. And I wanted to kick it off with Tiffany Smiley. Now, Tiffany, she was a candidate to be the United States Senator from the great state of Washington. And she was pretty close to pulling that off in a very traditionally Democratic state.

She and her husband, it's just, I mean, they have one of the most inspirational stories. Can't encourage you enough about their book that they have. But I want to kind of go back and play some of the things that we talked about because even though she lost her race, she still went from nowhere to somewhere and did so with all the right reason, all the right intent.

And just the kind of background that probably should be in the United States Senate. But let's have a listen to my conversation with Tiffany Smiley before we go and talk about some of the others that we had some interaction with.

It's so hard to have, you know, a spouse, a loved one, brother, sister, whatever it might be, uncle, father, whatever, deployed. Did you have kids at that point? We did not have kids. We had a grand plan of working and paying off our debt and, you know, potentially for me going back to school and continuing in the military. That was our plan. And then waiting for him to

to, you know, get back and the deployments to settle to start our family. So, you know, very shortly after we were married, Scotty did receive orders to deploy to Mosul, Iraq. And at that time, you know, these were like, you know, year long, 18, we were prepared for 18 month deployment.

And there's, you know, nothing really prepares you for that. I didn't grow up in a military family. I mean, I'm just a farm girl. I didn't have any military experience. And in some ways I felt a little, you know, like, wait a minute, we just got married. This is supposed to be, you know, the honeymoon, the first year of bliss.

And we found ourselves in front of a lawyer, you know, executing our wills, which was really strange as a, you know, 22 year old newlywed. I was, you know, getting power of attorney in case something happened to Scotty or in case he was killed.

Um, so it's, it's a rude awakening in the military. I mean, you don't, it kind of confronts you right in the face and, and I'll never forget the day that he left, you know, they load them up on white buses. It was a beautiful Pacific Northwest day. Mount Rainier was, you know, the backdrop, huge mountain in the background. And I looked into his blue eyes and with tears in both of our eyes, you, you, you say goodbye and you don't know, you really don't.

Of course, you know, you pray and you trust that that God has, you know, your loved ones in safety and will take care of them. And that was our prayer every single day. But you know that there is a lot of unknown. And so he loaded the bus that day.

October day and headed out to an almost 18 month deployment. Well, then tell us what happened. You know, what's happened to you and it's happened to lots of others, unfortunately. And but it also can be inspirational. But tell us what happened. Yes. So, you know, that was 2004, 2005 was some of the heaviest fighting our nation faced. And

You know, I'll never forget coming home from a nursing shift. So I just went to work helping my neighbors and taking on as many nursing shifts as I as I could, working as much as I could. And I'll never forget coming home and turning on the news, turning on Fox News, actually. And right in front of me was Scotty Geraldo. Rivera was embedded with his platoon during the first Iraqi elections.

And it was surreal to come home and see your husband on television fighting a war a million miles away. Bombs were going off. Scotty was yelling at his men. I hadn't talked to him in weeks. It just it made it really real.

And not only that, they experienced, you know, we Scotty lost his company commander. My dear friend lost her husband, Captain Bill Jacobson, Jr. And the Mosul mess hall bombing, along with thousands of other or hundreds of others. So it was a it was a hard deployment, very difficult. And we were just praying and wanting Scotty to get back and get back safely. And on April 6th of 2005,

all of that changed. I was awoken out of bed by a phone call. Um, and I was, you know, excited because Scotty would call it all different hours, all different times. You just never knew when, you know, when they would call, I always, my phone and my scrub pocket. And when,

go in the mechanical room or the supply room and answer his phone calls, any opportunity I had. And so I excitedly answered the phone, but instead it was someone else's voice on the other end of the line and delivered, you know, the heartbreaking news really delivered the news that forever changed our lives and changed the trajectory of our future. Scotty's commanding general or commanding officer said, Tiffany, I'm so sorry.

Scotty has come face to face with a suicide car bomb. One thing we are certain of is that he will never see again. The shrapnel ripped through both of his eyes, completely blinding him, obliterating both of his eyes.

He said the second thing we're not sure of is if he will survive. He's lost a lot of blood. He's flatlined several times. We just loaded him on a Black Hawk helicopter. He's on his way to Balad, Iraq, to the combat support hospital. And hopefully someone calls you from there. That was the day our American dream blew up into a million pieces.

That was the day that changed everything for Scotty, for me, for our family. But, you know, like you mentioned, Jason, it was also the opportunity to make a choice.

