Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox.
Well, welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate you taking some of the time. This is going to be a good discussion today. We're going to talk a little bit about the news. We're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, of course, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.
And then instead of phoning a friend, we're actually going to sit down with Senator James Lankford. James Lankford is the senator from the great state of Oklahoma. When I was in Congress, he was in Congress in the House and I actually got to sit shoulder to shoulder with him on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
One of the smartest and quite frankly, the nicest possible person you can meet, but highly competent. A great background. We've done a previous podcast with him before. We talked a little bit more about his background.
and how he became a senator and his upbringing and all that. So we're not going to do that today. But being a sitting senator who doesn't sit, who actually gets out and rolls up his shirt sleeves and does things, I want to talk to him about the budget. I want to talk to him about appropriations. I want to talk about what's working and not working, certainly not working in Washington, D.C. But then I also want to talk to him about immigration because he leads a subcommittee basically
dealing with immigration and you constantly see him down on the border,
poking around understanding what's happening and not happening the realities of what's going on at the border i think that would be good and then and then uh you know ask him some other questions so it's good to get the pulse a little bit more in depth when you can do that on a podcast when we can spend a good you know 30 minutes kind of talking through what's working and not working and uh and so james langford i really really look forward to to doing that with him uh
Also excited for the success of my book, quite frankly, if I can tout that for a moment. The Puppeteers, the people who control the people who control America, started off right out of the chutes, number one on Amazon, and thankful, thankful for that in so many ways.
You know, when you put together a book, it really does take an awful lot of time. And it's gosh, it took over a year and so much research. And in this book, the puppeteers, you not only follow the money, but then you start understanding the names, the organizations and who's working behind the scenes to in perpetuity move things back.
Um, and, and actually call the shots. Cause I think most people realize that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they're, they're not really pulling all the strings of everything that's happened. I'm not happening here. And so really I'm thankful for the success there. And I hope you all have had a chance to see it and what, whatnot. So I still am bothered by, and I didn't know whether to put this in the stupid category, but I'm going to put it in the news category, um,
But I watched this video of this youth choir, these youth that were there in the capital of the United States House of Representatives in what's called Statuary Hall, statues of various leaders. Each state gets to pick two leaders or two people.
of historical significance from their state. And then they make statues of them and they're in various places in the Capitol. There's a small room where actually the floor of the House of Representatives used to be. And you can look down on the ground. There's these little placards that show that, you know, Representative Garfield was sitting here once upon a time.
But now it's statues and it's really in between the middle of the Capitol and the floor of the house. But there's a youth choir that comes together and they were singing the national anthem. They actually got to the second verse of this South Carolina children's choir that stopped. And what you see here is called Rushing Brook Children's Choir from Greenville, South Carolina.
And then all of a sudden you see this Capitol Hill police officer having a discussion with their leader and they cut them off. Now, how a youth choir gets cut off from singing the national anthem in our nation's capital? I'm telling you, it is outrageous. Now, it's been said that the choir leader has said that Speaker McCarthy's office signed off and confirmed that they could do this.
Now they're saying the Capitol Hill police that, oh, there was some miscommunication. And I'm telling you, why doesn't somebody ever get fired for some of this stuff? Why doesn't somebody actually lose their job at some point? That's what's so frustrating to me is these things happen, but then guess what? Nobody loses their job.
All right, I want to move on here because the attacks right now, and I'm going to put this in the category of stupid. So let's introduce the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right, I want to go and talk about the media that's following Casey DeSantis. Casey DeSantis is the wife of Governor Ron DeSantis.
I have met with her. I have spent time with her. Ron obviously served in the House of Representatives for a number of years. I was in the House with them, in the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee.
This is a wonderful, wonderful lady. And she is active. She fights on mental health issues and illuminating those and helping to fight against the stigma and offer solutions. She does some really nice things.
But you know what? The attacks that the so-called mainstream or traditional media make on her is absolutely horrendous. And it's just outright stupid. Now, they've tried to give her a nickname. You know, everybody likes giving everybody a nickname. And you know what? Just because you're running for the highest office in the land doesn't mean you get to take pot shots at people. And so for those people that are trying to attack somebody who is a breast cancer survivor,
A mom of some beautiful children who happens to be the wife of somebody who's running for president doesn't mean you get to take pot shots that are all day long. And so shame on those people. I think it's outright stupid and you look like idiots for doing it. That's my take on it.
