Majority Leader Steve Scalise on Social Security and GOP Priorities, Plus Riley Gaines Advocates for Prop 313: Life Sentences for Child Sex Traffickers
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Welcome to another jam-packed episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, we have a huge lineup for you today. We're going to be starting out with Steve Scalise. Chuck did an off-site interview with him that we're going to open up with, which was just fantastic. And then we launch right into our lineup of guests. We have Ken LaCourte, who is a friend of the program, host of Elephants in the Room. He writes about censorship, media malfeasance, underpinning,

Uncomfortable questions. There's a lot of those right now, Chuck, going around. Very much so. He's got a lot of material to cover, so we're very excited to have him. And then definitely stay tuned afterwards because we have Riley Gaines, who came to notoriety as the University of Kentucky swimmer who had to go up against Will Thomas. I'm not even crediting that guy with the name he claimed when he decided to run.

And then following that, you need to stay tuned for the podcast. We have Yuval Levine, director of social, cultural and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute. And following him, Arizona candidate Michael Way running for the statehouse here. He's got kind of an interesting backstory in this campaign. So we'll get into that. You don't want to miss any of it. We have great stuff coming up. So right now, if you're predicted, Trump win or lose?

I think Trump wins and he wins outside the margins. Senate, we win. Senate, we win 53 seats. That's good. That'd be good. House. House. Flip of the coin. Flip of the coin. Here's my bold prediction. We hold it by one. All right. I'll accept it. Without further ado, my friends, here is my interview with Majority Leader Steve Scalise this week.

We are honored to have with this House Majority Leader Steve Spillis from the First District of Louisiana. How are you? Doing great. It's good to be here in Arizona. Quick question real quick. How do you balance majority leader and constituent service in the First District of Louisiana? That's got to be hard. Yeah, you know, the first thing you do is you take care of people back home. Anybody that needs help, you're right there on top of it. You know, we continue to do events back in the district. Did a big rally for President Trump in my district. And in fact,

This is how funny it was.

The local newspaper did a front page story on it. And I was at the top of the fold and Taylor Swift is coming this weekend to New Orleans. And I was ahead of her in this. I was above at the top of the fold and she was below the fold. So my daughter, who loves Taylor Swift, was like, wait a minute, how did you outrank Taylor? I said, I have no idea. But that's the benefit of, you know, taking care of business back home. But it allows me the ability and people know, you know, to be able to be the majority leader.

you know, it helps to stay too. But it, you know, it is something that, you know, you have to go around and help other people as well. And luckily they afford me that opportunity. So you're traveling the country for members of Congress. You're here for the great Congressman Schweitzer today, who is just wonderful. And Democrats are lying about him saying he's going to get rid of Social Security. And I'm telling you, we've had him on the show many times. I've been to many fundraising meetings. There's no guy that's talked more about how to save Social Security. This is like his number one thing, right? And the Democrats...

plan to bankrupt it. You know, you leave it alone and do nothing. It goes bankrupt on its own in the next seven years. And that's all that's Biden's numbers, by the way. So this idea that, you know, Dave, who's probably one of the smartest minds on talking about the budget and debt and deficit and what you need to do to save these great programs like Medicare and Social Security that the Democrats want to bankrupt. You know, it's ironic that they would have to lie about him. But

You know, we've got this saying, if you're going to keep lying about us, we're going to start telling the truth about you. So there's a funny ad right now running in Arizona that Kamala Harris says with President Trump, your annual household expenses will increase $4,100. But then there's been studies that have come out that said under the Biden-Harris administration, household expenses have increased $12,000 a year. Yeah, it's kind of this...

You know, you take what she and Biden have done that have destroyed people's lives and just try to project it onto somebody else as if people will buy that. And by the way, nobody is buying it. You know, she's trying to blame him, Trump, for the open border, which she's the borders are. Everybody knows she has wanted open borders her whole life. Now she's got them and people hate it.

And so what's our answer? Try to blame Trump for it. You know, inflation, you've got high grocery prices, high gas prices. Because of the Biden-Harris agenda, people don't like that. So what's their answer? Try to blame Trump for it. Nobody's buying it. In fact, people know you didn't have these problems when Donald Trump was president. It's Kamala Harris who's made this mess. We'll fix it. We'll clean it up. But you got to get rid of Kamala first.

Let's talk about a national security issue. So there's been a leak within the Biden administration detailing Israel's plans to strike back at Tehran. Yeah, alarming, yes. Marco Rubio yesterday was very clear, and I agree with him, that Hoover did this committed treason. What are your thoughts, and how do we stop this? Yeah, there's been reports of where they think it came from within the Pentagon. I don't trust this administration, unfortunately, rule out.

They never even ruled out who leaked, you know, the Supreme Court memo before the Roe decision. And that was like about four people that they had basically interviewed. I don't think they want anybody to be accountable for anything in the Biden administration for all the many failures they've had. I think there will be accountability here. It's just going to have to come when President Trump's elected.

Tell our audience, what does it mean if Republicans do not keep the majority in the House of Representatives? Let's say we lose David Schweiker. What does it mean for America if we do not have control of the House of Representatives? Yeah, and this district is ground zero for some of the things that could lead to

Hakeem Jeffries being Speaker of the House. If Republicans lose the majority, Democrats take it, Hakeem Jeffries would be Speaker of the House. Go look at some of the things he said he would do. You don't have to wonder. What would it be like? They have said what they would do. They want to raise taxes. They want to lock in an open border. They want to impeach Donald Trump. So let's say Donald Trump's elected, and I think he will. I mean, he's leading in Arizona.

Donald Trump will be under attack day one, impeachment for things that he never did, constant harassment, just like we've seen with the Justice Department and all of this kind of weaponization of the federal government to go after Trump. It would be the US House of Representatives going after him every day. They wouldn't be passing bills to work with him to solve these problems.

That's who they are. The far left has taken over their party, the squad. You don't see AOC and Pelosi here campaigning for Schweikert's opponent, but Schweikert's opponent would be voting down the line with AOC and Pelosi. And so that's what's at stake. And I think people understand that.

You've been traveling the country. How many states have you been to this year? Oh, my gosh. Well over 20. You know, when you think about it in Congress, 435 seats. There's only about 40 to 45 seats that are competitive. You know, Schweikert's is one of those really expensive races that is in that 45 range where they're really going after David.

Because he's a deep thinker, because he's somebody who wants to solve these big problems, they want to try to take him out. They're not going to be successful. But it shows you, you know, with that many seats in play, the

The money that's being spent, it's like $20 to $30 million per race is being spent against these Republicans. And look, we've got opportunities to flip seats from Democrat to Republican. I was in Maine last week. Alaska, we have an opportunity to flip a seat from Democrat to Republican. So everywhere from Alaska to Maine to all points in between, we have real opportunities.

to flip seats from democrat to republican but we start by saying let's make sure we keep the good ones we've got you know you got a good member like dave schweikert you you start there and that's that's who we're fighting to keep and then let's go win some more seats to get a bigger majority so we can fix more problems as you've traveled these 20 plus states and i'm sure you're going to be on the road just the next two weeks yep and you've met with a lot of um small business owners

people who are helping th is a common theme you're concerns them that use th call for Congress. Yeah, that been pretty amazing is t now and then you'll hear a doesn't pop up in national top three issues resonate everybody is just, you kno

alarmingly concerned about the open southern border. You know, it's the problems that are coming in, you know, the criminals that are coming in and, you know, Lake and Riley, so many unfortunate deaths that have happened because hardened violent criminals are being released from prisons in other countries, coming to America, committing violent crimes.

the drugs, the opioids, the cartels in Mexico have operational control of our southern border. And they're using it to bring drugs in there to kill 150 young people in America every single day. And so it hits every community in America and the people who live it about it. Then you look at the economy.