What were we going to do with this and how would we handle it? I made two decisions that day. I resigned from my nursing job and I bought a one way ticket out to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. I was going to be there when Scotty arrived at Andrews Air Force Base. I didn't know if I would greet him dead or alive, but I was going to be there.

So at 23 years old, I walked into Scotty's trauma care unit where he had tubes coming out of every orifice of his body. He had bandages all over his head and eyes. Nurses and doctors were frantically running around. He was in a coma. He was hardly recognizable. He's all puffed up from the fluid and all the medication they were pumping into him.

And I walked in with student loan debt, car payment, and I just quit my job. And my husband was completely blind, paralyzed on the right side of his body and in a coma. That was the hardest day of my life.

There was, you know, no one standing outside our door saying, here's the path or here's a check or you're going to be OK. You know, Scotty's, you know, going to be able to live a free, full life. It was it was scary. And I wondered, you know, is that American? Is the American dream real? And is it real for two broken, you know, 24 and 23 year olds who just thought they were getting their their feet under them?

Is this country, you know, everything you learn about everything I learned growing up and and read? Is this it's sort of where the rubber meets the road. Is this real? And that's the challenge that was ahead of us.

Next, I dialed up Fox News contributor and co-host of the Tyrus and Timp podcast. Tyrus, wildly successful book. Great guy. I got to know him along the way there being at Fox. You've seen him on Gutfeld. You've seen him on The Five. You've seen him on all kinds of stuff. He's really got one of the most inspirational, neat stories. Pulling himself up by the bootstraps.

Big guy, big into wrestling, but you know, it has a big heart and has learned some tough lessons in a very tough way and had one of the most inspirational stories. So I have a little conversation here. I have a little listen, I should say with the conversation I had with Tyrus. Go back to the Foster family. Um, you know,

I just find these people to be saintly. The people that will step up and say, hey, we'll take this whatever situation on. We're going to help raise this child. Was it that kind of household that you hope it is where, hey, look, they're just doing everything they can to uptake terror of this child? Or was it like more of a horror story like, I cannot wait to get out of here? No. Well, it was a horror story, but it was a horror story for them in the beginning.

I was damaged goods, to say the least. My father would—he was very violent, and he had passed the savings down to me. So one of the sick things he used to do is—I don't know if you remember those playpens, those old giant playpens? Yeah. Him and his buddies would put their kids in the playpens and bet on fighting. Oh, man. And I typically won, but I had been in a lot of fights, and I was very aggressive.

And I was very angry. I was very protective of my mother. So when they took, they kind of tricked me, they took me on a trip. Um, and, um, I went to the, I went to the house of my foster parents and, um, I walked in and they, it was, they were, they were a nice family. I was like, Hey, how are you? They were so nice to me. I kind of felt something was up cause they were like too nice. You know what I'm saying? Like I just met you and like, they're like telling me how nice my hair is and like,

how tall and strong and handsome I am. I'm like, yeah, that's great. Nice to meet you too. And then they said they had toys down in the basement. So I went down in the basement and they had two, actually they had three kids of their own who were older. I think the youngest one was like 15. She was their daughter. And then one of their sons was getting ready to go to West Point on a hockey scholarship. And the other one wanted to be an actor. You know, it's always one in the family, right? And I went down into the basement and

And they had an Incredible Hulk toy. And I was like, oh, Incredible Hulk. And as I went to pick it up and look it up, the door closed behind me. And I was like, huh? And the kids were sitting there. And about 20 minutes went by. And then the door opened up. And I came up. And I'm like, where's my mom? And they said, you're going to stay with us for a while. And I was like, what?

no, I'm not like, I'm, I'm leaving my mom. I got to go to my mom. And so they had to deal with an extremely angry child for a long time. And it was, I talk about a little bit in my, in my book that's coming out in April 26, they were trying to basically civilize for lack of a better word, a caged animal. Like I was aggressive. Uh, I had a mouth like a sailor.

They were very, they were, they were Italian, very religious family, family values. You know, the, the husband, he worked two jobs. He was a Navy man. He drove a truck for Coca-Cola. He cut hair on a weekend in a barbershop. I mean, he was a man's man. And she was, not only did she take care of her own kids, she ran a daycare during the week for enlisted families who would go overseas and would go on trips. So they would have kids there.

sometimes staying for like months at a time. So it was a kid utopia. It's just that I was just a monster and angry. And, you know, I couldn't understand the color of my skin was the reason why I wasn't with my mother. So I did a lot of self-harm, you know, with the Brillo pads and stuff, trying to change my skin color so I could get home. It was a lot. They had to deal with a lot. Bedwetting, nightmares, night terrors. I mean, they they any any normal family probably would have tapped out.