All right, let's transition now, because again, I want to talk to Ron DeSantis at some point. He would be good to have on the show. But I really want to talk to James Langford. And I'm sitting here in New York at the Fox Studios and get to sit here with James Langford.
So rather than dialing somebody up, I'm thrilled to have James Langford, the Senator from Oklahoma, joining me. I used to sit shoulder to shoulder with this guy. Yes, for a long time. At OGR back in the House of Representatives. Jason, it's great to see you. Good to see you. We'll actually be here face-to-face as well. We talk on the phone, we text every once in a while, get a chance to catch up, and I've had the opportunity to be able to dial into your podcast before, but it's a rare moment for me to be in New York.
And to be able to sit here with you. Yeah, to actually be in person is way better. I did. I think I caught you on the road. You're driving between campaigns spots in the middle of, yeah, pretty good reception though. I'm impressed. Well, good. Yeah. It just depends on the spot there in Oklahoma. So you get up in the panhandle, it gets a little tougher. It gets a little tougher. And you got tornadoes chasing you sometimes. We work our way around them. We have good weather forecasting as well. So in the, you go into the office of Senator Lankford and there is this massive,
massive, I call it a supercell. It's a supercell. Like this picture is as big as the office itself, and it is the scariest, most ominous look. It is right over my desk, and I tell my staff that's my mood all the time. Just at any moment, I could drop a tornado. You're like the nicest guy in the Senate. Are you kidding me? What is really funny is, you know what it's like. Different world leaders and different folks will come in your office when you're in that role, and when we're visiting, almost always at the end of the meeting, we'll finish the meeting, and
And this head of state will pull me aside and will point to that picture and will say, is that what they really look like? That's a photograph. That's not a painting. Yeah, that's what they really look like. It's just that moment right before the tornado. It is on my bucket list to see it. Terrifying and beautiful at the same time. I want to see it, but I like it'll scare the living daylights out of me. Yeah, it will because you just realize the sheer power of the storm when you see it. All right. So I'm going to take a real corny picture.
segue and say, well, that's sort of like being in the Senate because all the disasters that are happening there, right? Any moment there could be a tornado through the Senate. Yeah, it's it's a bit of a mess right now. But here's what's interesting. There's actually real dialogue happening behind the scenes on some really important issues like immigration, like how do we start changing the process of how we do budgeting, some tax issues so that
That's different than when it was three years ago when there was very little conversation behind the scenes. It was all in open hearings and such. Now there's some really freewheeling dialogue in the hallways and on the floor and in private spaces to be able to say, okay, this is a mess. This has to be fixed.
That's a good first sign for me. The real issue is you've got to get something passed that actually works and helps the American people. You know, I was stunned, and I cite this statistic frequently, but since the 1972 Budget Act, only one time has there been regular order through the House and the Senate. And it just happens to coincide. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that that one time was the one time that the budget actually balanced. Right.
Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House, and Bill Clinton was actually the President of the United States. Can be done. It can be done. It needs to be done. You know, Senator Braun is also one of my favorites. Just one term, now he's running for Governor of Indiana. Governor.
But I heard him say recently, he said, I'm on the budget committee, and this is the most worthless committee in all of Senate. We don't do anything. And that should scare everybody. It should, actually. And the appropriation bill that was done last year, literally there are 12 appropriation bills. You're supposed to do a budget bill, then 12 appropriation bills after that. Last year, no budget bill was done, and the 12 appropriation bills didn't even go through committee. It literally all showed up in December coming out of Schumer's office, and here's all 12 of them all together. So we're
Literally no committee work. Literally. And this is said figuratively at the time. This time, literally no one had read the entire bill. Not even a staff member had read it. There's some staff members had read chapters and then all those chapters were thrown together. No one had gone through the whole bill on it. So this is a bad process. It's only gotten worse that if we're going to get a better product, we got to get a better process in this. And we got to change that 1974 Budget Act to be able to do it. It's super wonky, nerdy stuff.
