Harris Faulkner: Resilience and Possibility 01:13:01

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. Hi, I'm Jason Chaffetz and welcome to the Jason and the House podcast. This is going to be a great show. We got Harris Faulkner, who has got to be

I mean, she is at the top of her game. She does amazing work. And I think there's a number of things I'd love to know about her background, her poison. How does she do what she does? How does she? I mean, the hardest of moments and without emotion, with just a clarity of facts. How does she do that?

But I'd like to learn more about her, and I think you all would. And I'm pleased and honored that you would come and join us on this podcast. But first, we're going to give a little some thoughts on the news, highlight the stupid, because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone our friend, Harris Faulkner. So let's get right after it. I look at what Congress is doing, and it's difficult, and it's hard to be away from your family.

But Nancy Pelosi broke through a barrier that I don't think we should have broken through, and that is she got rid of in-person voting and started going to this proxy voting. What goes on and doesn't go on in Congress happens on the floor of the House of Representatives, and you want that dynamic. Yes, there are committee hearings, but you only see a limited number of people. The one time where the body gets together, Republicans, Democrats, independents, Republicans,

is when you're on the floor of the house. That's where the informal discussions happen. That's where the formal discussions happen. That's where so many each of the, hey, what about this bill and what would it take to get you on it? That dynamic has totally gone away under Nancy Pelosi. And I think that part of the reason that she wants to do this

is because it gives her even more control. I mean, she is going to go down in the history books as A, raising more money than anybody in the history of the United States Congress, House or Senate. She has a grip on power that is unbelievable. But the last thing I think she wants to do is have people talking to each other because that's where alliances are formed.

She was able to get everybody on the floor of the house right in the midst of COVID, even with people that were COVID positive because she needed their vote on the floor of the house. Then they pass a rules package. Then they pass a provision that allows them to do this so-called proxy voting. Well, you could be at home or be anywhere else. Now,

So Representative Donald Payne, he's a Democrat out of New Jersey. He got caught in a very compromising position because during one of these Zoom calls, which was official congressional business, he actually got up kind of out of bed, it looked like, or out of a chair, stood up, stretched,

You see his belly and all that, and he's wearing evidently just boxers. It's time to, you know what, get dressed, get back to work, get there in person. That's my take on what should happen. The other thing that I wanted to make mention of is there's a lot of discussion about this select committee that Nancy Pelosi wants to form regarding the tragedy and the horrific things that happened on January 6th.

Now, I was very instrumental and very much involved in Benghazi. When the Benghazi tragedy happened, I was the first member of Congress to go over to Libya, went to Tripoli. They wouldn't let me into Benghazi and was really pointing the spear at the beginning of that investigation, which culminated in John Boehner calling for a select committee. Now, that happened about a year and a half after the

September 11th, 2012 Benghazi incident. So it took a long time to get to a select committee. So people want to jump in and say, well, you formed a select committee on Benghazi. Why not form a select committee on the January 6th incident? And how is it different than the Benghazi committee? You wanted to form a committee on Benghazi. Of course, there should be a select committee on January 6th.

I believe there should be deep and thorough investigation. I want to be crystal clear on that. But the question is, how do you do it? There are standing committees that do have jurisdiction that can go out and do their jobs, whether it be Homeland Security or there are a variety of them. There are multiple investigations going on right now.

Here's the difference though with what Benghazi culminated in a select committee and why it took a year and a half to get to that point. On the oversight committee where I was helping to lead the charge, I was originally the chairman of the subcommittee on national security.

That's where I got involved. I issued a letter to the Secretary of State demanding preservation of not only her federal records, but personal records such as emails and those types of things. But what we found over the course of a year and a half is a complete and total roadblock.

to documents, to personnel. Things mysteriously started disappearing. There were question marks about where the communication was, and not just from Hillary Clinton, but also from the Pentagon. As an example, for instance, we asked for after action reports. Now, anybody who's served in the United States military knows that they go and do something, there's a report that's written.

Somehow the Pentagon was telling us that there were zero, zero reports issued and done internally at the Pentagon relating to the incident and what went down with Benghazi. That is anybody involved in the military knows that that is absolutely cannot be true.

And so what happened behind the scenes is that Trey Gowdy and I in particular were going in and meeting with then John Boehner and explaining and updating to him and his staff about what was going on and what was not going on. And ultimately, I think he saw what Trey Gowdy and I saw, which was such a degree of frustration on the inability of the Obama administration to cough up and provide the documents.

to be candid, to be forthright, to actually answer the questions from the committee. If they had done this, I think we probably could have gone start to finish, maybe six months, probably just done it within the oversight committee and

we would have kind of gone on from there. But the reason it dragged on for so long is that you had an Obama administration, the Biden administration, that would not actually give us documents. In fact, we found out that things that were under subpoena were being destroyed. We found out that the Pentagon was not providing us these types of documents, thus the need for a select committee. Now, in the case of January 6th, there's no allegation of that.

In fact, the Democrats have the House and Senate and the presidency, and it kind of begs the question, why do you need a select committee? There are other committees that have jurisdiction that would allow for subpoenas. And so when you control all the levers of government, I think it's a much weaker case to say, oh, well, we have to have a select committee. And then it starts to bring in and beg the question of, is this really just politics now?

and doing something that you can bludgeon Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans and everybody else over the head with. And maybe there's a smidgen of that in there as well. Again, I think there should be a thorough investigation. I just happen to think it should be done in regular order through a committee that was set up that has a jurisdiction and has already voted on those members. That's my take of it. All right, time to bring on the stupid...

Because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. Tennessee couple. This Tennessee couple is evidently facing attempted murder charges because they were at a Burger King and...

They did not like the way the spicy chicken sandwich was coming about. And according to the criminal complaint, this couple got really mad at the way the Burger King employees were putting together the spicy chicken sandwich. So they went back in their car, got guns, and started firing on the Burger King. They are arrested. They have been charged. And I got to tell you, if this report, this allegation is anywhere near the truth, I'm

Could there be anything more stupid than getting so triggered that you have got to potentially kill people at the Burger King

Aye, aye, aye. That, to me, qualifies as just flat-out stupid. All right, I want to tell a story about something that's in the news right now, something that just happened. I talked about it on Outnumbered, and very timely since we're going to be talking to Harris Faulkner here in just a moment. We're going to dial her up. But evidently, over at the National Archives, there was a task force on racism.