And I'd start with grocery prices, you know, prices at the grocery store. People know how much they used to pay four years ago and what they're paying today. It's 30, 40 percent more. And some staple items like eggs are even higher. And so people aren't again, Kamala might try to, oh, it's price gouging.

It's not price. Price gouging, by the way, is illegal in almost every state in America. If that was the problem, you'd be throwing grocery store owners in jail. That's ludicrous to suggest that. It's the policies of Kamala Harris. Kamala has to decide and vote.

to pass the inflation bill, the bill that created the inflation that's raising prices right now. She cast a deciding vote. It was 50-50. She broke the tie. And then we got inflation. She owns it, and she just doesn't want to take ownership of it. The American people know. You look at high gas prices.

That's coming up everywhere you go, too, because people were paying less than $2 a gallon five years ago. Today they're paying $3.50 or more. You're in California. You're paying over $4.50 a gallon. And so people are concerned about all of those things because it's taking money out of their pockets. It's middle and low income people. You know, the Democrats love talking about fighting for the little guy and standing up to the millionaire and the billionaire as if we should be playing class warfare, which

which I think is a disgusting form of politics, to try to pit one group of Americans against another, and it's not working. People don't want to be pitted against each other. Somebody that's low income today can be a millionaire tomorrow if they work their tail off. That is the American dream, and it's under attack by these leftists like Kamala Harris. So people don't want to attack that dream. They want to fight to preserve it, even if they're low and middle income. But if they're low and middle income today, their biggest threat

is all the crazy leftist policy coming out of Washington that Kamala has been voting for down the line as a senator and as vice president. And so it resonates everywhere you go because that's the main concern people have no matter where you go.

Finally, as we wrap up here, why should people reelect David Schweiker to Congress in Arizona 1? Yeah, David is one of the guys that we need more people like in Congress. We need more people that understand the complex issues, that can articulate it. I saw at the beginning of last year, David started going down to the House floor to talk about the debt and the deficit. You might think that's something that would put people to sleep. He's got millions of views.

People that watch on C-SPAN. I hear he texts everybody every day about budget numbers. I've looked at his numbers on YouTube, and then it starts on C-SPAN and it gets put on YouTube. And it's amazing how many people around the country are watching this because people are following the debt. They care about it. And there aren't enough people talking about it. David talks about it in a way where you can actually understand it. You might get alarmed, and by the way, you should.

But when you have a person willing to stand up and say, this is the problem, this is how we fix it. We need more people like David Schweikert who are saying that and delivering that message.

not less and you watch the lies they say about him you know lying about social security as you talked about at the beginning of this all it means is they're threatened by david because he's willing to confront the challenges this country faces i will tell you this from going all around the country there are a lot more people in america who want to confront these challenges than want to demagogue them and lie about them you know so let the liars get exposed for who they are i think you

you know, when the final results are going to be tallied, David's going to win. People need to vote. People need to go and make their voices heard. But we get more people like David Schweikert in Congress. We will fix a lot of these big problems. Majority Leader Scalise, thank you so much for joining us on Breaking Battlegrounds. Great being with you. God bless. Go vote.

Hi, folks. This is Chuck Warren of Breaking Battlegrounds. Do you want to prepare for a secure retirement? Grab a pen and paper right now and write down 877-80-INVEST. As our loyal listeners know, Breaking Battlegrounds is brought to you by YREFI.

If you are concerned about your financial future and looking for a good return for your retirement, then you need to call YRefi at 877-80-INVEST. There you can earn a strong, fixed rate of return of up to 10.25%, pay no fees, and have no attack on your principal if you ever need your money back.

Just go to investyrefi.com. That's invest, the letter Y, then R-E-F-Y.com or call 877-880-INVEST. I personally invest my own money with Y Refi. I recommend you give it a serious look for your future.

The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.votewebdomain from godaddy.com. Get yours now.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Our next guest up today is Ken LaCourte, friend of the show and host of Elephants in the Room. He writes about censorship, media malfeasance, uncomfortable questions and honest insight for people curious as to how the world really works. Ken, welcome back to the program.

Thanks for being here. You're inviting me to be here. Yes, well, we love having you on. So I'm going to start with two questions. The first one is this, which is just popping up now online, is the Washington Post says it won't endorse anyone for president. The L.A. Times did the same thing. It sounds like two editors quit. Yeah, and it sounds like editorial boards are freaking out, but the owner is saying we're not doing that. What are your thoughts on this? Well, see, this proves they're fair and balanced. They're not biased.

You guys have been bitching for years about them being kind of left-leaning. Um...

Look, it is amusing. It is kind of silly in the sense that, look, these guys see their numbers, and their numbers aren't doing great, and they can't just blame the Internet or whatnot. I mean, they are in a business that has been slowly cutting its throat for the last decade, and every time we get Trump on there, they just keep cutting harder.

They have turned themselves from fair arbiters of news, and they still kind of pretend that they're that into just kind of hardcore partisan publications. And they shouldn't be shocked when they do that and half their audience leaves or more. And the owners are –

They're softly trying to figure it out. They don't want to be accused of having heavy-handedism and running the rooms, but they have let the inmates run the asylums, and that asylum is – they're not making much money at these publications anymore. In fact, Washington Post is bleeding money so much that it's like can a billionaire – does he still want to lose that kind of dough?

So that is a small, half-hearted attempt to undo that. What they really need to do is fire exactly half of the staff, hire more of a balance on that, and then actually get back into journalism. I think there may be a market for that. Well, the funny thing about this, too, as Sam mentioned, two editors have already quit the L.A. Times for not doing this. It shows you the arrogance in this bubble they live under that they think their endorsement means anything to swing voters. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, first of all, there are no swing voters that are going to vote. It's also L.A. Well, especially swing voters who getting an endorsement from the Washington Post, L.A. Times means anything, right? And it's like, look, I used to live in L.A. I used to read the newspaper there, but...

I still live in California, and when I would go there, it was just, okay, if I want it to be that pure, I'll just go to Washington Post and get my information there. They've become that kind of a partisan rag. So I think it's completely meaningless for this last action except on the internal, and maybe they will institute some other actions, but I won't hold my breath on that.

All right. So we have an election coming up here on November 5th. Can I before we move on real quick? I'm sorry, Chuck. I want to stick on this for just one second. Ken, is the power of the podcast in this cycle causing that reassessment in some of these newsrooms that all of a sudden it's it's Rogan and these other guys who are guiding voters more than them?

