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.
Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and thanks for joining us. We're going to walk you through a couple things in the news, highlight the stupid, because you know what? There is always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone a friend. Actually, we're going to get to sit down with her. I happen to be in New York at this recording, and we're going to sit down with Lauren Simonetti. You may have seen her. Hopefully, you've seen her on
on Fox Business. She's one of the rising stars around the Fox world. You see her primarily with Stuart Varney, and she is one of the brightest minds out there. I'm telling you, the amount of information that comes out on the markets, first thing in the morning is the opening bell happens, and then for a couple hours afterwards, it's
you've really got to have game to be able to talk about all the gyrations that are going on in the markets and Lauren is the point person on that working with Stuart Varney on Varney and
I've gotten to know her a little bit because I've been on Varney a number of times, but she is a great personality. And I know like nothing about her background and how she got to this role. So I'm looking forward to having the discussion with Lauren Simonetti, and I think it'll be a good one. But first, let's highlight a few things that are going on with the news.
And I saw this quote, like, not everything's going to be earth shattering. I'm trying to leave the biggest headlines. You've probably seen those at this point. But I did like Willie Nelson. You know Willie Nelson, the old country star that most people have heard his song and his music. You can picture him as I'm talking about him now. You can see who I'm talking about.
Well, Willie Nelson had a quote I thought was great. He said, I think the next generation needs to start considering what kind of world we're going to leave for me and Keith Richards. And it's one of the better quotes I've seen out there because those guys, they have had a weathered life. I think that's fair to say. They have seen and done things and, oh my goodness, they just keep standing and keep producing music and
I just saw that quote and I thought, you know what, good for him. Yeah, what kind of world are the kids going to leave for them? Because those guys are going to live forever. That is really, really pretty amazing. The next thing I wanted to talk about is what's happening with schools, with drugs, with laws, with homelessness, etc.
all of those problems kind of come together. And if foxnews.com, I saw this, uh, really important story. And one of the things that had in it was a Riverside County Sheriff, uh, Chad Bianco, who told Fox News now Riverside is on the Inland of Southern California, huge Swatcheland, a lot of people. I don't know how many millions of people live in there, but, uh,
I used to play soccer when I was growing up down there when I lived in Southern California. A lot of people there. And this was his quote. When we stopped enforcing drug rules and laws, we started seeing a major, major, major increase in what we see now as the severe mental health problems of people that are living on the street.
Make no doubt about it, ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt about it that these things coincide together. Not that prison is the best place to deal with people's mental health, but when you exacerbate the situation by tacitly approving and allowing the festering of the drug use and the fentanyl use and the meth use, the problem gets worse. It doesn't get better. It doesn't actually solve the problem.
And there are a lot of very legitimate reasons and a lot of reasons why people get caught up in this.
I feel for people that have addiction issues or financial troubles, or maybe they've gone through a divorce and they don't know how to pay for it. Things like that that cause a lot of these problems. And some people flat out have some mental health issues that if dealt with properly, they would be moving in the right direction. But the idea that we would just as a nation just stop enforcing these types of things
Well, I don't see a situation where that's made it better. And certainly California is the standard by which you don't want to do things. A lot of people and activists, they point to what was called Prop 47, was called Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.
And it changed crimes like theft of goods under $950 and drug possession from felonies to misdemeanors. And really what it did is it reduced California's prison population by more than 13,000 inmates. More than half the money saved on prison costs is earmarked for mental health services, substance disorder treatment, other types of programs.
But we simply moved the problem back to the streets where the situation got worse, not better. And again, I am one that wholeheartedly believes a prison is not where we necessarily need to tackle the mental health. But so many of the people that are in prison have mental health issues. And we also have to remember that 95% of the people that go to prison, they're coming back out.
So are they going to come out better criminals? Are they going to come out reformed? Are they going to come out with more mental health issues, more addiction problems, or less?