Now, I was on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and I had jurisdiction. For eight and a half years, I sat on this committee. I was a chairman for two and a half years. And each committee, there are 18 authorizing committees, and each

Each committee has areas of jurisdiction. Obviously, Foreign Affairs has jurisdiction on, say, the State Department. Oversight has a variety of it. One of those is on the National Archives, on the National Monuments, on things like that. They're on the National Mall. Presidential Libraries, for instance. So in my eight and a half years on the committee, two and a half years as chairman, there is not a single person who ever complained to us about

about anything at the National Archives as it related to some problem that might be there in the rotunda of the National Archives. Now, National Archives has the Declaration of Independence. It has the United States Constitution. They've had the Emancipation Proclamation put in there. Meanwhile,

They have these findings now that there should be trigger warnings to, quote, forewarn audiences of content that may cause intense physiological and psychological symptoms because it depicts white, rich men.

And that somehow this display of our founding documents would highlight and trigger somebody to the point where they are going to literally be so taken aback by it. Now, again, never heard a complaint about that. Here's what I did hear a complaint about. This is why I wanted in the story from the halls of Congress, I wanted you to know about. I'd never really been asked this question, never really came up, but I think this is apropos given where we are today.

So I'm the chairman of the committee, and there is what's called the Congressional Black Caucus. People can join that. If the black members of the House of Representatives can join this, they, I think, pretty much all do, at least on the Democratic side of the aisle.

I'm very friendly with them. I had a great relationship with them. One of the members of that Congressional Black Caucus approached me at the end of a hearing there in the oversight committee. And we were just chatting. It was a bit casual. And he said, what's up? And he finally said, you know what? It was just, you know, I can't believe what's going on here. And

But yeah, they had unveiled, and I think there was an event after the unveiling, and he was talking about the Martin Luther King monument. So it wasn't the actual day that it was unveiled, but I think it was after that. And he came out and he said, you know, only in America could they depict Martin Luther King as white.

And I had to think about it a little bit. If you go out and you actually look at a picture of this monument, some would describe it as beautiful and they might love it. But from this particular member, he looked at it and he said, why did they have to do it? It's technically like a pink marble type of thing, but it comes across as white. There's no, it's just white. And if you look at it closely,

it's really kind of interesting. So I went back and did some research on how this whole thing came about. It came about under the Clinton administration. They formed this committee to look and try to select an artist. They selected a Chinese national. This thing was built in China, again, started by the Clinton administration, and then ultimately approved and unveiled by the Obama administration.

That's how this thing came rolling out. And so what I talked to him about is said, look, if you want to run an appropriation to redo it, I'll support it. If you want to have a piece of legislation authorizing to redo it, I'll support you that I'll support that. But when the thing is unveiled under the Obama administration and Barack Obama is doing this,

I just don't think you Democrats will actually want to highlight all the problems and concerns here. But if you guys are, you know, if you're really behind it, I am the chairman of the committee and I'll run that piece of legislation. Nothing. I didn't hear anything. And, you know, I don't want to blow it out of proportion. But today when they're running around saying, oh, it's so offensive to look at the Declaration of Independence.

Maybe it's time to kind of talk about that. But you know what? It was Bill Clinton. It was Barack Obama. And so the Democrats aren't going to say a peep about it. It's their selective choice.

exaggeration about these types of things that I think is really doing more harm to their cause than actually solving problems where I don't believe there's systemic racism top to bottom in this country. I think there are horrific examples of things in our nation's history and going on today as individuals that do need to be addressed. But

to suggest that somehow displaying the Constitution of the United States is going to trigger somebody like that. That's too much. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back right after this.

All right. I want to get to bringing on somebody that I've gotten to know through the years. I've been honored and privileged to know her. Just a wonderful human being. I know her husband. Her kids are like amazing kids in all ways. She just has this beautiful family. She's just a wonderful, sweet person. And like I said, I've been able to see and spend time with her behind the scenes. And what you see on the camera is exactly the way she is behind the scenes. And I'm

She, she tells it like it is. She speaks from her heart and she is wicked smart. I can tell you that. So, um, it's, uh, an honor for me to have her joining us on the show. So let's call Harris Faulkner and figure out what it is that makes her tick. Why is it that she is so much better than just about everybody else out there and what she does? So let's dial Harris Faulkner.

Hey, this is Harris. Harris. Hey, Jason Chaffetz. Oh my gosh. You were just on Outnumbered. Thanks so much. So good to talk to you. And I know we're going to be doing the Faulkner Focus soon too. I know. You've been so good to me. I still remember as a rookie. I mean, I'm a guy out of Congress. I first get, you know, I signed this contract to be a contributor on Fox News. And one of the first things I did was,

is I sat next to you on the couch in the old, old outnumbered couch in the old room there. It was probably, you know, you'd done it I don't know how many times. And I was, you know, I don't get too nervous, but I was a little nervous being there and you were just...

So nice. Yeah, it was good. Well, it's so easy to have you with us. I mean, you were just such a natural and we had such a great time. And it is interesting that we make people more nervous than Congress. I don't know if that's true.

I think I like that. Oh, well, but you know, it's because, you know, when you got a James Comey, you know, a director Comey or somebody like, or some smart Alec that you just want to just grill them. Like, I can't wait to get after that. But yeah,

When you've got these four ladies sitting next to you and they get to ask you the questions, you don't get, I'm used to firing the questions and knowing the answer before I even ask it. It's different when I have no idea what you're going to ask me. It's kind of like your podcast for me now. I'm like, because my team told me, Jason Chaffetz, people called. And I'm like, first of all, Jason Chaffetz has people. Yeah.

And they want me to be on a podcast. What are they going to ask me? And then I was told about that 12 question or so kind of rapid question and that you can't study for. And I'm like, oh, I hope it's not like a real news quiz. Like, you know, what happened on 1954 at the press conference of blah, blah, blah.