Right. But it's really important. Yeah, I think it was Harry Reid when he was Senate majority leader who said, don't worry, everybody, nobody will lose an election over process. You just you're not going to lose one. But I think there comes a point where members have a degree of responsibility and they're going to pour their heart and soul and be away from their family like all the time. Right. And then to not be a participant in looking at a bill that shows up.
with hours to go and not be able to digest it. And the Senate is supposed to be the most deliberative body on the face of the planet. That's what I've heard. But yeah, there's a difference between being a voter and a legislator. A legislator actually gets to put legislation together. A voter just votes on the final product on it. And what this whole process has done is it's moved senators from being legislators to voters.
where we get to vote up or down, like we did in the debt ceiling bill. We just get to vote up or down. We weren't there when it was all negotiated. It just shows up. And so when appropriations are like that, so the year-to-year, you don't get any input on it, that's a real problem. So how do you fix it? I mean, we keep pointing out the problem, but when I go talk to people that I interact with around the country, especially in my home state of Utah, they're
They're like, I'm tired of illuminating the problem. I want actual solutions. So how do we do it? Yeah, there are actual solutions to this. And those are some of the things that I try to be able to bring. It's the same thing I bring to my staff all the time. My team, I tell them all the time, when that group of six old men are sitting there on Friday mornings at breakfast at the coffee shop, griping and complaining. Hey, easy. Hey, that's okay. That's getting a little too close to home now, James. They can do that. But if we're sitting in that group, whether it's one of my staff or myself, they're not griping and complaining. They're giving a to-do list.
So they're saying, okay, these are the problems they've got to be fixed on. So it's our responsibility to identify how do you actually solve that. So for the Budget Act, we've got to change it from a fiscal year to a calendar year. Again, that's really nerdy, but September 30th can't be the deadline. It has to be the end of December because it ends up being that way anyway. That's the pressure point. We've got to be able to do that. We've got to end government shutdowns in a way that actually works, that forces the appropriation process.
I actually have a nonpartisan bill with Maggie Hassan, Democrat from New Hampshire, that we pulled together and have agreement on, have multiple folks from both parties on it, that says if you're going to – we can't have government shutdowns because government shutdowns force people to vote for bad bills. They'll say, okay, if you don't vote for this appropriation bill that no one has read, we'll have a government shutdown. Well, it's a terrible thing to be able to have over everyone's head. So the way that we do it is to say if the appropriations are not done –
then we just stay in continuous session until they are done and we can't shift to any other policy until this one's done. So that means weekends, seven days a week, we're in session. Appropriations is the only thing that can come up until this actually occurs. I guarantee you, you've been around it before.
The weekends are important to members of Congress because we're trying to get back and forth to be able to see our families. And it's suddenly where there are two weekends in a row. Everybody's going to say, OK, open the bills up. Let's actually get this done and get a chance to get it worked through. And that'll work. That's a process change, though. We've got a whole series of issues that are there that we've identified to say, here's how we can change the way the appropriation process is done and actually get us back to that.
Yeah, there's nothing like a deadline to compel action. It really... It's the biggest challenge in Congress because we have so few deadlines. Like immigration. When's the deadline to fix immigration? There's not a deadline. And everybody knows it's horrible and it's chaotic, but when's the deadline to actually get it finished? I want to go to the border, but let's keep going on the budget and the appropriations process for a moment.
Because the numbers are so stunning. You know, one of the things I advocated and championed, I think it was a co-sponsor of a bill, if not the lead on one, I can't remember what it was, but it's to move to a two-year budget process that it's such a monster.
that it's, you know, Texas did this and other states have done it. Somehow they stay open somehow in Texas. Right, right. And you can tweak things along the way. There's no doubt you're going to have to deal with certain emergencies or disasters or something that happens. But I also wish that we would budget for these contingencies. There's going to be a tornado in Oklahoma or Texas. Good prophecy. Right, yeah. There's probably going to be a hurricane rolling through the East Coast from Florida up.
But you need to budget for these things. And rather than using it as the excuse, because I remember when Hurricane Sandy came through and the question was, are you going to vote for him? Like, of course we are. Of course we are. But they knew that. And so they started throwing in all this other garbage. Hey, that's a bill that's going to pass. Everybody's going to vote for it. And so they started throwing in all these other things that had nothing to do with the disaster at hand.
And that's the way that it will go on. So, yes, there are process things that can change to be able to do that. One of those is a two-year budgeting. I'm also a big believer in that. It's a $1.5 trillion in spending. Now, just let that soak in. $1.5 trillion in just discretionary spending that happens.