This is the big challenge. And California, under Governor Newsom, has led the way to exemplifying what we shouldn't do. All right, let's transition. I want to bring on a little bit lighter subjects. So it's time to bring on the stupid, because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. ♪
All right, a Michigan man was allegedly impersonating a police officer and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. This person decided that, you know, he would strap on his fake badge and his fake uniform and pull somebody over and had a... I don't know if he had a full-fledged police car or just a light on top, but somehow...
decided that he'd go ahead and pull over somebody to issue a traffic citation. And guess what? He was a real police officer. And when asked a few questions, guess what? That person could not explain what precinct they were in or what their rank was. And so he took off a chasing suit and allegedly, and this person was captured and now makes the list on bringing on the stupid.
The other one I wanted to bring on happened in Tennessee. The allegation is that a 21-year-old Air National Guard member is facing federal charges after he allegedly applied for a hitman job.
There is a parody website called Rent a Hitman. Rent a Hitman is a parody, but evidently the police have been using it because if you're dumb enough to go in there and try to apply to be one of the hitmen, they're going to come after you. This guy could be convicted for up to 10 years in prison, but somehow this 21-year-old thought, hey, yeah, hitman, that sounds like a good gig. I bet I can make a lot of cash fast. That's what I'm guessing.
Anyway, Rent-A-Hitman is sort of not a good way to go and really highlights the stupid and brings out the stupid. I'm glad they caught him. If he did it, should be convicted. And that's the stupid. All right, now it's time to sit down with Lauren Simonetti. And I'm really excited about it. So let's have her come on in. I'm so glad to be with you in person.
Well, you see me frequently. I do see you frequently. And it's always all of a sudden, boom, I'm sitting next to you. We're talking about the world of politics and finance and business. And you got notes like everywhere you've already been. I mean, what time in the world? So you're a key to Varney between nine and noon Eastern. So what time do you actually like start taking notes and focusing on the markets? And I'd say three in the morning.
3.30. I know. That's a lot of time to prep for three hours. He does most of the prepping, and then I have to fill in the blanks. But, you know, you could ask me anything. So I sort of have to be prepared. No, and the volatility of the markets. I mean, it's crazy how much you have to know and have on the phone. I know. And then all of a sudden the stock's taking off or the stock's diving. Yeah.
We do this thing called movers. You're amazing because you're like, but you know, you have it right there at your fingertips. We do six movers per hour. And there's rules behind the movers to appease Varney. It has to be a stock that everybody heard of. And if you never heard of the name, you have to give them a really good reason why people should care about it. Okay. So sometimes there's big moves on companies that not many people have heard of. So those are, you know, you can't use those.
And then so you find the company that everybody's heard of and you find your really good reason. And then the stock is moving for a really good reason, a significant amount, too. And then all of a sudden, sometimes it changes right before you're going on air and you're like, oops, well, it was up 3 percent, but now it's basically flat. And then you can just feel him getting mad at you. OK, so. No, I'm joking. He doesn't really care.
No, you know, I was honored because a couple of weeks ago, Stuart did his very first podcast. That's huge. That's huge. I couldn't believe he came in and joined me. And it was illuminating. It was so fascinating. I had no idea. It should be like required listening for everybody at Fox who works on Varney to listen to that. He's a secret weapon. Because it explains a lot.
About him? Yeah. I know. But I want to learn that about you. What did you learn about Stuart that surprised you most? His world traveling. I could not believe how much time he spent overseas traveling the world.
camping out in the deserts of Australia, like doing crazy stuff like that as a young man that really kind of formed his worldview. It was really just fascinating to me. I would say ditto for me. Okay, so let me explain. Let's start with I was born in and let's go from there. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, April 14th, 1981.
And I was born and raised in, you know, raised in Staten Island, New York. Public school. Do you have brothers, sisters? I have brothers. They are twins and they are. Identical twins? Fraternal. But they looked exactly alike. And my parents would get confused. That to this day, we say, are you sure you're Matthew? Are you sure you're Craig? Craig.
Mommy used to put like permanent marker on the bottom of your heel, but they have different birthdays because one was born before midnight and one was born after midnight. So my mother and her only sister each had twins. Both had boys. Really? So the fear, I say fear, the fear was that I would have twins. Yeah. I didn't.
I did miscarry twins early on, but it was an early miscarriage. But it was, I don't know the right word, but I kind of always had the feeling that I would have twins. Interesting. So I don't know. Okay, so sorry, you're growing up.
