cover of episode Joe Concha Is Not Holding Back

Joe Concha Is Not Holding Back

Publish Date: 2022/10/5
logo of podcast Jason in the House

Jason in the House

Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

Over 25 years ago, on September 29th, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew all the way to college. And so began Felicity. My name is Juliette Littman, and I'm a Felicity superfan.

Join me, Amanda Foreman, who you may know better as Megan, the roommate, and Greg Grunberg, who you may also know as Sean Blumberg, as the three of us revisit our favorite moments from the show and talk to the people who helped shape it. Listen to Dear Felicity on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and thanks for joining us this week. We've got somebody you've seen on the air, Joe Concha. He's going to come join us. We're going to talk a little bit about his book,

Come on, man. And a little bit of a discussion about Joe Biden and what he's written about there, but also a little bit more about Joe's background. You know, he's one of the up-and-coming and best personalities that we have at Fox News and a really interesting guy. But I don't know enough about his background, how he got to –

to Fox and his life story and everything else. So we're going to get into that. A few thoughts on the news. We're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, as we say, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. So there's no lack of material there. And then, like I said, have the conversation with Joe Conta. All right. So a few things about the news. And some of this happened over the last few weeks here. But I hope people understand the gravity of what's going on with fentanyl.

In Phoenix, just like two weeks ago, two people, just two people were arrested with more than one million pills. Now, that is a concerted effort. That is no, hey, I've got some fentanyl and I'm going to mix it up in my garage. And these are just the ones that they caught. It is the leading cause of death.

For men, for young adults, if you will, and I call them young because I'm older now, 18 to 54, the number one cause of death. It's a stunning number, okay? It is an absolute stunning number. And there in Phoenix, good on the Phoenix Police Department,

The largest single fentanyl bust in the history with 1 million pills. This problem is getting bigger. It's not getting better. And with the wide open borders, it is a clear path to bring these types of deadly drugs into the United States of America. And it has to stop. All right. I got a highlight also in the news. It could be in the stupid, but it's to the point where it's...

So common and so weird and so bizarre. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when the crowd laughed when Joe Biden was addressing him? He sees somebody in the crowd and says, quote, we go back a long way. She was 12 and I was 30. But anyway, this woman helped me get an awful lot done anyway.

What is up with creepy Joe Biden? I mean, the way he sniffs the hair, touches these young women, and then just, oh, sees somebody in the crowd. Oh, yeah, fondly remembering. I was 30. She was 12. It's just very, very creepy. And it goes beyond just being stupid. It goes to flat out being concerning. I think this is, even after the Joe Biden presidency, I think there will be more and more of this that will pop up. It never got properly vetted. And it really is just flat out.

And then I also want to take a hats off to Elon Musk. He confirmed recently that he was making his Starlink video

available in Iran. Now, if you haven't been following what's going on in Iran, there have been a lot of uprisings. I think there is a new generation there in Iran that wants more freedom. They want more prosperity. They want more autonomy. And their ability to communicate has been suppressed by their government for a long time. But Elon Musk, what he's able to do with satellites and whatnot is to go around the traditional cable, if you will,

uh, access to the internet and allow this star link so that people in these communities can have access to the internet, have access to the internet that doesn't run through the Iranian government. Guess what? You can then communicate. And that hats off again to Elon Musk. He was doing this in Ukraine. So the Ukrainians could communicate. Now he's doing an Iran. This is all coming out of his own pocket. Um,

Yeah, yeah, you could say he has deep pockets and, you know, the richest guy in the world and everything. But it's one thing to have that. It's another thing to be deploying it and doing it in such a way that it really does make the world a better place. And so hats off, A, for developing the technology, having the foresight to develop the technology and then to deploy it. Can't thank Elon Musk enough. All right. On the other end of the spectrum, though,

It's time to bring on the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And for the first one, I got several today, but the first one I have to go to Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. Joe Biden declared that the COVID emergency, the pandemic was over.

There's scant evidence that it continues on. Got to worry about it. Got to pay attention to it. But there's lots of things that are concerning to the health and well-being of the United States of America and the American people. But she decided to extend proxy voting until after the election. What that means is essentially members of Congress in the House of Representatives. The Senate never did this, by the way.

The House of Representatives, you don't have to show up at your job. You can be wherever you want, vote however you want. Just get on the phone. Say, yeah, yes or no. That is so counter to how our representative government should be working. You need to be there. You need to be a part of the debate. You need to hear what's going on on the floor. You need to be able to have the discussions. You need to

to just vote from afar has always been fundamentally, totally wrong. Now, remember, she did force people to come to the floor of the house when they were voting for speaker because that is the way you have to do it there in the constitution. And, uh,

People who had COVID were brought onto the floor of the House behind some plexiglass to vote for the Speaker. Then she was totally fine. But now, nope, extending it to the election so people in tight races can continue to campaign without ever having to show back up in Washington, D.C. That's stupid, number one. Number two is this representative Cindy Axne. I don't know how you pronounce her name. She is a Democrat from Iowa.