That's good. I should actually incorporate that, but no, you're right. No matter how many pushups you do in your life, you cannot prepare for the 12 questions. And I hope to see you sweat a little bit. Good to know. Cause I do about maybe two a month or whatever. I am amazed. No, I, and I'm just not like, I'm a huge fan. Let's just be clear about that. Okay. But I am amazed. And what I want to understand is like,

You have such poise in a very difficult situation where you've got live television, you've got people talking in your ear, you've got video that's coming in that you haven't reviewed, you've got scripts that are showing up on a teleprompter you haven't read before. I have the greatest appreciation, and there's some people that do this really well. You do it really well. Bill Hemmer is like off the charts good at this. I mean...

How, like, I remember there was a time that we were there on the couch and it was you and me and Kennedy. And I can't remember who else was there. And, and Griff Jenkins was out in the field. There was a hurricane that happened and he's interviewing this poor woman who had lost like everything. They're like, you know, knee plus deep in, in the water.

And I was getting emotional about it. And yet you and Kennedy and the others, Griff particularly, who's out there with this woman. But where does that come from? How do you, because I know you care. I mean, I know you've got a heart as big as anybody. But how do you take that difficult situation, breaking news, heartbreak, death often, and just be able to talk it through?

Well, first of all, thank you for complimenting my work. I don't take myself all that seriously ever, really. But I take what we do seriously. And I think that, you know, for the most part, even news and politics these days are very

have an entertainment value to them. But when it comes to breaking news, it's not performance. Right. It's the facts. And if they need me on the news desk, like, you know, I get called in all hours of the night. I'll get called in on a weekend. We've had a series of tornadoes. Can you come in? You

You know, we work as a team. So we you mentioned, Bill, there are others on our news team that we will, you know, you take this shift. We'll take this shift, particularly around disasters like that. Right. Because so much is happening simultaneous with trying to rescue people. There's the information coming out that people need to know to stay safe and so on and so forth. Suspects on the loose killed multiple people. This is the area, that sort of thing. And because of all of that.

I tend to just talk in the moment to the viewer as if they were sitting right next to me and imagining them. And I get that from my local news experience where you really typically do know a lot of people who are watching you because you live in their community and they live in yours. But I try to speak directly to the viewer and anticipate the questions and the observations that they would have or feel

want to know about. And in doing that, you have to be present. There cannot be any sort of entertainment or performative value to what you're doing because

If my name's been called, it's probably a disaster. They typically don't call me when it's good news. Or it's, can you, yeah. I mean, unfortunately that's the nature of what I do. It's one of the things I love about a show like Outnumbered because it's a talk show. It's an unscripted and most of the time it's delicious political and cultural talk and it's,

all of that stuff that our conversations are made up of as Americans across the country all the time. And we're tapped into what's going on. Breaking news is very different. Breaking news is an otherly experience. It's I've got to take them into the story. And by the way, most of the stuff I'm getting my hands on and seeing I've never seen before. So we're going into the story together. And it is that

breaking news and local markets acumen that I came with that experience for 15 years. And then I've had another 15 at Fox. So if you do the math on that, it is amazing that I'm only 41. No, I'm

Yes. That's not true. That's fake news. I'm way north of 41. All right. Well, let's go back though. I want to go back to Harris, the little girl who's like, you know, tell us a little bit about growing up in your family. Now you've written two books, right? I mean, you've got breaking news. God has a plan. And then you've got nine rules of engagement and

A Military Brat's Guide to Life and Success. So you grew up in a military family, which not everybody does. And life was a little bit, you know, wasn't typical. But when you grew up in it, it was typical for you, right? Yes, definitely. I mean, you know, my mother always wanted my sister and I and for our family to be

aware of and open to civilian life. So whenever on base, I was born at Fort McPherson, a decommissioned base now down in Atlanta, Georgia. You know, we naturally wanted people on our post, on our base. And my mother was an officer's wife and very social. Just Bob and Shirley were very social people. And so my mother would want to engage people

in the community around the base, wherever we live, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, wherever we were, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

And she would do that through bake sales and events where people would bring their stuff to the event to sell to. And then we, you know, she'd get the kids together through after school events. My mother was a social worker for many years growing up. So she was always tied into the wider community and bringing families together. And there was an importance to that because she,

You know, Jason, when people talk about the 1%, they think that's financially, but there's another 1% or thereabouts. And those are the people who serve and their families serve right along with them. It's about, you know, 1% of our nation compared to how many people there are over 300 million. There are about 3 million that serve at any given time. So because of that, my mother and father always felt that it was important for them to know us and for us to know them.

And, you know, you'll hear, oh, thank you for your service to a service member from a civilian, maybe at the grocery store in line or whatever. But what my parents wanted was something beyond a one way conversation. They wanted Americans to feel responsible to and for their military members. Their taxes paid are paid for our living arrangements. They you know, I mean, we technically were part of the government, but

But we were so different and set aside, nonpolitical, all about the flag, all about patriotism. Growing up on the army bases that I did, the first song I ever learned the words to, we were in Germany at Stuttgart at the time, so I was less than five, was the National Anthem.

So with the Olympics coming up this summer, I'm particularly I just love watching anything that has to do with how amazing we are as a society and a nation. You know, you and I have talked on outnumbered many times with topics that we've done. And right now is a particularly hard time as a military brat to watch our nation going through what it must have felt like in the 60s and 70s around civil rights issues and

And Vietnam, where my father served. And that is this collision of knowing who we are as a nation to the rest of the world. We are a beacon. And we are good. We are good. We're not a racist nation. We're not people who don't mean good for ourselves, for each other in the world. That's not who we are.

But as a military brat, it's very hard to watch this discussion because I understand that people who don't believe that way, who don't think like me about the word patriotism, have every right to speak. It's a free country. My father was one of those who afforded them the protection and the real life experience of speaking in a free society through his military service. So I, you know, it's hard to talk about these issues sometimes in public now.