Brothers are older or younger? They're younger. They're younger. Brothers are younger. Okay. So you're the big sister. The nerd of the family. Why were you the nerd? What were you doing? What made you nerdy? You don't see me as a nerd. Well, yes and no. You have like, okay, you've got a nerd side of numbers, which is a good thing, but I don't perceive you as like pushing up your glasses and wearing the, you know. Never looked like a nerd. I was valedictorian in almost every single class I've ever graduated from.
But I was also captain of the cheerleading team. I never fit in. The balance. I had my really smart friends and my really cool friends. And I kind of was just friends with everybody in a way. But I never felt like I fit in. I grew up in a small Staten Island town. How do you be the head cheerleader and not fit in? I think I was liked, but I never had my people.
If that makes sense. Until I went to college. So nobody that was like super close that was like. I always had a best friend and a small group of friends. And it would change as we changed schools. But yeah, I never. Well, where did the nerdiness come in? Let's go back to that. Do you like a voracious reader early on? And so you're always ahead of your class or were you super good at math and nobody else was? I was actually never very good at math. Did you play the piano and were really good at music? I was decent. Jack of all trades, master of none.
Yeah, I played the violin. I played the piano and then I played the violin. My wife plays the violin. It's beautiful. She's very good at it. But it's a skill set and it's a mindset and it's a, well, something I don't ever do. So...
But you got to have talent to do these things. I have a lot of different talents. What's your superpower? But I don't have any superpowers. I don't know. I'm still trying to find it. I'm trying. Literally, I'm trying to find my superpower, what I'm really, really, really good at. Well, you're pretty darn good on air. Not everybody can do that. You're sweet. Yeah, I just, I find I have a lot of interest. I have so many different interests and it's hard. And then they change. Why isn't that a superpower? Like,
Most people don't, I mean, just what the three minutes we've been chatting, most people haven't accomplished and done all of those things. Well, there's still more I want to do. You know what? I'm never satisfied. How many valedictorians were also the head cheerleader?
It's rare. That's what I'm telling you. It is rare. It makes me like this big misfit because I can fit in in so many different circles yet not really fit in in any of them. I've always said this. I admire people who are so passionate about one cause that they're going to rally and picket for that cause. Right. Right? Something is resonating with them and bringing out that passion that they're going to risk all of it and do that. But when you were growing up, little...
Little you. Little Lauren. What did you think you were going to do? I was going to be a news reporter. Really? I did the storytelling contest.
Do you know what a storytelling contest even is? Kind of. So you memorize a kid's book and you do this in like fourth grade, fifth grade. You memorize the book and you recite it. And I did that one year. I had a very good memory. So that was the easy part. But I didn't know I had a nice speaking voice or that I could somewhat act. And I won the storytelling contest kind of out of nowhere one year.
And then I did it again the second year and I kept doing it. So my mom said to me, you would be a really good broadcast journalist. Wow. And it stuck. And I was focused. I was focused. Why? Why did you like? Because it was hard. It takes talent and luck to get on television, especially in New York.
Yeah. Way to go for the gusto right out of the chutes. You can go to a smaller market. You know, Bismarck has plenty of... I didn't. I didn't even take a journalism class in college or a business class at that. What did you major in college? Oh, English literature, Shakespeare and all the like. Yeah. No, I just, I always had a group of people, mentors that I spoke to. And everybody said to me, just, I was struggling with what I really was passionate about in college.
And people said, just do what you enjoy. Do what you're good at. I'm a good writer. And get internships in the stuff that you think will be your career, which is what I did. I always had an internship in journalism. Interesting. See, our son, he was an English major. He went on to law school. I wouldn't recommend it, but go ahead. But he what? I wouldn't recommend an English major. No, but he was a voracious reader and he loved to write. And so it was the perfect thing. And I thought,
And what a great, he was thinking about philosophy and I thought philosophy, if you wanna go work at the local bookstore, that's a great one to have. But if you wanna actually get a real job and do something meaningful, there are so few people that can write
And writing is a hard skill set. Especially now with, well, AI taking over, but with computers and proofreading and everything. Yeah, I guess writing is a long lost skill. It is. But okay, so you're growing up. Have you ever lived outside of New York then? Yes. So when, where? Well, the first time, obviously college. I went to college in DC. And then grad school, I came back to New York.