If you do it in a two-year cycle, you get time to do oversight of that. If you have to do it every single year, you're literally never doing oversight. You're just preparing the next budget. So if we do one year, there's a budget preparation. The second year is an oversight year that that's entirely what you're doing is how is it being spent.
That makes a big difference. I put out a book every year called Federal Fumbles. Oh, it's the best. This year we identified 50 areas to say, here's just wasteful spending. Can somebody explain to me how this happened? One we had was a study of the secret language of butchers in Paris, that they've had this secret butcher language since the 13th century. Help me understand why that's a federal grant to be able to study this secret language. If some university wants to do that, especially in France...
Great. Yeah. We did a butterfly study that we paid for, a study of European butterflies where we paid a Swedish scientist to study butterflies in Germany.
I don't remember the Germans buying an American butterfly study. I just look at this and go, this is ridiculous stuff that we say. And unfortunately, they're not one off. No, they're not one off. But we just pulled 50 examples out and said, somebody explain to me how this happens and how it happens is no oversight. So if you do the budget in one year and oversight in the second year, it pulls a lot of that stuff into daylight. And then you start challenging this kind of stuff can't happen anymore.
Where are you at in terms of having an appropriate... I know you're on appropriations, right? I used to be. You used to be. I was kicked off because I'm a little too outspoken on it. You know what the appropriations committee's like. So you have these authorizing committees, at least... And look, my perspective is solely on the House. I think there were 20 authorizing committees...
But then you have this appropriations committee that's off to the side and they get to decide. And so one of the things that drives me crazy in this whole process is, and Rob Bishop, the congressman from Utah who retired years ago, he headed up, he was the chairman of natural resources. This would drive him nuts as well because he,
They would do all this study, all these hearings, all this stuff, and then only to have the appropriators fund the very things that they were trying to pull back. And that seems to be the disconnect, is that Congress never really uses the power of the purse, which you hear all the time. Oh, use the power of the purse. It's the most powerful thing they...
But it's a tool that's never used. Well, you can remember a time where you and I were sitting in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the House years ago when all the Lois Lerner hearings were happening with the IRS. That's right. We actually turned funding off on the IRS during that time period, and it got their attention. It was suddenly, oh, we're losing funding over the fact that we're covering up for Lois Lerner and we won't give information to OGR. You use that leverage, you get the administration to actually follow through and to be able to have a shift.
The IRS still complains about that season when they lost funding, but when I bring it up to the new director of the IRS, Danny Werfel, who came in after Lois Lerner in the nominations confirmation process, I brought that time up to me, and he nodded his head like, oh, I remember.
And so it's a powerful tool if Congress will use it. Yeah, no, that is how you get people's attention along the way. So, all right, let's shift to the border first, Hank, because I've seen you go to your Instagram, you go to Twitter or whatever, you're going to see all these videos of Senator James Lankford down there, usually with some other members and Dragon Ball, but doing some really good work in understanding the border. Right.
When's the last visit? What do we need to do? So I was there two weeks ago. It was the last time I was there. I was in Nogales and in Tucson, Arizona. Yeah, I've been there. So it's important to be able to go to different places. I serve as a ranking member on the Border Management Subcommittee, so I should know my stuff if I'm actually going to be in that position. So I'm down there pretty often to be able to engage. There's also an old running statement for the border is if you've been to one place on the border, you've been to one place on the border.
because it's not the same across 2,000 miles. It's different issues. South Texas is very different than Yuma, Arizona, very different than San Diego, very different border issues that are there. In Tucson, when I was there in Nogales, and I always ask this question when I get there, meet with Border Patrol, what's different? What are you noticing as trends? Because the cartels have different trends of what they're trying to do. The trend right now is...
bone-chilling in many ways. The first thing they said to me is, we are worried about our national security now more than ever because the people that are coming are not Spanish speakers that are coming right now. It's Mauritanians, it's Russians, it's Chinese, it's Pakistanis, it's Middle Eastern men. It's dominantly men in their 20s that are coming in with no documentation, just saying this is the country I'm from, just saying this is my name. We have no idea if that's the right person or not.