And initially she claimed COVID-19 was the reason she could not attend an emergency August House vote in person.

Oh, whoops. Her son posted a picture on Instagram. Oh, Instagram getting in trouble. She later admitted it wasn't because of COVID-19 and that was the reason she couldn't attend the House August vote. No, she was on vacation in France. Didn't want to disrupt it. That is just flat out stupid. Again, I got to highlight number three, Joe Biden.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the same day last week made two major gaps. Now, you know, the hurricane was happening and that is absolutely news number one. Ian was just devastating Florida and South Carolina. I get that. That is the primary news and really does affect people's lives. But again, the frequency in which this happens is a little bit scary because Joe Biden was at a bill signing or a ceremony yesterday.

And he was speaking and he kept calling for Jackie Walorski. Now, Jackie Walorski is the member of Congress, the Republican from Indiana, who was killed in a car crash weeks and weeks and weeks ago. And her death is sad and went up. But he kept calling out her name as if she was in the audience. It was so embarrassing and just totally unaware. This happens the same time that Kamala Harris, our vice president, died.

Very scant, very little to none in terms of foreign policy experience. She was there on the DMZ, the demilitarized zone there between South Korea and North Korea. And what does she do? She talks about our strong alliance with the Republic of North Korea without even hesitating.

It's just, again, the awareness and everybody makes a mistake. Okay, I get that. And they'll make two or three mistakes. But the frequency in which these people make major mistakes is stunning. And she's reading this material. She's looking at her notes if you watch the video and then she looks up and she's talking about our strong alliance with the Republic of North Korea. Yeah.

Way to represent the USA there, Ms. Madam Vice President. And that is the stupid. All right. Now it's time to make a little bit of a transition because we want to call up Joe Concha. He's got a book out. It's called Come On, Man. The Truth About Joe Biden's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Presidency.

um i've got it it's right here in front of me i haven't read it yet it's just finishing up jared kushner's breaking history but this looks like a great fun book and you go on the back cover it's uh chock full of great quotes from the president of the united states um and who better did to write that and do that is uh

is somebody you've seen frequently on Fox. So let's call Joe Concha and have a little discussion about his book and a little discussion about how Joe Concha got to where he is today. So let's dial up Joe.

Hi, this is Joe Concha. Who's calling? Joe, Jason Chaffetz. Chaffetz, you're in the house, literally in my house. What are you doing here? Hey, you look good. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it. Of course. We got to talk about a book apparently that I wrote. Yeah, congratulations. It's called Come On, Man. The truth about Joe Biden's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad presidency. And

But there's an awful lot of material here. I'm glad to see you capture it all on a piece of paper. Isn't it amazing? All the material that this president has given us, not just during this presidency, Jason, but throughout his entire life. And here I sit.

And I'm thinking, boy, I'm going to compete against a lot of people for this, a lot of eyeballs. I'm sure a lot of other journalists out there who always talk about speaking truth to power without fear or favor to party. They're probably going to be writing books as well. Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Karl, Jim Acosta. I'm in big trouble. How am I going to stand out from all these heavyweights? And then I looked at the literary schedule and apparently, Jason, there are 15 books coming out about the president, except his name isn't Biden. His name's Trump. And that's over the next five weeks.

I you are literally talking to the only author of a Biden book that has come out in the past eight months. I don't know how it happened, but it happened. You know, it really is the thing that's always been a mystery. It's where's the intellectual curiosity? Where where's the impartial person who says, you know, I'm going to dive into this no matter which party it is. I don't understand how they can look themselves in the mirror.

They can't, I think. I think it's at this point, it's okay, how do I make the most money? All right, I'll write about Trump, and I'll play to that unhinged crowd instead of talking about the guy in power, right? The guy that is transforming this country. I know there's some things that he couldn't pass, like federalizing voting laws, for example, but

boy, has he done a lot already, Jason, right? I mean, the trillions of dollars that are spent on top of the trillions we're already spending. And look at the result. 40 year high inflation. Why is Joe Biden doing this? Why are Democrats doing this? Because Joe Biden ain't no moderate. That's something you're going to learn. And come on, man, he was sold that way. But he's always been about big government. I mean, remember, he was the happiest guy on the planet when Obamacare passed. And he goes up to his boss,

Barack Obama says this is a big effing deal because he believed that. He believes government is always the solution instead of the problem. So then when he says, let's spend trillions of dollars and we're going to call it the Inflation Reduction Act, and that's going to lower inflation, which any kid with a, you

A lemonade stand knows that that's not how you lower inflation. But this is who this man is, a far left ideologue, no moderate and certainly not a unifier, Jason. So I agree with all of that. Now, on the back of the book, you've got all these great quotes from the president. And so is it just about the gaffes or how where else do you go in this book? Because.