But, you know, she rolled up her sleeves and even in her own peril, they used to dress me up. And this is something that I to this day, I always thought was I think back of it and I just smile. They would dress me up.

in these corduroy day suits to send me to school, the thinking was if they dressed me up like a little gentleman, I might act like one and not be a savage at recess and get in fights all the time. So they would dress me up, and I had this one suit, this corduroy maroon suit. I mean, this thing was – I mean, I was amazingly proud. And I had a clip-on tie that went with it, and I was –

I was looking the part. Now, back then, they didn't know what to do with my hair. So they kind of cut it in a bowl. You know, they just kind of like put it all around because I had that good hair. And if one drop of water got on it, it got all curly. So they really didn't know what to do with my hair. So she did the best she could. She didn't have training with it, but she did the best she could. But I looked debonair walking out to kindergarten and to get on the bus and

But this suit, there was one rule. Like if I got into a fight or I rough house at school, if I got a grass stain on my corduroy suit, I get a spanking. And she was about four, ten, nine on a good day. She was small. But in the house next to the Bible, they had two things. It was a spatula that was not used for food.

and a stick with holes in it and a religious quote, don't spare the rod, spare the rod, not the child or something like that. And we all understood what those things meant. When they walked to the fireplace, that was your ass, basically, literally. You were getting a whooping. And so that was the deal. If I got grass stains on my suits, I got a spanking.

And I was having a good day. I wasn't even fighting or anything. I was just having fun. And next thing I know, I think I slid on the ground or something. And I was sitting on the bus on the way home and my friends were

looked at me and they were like, Ooh. And I looked down, I had this huge grass stain on my knee. And I was like, quote, man, F bomb on the bus. I was seven years old, horrible mouth. I'm just telling you horrible mouth. Like I, there was a Richard Pryor cassette tape in my house. And I think I had it memorized by the time I was six. So the plan was I'd get home,

change my clothes, put my play clothes on because those are the rules and stuff them in the bottom of the hamper. And that would give me time, at least for the day. So I can go out and play and not be bothered with this spanking thing. I didn't have no time for that. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more right after this.

from the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Janice Dean, Fox News Senior Meteorologist. Be sure to subscribe to the Janice Dean Podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to spread the sunshine.

Now, this next conversation was a real treat. I got to speak with the one, the only, Kathy Lee Gifford. Now, Kathy Lee's been in our homes and an American icon for a long, long time. And she and I had a fascinating discussion. So there's a lot of pressure in the world, particularly for this younger generation. They probably said that about...

previous generations and whatnot, but there's a lot of pressure. I'm sure you had a lot of pressure being in the world of entertainment and everything you were doing and singing and acting and being on television. You're not supposed to talk about religion. You're not supposed to acknowledge Jesus Christ. What,

Kathy, that's just not what we do around here. And some of these kids grow up in an atmosphere where how dare you talk about that at school? This is a portion of your life. You can't do any sort of acknowledgement or you're just- - Canceled. - Yeah, you're canceled. - Well, Jesus never canceled anybody.

And I knew as a child, a very young child, and especially once I was 12, that God was going to use whatever gifts he gave me in my mother's womb. Long before I was born, I was in that secret place where David in the Psalms talks about how wondrously we are formed in our mother's wombs. That's all supposed to be for God's glory. And God gave me a boldness.

I was kicked out of high school for, I mean, out of a Sunday school for telling my Sunday school teacher that she got something wrong in the Bible. And, and she said, what? It says it right here. I said, I know, but my Jesus wouldn't say that. And years later, studying rabbinically, I realized I was right. My childlike faith knew that Jesus would not curse the fig tree.

He didn't curse the fig tree. The fig tree in first century A.D. meant something to the people that were around. And they would know what Jesus was doing when he actually said, you know, a curse on the tree. The fig tree represented the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And Jesus was cursing them for not feeding God's people.