We're literally what are called 10 printing, getting 10 fingerprints on those individuals, then releasing them into the country, saying your asylum hearing is three or four years in the future. You can go anywhere you want in the next three or four years. Just show up for this hearing three or four years in the future. It is absolutely absurd. And the Border Patrol folks are saying these are their term, not mine. These are military age men.
from many countries that hate us, that we have no criminal background history on these individuals at all, nor do we even know if it's their real name that they're giving us. And we're just shooing them into the country saying, we'll see you in three years. Hopefully they show up for their hearing. It's not going to happen if we have...
If we have learned nothing, it is 9-11 took 20 people to be able to kill thousands of Americans when they overstayed a visa here in the United States. And we knew who those individuals were, but didn't arrest them. These individuals, we literally have no idea who they are. And this is not a few. This is thousands. Two weeks ago, while I was down there, they just picked up a Russian that came across that his prints did show up because he was on our terror watch list for cyberterrorism.
So we were able to arrest this person and to be able to isolate them. But the guys he was traveling with, they're in the country somewhere because we had no other information on them. This is foolish. This is ignoring the national security and the terrorism risks that are happening now. So this is way beyond, hey, these are poor people that just want to be able to come into the country and work.
These are individuals coming from terrorist minded countries that we're just releasing into our country. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Senator James Langford right after this.
Yeah, if you go and look at the list, and it's been, you know, seven, eight years since I've been down there, since I left Congress, I believe six years at the end of June. But they have a category called OTM, other than Mexican. And, you know, and then I went to the Eloy detention facility there in Arizona, outside Casa Grande, I think, Arizona.
And I was surprised because they had detained people from more than 150 different countries. So I think their perception is, oh, they're coming from Guatemala. They're coming from Mexico, just trying to make their lives better. And certainly a good portion of them have done that. But it was stunning to see how many different countries. They know. They know. Just get to Mexico.
Pay your way through. And they come through. And the Border Patrol will tell you the border is secure. It's just secure on the south side. You don't cross without paying the cartels. And the cartels actually meter when people are going to come across at what place and what location. So the cartels do have a cutthroat, brutal organization just south of our border. But the individuals that are coming, they used to call the OTMs the other than Mexicans. Those are dominantly Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans.
That's what it was. Now they have another category called SIA, special interest aliens. These are folks coming in from Russia and from China and from Pakistan and from other locations that again, we have no information, no background information. They're being released in the country on an asylum hearing future date, just like everybody else. So the answer I keep giving to people is, you know, I hear Democrats say, oh, we need comprehensive immigration reform. And I'm just like,
No, we don't. First step is, why don't we enforce the current law, the law that's actually on the books that did pass Congress? Why don't we start there? Because it seems like the Biden administration, Kamala Harris, I guess, is the leader of this band. We've heard. Going and saying...
No, we don't want to enforce the current law. That's what drives me nuts. Yeah, it does drive me crazy. There are some things that we need to do to be able to close any loopholes so no future administration can use the same loopholes that this one is using on asylum. And it's to clarify who actually gets asylum. I'm in the generation that thinks about asylum more.
is some Olympic athlete coming over to the Olympics in the United States. And when they get there from China asking for asylum and everybody cheers it and goes, look, they're escaping from communism. That's not what's being done anymore. These are literally folks just showing up from Guatemala and saying, I have fear in my country.
And but what it really is, is my uncle has already got a job in Chicago. And they said, if you can get here, I've got another job for you as well and bring your family with you as well, because I've got a place for you to live. And they just come and show up. It's not about fear in my country. It's about job opportunities. Well, we have legal immigration for that. We got to fix the definition of asylum to make sure it's clear.
Yeah. Two thoughts come to mind. One is it was the Obama administration that changed the definition of credible fear and expanded out because the statute actually says credible fear and torture. Right. And not everybody's going to go back to their country and be tortured. Right. And so to expand that definition because of your –
you know, I happen to be, you know, gay or I happen to be these types of domestic violence. There's all kinds of things. And there's some terrible situations that you look at for poverty and other things. Yeah, we understand that, but it doesn't qualify. Correct. And it doesn't necessarily qualify you to come to America. So my next question is, if you're in Mauritania, which, by the way, I want to talk to the Border Patrol folks. And they said we've had a thousand Mauritanians in the last ever. His initial statement was I had to look that up. I had no idea where that is. But it's in West Africa next to Mali.