The gaffes could fill a book just by themselves. But did you go into other aspects of his presidency? Let's read some of those quotes, shall we, for the folks at home? Yes, yes, yes. Here's one that was during the 2020 campaign. Quote, poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.

Oh, so there are no poor white kids that may not be getting a good education. No wonder why we're 25th in the world in education and reading and writing and science. While China's number one. But this one I like the most. If I had intended to cheat, would I have been so stupid? I value my word above all else.

else. Oh, no, you don't. Because when you ran for president in 1988, Joe Biden, you had to drop out because of ding, ding, ding plagiarism and not with a small fee, Jason. You remember this. He took who is it? A guy running for British prime minister against Margaret Thatcher. He literally took the speech word for word and tried to present it as his home. He drops out of that race. It's humiliating. And you would think that there's no way this guy could run again. I mean, that's

That's the type of thing you don't recover from. But sure enough, he ran again in 2008 and lost, didn't even get out of Iowa, basically. But then Barack Obama somehow wins the nomination. And as you'll see in the book, he comes down to a choice between Tim Kaine, who was Hillary's eventual running mate in 2016, or Joe Biden. Why those two guys? Because basically, you look at his LinkedIn page, Barack Obama, and it says community organizer and then senator for about five minutes. So he's like, oh, boy, I'm going against John McCain. I need somebody with foreign policy experience.

So for lack of a better idea, he chooses Joe Biden, who has been wrong about every foreign policy decision that he's ever made. That's not me saying that. That's Robert Gates, his former defense secretary, Obama, Biden. Right. And then you think, OK, well, he was a horrible vice president in the book as well. Jay, you're going to learn that in 2012.

Barack Obama seriously considered replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary Clinton because he always saw Hillary as his heir apparent. There's Hillary, Ivy League girl. I'm an Ivy League guy, Barack Obama's thinking. And oh, I'm the first black president and she could be the first female president. So it'll be an easy handoff. And then at the last second, they decided that it

She wouldn't give him really any electoral bump. And they were kind of leading comfortably anyway, so they didn't want to upset the apple cart. So that was the end of that. So then you think, OK, there's no way Joe Biden at his advanced age and basically failing upwards his entire life runs for president in 2020. But sure enough, he does. Democrats clear the decks for him to get the nomination. And then without that once in a century pandemic, he would have actually had to campaign. He would actually have to sell you on the fact that spending is good in his economic position.

policies are good against a Donald Trump with again, without COVID, we were at peace. We had prosperity. And when you have those two things as an incumbent, you're impossible to beat. But again, everything lined up for Biden. And here he is as our 46th president.

Yeah, no, it is kind of stunning because failing up, I think this is right. He just just keeps standing there. But any did he campaign right out of his bunker? I always thought it was a real shame that we didn't have that third debate where we are actually going to talk about foreign policy, because I thought it was one of the greatest strengths of Donald Trump's presidency and one of the greatest weaknesses of Biden. I could see why the Biden Democrats didn't.

Did not want to have them talking about foreign policy Remember what happened why we didn't have three debates, right? I mean then when we talked about this in the book in terms of media collusion We always heard about Russia collusion. No, it was media collusion the second debate. There was a guy from C-SPAN, right? Yeah, and and he accidentally thought he was sending a direct message to Anthony Scaramucci the mooch right who became very anti Trump and he asked Scaramucci and it's in writing what

do you think I should ask Trump? Now, what is a presidential debate moderator? Why is he going to a former aide? Remember, he's communication director for about 10 minutes. Scaramucci was. And then he's on CNN every day talking about how horrible Trump is after that. Why is he going to him? Why does he need questions written for him from somebody who is such a staunch opponent of the president? So then why?

that debate eventually gets canceled and they blame COVID for some reason, as if they couldn't separate them across like a stage or whatever. Right. But they cancel it because it was a complete embarrassment for the Commission on Presidential Debates that their guy was soliciting advice from somebody like Anthony Scaramucci. So we never got to see that second and third debate. And everybody seemed OK with this immediate. But really, who did it benefit?

Joe Biden, because, again, he would have to stand there and make an argument, not just Donald Trump is bad, vote for me. But what are you going to do to make the country better? They took that debate away and they robbed the American people of seeing Joe Biden in true form, which ain't good without a teleprompter.

That's right. And almost every aspect of what Donald Trump was doing from securing the border to what was going on with North Korea to tearing up the Iran deal to the Paris Climate Accord, those are things that we legitimately should have had a discussion about. There were fundamental differences, but...