Because it's like asking someone if they're pregnant. And you have no business asking that question because you know it's going to go sideways, especially if the answer is, well, I'm married, but my husband doesn't know yet, but I'm bump. You know, things we don't talk about at the dinner table with people we don't know. And I think that patriotism is somehow falling into that category. And I don't want that, nor do I want it to have a safe space.

I want us to be able to say what we think and what we know and what we feel about issues openly. And I want every right in my corner to say when someone's wrong, when they're getting it wrong. We're now getting into a place where this is going to be one of the things that people don't want to talk about, because if you say that you're a patriot, they assume a lot of things about you that are not good.

And now there's this pushback against the American flag. Please. I was an anthem singer. I sang in a Kansas city chiefs game with 75,000 people when I was anchoring in Kansas city. I won't tolerate this. If you want to protest against something, that's not right. And look, I'm not going to say that there are things that we don't need to work on in the country. And some of them are race related, but if you're going to say that, that,

Being non-patriotic toward the symbols and the things that we hold dear is how you solve it or solve those issues. I'm going to go farther than saying that you're wrong. I'm going to prove it. You know, I grew up, my father served, my father-in-law served, my father served in the Air Force.

I didn't serve, but I was surrounded by people. For instance, my grandfather was a longtime FBI agent. And I just grew up in a household and a belief that the United States of America was the greatest country on the face of the planet. And I believe that it is. I've been to nearly 100 nations around the world, and there is nothing like the United States of America.

And I'm really touched by a couple of things. I was touched by the World War II Memorial. If you go there on the mall, I hope everybody gets a chance to experience that. But there's a flagpole. And around the base, I believe it's the base of the flagpole, there's a quote. I don't have it right in front of me, but it talks about how the United States is

came for freedom and liberty, and it came to conquer, but not to take. It didn't come to acquire more land. It came to help free the world. And imagine if we hadn't won these wars, if the men and women who did step up and serve didn't actually fight

have the logistical capability and the heart and the spirit and the soul and that we didn't galvanize to take down Hitler and all these other people who would rule the world if it was allowed. And so,

And back to your first point, you know, I think I was probably touched as much, you know, as we come into this Fourth of July holiday. I remember visiting with this Marine in southern Afghanistan, kind of southwestern Afghanistan. And his biggest concern out on the battlefield, you know, is that he didn't have a neighbor or somebody at home to help his wife mow the lawn.

And so, Harris, when you talk about, you know, it's not just the service member who's out there serving. There's a whole family and network that's there that is also serving, that is also giving this nation. And they don't recognize people who haven't gone through this. These people are deployed for a year or longer or longer. And or they're go out on one of our ships, right?

And they'll be deployed for nine months. I mean, and there's just, I just wish America would take a pause and not just, not just on Memorial day, not just on the 4th of July, not just on veterans day, but just have this embedded into our core that we are going to take care of the men and women who do the heavy lifting in this country. You know, um, every February, this conversation comes up because, um,

in media relations at fox and i always kind of laugh at this because there are people that will suddenly realize that i'm black i don't know how they missed that the other 11 months of the year but you know i'm suddenly black and it's oh it's african-american month and blah blah and look american history is something that we all should know about and it's shared history which is why the critical race theory uh conversation right now is bringing such fire because there

There is this revelation about the fact that history is powerful. Yeah. So learn all of it and let's move on. Like, why do we have to fight about it? Let's just know our facts. Let's know our American history. But but I bring up Black History Month because and I, you know, I want all of us to know, well, who invented this and who invented that, who did this great thing and all of that.

But if we're going to do a Black History Month, can we do an American History Month? Because there's a tremendous amount that our kids still are not learning that is really important about, yes, our past and slavery and all of that.

what about all the amazing things that this country has done? And when you go to other places and you stand in a stone castle or whatever it is, and it was made in like pre 1600s, you realize that you live in a country that's a baby compared to all these other places around the world. It's true. And I,

I mean, look at Canada. They're finding the bodies of indigenous children from those schools that they mandated years ago that separated the indigenous people from the rest of the population and the things that happened to those children. I mean, they were like social experiments physically. I mean, it was so sad. And they're just finding those in 2021 mass graves and all of this proof of Canada's history.

If you don't know your history, you won't appreciate your presence and you have to know the journey you've been on.

But it's also important to know all of it. So I, you know, I love the 4th of July. I'm a summer girl anyway, but I love what it stands for. And I want people to understand when Independence Day is about. Why don't we have the whole month of July? If you've got an African-American month, why can't you have an American month? I'm not being facetious here. No, I'm saying that, you know, I don't want to cancel anybody else's month. But can we add some? Yeah.

We got a full calendar. I mean, if we really want to make a point of it and then let's make the point of which days on that calendar really matter and that we want to know about and let's celebrate those. And if further discussion is about some, then let's have that. But we live in such a bifurcated society now where if you want true open conversation, considering

Every possibility and, you know, look at the origins of COVID-19. I covered that last year at the height of the beginning of the pandemic. My accounts were stickered in social media by the heavy hands of curators at Twitter. Yeah.

A racial slur. They'll let that trend with a hashtag and curate it to the top to make sure more people, more woke folk click on it. I mean, we are we are mixed up and we got to get it straight because life is short. That's the one thing we all have in common. Nobody's living 200 years. So let's go back for a second here. I mean, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

But where does that come from? So you got parents, they're patriotic, you're serving. You got a sister, you're moving from city to city, which is tough on a lot of people. But what was the experience or experiences young in your life that kind of helped embed that? My father said, see everyone as a possibility, as a solution to everything.

whatever it is that's happening in current events or in your life until they prove that they're not worthy of that mission. So I greet everyone with a hopefulness and an openness because I met so many people growing up. My father was a leader. He was a Lieutenant Colonel, a combat pilot. And his whole philosophy about life was resilience and possibility. So I grew up with someone who learned every rank that served under him because he had served it.

and rose in circumstances that were not for him. I mean, during the 60s, this country was going through the height of its civil rights fight. Yeah. And my family members would ask my parents, and I don't remember this because it was pre-Harris and in some points when I was just a toddler,

I had uncles, my dad's younger brothers, why are you going to serve for this country when there are signs up telling us that we're colored and we can't do this and we can't do that? And they're hosing us in the streets and setting dogs up. And my father would say, let me stop you right there. Not everybody is the way that you describe them. Hmm.