But in college, I went around the world on a trip. Really? But now you're thinking, actually, I haven't really... Now I live in New Jersey, but no, no, no. Except for my stint in college and traveling, I haven't lived outside of New York. And that's my biggest regret. That is my biggest regret. Wow, sorry to bring up... I hope I didn't peel off a scab or something here. I was talking to a group of moms about this the other day because things seem so scary when you're younger. I remember looking at colleges. Because they are. You probably went through this with your kids, right? Yeah.
My rule is I don't want to be too far away from my parents, so I stayed within this three-hour radius, which is so silly. And I'm still to this day mad at my parents why they didn't just say, go, go, go to California. They never said that to me, and I was too scared to do it on my own. But that was my regret, that even if I didn't do it in college, right after school, when you have nothing to lose, I should have moved somewhere. Yeah, and you could live on Top Ramen. Plus.
So this trip around the world, where'd you go? So that was during 9-11. Wow. Before or after? Or it happened during? It was a semester. It was semester at sea. So we got on the ship in Canada right before September 11th. And we went from Canada to...
to Japan. So that was 14 days at sea, getting our sea legs. I remember the vomit everywhere on the ship. And that's when 9-11 struck. This wasn't like a nice cruise ship, was it? No, it wasn't a fancy cruise. Was it like a bunk bed? I lived with two girls, Lori and Ashley.
in a small room, and it was more than we needed. It was amazing. Lauren, Lori, and Ashley in a three-room vomiting across the ocean. That sounds like a good time. Shaving our heads, although I did not shave mine when we crossed the equator. Neptune Day, they call it. Old sailors at sea. Did you cut your hair? Was it short? No, it was super long. No long hair? It was super long. You know, the weirdest thing when I did that trip, because it was three months...
around the world really testing every boundary that I ever knew. This is so because if you knew me and I have makeup on now, I don't really wear makeup in real life. I don't
really care. If I'm going out, I will. I do to work, obviously. I put my makeup on every day on that ship because I felt like my appearance was the only thing that I could have control over. Oh, yeah. We were eating weird things, drinking weird things, learning weird things. So outside my comfort zone, which was the best thing in the end that I ever did. But my control of my former identity was putting makeup on.
Was it mascara? I put a whole face on. It was so weird. I still can't gather why when I should have been as free as possible, I was wearing makeup every day when I would never wear makeup every day. What would you do when you first of all, how long was this? Three months. Oh, yeah. So quickly, 9-11 happened. No one had a cell phone. We didn't we had one computer on the entire ship.
9-11 happened when we were on our way to Japan. And I learned about it in Japan. Wow. Yeah. And I'm from New York. So it was a scary moment. Right. So after that happened, they rerouted us. Did you know anybody that was? Yes, but not closely. I knew of people. Right. But I knew everybody in my family. I eventually found out everybody in my immediate circle was okay. But they rerouted us semester at seeded.
And I remember waking, we would wake up before we'd get into port to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful. And document the ship getting into port, full makeup on. And it just looked, it was supposed to be Nairobi.
And someone said, this doesn't look right. Where are we going? And they had rerouted us in the middle of the night because the embassy didn't feel safe with American tourists going to Nairobi at this time. And our parents had secret passwords where they were able to log into the computer to find out where we were going because they didn't want to publicize it.
Wow. So yeah, it was radically changing day by day. So for three months when you'd pull into a port, what were you supposed to do? Was there curriculum here? I mean, was this class credit type of stuff? Yes. So there's field excursion and whatever your courses were that you were taking as part of your semester on the ship, that teacher would give you things to do in the port. Right. And then you'd have fun free days too. I would spend the last day wherever we were by myself.
Because I felt that was safe. Yeah. I felt safer by the last day knowing I knew the country and the people a little bit more, but just just to do whatever I wanted to do.
You rebel you. But also remember, you're three months at sea. You couldn't pack a lot of stuff. You needed stuff. Right. Like I literally would have to go shopping and buy shampoo, you know, little things like that. All right. So you go out and have this excursion, but you still, you're living in New York. Yeah. Why did you decide, okay, this is what I, you want to be a broadcaster, but you're
You've specialized in the financial markets and business and not all the time? No. I mean, that's where you are now, but... So my...