You know, the Biden people are smart and they, they did these, uh, this puppeteers. They did not want to Joe uncle Joe to be out there answering questions, hunker down in the basement. And that was a strategy. And,

It should have never been allowed to do that. I see that playing out in governor's races. I like a Governor Hochul, right? In New York, Lee Zeldin wants to debate. She won't debate. Fetterman up in Pennsylvania, did want to debate, won't debate. So to have one debate weeks after the ballots are already out the box, it's just –

Patty Murray in Washington State. Why do all these Democrats not want to get out there in debate? They don't have a bumper sticker, right? The bumper stickers are right themselves sometimes, right? And then Ronald Reagan had a shining city on the hill. You're like, wow, that's optimistic. I kind of like it. Even Obama. Biden had a pretty good one. He got a mitt in 2012.

Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive. Okay, I can absorb that. I get it. I see what you're saying. Now, Democrats, you know, what's Gavin Newsom's bumper sticker? I'll do to America what I did to California. Yikes, right? And they can't run on, obviously, economy and inflation because the president's polling on disapproval in the 60s, even 70s on his handling of that. They can't run on crime, particularly somebody like Hochul here in New York, who supports cashless bail, allowing criminals...

again and again to go out and kill and hurt people and rob and so on. She can't possibly defend that on a debate stage, and that's why she's staying away from that. They can't defend the border, clearly, where, you know what, when you include the gotaways, the people that we're not even documenting, Jason, the number is going close to like 5 million people in two years. That's similar, actually, that's equivalent to the population of the entire country of Ireland. So think about that. A whole Ireland is going to be entering this country in two years, so they can't defend that. So a John Fetterman who co-hosted

clearly has health issues. My mom had a stroke, all right? I say this with sympathy or empathy, I should say. And she never quite recovered in terms of her speech or her cognitive abilities. I mean, she was like 80% mom, but again, you know, she worked part-time as a real estate agent. She's not going to be a senator for the next six years. It's a very important job. And if you can't debate...

your opponent, you're certainly not going to be able to debate on the Senate floor. And Federer now has a debate with just one, by the way, with Oz, Dr. Oz, October 27th. Oh, that's only five weeks after ballots are cast. They're running scared because they can't run on the issues, Jason. I know. I know. It's so fundamentally wrong. I hope they figure that out. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Joe Concha right after this.

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.

Hey, I want to talk a little bit about Joe Concha growing up and how you got to the spot that you are. So let's spend a little bit of time on that. Where were you born? What was home like? What was brothers, sisters, dogs, cats? What was life like for young Joe? I get that sometimes. Where were you born? I can't pick up your accent.

And well, I've cheated. I have to admit my first course in college was about getting this neutral diction, it's called. And I had to eliminate my New Jersey accent because Joe Conchian, this comes out once in a while. If you know one bourbon becomes three, I had a nasal a handle candles. Well, you know, that's how we talk in Jersey. Right. And I was able to eliminate that permanently.

For the most part. So yeah, I was born in a little town called Wayne, New Jersey. And I had a brother and a sister older who basically didn't speak to me because they were kind of like much older. So we weren't in like the playing together stage type of thing. Right. So I just married myself to sports. A lot of them. Right. So I played baseball and I played basketball and I played football. State champs, Wayne Valley. So that was fun. Oh, yeah. What position were you? You'll never believe it because you've met me in person. I was a defensive end. Right.

Really? I was Lawrence Taylor, basically, yeah. Well, I know you're tenacious, but I kind of buy that. But you're not, you know...

Yeah, but that's interesting. And you were state champs? I mean, you must have had some game. Yeah, no, I was all conference and all area and all that fun stuff. The thing was, I grew up and I was 5'9 in seventh grade. I was basically the tallest kid in the class. So I was a center on the basketball team, tight end, defensive end, football, right? So I played these positions that tall people play. But then this funny thing happened. My dad's 6'3, so I figured I'd keep going. I stopped playing.

I literally stopped growing in seventh grade. So now I'm five nine. But now I'm not getting any bigger. So I had speed, though. So, you know, when you play football, you're usually going to get a tackle or a tight end. So instead of like engaging these people, I just went around them to get my sacks that way. So that was fun. And then otherwise I did TV in high school, which is kind of a rare thing. But we had a community access station. We did an hourly show on Thursday nights called Rock and Roll TV. And that was that was fun. You had your own Wayne's World.