And so he's, if you're kind of, there are no direct flights from Mauritania to Mexico. Okay. That's not how it happens. So they've got multiple routes and flights. And the question is, why are none of those countries, the countries you would seek asylum in? Right. There's, there's probably eight countries that you could actually do that, but no, they're getting to America for economic opportunity. It's not about asylum. It's not like we're the only safe country in the world.
We are a safe country. Thankfully, the Biden administration is working to make us less safe all the time. But we are a safe country and I get that. But we're not the only safe country in the world in this press to say that anyone who comes here from any number of countries can come here and get asylum. That's not what it's like in Europe. If you go to Canada right now and cross the border, Canadian law says if you cross the border and ask for asylum, their first question is, did you just come from America?
And if you say yes, they'll say, did you request asylum there before you came here? If you say no, they'll kick you right back to America. Yeah. Okay. We're not doing that right now. We're just saying no matter where in the world you're coming from, we're just going to allow you to be able to come in, not requesting you ever request asylum anywhere else. Last question about the immigration situation. You know, what's heartbreaking is to hear that there are these tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors. Right.
I'm not fully understanding. I don't understand the family that says, hey, eight-year-old, go risk your life. You're going to go with these people who we really don't know and cross the border. I don't understand physically. I just don't even comprehend it. But I have a hard time comprehending the literally by the tens of thousands this is happening. This is not some isolated case of
where, oh, you know, look at this horror story. This is happening. And it's human trafficking. It's sex trafficking. It's some of the most horrific things I've seen. So let me start with the basics on the numbers. Almost every time you see a stat that gives you thousands of people that are unaccompanied minors, almost all those unaccompanied minors are 16 and 17-year-old males. Now, if you're in Latin America and you're coming out of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, 15 years old is when you're considered an adult.
So in those cultures, so at 16 and 17 years old, they're basically saying to them, you need to go. Your dad is working in America right now, making a lot more money for the family and is sending money back. You need to go join your dad. And,
And so most of the unaccompanied minors are 16 and 17 year old males that are coming. Some of them are 18 to 22 year old males that say they're 17. Because again, we have no documents, but we look at some guy with a beard and everything else and he goes, "I'm 16." You're like, "Okay, really?" We don't know 'cause we have no documents. So we just literally process them as if they are a 16 year old, 17 year old male and release them in. There are still infants, what they call tender age,
There are still folks that are four and five years old. Most of those, their parents are already living and working illegally in the United States. And they've got a family member that's taking care of this child and they will actually get them all the way up to the border. And then we'll, you're right, pay a cartel member to be able to take them across the border. These kids are being abused. They're being often child raped. It's horrible what the cartels do to these children on it.
and then they'll push them across the border, and then they'll go and join up with their family when they come in. We're actually the last mile delivery the United States government is for the cartels. So the cartels get them across the border. The United States government then gets them to their family member wherever they're currently living in the United States. Almost all the unaccompanied minors have family that are already here illegally present. And that's where I get tired of some of these Democrats talking about how compassionate they're
they're supposedly being, because it is so the opposite of being legal. Immigration is compassionate because it's not going through cartels. And that's who we're failing because we're failing the people that are trying to do it legally and lawfully. We do about a million people a year legally and lawfully, and we're not taking care of them. And it's just so frustrating. And it continues on. I'm glad that you're, you're working on it. What are the, okay. So we talked about the budget. We talked about immigration. These are two of the biggest issues. When James Langford
He's driving around with his wife and wants to go to sleep, but he's tossing and turning and he can't sleep. What is he like? What do you what worries you about what's happening in D.C.? Well, we're not happening. Well, a couple of things I look at on this. I serve on the Intelligence Committee as well. And I'm a bit of a fan of some old movies that are out there, one of them being Men in Black. If you know the Men in Black. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
So this is a great scene in Men in Black where Will Smith, brand new agent, runs out in the street with his tiny little cricket gun and just starts blasting away. Tommy Lee Jones comes out to him, says, put that down. And Will Smith says, the world's going to end if we don't do something. And Tommy Lee Jones says, the world's always going to end. And it's best that most people don't know it.
Serving on the Intelligence Committee, I kind of feel that way at times because we go through some of the very real threats that are out there and some of the things that are coming at us and the ways that we're trying to be able to interdict those. But I can tell no one about it. But it's probably a good thing that people don't realize the threats just day-to-day life that's out there. But we have some remarkable people serving on the intelligence areas today.