I think it's going to be all of that. I mean, at some point they'll be saying, well, it's just, you know, it's financial. We can't do podcasts. You know, it's a lot of things. I suspect, though, that it's the numbers that we can't see. Yeah.

It's how much they are probably hemorrhaging money and scratching their head on that. It's got to be more salient than that. I mean, clearly they see the rise of digital, and that's going to be a factor. And that's really what's going to bury them if they don't switch around to some other type of way to earn money and be a reporter. Well, even a billionaire losing $100 million there, $100 million there adds up after a while. So, okay, we have election night coming up November 5th.

Tell us, being a former Fox executive, what do the networks do to prepare for election night? How far out does that start?

Give us a little insight of the newsroom how this happens. What's the preparation? So it's a quadrennial Super Bowl for them, right? So it's a big, big deal. They know that extra millions of people are going to be watching. They know that they have some high-profile things that they don't want to screw up, whether it's calling the Bush Gorb and then having to uncall it because some –

One county in Florida flipped, and it was so close, and fighting all that. So it's a big, big deal to them. Internally into it, there's always kind of push and fights between every subdivision of a large news organization like Fox News. You've got the opinion people, the Hannity's of the world, who are like –

Hey, we want to have a big role in this. We're the ones who kind of make all your money. We're in the prime time. We're earning – our ratings are radically bigger than you news guys over there who just – Bear Show is pretty good, but it's no Hannity when it comes to ratings. So you've got internal kind of fights going on like that, the news side versus the opinion side. You also have some regional differences because –

The D.C. Bureau is a subset of the whole operation. They are the second largest bureau. They might have a hundred people there, whereas the headquarters might have a couple thousand. And like the next biggest bureau for Fox, at least, would be out in Los Angeles with maybe 50 people or so. So but the D.C. guys.

Because everybody in D.C. thinks a lot of themselves – the D.C. guys are the ones that are like, we're special forces. Nobody can talk about politics like we live this, we breathe this. So there's kind of like internal fighting too, right, of regionals. They're basically handed those. Bubbles.

They are basically hand – well, it's a bubble, but it's also just we're the experts. We don't want reporter X up there talking about things because he or she doesn't know what they're talking about. We live and breathe polls. But they are largely given the reign of that night when it comes to it because they are the experts.

Right.

They're the big, heavy nerds. They're the ones that we'll look at, that we'll know. You know, Washoe County is coming out higher than it did, and he got – Trump got X percentage last time. He's doing better to try to do those predictions because with news, you want to be the first to predict things. But that's a lot, lot less than being wrong and looking stupid. So you've got those two things. It's like be first.

But even more important, don't make us undo one of those calls. Don't make us look stupid because people will remember that forever. People were freaking out about, was it the Nevada or Arizona? Arizona. Arizona they were freaking out over. They did screw up on it and they called it too early. And then they were like, we're not backing out. We're just going to shut our mouths and hope that it eventually turns that way. And it did. That wasn't because they were geniuses. It was because they...

They made a mistake in looking at the numbers of incoming mail ballots that were dropped off that day as opposed to had been mailed. So those guys are like isolated in so that producers and people don't bug them and be like, what about this? What about that? And so literally they're in a separate room that's kind of adjacent to the big –

the big guy you've seen maybe making Kelly or whatnot, walk into that room. So they've got that stuff going on. And on top of that, it's renting big rooms. It's getting beautiful sets. It's, it's, you know, getting everything, getting everything going for, for the big prom.

Ken, we have just 45 seconds left in this segment, so I don't want to launch into anything that requires too long a response. We'll come back with more from Ken LaCourte here in our next segment in just a moment. But in the meantime, folks, Ken, how do folks follow you and your work?

You can find me on two places. One is Substack. My last name is LaCorte, L-A-C-O-R-T-E. And then I do kind of less partisan things, but on YouTube I have, it's called Elephants in Rooms. I look at uncomfortable questions that are sometimes obvious things that we get into deep, like why do Arabs always lose wars? Last war they won against the West was 1187 A.D. Good question. Breaking Battlegrounds coming right back.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. We have with us today Ken LaCourte. You can find him on Twitter at Ken LaCourte. Ken, you were talking about, before the segment break, about some interesting stories.

areas that you look into a little bit differently, like when's the last time Arabs have won a war in the Middle East against the West, etc. But you did one article, which I was reading, is a topic that comes up a lot now when I talk to especially women, and you wrote, how did body positivity go off the rails?

And it just seems like it's taken off and they're promoting a lifestyle that no medical professional is going to say is healthy for you. And a lot of the promoters are already dying, like in their 20s and 30s. And Ken mentions that in his article. So, Ken, I want to get back to politics, but I want you to discuss this a little bit because I thought it was a very good write-up. I've forwarded it to various people, but tell us a little bit about it. You know, one of the biggest trends that you have to be careful of in the world is being nice because niceness –

can lead to ugliness and kindness. And, you know, being kind and gentle is right up in certain times is right up a budding being somebody who's an enabler. And we saw this in the, in the, in the, in kind of the fat movement that, that it was a group that, that it was really kind of both coming on as the, as the anti-bullying campaign was, was ratcheting up in schools and everywhere else 10 years ago, which led to a lot of things to, to,

to, you know, transgender nuttiness. It led to, you know, led to a lot of things in there. And it was also coming up at the same time that TikTok and Instagram was coming up. And there became a substantive movement of, you know, don't hate us because we're fat. And that's a great concept. We shouldn't, you know, it can be easy to mock people who, where you can see, how do I say it? You can see their...

publicly, right? I mean, if you're a lazy person or if you're a procrastinator, you know, when you walk out of your house, everybody doesn't look and you don't have a big T written on your forehead. But when you have a hard time with weight, it is that. But that morphed into don't ask us what we weigh in doctor's offices. How dare you as a antique

Anti-cancer group implied that being overweight might cause cancers because that's like blaming us for our cancer. It took that kindness movement into a whole concept of one group is like healthy at any weight. And you literally had cosmopolitans putting radically obese women on the cover saying this is healthy.

You had Sports Illustrated getting a very small segment of women, huge, not sexy women being pouted as sexy women on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

And people wonder why Sports Illustrated is dead. Yeah. But you know what? They probably won't endorse anybody in the next election. It'll be fine. We'll forget about it. So and that turned into a real that, you know, it's like these these these concepts that sound so good, you know.

Let's make sure that every violent offender can have a chance to get bail. Okay, well, that's great until then he's shooting somebody else the next weekend and now you can't go into an AM PM in Oakland without being killed.

And this was one of that. And it's the whole country. A lot of our political changes kind of burbled out of the heavy, heavy don't be a bully campaign. Look, when I went to high school, it was all about don't do drugs. And every month we went and saw some kid who, you know, saw the pictures of lungs of somebody who smoked marijuana. I mean, the whole bad thing. When my kids...

who are now in their 20s, went to school every month and every time. And it was all about bullying. And we're starting to see kind of the ramifications of some of that. Well, I just Googled up here and I looked at there's a poll out by a university that 15% or over half a million people in the United States categorized as obese are found to be healthy.