Literally in the town of Wayne, right? And there's tapes of this. That literally is in Wayne. Yeah. I was a field reporter, so I went out and interviewed students about the issues that affect them most, I believe is the way I put it. And that paved the way to college, and I eventually ended up in Maryland. I was in Emerson College in Boston, and I hated college.

urban school life. I'm like, where's the campus? Like, there's my building. There's my building. And Boston is exceptionally cold. I know that Chicago is the Windy city. I'm sorry. When you have a dorm on the Charles river, you've never felt a cold like that before. So I was, I was supposed to play baseball there division three. But the minute I went through a couple of practices, it was so damn cold. Every time you hit the ball, your, your hands, you couldn't feel them. I'm like, yeah, this isn't for me. I need to go South. So I went to the university of Maryland and

And that's more of a campus. Like, if you've ever seen the movie "St. Elmo's Fire," like, they filmed the whole thing there, which is complete BS because, oh, yeah, yeah, there's supposed to be Georgetown grads struggling to make it in the real world, you know, like Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez. Well, they used the Maryland campus because Georgetown was too expensive to film that. So whenever you watch that and you see Rob Lowe coming out of a fraternity house, that was mine, and I had my fun there, and that was great. And then the funny thing is, Jason, that for a while,

I was trying to get into television and I was working as a producer and a writer. But to live around New York City, you also have to have a job that really kind of pays well. So I eventually just went into sales because I guess I'm halfway decent at making an argument. So I was selling like video conferencing for like Cisco Systems, this big IT company. And I was just kind of working around the edges as far as trying to get into television. And eventually I ended up at Fox, believe it or not, at Fox and Friends as a news writer working the overnight shift.

Which was. Oh my goodness. That is a hard shift. What time did you come in? Midnight, one o'clock. And I would, I would work, you know, and then one day I go to the doctor for like an annual checkup because Joe, you've gained like 30 pounds over the last year. Cause I stopped exercising cause you don't sleep anymore.

you know, and you don't have any energy. And he goes, it seems like you're eating poorly because your cholesterol level is like going through the roof. I'm in like my, you know, my 30s at this point. And I'm hearing these, I'm having this conversation. I'm like, boy, I think I got to try something else. So I went to go write for Mediaite, which is, I'm sure you read it. If you're in cable news, everybody does. Basically, it's a site that covers the cable news industry. And that started leading me to get on the air on CNN. Believe it or not, yes, I was on CNN with the Don Lemons and Chris Cuomo's of the world.

when it was kind of a sane network pre-Trump. And then I would be going on Fox a lot with like O'Reilly and Hannity and so on. And eventually it got me to a place where The Hill hired me because I had visibility in The Hills of publication down in D.C., nice centrist publication. And then Fox eventually said, hey, we want to make you a contributor like Jason Chaffetz. I'm like, this is great. So then I'm here. And ever since then, I'm on the air like you a lot. And it's a labor of love.

Well, that's great because, you know, to work through all the different aspects of it just makes you a better, stronger, more, give you a better understanding of what it takes to put it all together. You appreciate it. Yeah.

I think it's the only show at Fox where literally there is staff working there 24 hours a day. That's right. You go back on the second floor there and go find Fox and Friends staff. And inevitably, there's always somebody there. You call and somebody will answer the phone. Fox and Friends has a lot of programming, three hours a day. So you can see why it happens. Yeah. And even have you ever hosted the weekends? I think I've seen you on there. I have. Yeah, I have. That's a four hour show.

It's a four-hour show. So that's a lot of, you know, if we want to go inside baseball, for the folks listening at home. So basically each hour has six blocks, they're called, six segments. So you see a segment, you go to commercial, see the segment. So you're talking now with a four-hour show, 24 segments. That means multiple guests, multiple reporters, multiple moving parts. All the stuff has to be written in terms of the introductions and the teases and so on. So yeah, that is a small army. All the graphics that have to come up.

God. Yeah. The B roll that has to go back the, they're called sots sound over tape where, you know, they go and then you can listen to the tape for like five seconds. And then it goes back to the, it, it's fairly complicated to put that thing together for an hour, but to do it for four hours, four hours. Yeah. And then the worst is let's say you do all this work and then a five 30, uh,

you know, a plane crashes or there's some sort of like big event that wipes out the entire rundown. You just kind of look at it and be like, well, there goes all that work. But, you know, that's news. You know, you got to go where the news is. And now we're obviously seeing that with the hurricane as far as that just being the number one only story as it should be. I mean, Jason, you ever see a storm like this?

that goes, this thing came under Florida, went across Cuba, and then it makes this right-hand turn, like you don't see storms make, as if it's a heat-seeking missile that's moving at 10 miles an hour, just so it could aim for Florida. Goes across Florida, it weakens over land, you're like, oh good, I guess that's the end of it. No, it's not. It goes back out into the ocean, becomes a hurricane again, then makes a left again, so it could hit the Charleston area or somewhere around it. I've never seen a hurricane move like this, as if it's

aiming for something. I mean, it's really sad to watch. It's going left. It goes right. Then it goes left again. And the devastation that it puts in place. I mean, I think the biggest rainfall I ever sat through was perhaps two inches of rain. And then they go out and they talk about, well, it's 12 inches of rain or 15 inches of rain. I'm like,

That is just unfathomable to me. And the idea of storm surge being 12 feet, it's just, that is crazy how much water that is. I lived in Hoboken. That was also part of that whole life when I worked at Fox and Friends. And there's single life in Hoboken. CNN once did a story that Hoboken is the best city in the country to live in if you're over 30 and single. So that's where I was.