And in the intelligence community all over the world that people have no idea who they are, but are literally putting their life on the line for the United States and our national security all the time. So I track those issues and those do bug me at times. And my wife will tell you a different moment. She'll catch me because she's really quiet today. I was like, yeah.
Sorry, I'm just my mind is somewhere else thinking on some of these things So that that's a reality what's happening on the border as I mentioned before is a real national security risk That's a real concern for me But quite frankly one of the issues I'm worried about just as an American is how angry we've become we move from being upset about it to being angry what we're losing and what we've lost and
And that anger doesn't actually take us to a good place. I don't know of a time when I think, "I make so much better decisions when I'm angry." I just don't, but we're becoming more and more angry and making worse and worse decisions. And anger doesn't actually persuade people to join you. Anger pushes people away. And if we're going to win elections and if we're going to win the day, we're not going to win it by being the angriest person in the room. And saying we're angry doesn't help.
actually winning people over being winsome engaging with truth winning people over and saying don't be afraid of what I believe come join me and what I believe that's totally different no I get a chance to go out and talk around the country still you know because my presence on Fox I get invited and I go out there and I talk about it and I and I said look you you can put together the the
most clever tweet ever. Yeah. It's not going to move anybody. Sarcastic, angry tweets. It's going to be cute and everybody get a chuckle and one second later, they're going to swipe to the next one. If you want to move people, you got to explain why you believe what you believe and talk from your heart and break bread with people and laugh with them and do it for all the right reasons. Cause you know what?
people can sniff things out. The authenticity is not something you can really fake your way through. And, um, it starts in your neighborhoods, you know, it starts in by paying attention to your loved ones and, and just say, Hey, we can disagree. It's okay. You know, but, um,
I think you're right. The anger, the tribalism, if you will, is exacerbated. No one's ever moved me. And maybe everybody's different than me on this, but no one's ever moved me by coming and screaming and yelling and bullying me in a personal attack. I've never had somebody just cuss me out. And at the end of it, I've said, you are so smart. You know what? I should think like you. I just don't do that. I immediately respond back and push back on this. If we're going to win over a nation, we're
then we're going to have to engage in conversations because we have the right ideas. Why would we not bring right ideas? I think we're frustrated that people see all these crazy ideas in the media that go, that's bizarre and crazy. But if we're going to push back on that, it's not by yelling at the crazy idea. It's about giving a better idea in a way that people actually receive. Well, look, I'm just glad that he's here and that his family lets him be here.
I'm kind of glancing over at his wife who's silent over here. She doesn't want to have the microphone, but, you know, it's a lot on families. It's a lot. I mean, that ultimately, yeah, I lived it. That's ultimately why I ended up leaving. And, you know, it's just very hard and difficult to be away. And I appreciate the sacrifice that you and your family makes because I know that
It's real. But I'm glad that we have good people there. And James Langford is one of the good people. Thanks, Jason. I'm glad you're here. And thanks for the good work. And when he talks, folks, listen to him because he actually knows what he's talking about. Well, I'm trying to bring some solutions to the day because we can't just gripe about the problem. We've got to actually figure out how to answer this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Thanks, Jason. All right. I can't thank Senator Langford enough.
for joining me. He's just, you know, if you look at who should and you want to be serving in the United States Senate, that's the kind of guy that you want there. Works hard, works smart, loves his country, good patriot, wonderful family.
And you can trust them all day long. I mean, the litmus test for me is if I had to go away and my wife and I had to pick somebody to watch my kids and watch my money and assets and saying, hey, I'm going to be back in a while. I don't care if it's 10 minutes or 10 years. James Lankford is that kind of person. He is just a rock solid person. And I hope you all have a chance to meet him. And people in Oklahoma, boy, you've done us a solid by sending him to the United States Senate. Ah.
Hoping you can rate this podcast. Really could use your help there. Rate it. That would be helpful. Subscribe to it if you'd like. I want to remind people that you can listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Thanks for listening to us. We'll be back with more next week with an exciting guest.
Until then, thanks for joining us. I'm Jason, and this has been Jason in the House. The world of business moves fast. Stay on top of it with the Fox Business Rundown. Listen to the Fox Business Rundown every Monday and Friday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.