It's only 15%. I mean, I mean, think about that. 85% are not healthy, but we're pushing this like that. Those are BMI people who often are weightlifters. And even that is BS. Yeah. It's just like, it is, it was doctors trying to say, well, but if they don't have high blood pressure and arterial sclerosis and things, they're healthy. That was even a,

But yeah, I mean, I talked about that country. Look at the states where they're obese and the states where people die. Right. No, no. I agree. But even them trying to do a best spin and say 15 percent. OK, we have about a about one minute left here quickly with a longer show. Oh, I talked to the radio show station. So so quickly here. Does Trump win or to Kamala?

I would hate that because then you look Trump. If I had a decent amount of money to bet on something, I would bet on Trump winning. I would even bet a modest amount on Trump winning big and

and us knowing by the close of Tuesday if they actually count the votes, him possibly winning the national vote and taking a few states that we said, wow, I didn't see that one coming. And whether that's, you know, whether that is New Hampshire, which a recent poll, the most recent poll in New Hampshire showed at 3%, which is like, that's a big change. Every sign points to that. On the other hand, one of my hobbies this week

recently was watching the 2016 Democrats meltdown. Every data point in 2016 pointed to a Hillary blowout. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us. We always appreciate having you on the program. Breaking Battlegrounds coming right back.

Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Our next guest up today, someone we are very, very excited to have in the studio, Riley Gaines, graduated from the University of Kentucky, where she was a 12-time All-American swimmer and has made waves for speaking out ever since. After tying UPenn's, I'm not going to say Leah, whatever the person's name is, Thomas, a biological male swimmer on a women's team at the 2022 NCAAs,

That had to be the most disconcerting experience, Riley, because you and the women on your team and the women you were competing against had put in a lot of effort to get to that point, to be in a position to win a championship. And then this 6'4 guy comes along. It's so funny you describe this, and you almost chuckle. And that's even still how I feel, how I think most Americans feel, because...

It's like a South Park episode that we lived in real life or like a Babylon Bee headline or an SNL skit. But again, it was reality for us. It's crazy. It's so absurd. People still shake their heads about it. I mean, I still have women talk to me about it all the time. The photos of that guy on the podium were just so disconcerting. I didn't even know. We're like...

How can this be our reality that we're living in? Nine inches taller than me. Adam's apple. I'm standing on the block next to him, okay, and I look over. His feet take up the whole entire platform. He has a bulge in his women's swimsuit. I'm sitting there looking at this, and I do, even in the midst of it, you almost can't help but laugh. It really would be objectively funny if there weren't...

If it wasn't reality. If there weren't women losing out and being exploited in locker rooms and being injured in their sports, whatever that is, I mean, it is objectively meant to be funny. Ten years ago, if you had been a writer for one of the major broadcast networks and wrote that story, it probably would have been rejected.

Because no one's going to accept this. No one's going to think this is real. And now it's being rejected because it's overly offensive to the person who is trans or whatever. You know, what I saw today, did you see the bit about the cyclist today who said that they were a transgender who said, I'm going to stop competing against women because I realize it's unfair? No, I did not see that. Yeah, the big piece in the New York Post today. Oh, yeah.

But you know what? I feel like people who are a part of the LGBTQ community in whatever facet that looks like,

What I have seen is a growing, I mean, a growing percentage of people who, especially lesbians, are like, hey, this is wrong. You know, this is harmful to us and, you know, the progress that we've had. This takes us all back in time because, and actually it was someone who, again, calls himself a lifelong liberal who told me not too long ago, they said,

The difference between the gender ideology movement and what we went through as lesbians is we fought for our rights. The trans community is not willing to fight for their rights. They just want to take your rights away as women and claim them as their own, which I thought was interesting. That's a very good point. So what brings you to Phoenix?

Well, I'm super duper excited to be here. Can I tell you, I saw a tumbleweed for the first time. Really? Did you really? I've never seen it. I thought that was only in cartoons. No, no, no. They're real. Try driving over one and looking at the front of your car afterwards. Oh, it's bad. What does it do? Oh, they will shred the front end of your car. They will scrape all the paint off. Oh, wow. No, I literally thought these were only in cartoons. So other than to see a tumbleweed...

We are here tonight for an event with America First Works. It is called Our Children Are Not For Sale. And really the purpose of this is we are urging voters, one, to get to the ballot box, and two, to vote yes on Proposition 313. And what does that do? What this would do is ensure life imprisonment for anyone who is sexually trafficking a minor.

Seems pretty uncontroversial, but unfortunately... Every Democrat voted against it, didn't they? Every Democrat in the Arizona Senate. I think you had two in the House who voted for it. Do people know that here? No, no. They've got a very poor job communicating it to people. And how do you think it would be received amongst the Democratic... They would be outraged. I think so, too. I think over half Democrats would be outraged by it, too. I think so, too. You did have, you know, for instance, like there's one senator running...

a woman running for re-election on the Democrat side, who very deliberately did not go in that day. Duh. Right? Duh. But other than that, they all voted this stuff down. And it just doesn't make any sense to me at all that this party that says every day, every ad, that they're the party of women...

And here's the sad thing is, I would imagine a lot of these legislators have children of their own. And that's where I find it to be just totally, I can, if you use the argument, okay, well, you want to be whatever virtuous word they're claiming to be. But when you have your own children. But it's, but Riley, it's the same thing about these children.

Democratic officials who complain about private schools and charter schools but a majority of them send their kids to private schools and they and they they don't see the irony in it which is what's just laughable although as you were saying that I I hadn't really thought that through before and I started running through the roster in my head of the Arizona Democrats in our house and Senate only a handful of them that I'm aware of actually do have children

You're younger, aren't they? A lot of them are younger, and a lot of them are LGBTQ type. So, Riley, as you've been going across the country and trying to get people out to vote, what is your sense –

Talking to people do you feel they're hopeful for the future? Do you feel they're nervous about the future? What would it because you're having conversations and? Let's be honest women are a little more honest with women about things right, so what do you find? What's the mood well? I feel more hopeful and encouraged at this point than I have at any point throughout this entire This entire election process and cycle which is is a good thing and I think we're seeing that in polls and different things So so that's great

We're seeing that because people understand, maybe not to the full extent, but people are beginning to understand at least just how much is at stake. It's not even just the whole men and women's sports stuff. I mean, a lot of people see this as we could potentially be on the brink of like World War III here. And unfortunately, I mean, it's sad. It takes these pretty, I mean, crazy, absurd, tragic,

tragic scenarios for people to be motivated, but we know that's how it works. So I'm expecting and hoping for a large voting turnout, people voting not just for president, but on things like these propositions that we're talking about here today for their local state reps and senators and things like that, all really important stuff. I think people are more tuned in, especially women and especially younger people. That's been super cool. I've been able to get on college campuses, which has been...

A big push of mine. I think I've spoken on 17 different college campuses over the past 40 days. So it's it's kind of been a whirlwind. But younger people, they're amped up, man. They're they're ready to, you know, they're mobilized. They're ready to go. They're ready to do what they can, especially first time voters. So Riley, in high school, you never could have written on a yellow pad that you're in the position you're at today.