But the problem with Hoboken was that you could sneeze and the place floods. It's basically almost below sea level. So when Hurricane Sandy came, Superstorm Sandy, that had a 14-foot surge.

And we had to mandatorily evacuate. We had a ground level apartment and the whole city just was like one big fishbowl, like, you know, 10, 15 feet high of water. It was insane. And the Jersey Shore got knocked out completely. And that that's my my my love. You know, if you ever talk to me for more than five minutes, I will bring it up in some way, shape or form. It's a beautiful place. And after that, it took years.

before I saw the Jersey Shore that I grew up with and that I loved and knew. And that's what you're going to see with Sanibel Island and Fort Myers and Naples and all these places that were... I don't know if you've ever been to the west coast of Florida, Jason, but it's the most beautiful place, I think, in the country. And now you're not going to recognize it for so long. And that's...

That's what's so sad about this. But then I got to hear Amy Klobuchar, the senator, saying, vote for us in November, because if you do, then hurricanes like this aren't going to happen. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what she was implying, which is such BS, dude, because you know how this works. If India, Russia and China don't do anything about their carbon footprint, we could spend trillions upon trillions and it ain't going to matter.

Right. It's a world problem if you want to acknowledge it as a big, big problem. But we can't do it alone. And this whole thing like the Democrats will save us from hurricanes. It's so disingenuous. That's what just gets me angry. Well, we've had weather and we've had climate change, per se. I don't know, for a year since before the dinosaurs. Right. I mean, these things, weather does change all of Utah, not all of Utah, but Utah.

Huge swatches of Utah used to all be underwater, which is not really more. I mean, things change along. Anyway. And you know what? I was out actually with my wife, got a chance to do a speaking event in Marco Island one week before that hurricane hit. And that beautiful beach they have out there. I can't even imagine what it's like today. Yeah.

And all the stories we're going to hear about, you know, I think it was Ron DeSantis that I heard. He was talking about, essentially the comment was, the worst of the events bring out the best in these inner people because they do throw aside political labels and they just get out there and help. And as much as the federal government, state government, local government can help,

at the end of the day, it's going to be neighbor helping neighbor. These are going to be the inspirational stories. And that's what we see, uh, on Fox all the time, right? Where, where people just to go another way. And I saw it in New Jersey as well. I mean, just people dropped everything, left their jobs for weeks, uh, just to help people rebuild again. I, I just, you know, DeSantis, I think from what I've seen so far, boy, he, he really has, and I don't want to make it too political, right? This isn't a cheering section, but when you see him during these press conferences, he is, uh, has a command of the facts, uh,

and, and you just see somebody who you have a feeling bigger things, uh, may be coming, uh, down the line because, uh, he, this, this is like nothing Florida has ever seen before, just because it hits so many different places. Rather than we talked about Orlando and Jacksonville, obviously Southwest Florida. Um, and I, I think he's handling it about as well as he possibly couldn't even as critics for the most part have been kept at bay. This is somebody who clearly, um,

knows what he's doing. You could see the military background, most importantly, coming through, it appears. Yeah, yeah. His time in the Navy is... Yeah, look, when I was chairman of the Oversight Committee, he was on the Oversight Committee with us, and I was also on Judiciary with me. And, you know, he was a good member of Congress. He's a great governor. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be right back.

I want to go back to Joe Concha a little bit because before I lose you, I have some rapid questions I have to ask you. Okay, this will be interesting. And I don't care how many times you've been to Hoboken and played the defensive tackle, sacking quarterback. I don't know that you're ready for these, Joe. Okay. All right, you ready? Yeah. First concert you attended. Genesis. Genesis.

Really? Giant Stadium. Yeah, I mean, they were a big deal at the time. Phil Collins? Phil Collins, yep. Tonight, tonight, tonight. And that was summer of 1987. And I just remember seeing 76,000 people there to watch this band. I'm like, this is kind of cool. You know what my first one was? And I've said this several times in my podcast. Was it in the 80s?

Yes, it was in the 80s. It was Michael Jackson. Really? Yeah. I'm trying to picture you moonwalking. I can't get there. Denver Mile High Stadium. I'm pretty sure it was him because I see it was so... I literally was on the top row the furthest away you could be. Me too. I bought it from a scalper.