I knew I was warned that television was so hard to get into. You were either going to get in because you're an expert in something else, whether, you know, you served in Congress or you were at one time a stock trader or you had become a producer. But I enjoyed writing. I enjoyed the news. I enjoyed asking questions, information. So I said, I'm going to be a producer. So I was in college writing.
And I had a connection at the New York Stock Exchange. This is where business came in, where my cousin's business partner was an anchor at CNN at the New York Stock Exchange.
And they just needed someone. I was I think I was 18. I might have been 17 to come in. And they give me a black car service to come in at four in the morning. Now, when you're in college, four in the morning sounds insane. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Lauren Simonetti right after this.
Hey, it's Clay Travis. Join me for OutKick the show as we dive deep into a mix of topics. New episodes available Monday to Friday on your favorite podcast platform and watch directly on OutKick.com forward slash watch. You also don't normally get your black car service. Or $25 an hour. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. To come in and literally turn on the lights and do a couple of little things in this small booth to have her prepared for the anchor. Yeah.
And my cousin said, my cousin Lauren would be great for this job. She's so studious, this, that. She wants to study broadcast journalism. And they hired me. No, they didn't. Well, they hired me as a freelancer. She wasn't wrong, right? I loved it. I loved it. What did you love about it? Everything about it. I loved the New York Stock Exchange. I loved the fact that this is back in the day when it was all like hand signals and people were going crazy. I was a woman in a man's field. I was like, oh, I got this. I love being the underdog.
I didn't understand it. I was asking questions. I was asking the anchor questions. I was reading the Wall Street Journal with a highlighter and a dictionary. OK, don't we all? I just and I'm like, OK, OK, I'm getting the hang of this. And then that internship became my first job.
Years later. Yeah. That's why they have the internships, right? Go sift through and find the talent who's really willing to work for Peanuts. And I stayed with CNN for years. I moved out of the New York Stock Exchange into other departments. And then my final job at CNN was a promotion that took me back to the New York Stock Exchange as an unofficial bureau chief. And I just was like, oh, this is telling, you know, like.
No business in background, yet have been doing business, financial news all these years. And then I got hired at Fox Business and I came over and that was 16 years ago. You've been at Fox 16 years? I did not know that. China, yes, yes. Wow, that's impressive. So continuing to produce, when was your first on air? I was 29. I was in contract officially on air.
At 30, the same week I got married. So I just remember that being married, contract, and, you know, turning 30 is kind of monumental or depressing in my view. It happened like all at once for me. All in one week. All at once. I got on air because I was a producer and then a field producer. So I was out with all the reporters all the time.
doing a lot of work and then friends with the cameraman. So I'd say, hey, do you mind shooting a stand up for me? Which is when you say, hi, I'm da, da, da, da. So just to get a tape that you could show somebody. I made my tape. Right. And I showed the executives here and they were like, okay, this isn't terrible. It's bad, but it's not terrible. It's not terrible. And then, you know. The standard for your first on-air gig. Yes, it's not terrible. And then my one boss, he's no longer with the company. What did he say to me? He's like, oh, he's like, okay, what do I do with you? He's like,
He's like, if I tell you no, you're probably just going to get on air somewhere else. So I kind of like you here. So but you realize you're going to be messing up in New York, which is kind of people are perfected before they go to New York. So I'm going to put you on the Internet show. We had a live Internet show at the time. And that's where I started. And I messed up several times. Oh, of course. Of course. I mean, that's that's all part of it.
You know, I knew enough about the industry, both journalism and also business, where my mess-ups were bad, but they could have been way worse. So in the end, it's okay. Well, you know, it's interesting because I had done a lot of television before I got to Fox. I mean, being in Congress, I did a lot of television, right? Yeah.
but wasn't really paying attention to teleprompters and scripts and what all these different acronyms meant and all that. Or someone talking in your ear while you're speaking. Somebody talking in your ear, and yes. And that was not my part of the equation. So once I got to Fox and I started doing more, I'd kind of glance over and I could see what they're... But I had no idea what a SOT was or... Sound on tape. Yes. Yes.