No. No. I would have never imagined I would personally be in this position or a position it would be necessary for anyone to be in. How has that been for you to adapting to this type of celebrity versus being a celebrated athlete versus now you're the spokesman of common sense for women? Well...

When I graduated college, I majored in human health sciences and health law. I was in dental school, actually set to be an endodontist, which is a specialized dentist who performs root canals, basically. So to say that this is a 180, I mean, that's an understatement, really. Although I kind of still justify it by saying I'm still working on getting to the root of the problem coming out of people's mouths. So it kind of still feels like a root canal. But I've just...

It's so unique. I didn't feel prepared for this by any means. I knew nothing about our government. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I knew nothing about civics in general, really. I never had to take a government course. I never had to take history past ninth grade. I knew we had three branches of government.

Didn't know what they did. I still don't know what they do. I don't even think they know what they do, to be totally honest with you. They clearly do not. Yeah. I mean, I never had to take a public speaking course. Or I did, actually. My face would turn the color of a tomato. I mean, I was by no means prepared for this. But...

That's how God works, you know? What's the best advice you have received as you've undertaken this campaign for common sense? I think the best advice I've received is to not punch down, which is hard, being someone who is... An athlete competitor. A competitor. I'm feisty. It's hard for me to hold my tongue. And I feel like, for the most part, I do a good job of ignoring the naysayers. I don't even read them half the time now. I don't even look at it. No, nor should you. Except when it's Keith Olbermann. Yeah.

Doesn't he just ingratiate you? I'm sorry. He's just an awful human being. I can't help myself with him. I'm like, I actually, my fingers are typing. I'm not even meaning to send this. Can I tell you how badly he's ruined all my childhood sports center memories? He was so talented. He was so funny. Now he's...

I'm literally concerned about his mental health. I think we should all be. And he's fascinated by you. It's the weirdest thing ever. I'm like, dude. Obsessed. I'm like, dude. Yeah, he should be studied, actually. I think when Tim Walz is saying that men need tampons, I think Keith Olbermann is the only one.

He's talking about. So who checks up on you? I mean, being in this position, you're not used to this type of criticism. Who checks up on you and saying, are you doing okay? Who gives you your pep talk? I take it you're married. I'm married. Is he a good pep talker? He's the best. He's the best. He's here in Arizona with me today. I saw this tall man, so I figured it was him. He's this tall British cowboy now.

He's from England, and so he lived over there until college, came over to swim at Kentucky. So, uniquely enough, he swam against Thomas when Thomas was Will Thomas. So it was the British accent that got you. Is that what you're telling me? You know what? It just melted. I don't want to be that girl, but it kind of was.

It was. It's okay. Day one off the plane, I went to all my friends. I said, I call him. I have a friend who became Australian in about the seventh grade. It's worked out magnificently, so I can't even argue with this. Yeah, right? Exactly. So he's fantastic. I have a wonderful family in general.

lots of siblings I've got two parents your siblings and parents handled all this is this because they're in the realm now - yeah people are cruel I come from a family of athletes so my dad was a professional football player played in the NFL my mom is a softball player she played at the division one level my oldest sister went to Ole Miss and she played softball and my brother he's in college he plays football now my youngest sister is 15 and she is actually she just turned 16 this week

She is an elite level gymnast and dare I say the best athlete out of all of us, which pains me to say. What's your dad's name? What team did he play for? Brad Gaines. So he played with the Eagles, a couple other teams. I have four uncles. They all played. So who do we root for on Sunday? Ooh.

You know what? I'm a lot more interested in college football. NFL, I'm kind of just like, eh. But you went to the University of Penn, so who's your team then? My team is... Well, Thomas went to the University of Pennsylvania. I went to the University of Kentucky. Okay. Which...

I root for them. Yeah. It's a little tough in that league. It's a little tough. But basketball. Yeah, yeah. Come on. Exactly. So we like Kentucky. I pretty much like everyone in the SEC except for University of Tennessee. When I hear Rocky Top, I want to rip my ears out. And Orange is objectively ugly. I'm sorry. I said it. It's a terrible orange, too. Oh, it's the most gaudy orange ever. So, yeah. What's the most interesting question you've been asked recently?

by somebody you've talked to about getting out the most interesting question you've been asked. Let's see, the most interesting question. Um...

Well, it's always it's it's interesting because you talk to people who support you and there's not a lot of pushback, right? Like it's it's people who are, you know, they say you're so brave, which cracks me up because I do not feel brave. It's not brave to say men and women are different. So there's not a lot of pushback there. But what's super interesting is when you talk to those who who don't necessarily agree with you and you bring up the topic and you're going back and forth and

It is so hilarious because they can never – you just can't trap me in a corner on this topic. You just can't. There's nothing you can say that I can't provide a rebuttal to. That's going to cause you pause and make you rethink it, right? Nothing, because it's so entry-level, really. And so in talking with the other side, it's pretty hilarious. I've seen a lot over the – especially on college campuses, college students who identify

I was protested, actually, on South Carolina's campus by a furry. I mean, a full suit. I didn't know if he was a fox or a squirrel, and I said something like, I called him a fox, I think, and he said, I misspecie'd him because he was a squirrel. I misspecie'd him. So that was pretty interesting. That's good. But you can't help but laugh. That is insane. Riley, how do folks follow you? We've got just one minute left. How do they stay up with you and all the work you're doing?

Well, you can come tonight to the event right here in Arizona. You can find more details at AmericaFirstWorks.com. But you can follow me along on X. It is Riley underscore Gaines underscore. You can watch my show on Outkick. It is the Gaines for Girls podcast. Really doing great work there. It's fun to be on the other side of things.

I just wrote a book. It's a national bestseller called Swimming Against the Current, so you can check that out. Very good. Very good. Thank you to all of our guests today. We really appreciate you folks. Make sure you stay tuned for the podcast. If you're not subscribed, if you're not downloading that, you need to be. For Chuck Moran, this is Sam Stone, and Breaking Battlegrounds will be back next week. And vote yes on Prop 313.

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We're continuing on now with our next guest, Yuval Levine. He is the Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. That is a broad title, Chuck. Very broad. At the American Enterprise Institute, where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. Yuval Levine, thank you and welcome to the program. Thanks very much for having me. So, Yuval.

Mr. Levine, so most Americans, we hear a lot of talk about the Bill of Rights, which I'm guessing a majority of people don't know what's in the Bill of Rights. But besides the focus on the Bill of Rights, what is special about the Constitution outside those Bill of Rights? You know, obviously the Bill of Rights are very important. They draw out some boundaries on government power and therefore some protections for people's individual rights. I think that's crucial. But is

It is really vital to see that the Constitution itself, the framing of the structure of our government, the definition of what Congress is, what the president is, what judges are, ultimately paints a kind of picture of what American politics can be that describes a way of life that's organized around accommodating differences.