And it sounded great, but I'm pretty sure that was him. They show him up on the jumbo screen or whatever, but yeah. Yeah, we were last row too because you're, whatever I was, like 15. You can't afford to actually buy the good seats, so you just wanted to be in the building, right? That's right. You remember it because I'm talking about it now. Outdoor arena, yeah, it was fun. Yes. What was your high school mascot?

the Indians, which every year now, the school's becoming slightly woke. They keep trying to change the name, but then the students vote on it in a referendum, and every time it gets shot down, they're like, no, we're keeping it. So there's hope for my town, at least, that they're not going to change. What's wrong with calling it the Indians? I mean, that's... It's like the president and Karine Jean-Pierre having a problem with the Braves. I mean, isn't that kind of a positive connotation when you think about it? I mean, I guess...

figured the cleveland indians had to be changed so now the wayne valley indians have to be changed and that's a whole bull wrong you know if people buy their jerseys they wear them with pride they i it's it's nothing but a positive connotation but anyway yeah uh first celebrity crush oh boy

And believe it or not, because I heard that she's not the nicest person in the world. I'm sorry if you're listening, Sybil Shepard. But when I watched Moonlighting with Bruce Willis, it was everybody sees a great show. It was tremendous. Do you know, I wrote I actually mentioned in the book, I forget why, but there was one episode in March of 1987 where 57 million people tuned in.

just to watch Moonlighting on ABC. That's a huge number. Yeah, that's right. I was talking about the Academy Awards and how something like 10 million people tune in now. And I said, boy, that's ABC now. There was a show called Moonlighting once where nearly 60 million people tuned in just to watch Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepard and if they're finally going to hook up. So I just had a thing for her. She had a presence. I don't know.

I get it. I remember the show. So, yeah, there was a reason why everybody was watching. He was funny, Bruce. Everybody thinks Die Hard. I always think Moonlighting. And that guy has comedic timing. Like, I don't believe. Yeah, it's a sad. Seems like a good guy. Yeah, absolutely. First real job you had, you know, other than mom and dad saying, hey, Joe, take out the garbage. Like, what was the first job?

Well, I was kind of an entrepreneur in college in that I was a bookie. Really? Yeah. At Maryland. Now, I wasn't like the 40,000 undergrad there. But for my fraternity house, I was the guy who...

But would take wagers. I don't believe it was legal at the time. So destroy the tape when you're done here, Jay. But oh, yeah, well, we're going to lead with this one. That sounds good. Oh, dude. I mean, look, the house always wins. And there's that's no joke. Let's see my Panama City and Cancun spring break. So I think we're paid by that job. But for the sake of this conversation, I worked at Friendly's and that's an ice cream place on the east. I don't know if it's out there in Utah, but basically it's an ice cream place where as waiter, it's the hardest job I've ever had. And I mean this.

because

What you have is a clientele where it's either old people or teenagers, and they share something very, very bad in common, which is they don't tip really well. Yeah, they don't tip. Right? And you have to not only take the order. If they order like this ice cream sundae, friendly is the way it ran. You had to make the sundae as well. So you're not only just carrying everything out. You're back there making all these scoops and everything. I lasted three weeks. It just didn't go well for me. I wish there was tape of that. There is a picture somewhere. All right. So if you can invite one person.

Just over for dinner. Just, you know, you're going to break bread, spend some time dead or alive. Could be anybody. Yeah. Who would that person be for you? Wow. That's a great question. And I'm going to stall here because I'm thinking I'm going through my head like people that I really admire. Brian Kilmeade's out. Let me think. That's a joke. I would go with.

I think Bill Parcells, who was the great coach who went to all these teams when they were completely down in the dumps and would make them either Super Bowl winners or very close to winning Super Bowls. And I always just want to get in his head, like, how do you motivate people? How did you motivate yourself? Did you have to adjust yourself?

your message for different people, different players to do different things. I think Parcells, I think, and honestly, and this is going to sound a little bit corny, but I'd always like to kind of have dinner with Ron DeSantis. I'd be curious to get into his head for a little bit. Like, hey, you know, if Trump runs, you're still going to run, right? I'd be very curious. You want to foreshadow the future, yeah. Yes. Well, I've had many, many a dinner with him, and he's a great guy. He's got a wonderful wife, and he's just a rock-solid guy. Oh, good. I hope that we can do that at some point. That would be good to hear.

to get you to do this. All right. Most embarrassing moment. Oh, boy. There's many. There's so many to choose from. I would say when...

Was arrested that was bad It was this is this a extension of being a bookie or no That's basically a slap in the wrist So when you live in Hoboken What you learn is that there's really no place to park and they give out literally millions of dollars in tickets a year now People don't know Hoboken. It's called the mile square city because it's only a square mile So it's not very big yet. They're able to produce millions of dollars. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so then one time I

I had gotten some tickets, but then I sold my car and I moved. So then I was getting all of these notices like, hey, you owe money on these tickets. And eventually they suspended my driver's license. Right. So one day I was out at the Jersey Shore and I dropped my wallet and somebody was nice enough to bring it to the police station. So then the police station then runs my license and realizes that there is a warrant out for my arrest for unpaid parking tickets and no tokens.