You see, that's how easily we get confused about things. So as I was growing up, I knew that I was supposed to give a faithful accounting of why I am joyful, why I believe what I believe, why I walk like I walk. And you mentioned the word religion earlier. I don't like religion, Jason. I just don't. I see all the ways it's been used through the centuries and the millennium.

millennia to tear apart and to confuse and to break down and go to war and make husbands stay in bad marriages because of a certain scripture that says this, when it doesn't say that at all in reality. People have used religion, and we're still doing it today for all kinds of evil. Jesus didn't teach us. His religion, if you want to call it that in quotes,

I have come to love you so you will love others." And he was all about love and the judgment is left up to him and to his Father, the Almighty God. And we have taken it upon ourselves to become judge and jury over people. And that's what my new book is about. It's called "The Jesus I Know." And it's over 20, I don't know, how many interviews are in it, Chrissy? Twenty-five, I think.

25 interviews where I interview people from every walk of life that are friends of mine, but completely different from me. You know, I, and I'm fascinated by people. I want to love them like Jesus does, even though they don't maybe believe like I believe or worship like I do. Everyone is a child of God. I do believe that.

And if I love them, there's a better chance of them coming into the kingdom of God in a deeper understanding way than if I tell them that they're going to go to hell because they don't believe the way I believe.

I just don't have the right to do that, nor do I want to live my life like that or be around, frankly, people that do. And Jesus felt that way. He was very comfortable around the money changers and the prostitutes. He saw people for exactly what they are, and he loved them anyway. The other day I felt the Lord say so strongly to me, Kathy, when you meet someone, love them.

and then continue to love them until you no longer recognize the person they once were. And I thought, Oh, wow. Wow. So what do you say to the young person or maybe older too? It doesn't have to be young who struggles with that because they want acceptance. They want, they want to be liked immediately. They want to be brought into a group who maybe are doing some things that they know in their heart aren't right. Yeah.

It's hard. You have to make a you've got to take a stand. And that, again, is a muscle that you that you start to you realize, like when I was on television and I would I never sat down thinking, all right, today, today I'm going to tell people about Jesus. No, I, you know, I don't believe in religion. I believe in relationship with the living God. So whenever a situation would come up, I I would just naturally say a scripture and I or I would just naturally use humor.

And or but but I would speak the truth. Here's the key. Speak the truth. The Bible says in a spirit of love, be gentle and humble in all things.

And your message will be clear. And you may not say the name Jesus and you may not say, you know, some of the things. But, you know, it's your it's the way you treat people that really represents the gospel. I don't I don't know who it was. I think it might have been St. Augustine or someone like that who said, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words. In other words, love people like Jesus did. And they're going to be drawn to you.

They're going to be drawn to you, even if you don't want to share your faith yet. Say there's a there's a you're in the cafeteria and there's one little kid that nobody sits with. There's one little kid that people make fun of. Be that person. If you're a follower of Jesus, even if you're eight years old, be that person would go over there and say, hi, I'm Cassidy. What's your name?

And all of a sudden you're sharing the love of God with that person. He said, do you want to have lunch? Or do you want to this? Be that person who goes out of your way, even just to smile at them. That's being a follower of Jesus. That's what he would do.

It starts that way. Yeah. Do you get the inspiration? And everybody is different. And I think in many ways, every day is a little different. Is it the power of prayer? Is it reading the scriptures? How does it work for you? And I don't know if there's examples from the book.

where people gather their inspiration to get buoyed up and recharge their batteries, so to speak. Well, I've written so many books, I've lost track. I think this is my 27th book. So, of course, all along the way, I've talked about my journey in faith and shared that I get up very, very early in the morning and have for decades. And the Bible says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

and everything else will be added unto you. He's supposed to be the first thing we think about in the morning. And if we take our concerns and our needs and our broken hearts and our dreams to Him, first thing in the day, and give them to Him in prayer and in rejoicing and in praise and thanksgiving, He hears our prayers.

He just does. And it lightens your load and it raises your spirits and allows you to go about your day with the sort of an inner knowing that God and I have got this. Jesus and I have got this.

And you're not alone. You're not going to try to pass that test on your own. Just start talking to him and not in fancy prayers. Just say, Jesus, help me or Holy Spirit, lead me or God, I'm scared. I'm scared. Take my hand. Just easy prayers. It starts easy.

Then we dialed up a friend of mine from New Hampshire. He's the governor of New Hampshire. His name is Chris Sununu. Super likable guy. It's hard not to just smile and like this guy. He won again. He ran for governor. In New Hampshire, they do things a little bit different. I think governors are only two-year stints. They don't go for four years. But he won by huge margins, wildly popular, and there's a reason why. And I think he works hard. He works smart.