Setting up a system that allows differences to be addressed through negotiation and accommodation, a system with Congress at its center, which we really forget now, and with clear roles assigned to the individual constitutional actors. Our politics now is so out of whack. Our system has gone so far from the one the Constitution describes that I think just becoming reacquainted with the Constitution, seeing how it could help us address the problems we have is

is really a task for every American citizen. There's a lot in it for a country that feels itself divided and in need of finding ways to unify. That's really what the Constitution was for. We're with Yuval Levine, Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Yuval, with what you were just talking about, I've been thinking this for a few years, Chuck. I'm curious of your opinion.

I think there could be a real role and an opportunity if someone came along and said, I'm going to create a third party that's trying to win four seats in the Senate, 12 seats in the House, and force both sides to compromise on every issue.

Like we're just going to bring everyone to the table by creating this tiny niche third party that just won't allow either side to operate on their own. I'm going to pull everybody back to having what the principles of our constitution is. Yeah, I mean – This is why these wise men put it together. The fundamental principle of the constitution, like you just said, is compromise, working together. Yeah.

100%. I would say that the structure of our system really builds into parties in a way that's hard to overcome, but I think that at least as a temporary measure,

Making that kind of run, helping people see what we're missing would help enormously. And the other way to get at it is through internal factions within the parties, which is actually how this has often happened in American history. We're living in a moment now when the parties are unusually cohesive internally. You're not allowed to disagree. And they hunt heretics rather than seeking converts.

A party that really wanted to win in America would allow for a broader tent around itself so that there could be some internal disagreement that ultimately leads to a coalitional way of thinking, and it would achieve something like what you're describing, which is the ability to bargain and compromise across party lines while still having a clear majority coalition. I think the knack for that, for building coalitions, is really what we've lost in 21st century politics.

Let me take the next thing to the executive branch. Do you feel that the presidency is overstepping what they should be doing? I mean, you know, go back to Obama, Trump included, Biden. Are they overstepping and what needs to be done to rein them back?

Absolutely. I mean, they don't even hide it, right? We've had several recent presidents say, whether with regard to immigration or health care or student loans, they'll say things like, if Congress doesn't act, I will. Well, what that is, is just announcing that you're violating the Constitution. There is not anything that Congress could do that the president also could do if he wanted. Their jobs are different. And

and to say if congress doesn't act i will just say i'm going to overstep my bounds and act as a legislator i think many of our recent presidents have done this but frankly in particular president biden and president obama did this on very controversial issues were congress did not come to an agreement

And they just said, well, OK, then I'll be Congress and act here. And the price for that is enormous. I mean, it distorts the office of the presidency in a very profound way. And I think we're only beginning to pay that price. It's something that really has to be pulled back. Well, it's also, I think, led to the dysfunction and the anger of the voting populace because they think their president's secure all now.

And that's what's frightening to me.

are very, very important for our system being able to function in divided times. And how much is that affecting? I had a bit of an up-close view of this at the city of Phoenix, where a lot of times every federal program, every federal dollar now comes with a giant manual for what it can be used for, how it can be used, who can be hired, so forth and so on.

They're not just stepping on the role of Congress. They're actually getting down into stepping on the role of the states, counties and cities across the country.

Yeah, absolutely right. You know, American federalism is intended to work as parallel tracks for government, right? The federal government and the state governments both govern the people directly. The federal government only in a few discrete areas on economic policy and defense and foreign affairs. The states in every other area, they're not supposed to get in each other's way. There's often a way of talking about federalism that sees them as layered.

the federal government sits above the states well that is not how the constitution sees american federalism they sit next to each other and they both govern i think what we've done especially in health care and in welfare and education but you see it in transportation now you see it in housing

is the federal government will put money on the table and say, "If you, the state or city, want this money, then here are ten things you have to do." And then they can tell a judge, "Well, we're not telling them what to do. We're just offering them money." And of course, for money, there have to be rules. But what they're doing, in effect, is deforming American federalism in a way that really makes it difficult for our federalist system to let states and cities do things their own way, experiment with different kinds of policy solutions, let people live in different ways.

Do you think that it would be – I know Chuck and I both do, but I think it would be cathartic to the conflict in this country to return significantly to the founders' vision of federalism and devolve a lot of these powers from the executive agencies back to Congress, the Senate, and back into the states. Do you think that would help us tone down the rhetoric right now?

Absolutely. This is really the sense in which I think the Constitution can be a unifying force, because if we actually see how it intends to structure American political life, at the core of it are two things. First of all, federalism provides us with the ability to solve problems in different ways at the same time, in different places. If California wants to be California, okay, go bankrupt yourself, do what you want. It

and secondly, to solve national problems through negotiation. Both of those become much more difficult when we centralize power in the way we have. Centralized power in the national government and within it centralized power in the presidency. That makes it much more difficult for there to be a diversity of modes of governing that can negotiate with each other and compete with each other. I think we've prevented ourselves from having access to these tremendous achievements of the American constitutional system

And getting them does, yeah, it requires returning to the vision of the founders, which is sitting there in the Constitution waiting for us to see its value and to implement it. There'd be some cost to it. Again, the federal government puts a lot of money on the table, and so it's very hard for people to wean themselves off of that. But the benefits would be enormous.

One of the things that in watching all of this unfold and the federal government keep expanding and expanding, one of the things that I encountered over and over, and I'm curious as to your point of view, is –

There is no accountability with a federal bureaucracy when they do not deliver. They put the money out there. They create a program. There's never any accountability, whereas our system was literally designed to ensure that when it came to the delivery of program services that it was done at the local level where there would be accountability for local elected officials. How do we start creating accountability in these federal agencies or how do we hold their feet to the fire?

Yeah, I mean, here again, I think the core problem is the amount of power that resides in the agencies themselves. These federal agencies are essentially the least accountable part of American government, right? Because although they're technically answerable to the president, it's not actually easy for the president to exercise authority over a lot of the agencies that take themselves to be independent, and they're very far from the citizen. Like you say, if your local government is responsible for something,

If you don't get it, you can show up at a meeting and just express yourself. Go try to do that with the EPA. Try to do that with the kinds of federal agencies that now operate in so many domains. And there's nowhere to go, and there's no one to hear you. So I think it is really a matter of moving power away from federal agencies' –

in the federal framework from the national government in the broader framework and allowing power to flow in ways that are ultimately accountable to voters. There's

There's no other way. You know, the idea that we can only solve these problems by centralizing power in the hands of experts assumes that those experts know how to solve the problems. And when they don't, we're left with nothing to do, with no mode of accountability. So I think we have to prefer accountability over technical expertise today.

to just know we're doing that, make that decision, because there's no perfect technical solution to these problems. We just need to be able to learn from our own mistakes, which is impossible to do when no one is accountable. I have a question about the legal profession, since you're a constitutional scholar. Based on the various proposals I hear, let's eliminate the filibuster, let's do this, let's do that, do you think most attorneys coming out of law school now truly understand the Constitution?

Well, I'll tell you. So I'm not a lawyer. I'm a recovering political scientist. But it does seem to me that what I'm struck by in writing about the Constitution is that the response you get from critics of the Constitution is so often a response from law professors. That is, we've got an entire array of legal educators now who see it as their job to train new lawyers to hate the law. I mean, let's just put it frankly.