Don't you want to know the person who becomes part of the wave of exception and exceptionalism? Don't you want to know that? Aren't you curious and hungry to find the answer in your fellow man or woman? And why is this so fresh in my vocabulary? Well, Jason, my father died on Christmas Day in 2020. He died alone in his senior complex apartment.

And I had just spoken with him very late on Christmas Eve. And he told me, I miss your mother so much. I miss my partner and finding the possibilities in life. He said, you're going to need them now. And I need to be someplace where I can pray for you. I can't wait to see you for Easter. And we were making plans because we knew that dad would get his vaccination and my family would too. And he was big on that. He said, well, there's a weapon. You've got to pick it up. And if the vaccination is your weapon, go get it.

So you can build herd immunity around those in your family that are too young to do that. And you can be part of the solution in society. He said, not everybody will choose to do this, but you must. You lead so many. And that's where I get that from. I had parents who were not ashamed of their Christian mission by God. They were anointed and appointed to do what they did as leaders in our community.

Wherever that community was, whether it was in Stuttgart or Kansas, no matter where we were, they were leaders. And my mom was a leader in the church. She taught elementary school and was then later in life a social worker in different states. She got that license wherever we were stationed. So I come by this, honestly, it was part of my childhood that when I meet someone, the first thing I see in them is potential. And they have to convince me

that that belief in them is not warranted. In other words, I don't judge by what they say. I watch their actions and they can prove me wrong. Maybe they weren't the answer. But then again, you've got to be prepared to fire some people. And I wrote about this in Nine Rules of Engagement. This is one of the things I grew up with. When people prove to you that they will lie and they will cheat and they will mistreat those who can offer us nothing but their company in our lives. They're the downtrodden. They're the people who need a hand up.

If anybody is willing to mistreat somebody like that, given what we've been given as blessed Christians, I was taught, deal with that person. Deal with them. Don't stay silent. Call them out on it. When somebody gossips about someone in your presence and you get that icky feeling when people are talking about you, it's just like, ooh, I don't like this. This makes me feel bad. Call them out. Say, you know what? I have to walk away from this conversation because I think that you will do to this person

and this person, and then eventually do it to me, and I'm not like them, I'll stand up to you. So let me just walk away to keep you from being the worst version of yourself in my presence. That's how I was raised. And it isn't a matter of, oh, you know, we think we're horty-torty. We know that we've been blessed, and there is a mission for us, those who embrace our faith and believe in that.

And people say, well, why do you work at Fox? I was not put here to prophesize. That's not the messaging that is my mission that I was given. But I am a professional communicator and I know that my words matter. And so what I must do is speak the truth. And I work at Fox because when people ask me what's the foundation of being successful in my life and I say God and my Christian faith, I won't lose my job straight up. Yeah.

Yeah, that's why I'm where I am. And have I been places where people have said, you know, we'd really rather not have you talk about that stuff, Harris. And I'm like, well, then how come I know Steve down the hall is cheating on his wife and has two kids by another woman and he has a drinking problem? Why will you tolerate that? But you don't want to listen to me talk about what keeps me strong and what I'll teach my future kids. I'm confused. And then I walk.

And sometimes, you know, you walk away from situations where people think you're crazy because you could have made more money. You could have done that. And I'm like, you know what? I'll be rewarded. I'm not worried about that. And if it's not here, it'll be in heaven. I'm going to live this way because this is the right way. And it won't always be easy, but I can lift my head up, look at myself in the mirror and know it's the right thing. That is what I come with. And every time I take a step now, Jason, I'm

I have those parents that I really didn't listen to when I was a teenager all that much. I didn't realize I was hearing all those words. They're right there with their messaging in my head and in my heart. And I find decision making is easier now because I can hear them so clearly and I miss them with every fiber of my being.

That's been my experience as well, that kids may get the impression they're not listening or that they're distracted or something, but you know what? They really are listening.

And they really are learning and they are really are digesting things. And that consistency and that love that couples it, I think is such a formula. We all have our own story. My parents ended up getting divorced and that was a really hard time in my life to try

Try to understand that they could simultaneously love me, but at the same time want to get divorced. And as a teenager, not being able to understand that. And I think we, you know, all of us with our own journeys, we have private hardships that maybe the rest of the world doesn't know about. But they also buoy us up and create this strength.

foundation of who we are and you just hope and pray that people will deal with those hard, difficult things, whether it's an automobile accident or a disease or financial trouble or addiction or whatever it might be that they find their way out of it. And, and, but there, but there is a way and there is hope and there is, but it's those also those experiences that, that allow somebody to build that foundation to make us better, smarter, stronger, and,

and give us character in our life. I mean, you can't go through life without, there's nobody that's going through this without these kinds of challenges. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Harris Faulkner right after this. Help me understand, when you were a little girl and you're growing up, you're taking all this messaging and it's like, you can tell just, it's in your heart, it's in your soul, Harris.

But were you having dinner together and talking about these things? Did your parents have a job? How did that manifest in itself to being such a huge part of your core? I love that question because you know what?

I often don't think about this anymore. Jason, I have seen every Howard Johnson from back in the day in this country because my parents were so frugal. I mean, the military would fly you in and set you up wherever your next place was. And my father would say, you know what? Why don't you take that money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this on base or dah, dah, dah. We're driving cross country in the Lincoln. And I, I mean, I,

We would have these conversations in the Lincoln across country. Now our stuff would be on a Mayflower truck somewhere. Right. And, uh, do they still have those? I don't even know. It's, I remember we moved, I moved a lot and I remember a Mayflower check pulling up to our house. Yeah. We're moving constantly. And at one point we were moving about every 16 months. Hmm. And, uh,

We went from Fort Bragg to, we went from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, I think to Fort Bragg. And so we drove that. And that, I was in second grade, second going into third grade. And that particular summer was the summer that I guess my parents thought it was time to start having conversations about who you're going to be when you grow up. And it was like a talk show. My mom was Oprah and my father was more of a,

A black Walter Cronkite. He had this really commanding voice and it was really beautiful the way he would tell stories. But he was always the Vax guy. Well, he's, you know, he's pilot, he's aeronautical engineer. So he's very logical. Right. And the two of them would be they weren't even talking to me. They were talking to each other, Jason. So these messages weren't, you know, told to me in terms of take a note.