He's got a wonderful family. He cares about the people there in New Hampshire. And that's why I think he'll more and more and more be a national presence. But I think a little reflection on the conversation I had with Chris Sununu would be in order. Have a listen.

Early on in your life, what did you think for what was first perception of what does dad do for a living? Because to try to explain politics to maybe somebody who's like six or seven and then as they grow into it, yes. OK, it makes more and more sense. But what did you think dad was doing?

So a couple of things. I got it. Well, I was in second grade when he first got elected. I was, I think, eight years old and he had three terms, which in New Hampshire means six years because we have two year terms. So basically, I went to elementary school through those years. I knew he was governor. He was head of the state, a state that, you know, my parents, they just love New Hampshire. I mean, my dad just so loved it. He grew up.

My dad grew up in a pretty much a Spanish speaking household in Queens, New York. Right. And so, you know, when he came to Boston, he was a professor at the time at Tufts University. He was a teacher. He was an engineer.

And and then I knew he had run for office for things here and there. So I'd always grown up with him running for local office or the state house or something like that. And then when he finally becomes governor, it's I knew what it was and I got it. But it was still New Hampshire. Like he still came home every night. That's the one of the best parts about being a governor is you get to be really influential and make a lot of impact with real tough decisions. But for the most part, you come home every night. And so in that respect, it wasn't very different. Here's one for you.

Our address and phone number were in the phone book. The governor's address. We didn't live in a governor's mansion. We lived in the same house we had always grown up in. That's just the way we roll here. So my address and phone number were in the phone book. Anyone in the state could have, and sometimes did pick up the phone and just call, just call the house. And when you have eight kids, my dad was like,

Fer, get the phone. Elizabeth, get the phone. Kathy, get the phone. He wasn't getting the phone, but one of us would. And sometimes he'd get some pretty interesting characters on the other end of that line, but it was cool. That's just the way we rolled. My parents were really, they

they love part of what they loved about new hampshire is that even in the role as your dad as governor they tried every which way to keep it super super normal and so in that respect it wasn't that big of a deal to be honest i mean i think he did a great job in his six years now that was also before social media right before the polarization of politics

everybody really, for the most part, got along. New Hampshire was more of a red state at the time. We're more purple now. We're not blue by any means, but we're more purple now. And so it was more Republican. So, you know, some of his toughest battles were with fellow Republicans. I never worried about him not winning reelection. We never really had that thought in our heads, although I suppose it could have happened. But

yeah so we they tried to keep it really really normal so as you're going along anybody who wants to become the president of the united states heads to new hampshire i mean you got that first the first primary there you must have been meeting quite the collection of people did you did fur understand i'm talking about you third person here but did fur really understand like who is coming to dinner i knew your dad was hanging out with and i mean did that like register at all that

Wow. Every named politician in Republican politics was cozying up to your dad?

Yeah, sort of. And that hit home in 88, uh, because in 84 Reagan was president, right? So he, and Reagan had come, that was a huge deal when Ronald Reagan came to the state in 1984. And, you know, he kind of made a stop off and we're, you know, here at the state house. Actually, I met Ronald Reagan literally five feet from where I'm sitting right now, which is really bizarre. I was, uh, I think in the, like the fourth grade at the time, but, um, then 88 comes and my dad really believed in George H.W. Bush. I mean, he just, he

He just believed in him very strongly. So normally a governor of New Hampshire wouldn't get involved in the primary and wouldn't endorse. But my dad said, I believe in him. I mean, and I stand by my principles and maybe he win, maybe he won't, but I'm going to work hard for him. And he did. And so I can't remember how many, you know, if he would, I'm sure he's meeting folks, but it was more at the state house. They weren't necessarily coming to dinner or anything.

But I know at the early kind of mid 87 into 88, spent a lot of time with with the Bush 41. And he was just a phenomenal guy, by the way. I mean, you just I mean, you know, I mean, you just want to talk about a stand up guy that wants to make the sacrifices and do right by his country. I mean, he was it. He was just a true American hero, by the way.