They're teaching against the Constitution, teaching them why it isn't right for us. And the people they're training are lawyers. They're the people who have to make the system work. I think the very center, the locus of anti-constitutionalism now in American life is the legal academy. I agree, and that's the purpose of my question. So how do you think – well, let me ask you this. I'm going to back up for a minute here. You're a recovering political scientist. Now you're a constitutional scholar.

As you study the Constitution more and more, has it built a deeper love for it, and do you feel it was inspired? What is your opinion on the Constitution? Absolutely. And I think this is really the beginning of the answer to your question, which is Americans need to know the Constitution, need to understand its sophistication, need to understand the kinds of problems to which it is intended as a solution.

I think oftentimes we take a very simplistic sort of approach to it and say, well, it's not purely democratic, right? It denies us this or that. But why? It's always important to ask, what problem was it solving? What question was it answering? And when you start to do that, you realize how sophisticated the Constitution is and how much more sophisticated it is than its critics.

It understands that only majority rule can legitimate public power, but also that majorities can be dangerous and they have to be constrained. It understands that we need both elites and popular power. And ultimately what the Constitution says is I don't trust elites over the people. I don't trust the people over elites. I don't trust anybody. And that's why nobody gets all the power and everybody gets some power.

That logic is the logic of American life. And I think when we understand the Constitution that way, we can come to appreciate what it has to offer us. And oftentimes now we just see it through these simplifying lenses that only teach us to see what's wrong with it and don't help us to understand how it's made possible this extraordinary republic that we live in, the world's longest enduring democracy.

You had a new book that came out this year on that, American Covenant, How the Constitution Unified Our Nation and Could Again. Folks can get that on Amazon and elsewhere. But real quick before we end, what are the first steps to using the Constitution to reunify this country?

I think the absolutely central thing to realize is that the Constitution wants us to have a politics of negotiation and accommodation, and that at the center of that, at the national level, has to be Congress.

The biggest problem for Friends of the Constitution now is the weakness of the U.S. Congress, and oftentimes it's intentional weakness, the fact that members don't want to make the hard decisions, don't want to do their jobs. I think we as voters have to see what the purpose of our representative institutions are and demand that our politicians and our representatives understand their jobs in the right way. A reacquaintance with the Constitution really has to be the beginning of that, and that's the aim of the book.

I love it. Thank you so much, Yuval Levine. We very much appreciate having you on the program, folks. Where can folks follow you and your work and stay in touch with everything you're doing? Best to do that at the American Enterprise Institute. So AEI.org. You can find everything I do there. Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. And we look forward to having you back again in the future. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Really appreciated Yuval Levine on the previous segment. He was fantastic talking about a lot of constitutional issues. And I think, you know, obviously Breaking Battlegrounds is based here in Arizona. We have offices in Florida. And so our next interview is with Michael Way. He is running for the state legislature here in Arizona. I think a lot of times people are like, why are you bringing on these local guys on a national program? They're not.

The fact of the matter is the issues that, Michael, you and the Arizona legislature are going to be dealing with, a lot of those are the same all across the country. And the local level of politics has much more impact on people's daily lives, quite frankly, than the federal government. We spend all our time talking about the presidency issues.

Folks, if you want to change your state, you do it starting at your state legislature, at your city councils, at your school boards. So, Michael, as you've jumped into this, you're a first-time candidate. You're not a politician. What has been the most surprising and the most difficult thing about running for office?

Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me on the show. I appreciate that. And the most surprising thing I've learned, I threw my hat in the ring in January, and I think the most important advice or maybe the most real advice that I've received over these past 10, 10 and a half months is,

There's no such thing as permanent friends. There's no such thing as permanent enemies. Just permanent self-interests. And maybe I'm a little more jaded now than I was 10 months ago, but that's politics and that's what you signed up for, I guess. Do you have a dog? Because politicians need dogs. Do you have a dog? I don't. We were actually advised by my campaign consultant to get one for the pictures. Oh.

No, we don't. I'm just telling you, the dog won't betray you. It's not transactional. The dog's just going to love you full time. I mean, look, in this cycle, we've had a candidate who borrowed a family for the photos. What do you hope to accomplish in the legislature? Well, you know, I...

I have a, you know, I'm new to politics from a political perspective. My father did serve in the legislature many, many years ago. I think I'm a little more involved than maybe your average individual. But getting into it, deciding to get into it was actually 2020. And, you know, especially in Arizona, the past six, eight to six years, I feel like the Republicans have slowly been losing ground.

I don't think that's a feeling. I think that's pretty much a fact. At least from the positions of power. We've gone from super majorities in the House and Senate. Exactly. But I don't feel... I know we have people moving in from California, but I don't feel like Arizona is as blue as it is being purported to be. I still feel that we're very red. I feel like

Trump did what he did in 2016 to 2020 and people's lives got a whole lot better. The only way that their lives could have maybe increased in value was, OK, well, let's stop the mean tweets. And and people didn't really show out to vote 2020, 2022. And that's one of the biggest reasons is expanding the tent and wanting to bring civility back and dialogue and

If you've got – I believe it's Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment. Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican. And I think Arizona has some of the dirtiest. We have some nasty people. We do. And that brings up the great point that J.D. Vance made yesterday. He just said, you know, whether you're voting for me or not, do not lose a family member or a friend over politics. Right.

Right. And we do not seem to have the ability, especially in the Republican Party here right now, to allow somebody to have a semblance of disagreement with us. And it's just generally shades of red. It's not like their night and day difference. And it's and I think you're right. It's alarming. And we need some legislators that are going to set the example of civility. And I think I can I think I can help help with that. It's it was an interesting primary. Yeah.

And I understand the purposes of primaries. You go out, you pick your horse, and you root for that horse at the end of the finish line. And for those of us, a lot of our candidates won primaries. Some of them didn't, but we need to get behind those.

that did win and support them in the general you're supporting the party in November you're supporting a candidate in Arizona's instance July in the past and this is kind of one of the interesting things talking to like some left leaning folks who have moved here who think that Democrats here are vastly different than Democrats in California where they move from

I think that was true 20 years ago. They're not now. I do not think there's any real difference now in that regard. And so you're bringing up one of the most important points I keep hammering on and have for the last few years is on our side, we need to understand you can fight like cats and dogs in a primary. Right. And that's what they're for.

But then afterwards, everyone's got to get on the same page and get back to moving this state into a more conservative direction because it works. I mean –

And seeing – I was just at that rally. I think it was three, four weeks ago. Tulsi and RFK were promoting Trump, and it was incredible to see –

I believe it was Tulsi. She asked at the beginning of the rally, how many of you were Democrats two years ago or a year ago? And 10 to 15 percent of the hands went up in the audience. And I thought that was pretty incredible. And just some of the latest numbers in my district, District 15, the numbers that I've seen as of yesterday, so far voter turnout's around 23 percent. We have roughly 21,000 Republicans that have early voted.

Roughly 10,000 Democrats, almost 10,000 independents. What we're seeing is a rise in Republican early returns, which in a lot of ways is actually kind of a return to where we were pre-2016, quite frankly, because we won the turnout battle in early ballots every single election before that.