Isn't it overtape? That's what I always thought it was. Oh. Sound overtape? Hmm. Even though it's not really tape, I guess, anymore, but it used to be. And, you know, just things like that. Anyway, and then they said, hey, we'd like you to guest host for Laura Ingraham. Oh. And I had never anchored, and then I was anchoring a primetime show, and I think it went all right because I got invited back. See? So I'm still here. Yeah.
That's where producing really helped me, where I would almost produce from the chair, from the anchor chair. You have to be careful about that because that annoys real producers. But I knew our capabilities in terms of cameras and logistics. So I would be able to say things like, OK, hold that shot, bring this in. Like I was doing it while I was on air. But it helps to know. That I haven't done. The other thing that I think was interesting.
It was really interesting as I learned, and it didn't take me very long. I picked on this pretty quick. Long talkers always bothered me. I'm like, okay, so I'm the guest and you're the other guest. Don't be a long talker. You're going to eat up. We have like literally four and a half minutes or three and a half minutes. And there's two of us give a short answer. And so I always wanted to be the person that
kept within their allotted time. There's no written rules to it, right? It's just kind of the unofficial, particularly on Varney. You better move faster. He's going to glare at you. That's why podcasts are nice, right? Yes. You can go a little bit longer. You can just talk.
Yeah. So, and it's really hard to make. Were you ever a long talker? Oh, yeah. Well, sometimes you just, you, have you ever lost your train of thought? No, never. So you're trying to do this really quickly and someone's sometimes telling you to rap. Yeah.
in your head and you're like, okay, but I just opened my mouth, but wait, now I forgot what I was going to say. And then it just becomes a mess and you wind up taking up more time instead of less. But quick answers, it's really hard to do because you have, do you get annoyed with people in real life when they're telling you a story and it's just going on and on and on? And you're like, dude, come on. So Trey Gowdy, Trey Gowdy, who I served with in Congress, almost all my congressional stories involved Trey Gowdy for some reason because we were with each other like all the time.
And he said he's like he's going on and on. He'd always be looking at the watch and he'd say things like, you know, is this a miniseries? Like, how long are you going to keep going? Like, you know that we have. Yes. And he would always dish it out. He never took it well. And when I was the chairman of the oversight committee, you don't mess with the chairman when they go over their allotted five minutes.
And I remember at the end, he got a little snarky. He would say before the hearing, you know, cameras are rolling, everything's going on.
And I'm about to read my opening statement, and all of a sudden, down on my far left side of the dais, Trey Gowdy would call out, Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman? Now, I'd hear that from the Democrats when they wanted to make a point or delay or do something. I'm looking over at Trey. The general from South Carolina is recognized. State your parliamentary inquiry.
I just wonder if the chairman is going to stick to the allotted five minutes or his or his or will the chairman's opening five minute statement actually be eight minutes? You know, things like that. And I would just start laughing. Democrats are everybody's laughing, but say, well, the chairman has discretion, as you know, and equal time will be allotted to the Democrats.
And it would just go on like this. It was really pretty funny. But I lost my train of thought. How was it? Was it nerve wracking? The first time you had to, how were you trained to do all this? I guess is my question. Well, you sit on the committee for a few years and, you know, once you're there for two, four, six years, then you start to realize, okay, I know how to do it. And you have a parliamentarian that helps you if there's some weird parliamentary trick out there.
And you have an attorney who's, you know, you see those people right behind that. Those are generally attorneys or subject matter experts. You lean back like, what is that? Do we know what that is?
Or if somebody wanted to enter a document into the record, and he'd be like, is everybody good with this? Because that's a tricky way of doing it. No. And I was on judiciary, which was interesting. So I was the token non-attorney on judiciary. Which almost made you more valuable because you could explain things to real people. I'm more valuable than these judges and these prosecutors like John Ratcliffe. They don't have anything on me. I'm the guy. That's what I say about business.