Anyway, so that's really was the kind of the first in the nation memory for us. But obviously, just a lot of action and a lot of intensity. And because my dad had endorsed him in 88, he was right on the front lines. And after he lost Iowa, my dad tells I won't I don't want to take my dad's story per se, but he does tell a great story flying back.

from Iowa to New Hampshire after Bush 41 had lost and everyone's kind of dour and what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And my dad's like, don't worry, we got this. Trust me, we got this. And everything turned around in those two weeks and Bush ends up winning here pretty strong, you know, going from

you know, third or fourth in the polls to winning it in the last couple of weeks and, you know, pulling a few tricks out of the hat. And that just launched him, obviously. And next thing you know, he's president of the United States. So, yeah, it was a little different now as governor. I mean, I think especially this time around in 16, I was running kind of side by side, if you will. I don't want to say side by side with President Trump, but, you know, we're all running together on the same ticket. And and so we saw a lot of candidates come through in 16. We saw a lot of Democrat candidates come through in 20.

And then I think it's going to be an absolute free-for-all in 24. So I'm really getting a front row seat this time. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more right after this.

This past summer, I had the pleasure of dialing up a Fox News contributor and host of the Proud American podcast, a former Marine bomb technician, Joey Jones. You've seen him all over the Fox News network. Inspirational story, just on his own and just a wonderful, great human being, Joey Jones.

Tell us about you were dealing with improvised explosive devices as I read, right? I mean, yeah, that that there are a lot of different jobs in the Marines. Why that one? And how did you get into that position? So I was, you know, I told you nobody in my family was in the server. I had a couple of uncles and great uncles, which because the way things worked out, they were the same age. They were all about 10 years older than my parents.

I had a couple uncles and great uncles that were drafted into Vietnam. Two of them are essentially war heroes. The other two went AWOL. That just kind of tells you where I was on it. And so I just didn't have any influence. My understanding of the Marine Corps was the movie Full Metal Jacket. And if you watch that movie, the most bad A character in that movie was Combat Camera.

So in my mind, no matter what job you do, you ended up with a rifle in your hand on patrol. That's just what I knew about the Marine Corps. And I told you I could ace test like nobody's business. I was just very good at that. So when I went down and took the ASVAB, all my scores were off the charts.

Which meant the recruiter couldn't in good conscience let me have the job I wanted, which was infantry. Because not everybody, anybody can qualify for infantry through the ASVAB, but not everybody can qualify for these other jobs. And those recruiters get their own kind of accolades based on filling these other jobs. Right.

So he pushed me towards and pushed me towards other kind of nerdier jobs. And I landed on something called Communications Electronics Repairman, which meant that literally back in those days, I mean, this was 20 years ago now, you take apart radios and you fix the circuit cards inside of them so that you can keep using them. Because that was back when we were a little bit fiscally responsible and wouldn't just buy 10 new ones just like it, you know. And so I went to school for that. And I realized as I went to school that,

for this and went to the unit that was in Hawaii, that decision had gotten me further and further away from what I wanted to do, which was go to war and be that version of a Marine. So then I got a really good piece of advice. One thing the Marine Corps does different than all of the services

is that your competency within your job field is only a fraction of how they qualify you for promotion. And the quicker you're promoted, the sooner you get to make decisions for yourself. So I told, hey, PT really hard and be the best physical fitness. Then go out and volunteer for everything, which gets you good productivity and conduct remarks.

And if you do those things, then it doesn't matter if you are the best radio repairman or pass all the extra tests involved with that because they'll let you decide what you want to do. And so that's what I did. And when I got to Hawaii, they had more radio repairmen than they needed, and they always needed somebody to go volunteer for some other duty. And that was me. I was on the USS Rushmore flipping pancakes and scrubbing pans. I went on.

to coach this course, and I went to the range and was coaching Marines as they qualify on the ROFL range every week. I went to heavy machine gunners course. I did everything they asked me to do, and I eventually wound up in Iraq with a unit out of Okinawa. So, I mean, I was really, really playing the game of trying to find opportunity here. I ended up in Iraq as mounted security, and we did mounted security for EOD, right?

for the bomb techs. And so our job was when there was an IED in Iraq, it worked a little bit different in Afghanistan, and Iraq, it was a response situation, kind of like a fire department.

And so if there was an EOD, a unit found an IED, they needed EOD out there, IED being a roadside bomb, EOD being bomb techs. If they found a roadside bomb and they needed the bomb techs out there, they would call and my group would escort EOD out to where the bomb was. And as I learned about it, I learned some things about the Marine Corps bomb tech field that are different than all the other services.