So I go in and they're like, okay, your wallet's right back there. They kind of tricked me on some level. I love the police, but my God. And then they close the door behind me. I go, oh, hi, what's going on? They're like, oh, there's a warrant out for your arrest. You need someone to come here and bail you out? So I had to call a girl in my house. The only one that was there at the time was a beach house that we all shared. And she ended up being my future wife, but we're walking home. She's like,

Oh, my God. What am I getting myself into? But I survived that. So it worked out. That's good. Thank you. But it worked. You got married. I got married and I eventually bought a car again. And that was that. Yes. There you go. Unique talent nobody knows about.

Oh, that's interesting. Trivia. What can you do that most people don't know? I can name. You can juggle. You can do something. Right. My brother can juggle. I know that. But if you give me any movie, say, past 1980, that isn't sci-fi or any of those kind of weird movies, but kind of like a traditional movie that people have seen, I could tell you the year it came out.

Really? Yeah, if you want to try me on something. Well, I hear there's a new Fletch coming out. When I think movies, that's what I'm most interested in. Is that true? Is that not true? Oh, yeah, Jon Hamm. I think it's out already.

But if you're talking about the original. Really? It's that bad? It's out and I don't even know about it? I'm like a big Fletch fan. I think it's streaming. It's like that sort of thing. So I don't know if it's in movies. I like Jon Hamm personally. But if you're talking about the original Fletch, that was Chevy Chase and that was 1985. Yeah. I love that show. All right. We'll keep going that. But I just have a couple more questions. And I know we've got to cut you loose here. Yeah, sure. A big one. Pineapple on pizza. Never. Oh.

Pepperoni. We know we liked you, Joe. This just confirms it because you shouldn't be putting a wet fruit on a pizza. I like the wet fruit and I like the pizza, but not together. Think about it. It's sauce, bread, cheese, and pineapple. Why would you ever combine those four things? Just saying. Best advice you ever got? Never...

ever be outworked and that was my dad and It's true and that's why you know this isn't like a pat on the back type of thing but people like why are You on Fox and Friends first every day at 5:30 in the morning. What are you crazy? You're the only person that does that and I said they asked me to they said well you could say no I said yeah, that's true

But you know what? I'm not going to be outworked. And if that gets me five more hits a week where I'm on the air, and by the way, more than a million people are watching at that point. So it's not like no one's watching. You'd be surprised how many people come up to me and they say, I see you every day at the gym, 530 in the morning on Fox and Friends. I'm like, hey, what are you doing up at 530 in the morning? Like half the time these people are like 60, 70 years old.

But I've kind of created like this little, I don't have a show, but I've created a little five minute niche for myself where it's helped build the brand, so to speak. So never be outworked. I mean, why never have that regret of somebody else getting a job over you because they worked harder than you. All right. Last question. Yeah. Favorite childhood toy. Ooh. Hi.

I was big on remote control cars, you know? I did too. I love those things. And now I'm into drones and everything, you know? I just got my kid one, and it's a cathartic thing to fly. Yeah, it was for your kid. He's like, what am I going to be able to fly this? Right.

Give me 10 more minutes, kid. Does your son or daughter, do they ever get to use it? Or does dad always take the controls? They did. And I gave it to my son for the first time. There's one button. It's like a kill button. Basically, it drops the drone at any time. And he kept pressing the wrong button. I'm like, you're going to land it on that. And then he hits the wrong. He hits the button at the wrong time. He landed on the elementary school. So thank God it was only 40 bucks. Yeah, that was that. Yeah.

Listen, Joe's book. Come on, man. The truth about Joe Biden's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad presidency. It's out and it looks great. And congratulations to you, because I think there's a huge, insatiable desire for for people to read up on that. And my guess is it's got a whole lot of.

anecdotes and stories that people just forget about. You know, they happen, they come, they go, but to have it all kind of captured here in this one book, congratulations. Jason, I'm telling you, there's a whole chapter on the corn pop incident, which is real. Corn pop is real. And it just encapsulates everything that is Joe Biden making up a story from whole cloth to make himself look like the bigger man, the tougher man, the better man. And I,

I mean, it's the funniest thing you'll ever read. I swear. I promise you people listening. So, Jay, thanks. This has been my favorite interview. You know, you own a book tour. You do like a whole bunch of interviews. But I can't wait to get you on my eventual podcast where I'm going to ask you about your most embarrassing moment, your first job and your first. I already know your first concert. That was Michael Jackson, which I never saw coming. So thank you for having me. Joe Conch, everybody. Joe, thank you again for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. All right, man. My pleasure. Have a good one.

All right. I can't thank Joe enough. Fun guys. Written a great book. Come on, man. You should be able to find it easily on the Internet or wherever you buy books. I thank Joe for joining us. You can go over to FoxNewsPodcast.com for other types of podcasts from the Fox News family. Really appreciate it if you could rate it, if you could subscribe to it. We've got a great new guest coming up next week.

And I hope you're able to join us then. But so far, I just want to thank you for listening to Jason in the House. I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com.