I was seven, so I wasn't taking anybody's notes. But it was conversations going on around me. And at that point, I was still an only child because my sister hadn't come along yet. And I was fascinated by them. I mean, they were very gregarious and very interesting people anyway. And then they used to love to have house parties. And I don't know if anybody listening will remember the term housecoat. And my mom had an Afro wig.

And she would put on like a house coat that was brightly colored and cinch it with the belt. And back in the seventies, I mean, that was all the rage, you know, these funky prints and paisley and all that. And friends would come over and she'd have on her hoop earrings and her Afro wig. And dad kind of reminded me of Marvin Gaye a little bit. He always was very crisply dressed. He was very thin and tall, six, four. And you know, the flat,

front pants. And he just was impeccably dressed as a civilian, particularly. And they would host these parties with other friends on base. And at that time that I really, really remember, we were living at Fort Bragg. And also my father served as support on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So when we were in Arlington, Virginia, they'd host these parties and people from the base because we lived off base at that point.

But whether it was on or off, it didn't matter. A lot of military couples would come and they would be dancing and having conversations about what they wanted for their kids. And I just soaked it up like a sponge.

And that's how I came about, you know, knowing all this messaging because they had open dialogue. There were no safe spaces for good talk. You know, and that's gosh, it's such a part of society that I worry about is these kids just get buried in their phones and their headphones and they miss that opportunity. Just listen, watch, soak it in like a sponge. Yeah.

And it's amazing, right? Kids actually do listen. And whether or not they're giving you the positive thumbs up right there on the spot, they're still soaking it all in and learning from that. Oh, it's true. Remember that, I guess, with like first words. I was having a chat with Kaylee McEnany the other day on set because, you know, we're on set a couple times a week now until they move here. So and we're back. We're back on the air like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of most weeks, you

in studio. And Kaylee said her little one-year-old was trying to learn the word truck and she can't make a TR sound. So she uses an F sound. Oh, okay.

And she's like, what do I do? And I'm like, well, cause we like to swap mom stories. And I'm like, well, first of all, don't reward her with laughing. She goes, but it's funny, but we, we don't want her to say this. And I'm like, you can't give her positive reinforcement. Cause she'll start to say it on purpose, thinking that that's the, she's like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that. She says, we don't say anything untoward around her. And I'm like, Kelly, I have no doubt, but our children make discoveries based on our reactions. And she's like, oh, it's,

It's my fault. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. But you could be complicit if you don't stop laughing at her. And I just love that because it isn't just that our children are listening to us. It's that we're participating in their communication growth. And if we could just get their attention, like at dinner and other times when I want my children's eye contact, I make them check their phone in my purse. Yeah.

And, you know, my purse is like a canyon. That's what my husband said. He's like, you could lose a car in there. I always have a big purse. And, you know, because I got to take snacks and everything. But I stick the phones in there and my 14-year-old will say, great, now we're never going to see it again. We'll need a search party. But we deserve to have their eye contact and they deserve to see the world unfettered without that device. And, you know, we have an impact on them.

And we can't have those conversations with them that are most important in life if we see the tops of their heads. I think that's part of the reason why people are so distrusting of one another in society right now. They just don't believe each other on many, many things. And we've been manipulated because a lot of the messaging is coming electronically. I look at the pandemic. Come on, you know this. Oversight Committee chairman?

You know that a lot of the stuff we were fed over the last year and a half didn't turn out to be quite the way it is. In fact, maybe we ought to go to that Wuhan lab like now. Like a year and a half ago. Yeah, a year and a half ago. Exactly. Because the evidence I've heard you say the evidence isn't there now anyway, because, you know.

communist government. Come on. But we don't trust each other in society in part because we don't make enough eye contact with one another anymore. Yeah, we need to break bread with each other. We do. I baked in an ordinate amount of banana bread during the pandemic. I can bring it. Well, I'm happy to send along my address. I...

I didn't know you were offering to send us banana bread, but I'm happy to oblige. I'll text you after we're done here. Excellent. Excellent. There's a secret ingredient in there that I think it makes it extra special, but you're right. We do need to break bread with each other. And even better if it's banana bread. So I'm good with that. Harris, I could talk to you all day. I have so much fun. I'm very lucky to be able to chat with you and

Likewise. I miss actually, you know, one of the hard parts for me, quite frankly, over the last year plus is just, I used to go to New York pretty regularly and I could, you know, you'd invite me into your office or I'd see you in the hall. Yeah, we'd chat. We could actually chat about things. And I really do miss that because there's some people that I really do like and admire and I miss that kind of social interaction. So I hope we can do some more of that. But until then...

I do have these rapid questions I need to ask you. Oh, I'm nervous. Okay. Oh, by the way, just real quickly before we move on. I also miss, like you do, those in-person conversations and your beautiful wife coming in and watching Outnumbered in the studio always made us better. Like, because she would give that look of this is funny or whatever. And I would always get a little feedback. And I know I'm not why she's there. You are. But I was secretly saying, I'm really glad she's here.

Well, she'll be just thrilled to hear that. And that's been one of the great joys. You know, I left Congress early in part because...

I miss my family and I was just, you know, my kids were right at the latter part of their high school. And, um, but now that they've kind of spread their wings and off doing their own things and we're empty nesters, we're traveling more together. And so it's fun. And, and we could do that with, um, you know, outnumbered a little bit. And anyway, I hope we get on the,

Help we get in the routine where Outnumbered is in person and we can actually all five sit in the couch. That would be fun. That would be fun. Look at them.

Okay, good. Good, good. All right. Yeah, this is the part you can really sweat about and may end your career, but we'll try. We'll just see. You've had a good career. I love danger. Bring it on. This is danger. There are no wrong answers, but the judges, we do kind of judge these things. All right. So here we go. Ready? Yep. What was your high school mascot?