First of all being that you could not enlist off the street to be a bomb tech. You can in the other three services, not the Marine Corps. You have to be a sergeant. You have to be 21 years old, and you have to have been in for two years. And so I had a new goal in front of me. Hey, eight more months, I'll be in for two years. Hopefully I'll get promoted around that time. I'm 19 1⁄2, so a year and a half, I'll be 21. As long as I'm 21 by the time I graduate school, which is a year long, so I start doing the math. And I laterally moved into being a bomb tech while I was in Iraq.

And when I came back, I'd done half a deployment as on-the-job training, went to school in Florida. And when I graduated, they sent me to a unit on the West Coast again in Camp Pendleton, California, and started my full-time job as a bomb tech in preparation for what would be the deadliest deployment for our field in the two wars in Afghanistan.

And the next guest is just truly a delight. One of the most lovely people you could ever interact with. As nice and energetic as you see on the air, she's exactly that way off the air. She is the one and only host of the Fox News Sunday program. But she's also, she has a podcast called Livin' the Bream.

Shannon Bream and our discussion. We had a really good discussion. I hope you enjoy this. Fast forwarding a little bit. I'm going to go back, but you know, you're at Fox and you're moving along in your career and then you were having some challenges. Yeah. And, and again, I think that it's going to come into everybody's life at some point, whether it's you or someone that you love, that you're going to have these curve balls that are very difficult. I mean, for me personally,

It just started out with waking up in the middle of the night, just having excruciating pain in one of my eyes. Couldn't figure out how I injured myself overnight, but nothing that I tried touched the pain at all. And it was, you know, 10 out of 10.

And it took several hours, you know, for the swelling and the and the tearing up and the pain to kind of die down. And then it was time to get up and go to work. And I thought, well, gosh, that was crazy. Didn't think much about it until it happened again. And then I went to my eye doctor and, you know, he wasn't able to diagnose exactly what was going on, but was very kind and said, you know, clearly there's trouble here. Let's get you to a specialist.

So months into this, I'm working with a specialist and it's now becoming both eyes and it's happening almost every night. And it's affecting my ability to see and to, you know, triggering migraines for me on a regular basis. And like you said, a lot of people would have had no idea about this. The problem was, you know, when you're struggling and you're trying to get a diagnosis and you don't have one and you have no idea what's wrong with you.

I made the mistake of expending a lot of energy pretending like everything was okay. I didn't share with my bosses or coworkers, even my family. I mean, Sheldon was living through it with me. So he's really the only person who knew. And, you know, I wasn't getting any better and I was getting worse and I was exhausted all the time, which obviously exacerbates your mental health and everything else when you're really struggling physically. Right.

And I was just living in chronic pain. And I felt like my life was just hitting a dead end. Like, what is the purpose of living in this amount of pain every single day of my life? And the specialist I'd been seeing, I finally went back to him and leveled like, dude, I am getting worse and worse and worse. Like not only physically, but mentally as well. I'm really struggling. And he said to me, you're not sleeping. Right. Which, which makes everything, you know, exacerbates everything.

And so I went back to him and kind of leveled with him and he said, you know, you seem very emotional. It's like, dude, I'm here hanging by a thread. I'm definitely emotional. I mean, I always describe it as I, I went to him looking for like a life vest and he threw me an anchor. I mean, I was sinking and,

And I left there and that was several months or a year into the situation. And I was so devastated. I was like, I'm not going to doctors anymore. I can't, this is not helping me. Plus he's making me think I'm crazy. And I just got to a really dark place. And I I've shared with people that I, you know, in searching online for some kind of answers, which I really don't recommend, it's tempting to do when you don't have a diagnosis and you're really struggling, but it's,

you know, there's no good news out there, but I did find these chat boards where people and message boards were talking about the symptoms that they had. And I was like, okay, this is it. What is this called? This is the same thing that I've got.

And, you know, I saw people talking about being turned away from emergency rooms and people telling them they were nuts and, you know, people talking about ending their lives. And I, that did not strike me as crazy. Like with all of everything else I'd been going through, you know, almost two years into this, I thought, gosh, that sounds like a relief and God will forgive me. He knows better than anybody how much I'm struggling every minute of the day. And, you know, I entertained those thoughts and I thought, okay,

You know, there was enough, I think of the Holy spirit working on me like, no, no, no, this is not the right choice. You would devastate your family. People are not going to understand. They don't even know how sick you are.