I want to move on a little bit because I know you have a background in education and schools. If you listen to the teachers union, the only issue that matters is just giving them more money with no strings attached. Let them hand it. It will solve everything. Yeah.

Apparently, because it solves so much in D.C. and New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles where they're all spending $25,000 to $30,000 or more per year per student, and their results are worse than ours here in Arizona. Like I saw yesterday, 19% can pass reading and math proficiency in those cities. Baltimore had not one public school where –

Even a quarter of their students were proficient in math or English. They had – I think it was eight or nine that had nobody proficient in math, period. That's astounding. But so we're told it's money. But there are real big deal other things and we're seeing it now with TikTok and Twitter and some of that. But the behavior in schools, the interaction between students and between students and staff has just gotten totally out of control. Right.

How do we start reining that back in? Because talking to teachers, as much as pay, they're like, man, my job is dangerous and I feel terrible at the end of the day because it's constant combat. Yeah, I think it all comes down to the word accountability and fiscal accountability, but then also –

holding those students and those families accountable as well. There are certain standards that they need to live by in the school. If they're not living by those, they need to be held accountable. I think that is also perpetuated recently with, you know, the teen violence that's going on in the East Valley in and around my district as well. Oh, I forgot that was your district that part of it. Yeah. You're referring to the Gilbert Goons stuff, which...

Kylie covered a little bit for us as part of her murder and mayhem segment. Okay, yeah. No, but I do think it all comes down to accountability. And the more accountable we are to, honestly, it's the taxpayers that are funding, quite frankly, the most. It's a very socialized organization, you know, public schools. And the more accountability we have, the better. I believe the stat is from the 90s. You know, we've increased student pay or student funding.

But administration has increased by 300%. Right. And that's just not sustainable. That's bloated. And –

That word accountability I think is what we're losing. You could literally eliminate half of those administrative bureaucratic jobs and not even notice it. Well, I always tell this story and I don't even remember. We've been on the air for most of three years now. I don't remember if I've told this story here before but when I was working for the superintendent in Oklahoma, she told me a joke. I'll never forget. What do you call a losing football coach in Oklahoma?

Superintendent. Okay. Because no school in Oklahoma will ever stand for a losing football team. But, of course, half of them have to lose, right? Right, right, right. So they fire all these losing football coaches, but they can't fire them, so they promote them out of coaching. Do they do that in Wisconsin and make them governor? Oh, for sure. You know, it's interesting, too, because it sometimes feels like a jobs program where your best teacher –

May not necessarily be the best administrator, but that's kind of the promotional track that they're on. Yes, yes. That was the other side of it. So her joke and her analogy was twofold. It was funny, but it was also serious in that, one, you're promoting people who – they're promoting people out of the classroom who can't teach because they don't want to try firing them.

Because they can't. Right. Yeah. And then they're – so you're getting bad administrators. And then you're promoting good teachers, great teachers out of the classroom because they need more pay and they deserve to be recognized as better than their peers because they are.

But you're promoting them into positions where they're not as valuable because they're not teaching kids in the classroom anymore. And I think, too, because we build and manage charter schools all across the nation, especially in the East Valley where I'm from. You know, we're in a very unique, I call a special location where you have, you know, the stats go up and down. But 30 to 40 percent of the students are attending an alternative school to traditional public schools, which I think is great. We have fantastic public schools in the East Valley, too. And I believe it's because of the competition.

You know, I have a little story that has really shaped my view on competition and accountability when it comes to even the school choice movement.

We had a school down in Queen Creek, and it was just announced that another charter school was coming to town, literally right across the street from where our school was at. And I was frustrated. How dare they take our students, air quotes, and took that mentality. And I was younger. I was still going to Arizona State University at that time, but wanted to get a rise out of my father, who's running the organization, and wanted to inform him of this bad news and got

got to his office and was able to sit down and be like, did you hear about such and such school building across the street from us? Like, you know, how dare they expecting a reaction from him? And he stops and I always remember this. He stops and he looks down and he goes, good, we're going to have to do better. I love it. And that is what I think we're missing in a lot. Even some other school choice movements, not every charter school is created equal, but we always have to remember that our customer is the family. And if we're supporting the family, the family is going to choose us.

That's fantastic. It's a great point. Not all charter schools are equal, but the worst charter schools go out of business. They get shut down. Yeah. Whereas if you're a failing traditional public school, you get more money. You get a lot more money with less strings attached and lots of excuses. That reminds me of a great tweet a couple of weeks ago from Bill Ackman saying, you don't pour more money into a broken system. You take money out until the system repairs itself, and then you start putting money back in.

Thank you.

So you force them to fix what's wrong, to focus on what's important, to recreate efficiency. And then once that's happened, okay, now you go ahead and give them money because that's when they can make use of it to benefit the mission. And what makes that interesting comment is he's a person who's an investor, so he looks inside out. We all get, even with the radio show, we're doing these things right, even if there's a better way to do it. That's just natural for anybody to do that. So your dad's comment was correct, and I hope

in the legislature you view things that way as well yeah i think it's important as we close here and we're with michael way he's running for legislative district 15 out in queen creek what else do you cover besides queen creek by the way we cover a little bit of uh mesa east mark area and then uh most of santan valley okay roughly 250 000 people how many people 250 250 000 how much has that grown in 10 years oh goodness i don't know um

I'm not 100% sure. It has more than doubled in that time period. Now, I mean, from demographic stuff we were studying at the City of Phoenix, it has exploded out there. It's a nice area. But it's new. It's clean. Good families, so forth. Biggest car dealerships on the planet. So, candidate Michael Way. Mm-hmm.

As we close here, why should people vote for you on November 5th? I am, I'm one of you. I'm not a politician. I entered this ring because of, honestly, four reasons, and those are my children. I have four children, and everything I do is for them. And seeing what's happened, you know, they're young. Seeing how the family unit was affected during COVID, seeing the...

use and abuse of government at certain levels. And I believe the statistic now is this is the first generation where our children are going to be off worse than the previous generation.

I want to be able to sleep at night. And I've done quite a bit in the private sector, pushing conservative Republican values. And I think it's time now to enter that and to fight for your family, to fight for your children and your grandchildren. Well, and I think it's particularly important, folks, for us to get people who have experience in the realm of education and who've grown up around those fights, because quite frankly,

We need to do a better job of messaging and of pushing our agenda, not only for charters and for competition, but for reforming our government K-12 schools. Because right now, I mean, you're seeing this in this presidential debate and in the national conversation. We are not educating people about our government, our system, how things work. It's a disaster in the making. For sure.

Michael Way, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And good luck on Election Day. Thank you. Work hard. We will. Work harder than anybody else the next 10 days. Go get them. All right. Thank you. All right. Well, folks, thank you for joining us this week. On behalf of Kylie, Jenna, Sam, Jeremy, and myself, have a great weekend. Please feel free to share our show with your friends and family and colleagues. You can follow us at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote or wherever you find our social media or podcasts. Have a great weekend.