We were the independent 76ers. Oh, my gosh. That sounds ridiculously patriotic, right? That's very patriotic. I've never heard somebody being the patriotic 76ers, but good for you. All right. If you scored an interview with Bigfoot, what would you ask him? What do you eat?

Is it humans? Because should I fear you or are you, you know, a herbivore? Because then we could maybe be friends. I've asked people this question. Everybody has a different question, but you are more of a pro at this than just about anybody I've asked because my question is... Oh no, that's really what I would

Oh, I believe you. My question was going to be, is that really you in all those videos? Like, let's run some clips. I want to know which one is you and which not. I'd love to know how old he is. All right. If you weren't in television, if you weren't using this as a medium to communicate, what would you be doing? Gosh, that question has changed over the years. So for the first 25 years of my life, I would have told you that I wanted to try my hand at country singing. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. I'm impressed. Well, you haven't heard me sing, but... Thank you. You said you sung at a Kansas City Chiefs game. You've got to have some game to be able to pull that off. The National Anthem is a lot. I mean, I grew up listening to that on bass and creating your own music. I don't know, but I'm...

I love country music and I love the fact that it's, you know what it is, it's storytelling. So I, for a long time, I would want to do that. Now I have a different dream. Now I want to produce television unscripted, mostly, that is entertainment, that is for an audience that doesn't want to see thongs on TV and

especially not at eight o'clock. Oh my gosh, the Grammy's such a mess this year. That doesn't court Hollywood per se. Like I want to do something that is set apart from the traditional Hollywood that we know and

I miss those TV shows that you could turn on and the whole family could watch together. Right now you got to excuse members of the family out of the room. And now you and your wife with your beautiful grandchildren. Yeah. You can't have everybody in the room watching some of the stuff that comes on before nine o'clock, which, you know, we had agreed through the FCC. It wasn't going to look like that, but I guess as a nation, we're letting the FCC off the hook, but yeah, I want to do really good, funny, uh,

Things that are opposite of the breaking news that breaks our hearts. So I wanted to do programming. I was a big part of why Outnumbered is on television now. I haven't shared this with many people, but it's not a secret. I just don't often talk about it. But I put together two pilots for management at Fox News, the chairman at the time. And the Murdochs obviously had to look at this too.

And it was a new show. It had five people in it. It was predominantly women. So, I mean, a lot of the things were really routine. And from my production of those two pilots came about this.

a working group of like three people at the top of myself to come up with the title and the concept. And so I did not know that. Yeah. I want to do more of that. I really, I want to break out into new avenues and I want to get away from traditional. Like I never want to go to Hollywood to do that. And I think we do too much on the East coast. I want to go to where the people are. I want to start something in the, you know, other parts of the country where,

And I love a live audience. So why not have them at those events that the rest of the country can watch? Let them see America. I'm proud of America. Well, I've always thought, yeah, part of a show that would do really well would be one that moved from...

Town to town and city to city and have good, candid discussions about what's going on in life. I totally agree with you. We'll talk some more about that. That's interesting, though. All right. Next one is unique talent nobody knows about. Well, we talked about my banana bread, but that's not really unique because that was like a pandemic thing with a lot of people. Well, the country singing kind of fills that gap. I had no idea. All right. I'll stick with it. I'll take the win.

judges will accept that and we'll work on another answer if you've got you've got something else that's out there i can know i just anyway favorite menu item favorite menu item at taco bell chalupa good answer judges like that one chalupa can't go wrong with the chalupa first concert you ever attended jackson thought i was five years old

And my mom took me to see them. We were in Dallas, Texas. She had on her Afro wig and her hot pants, another fashion statement that you may not know if you're not gently over the edge of something. And, um,

ABC was their hit. Oh, yeah. I can hear it in my head as you say it. Yeah. Mine was actually Michael Jackson. So it wasn't the Jackson 5. But he had his brothers. He had his brothers. It was at Mile High Stadium. I was in high school. I'm pretty sure it was him. It sounded like him. I just had seats that were so far up in the Grand Sands.

I couldn't tell you that I saw his face, but there was a guy way down there that looked like he could dance pretty well. And I could see the, you know, up on the jumbos Tron or whatever it was. But yeah, Michael Jackson's mind, but Jackson five judges like that even better. So that's good. First childhood celebrity crush.

I don't want to tell you that. I know. That's why I'm asking this question. You've never ducked the question. We are going to get this out of you. But what is it? He doesn't know. Wait, what? Yeah. Yeah. You just have posters of him on my ceiling. Yeah. What was his name again? What? What's his name again? You didn't say it. I can't believe our guy going to get to this answer. Oh my gosh. Jason, we're both married.

I don't think he would ever have guessed this, but I met him. So I had a crush on him when I was a teenager. And then when I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, I lived in L.A. I was working at well, I had three jobs. So one of my jobs was in Century City and I was working at an accounting firm in their secretarial pool. And there was a big party at this club.

And, you know, I was early 20-something, and some of the other secretaries were going, so I went with them. And I sat at the bar, and he and his co-star at the time each sat on either side of me. And you just melted. No, I had a conversation. Oh, my gosh. I had more confidence in my 20s than I've ever had. Like, I was just, I don't know where I got it all from. More so than now. And I chatted with him, and I didn't tell him, you know, you were my...

teenage crush or anything, because where are we going to go with that conversation? I got to know him a little bit. And then the booking team told me probably about four or five years ago that they had booked him on Outnumbered. And I almost called him sick. And I know he'd never remember talking to me because, I mean, it's been, oh my gosh, 25, 30 years ago now. But-

All right. There's enough clues there that somebody who's involved in the oversight committee can figure this out. The oversight. Wait, you still have that resource? Oh, Lordy, help me. All right. One day I will tell you. I know the judges don't like my answer. I'm going to figure this one out. By the way, my husband knows this because he watched that episode with popcorn. He was like, you're not falling sick. You're a professional. Get in there and I need something good to watch.