And I went leveled with Sheldon about it and just said, like, I, this is how bad things are for me right now. And, you know, no condemnation, but just total recommitment to like, we're going to travel the world. We're going to find you the right doctor. We're going to do whatever we have to do. And we prayed. And I said, Lord, you know, if you're not going to heal me, because sometimes that's not his decision or his way or his path, please just send me someone who can help me through this.

And within a couple of days, I'd gotten in on a cancellation of this amazing cornea specialist here in Washington. And by the time I saw him and, you know, his physician's assistant, they're so great. They come in, they work you up before they come in. The doctor does. And so he'd written everything up on my chart. And I heard the doctor pick up the chart outside the room and he came in and without even examining me, he said, I know what you have.

And I, for the first time in two years, had this like little bubble of hope, like, oh my goodness, I'm going to finally have a name. And is there a way to heal this and what's going to happen? And we went through, he said, let me examine you. He was exactly right. He, you know, diagnosed me with this genetic cornea condition that the other doctors for whatever reason had missed.

And he explained what was happening was essentially the cells on my eyeball, instead of rooting back in and holding your eye together, my cornea, I've got a genetic condition where the cells want to pull off. So what I was doing was tearing my corneas over and over and over and over again, just nonstop. And they were never healing. There were fresh tears all the time, which is why I was in just excruciating pain all the time.

So it was like a light bulb went off. Like I felt like this is my answer to prayer. This guy is going to help me. But at the very end of the appointment, he said to me, there's something you need to know that we don't have a cure for this. And I was devastated. I mean, I just fell apart. I couldn't get out of that office quickly enough because I sat in my car crying like, Lord, how could you bring me this far and bring me to this doctor? And this cannot be my life, like to live in this level of pain and just despair all the time.

And, you know, I know a lot of people who listen to you are not going to be people of faith. That's not, you know, their universe or where they come from. So I don't know how to explain this other than I didn't audibly hear God say something, but I felt him speaking to me in my spirit saying to me, I will be with you. Just that sentence. I will be with you. Not that I'm going to cure you. This is all going to go away. I'm going to give you a miracle because I do believe he can do that.

but I'm going to be with you. And he has been faithful to walk through this with me. And my doctor has been amazing. He treated me for several years. Finally, we did this surgery. That's the closest thing they have to a cure. It doesn't work for everybody, but my case has been pretty darn good.

And I just saw him yesterday for a checkup, which was great, except for the fact that he announced he's retiring. And I told him, I said, you really are an answer to prayer. I know I say these things, but I need you to know that, that, you know, God sent you to me and you basically saved my life. So again, everybody will walk through those things. And I'm just grateful that there's something much bigger that I can rely on in my heavenly father.

Yeah, you know, the hardships that people go through. We've talked a little bit about, you know, our son-in-law had this accident just less than a year ago and had a spinal cord injury jumping in our pool. And we thought maybe he was going to be, you know, fully paralyzed. And fortunately, he's not. He's on that road to recovery and improving a lot. But our daughter...

Our daughter talks about this, about how she initially was telling her husband, who couldn't move anything other than talk, you know, kind of from the neck down, couldn't move a thing. And, you know, she initially was saying, it's going to be all right. We're going to take care of you. You know, you're going to get better, which transitioned. She

she transitioned. She was smart enough and insightful enough and I think prayerful enough to say, I'll be with you. It's a subtle little thing like, don't worry, I will always be here with you. And I think if you have that type of relationship with a spouse and for me personally, also with

our Savior Jesus Christ, I think that you can have that comfort even though you're going to go through some really, really difficult long periods of time. But that little difference that she talks about, I think,

was a very interesting way of looking that you don't want to ever see your kids suffer and going through hard times. You just want to make everything right and you just want to make it better. But sometimes those things are outside of your control and outside of your ability to actually solve them

like i'm a fixer i just want to solve things right and um but i think her approach of saying look i will always be with you i'm right here with you and we'll we'll go through this together makes all the difference it's just it's such a good message now we had called some remarkable guests in 2022 and i can't wait to see who'll be so gracious with their time and pick up the phone in 2023 i really

If you'd like to listen to the full podcast of any of these guests that we had on, you can go to foxnewspodcast.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Be sure to rate the podcast. We need you to rate the podcast. That would be really helpful, too. 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.

And I just thank you all for tuning in over the last, it's hard to believe, over the past year. And I truly appreciate you listening every week. I wish you all the best and an extraordinarily good and prosperous Happy New Year. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House.

From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com.