I love your husband. I've had a chance to meet him a couple times. I think he's going to be laughing about this. And you know what, Harris? I still know some people. So look out. I'm going to figure this out. You talked danger. I didn't take you seriously. Yeah, well, there you go. We knew they were going to hit the – that's the one right there. All right, I've got a few more questions. These are going to be much easier. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? No. Good for you.

That's the right answer. It makes it watery. Not into that. I know. You don't need liquid on your pizza. You know what? I like pineapple. I like pepperoni, but I don't put them together. All right. Favorite sport? So that's tough. I love to play tennis, but I love to watch gymnastics. Well, your daughters, right? I mean, they're just amazing. Watch your... You want to watch...

Check out Harris Faulkner's Instagram and you will see some amazing talented girls there. It's unbelievable. Thank you. My youngest is the gymnast, the competitive gymnast, who if I could brag on her just a little bit, she hates when I brag. But it's not bragging if it's true.

Right. I tell her that, but she doesn't care. USAIGC is the league that she's in and they are a feeder for college programs. So she's 12, exiting sixth grade, and she just won at New York State Championships, number one on beam at her age and level. That's like amazing.

So we're really and also first place on the all around top combination of scores. I mean, her score was just vicious for her if you add up all four events. And I'm really proud of who she is as a champion because she's the same as a winner as she is when she's learning, which is what we call losing. I call it learning. And my 14 year old is a tennis player.

So I love both those sports. I don't think I can really choose between them, but I can't do a cartwheel. So I'm not a gymnast.

I can barely walk, but I love the game of tennis. I love to play it. Well, tennis is fun. We're playing a little pickleball ourselves. Oh, fun! Yeah, it really is fun. But you know what? Being involved and engaged with your kids and what they're doing, I can't tell you how many soccer games my parents sat and watched. And I'm sure, looking back, that...

Doing that maybe wasn't always the most convenient, but they were always there and it always meant the world to me. And so good for you and your husband being so involved and engaged. All right. I got three more questions. Ideal time to go to sleep.

Anytime I'm always sleeping. Like right now, as soon as we get off of this, I would love like a little afternoon nap, but I have responsibilities, but anytime. All right. Judges will buy that. Favorite salad dressing? Chipotle ranch. If I said green goddess, would you know what I'm talking about?

I would. Yeah. It's a shame that that has kind of gone away because I don't, you know, you go out to dinner and say, what are your salad dressing choices? I don't really hear them say green goddess, but I do love the green goddess. It was really popular for a long time. My mom liked it. She also liked Roquefort blue cheese. Oh, yeah. Do you eat? I love a good bacon wedge salad. Like where they bring you like a half a stalk of romaine, you know, like a half a bushel of romaine.

And then with the bacon bits and the blue cheese and the, I look at that. I look at that as, I look at that as bacon with a side of lettuce, right? I know bacon goes with everything. It does. I heard this comedian once. I thought he was great. And he said, uh,

He said, BLT? What are you talking about, BLT? That's a bacon sandwich, America. Wake up. And bacon, you've got to stand up for yourself. That's a bacon sandwich. Nobody else takes second fiddle. And I thought, he's exactly right. That is a bacon sandwich. Bacon, you've got to stand up for yourself. There we go. I love it. All right, last question. Who's your favorite former member of Congress from Utah's 3rd Congressional District? Well...

There's only one former member of Congress from that district that has ever appeared on Outnumbered. He is a star and he is my friend, Jason Chapin. Great answer. Judges gives you two thumbs up on that one. Harris, I can't thank you enough. You are so sweet and so nice to join and very insightful. And I hope people...

really absorb what you're talking about and where you're coming from. And my family, friends, I tell you, I get comments about being on this show or being on that show, and you're right near the top of the list, if not the top of the list with so many people, oh, I saw you on. You got a great following out there and rightfully so. And it's because you care and pour your heart and soul into it. And

I got to tell you, I want to go back to right where I started from in the most difficult of moments to be able to have you give perspective and just the facts of what's going on. That is a talent and a skill and a blessing that not many have and you have it. And I just enjoy working with you and honored to be on your show from time to time and honored you'd be on the Jason in the house podcast. So thank you.

Thank you so very much for all of those kind, sweet words. And I got to know you a little bit too during this time. And I'm really appreciative of taking this journey with you on your podcast. You're knocking it out of the park and I feel blessed to be here with you today.

Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Harris Faulkner. Again, I cannot thank Harris Faulkner enough. She's just one of my favorite people on the planet. And she's just, she's such a talent. And I'm honored to call her a friend as well. So I want to close this out with some inspiration. And perhaps you saw this on the news, but the

But there was a flight and, you know, people are wearing masks. It's a long flight. Evidently, there is a person who was flying to Greece, I believe, from the United States of America. Well, that is a long flight. It's not like flying from...

Phoenix to Albuquerque. This is a long flight. But what was neat about this, and hopefully the person in question who was having some medical problems during the flight, can you imagine the anxiety? You're up over the ocean. You're in the middle of this flight. You're not feeling well. You're feeling faint.

You just know that something's going wrong. That call goes out from the flight attendant saying, is there any doctor who's here on this flight? Well, they didn't have a doctor per se, but they did have...

Two students from the LSU Health Science Center, and I apologize for not pronouncing their names properly, but it's Heather Duplissis and Lauren Bagnaris. I know, Bagnaris. I don't know how to pronounce their last names properly.

But I want them to, I just, the inspiration with two people young in their career saying, you know what, I want to get into medicine. And you know, the people that get into these health services, they've got to have a special personality. They've got to be able to deal with a tough situation, spur of the moment, and try to do the analysis as quickly as possible. And I think everybody is proud that these two women stepped up

and helped out and took care of this call for medical attention. And to me, that's inspirational. I say it a lot, but ordinary people doing extraordinary things just makes me feel my heart. And I can't thank those two women enough. And I hope the person who wasn't feeling well is doing well. So again, thanks for listening to this Jason in the House podcast. Now you got to click those stars. That would be so helpful at the end of this podcast.

You can find more Fox News podcasts over at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. So we need you to rate it, review it, like it, and join us next week. We'll have another interesting guest. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.

From the Fox News Podcasts Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. Congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcasts.com.