I can talk plain, simple language. And every once in a while, I would throw out a legal case and they would all look at me like, dude, who told him that? The Jones case? Jones? Are you kidding me? That Supreme Court ruling? We actually know what that means. I said, no, I know what that means too. It's a Fourth Amendment case. Really important one. Do you wish you went to law school? I do now. I know me too. Now I thought about it for a hot second. Why didn't you? Because my dad told me I wouldn't be a good lawyer. Swear to God.
He'd be a great attorney. My father said that to me. He said, my brain doesn't think like lawyers. Really? Yeah. I wonder what dad thinks. We should interview dad. I wonder what dad thinks. Oh, God. Actually, you should interview my father. He's hilarious. If you were on the trajectory to do what your dad wanted you to do, or your mom and dad. I mean, your mom suggested being an anchor. Yeah, my dad was in that. He said that, too. What did he think you were going to do? Anchor, teacher. Yeah.
I don't really know. He just didn't want me to spend too much of his money on college or graduate school. Well, law school's expensive. Okay, so that's where we're talking about his pocketbook here more than anything else. He's very proud. I don't know what my dad thought. It's so funny. So I've never went to therapy before.
But that doesn't mean I didn't need to go to therapy. And I knew that if I ever did go, that my parents would be the source of all my problems. Because I was the kid who would come home with like a 99.7. And my dad would say, I think half jokingly, why didn't you get 100? Right. Never, oh, good job. He was always like, well, what happened to the 100? I come home from college, freshman in my case, 13. What?
Lauren, you're looking a little big. Like my parents were always the one to have those like little like those little comments that, yeah, I feel like my brothers never got that. No, I'm not bitter, I swear. But they would resonate with me. And I they always it pushed me without them really pushing me to do anything. Just those little comments.
Yeah. Yeah. We might need another hour on this Jason in the House podcast. Put me in a therapy session. Whoa. Okay. But I am so close to my parents. My dad would love to come on your podcast. He's like a real, he's a man of the people. He's like the mayor where we live. Everyone loves him. Moral guy, swear to God. No, I bet. He's old school, the art of a handshake, do the right thing. I remember right in COVID, I got invited to go speak out in Iowa. Mm-hmm.
And I thought, okay, here we go. Big crowds, like 800 people. And I'm all dressed up. I'm wearing a mask. And we get in there and I thought we were going to fist bump or not shake hands. That was sort of the protocol at the time. Oh, no, not in Iowa. First of all, I took the mask off right away because nobody had one on. And I went, the first guy I met, you know, some farmer went to fist bump and he looks at me, he says,
We shake hands in Iowa. And I saw, you know, all in with the handshake. And that's the way it went. And I never did get the COVID, you know, on that trip or anything. I got it later. Were you a little nervous right after it, though? No. There were 800 people in there without a mask. Everybody's shaking hands. Nothing. I mean, literally, we were months into COVID. It wasn't like it was just turning the corner. And I thought, oh, do things a little differently in the Midwest. And it's just interesting. So.
My dad was never afraid of COVID. He didn't get it. He did get it once, but it's like way after the fact, after everybody else had it. But he was like, oh, this is no big deal. Whatever. He was one of those. He's vaccinated, boosted, all that. He did what he had to do, but he wasn't concerned about it. Right. Wasn't going to rule his life. So you do what you do now in Varney and you do it exceptionally well. Not everybody can do that job. And it's tough and it's volatile and it's,
Every moment is like changing. Is that what you love about it? Or do you, would you? Yeah. That's a scary part too, though. Right. The breaking news kind of part because it's, you have to get it right.
Of course. You know what I think about all the time? How many people are watching to get it right and to understand it. And break it down so the regular person can understand. Because sometimes, you've probably seen this, you get news flashes and they're not complete. It's like a half a sentence or you're just trying to make, there was something that happened today. What was it?
Oh, Susan Rice. Yeah. Okay, well, who's saying this? But, you know, and then you got to do your background on Susan Rice, too, and just do it all. But see, that comes, people ask me this question, too. Like, you answer questions on so many different topics. And I'm like, well, that's partly what Fox pays you to do. But the other thing is, in Congress, you're about seven miles wide and a half inch deep on how many issues. And so, inevitably, I've bumped into that issue along the way. And if you read...
you know, foxnews.com and the Wall Street Journal and some other chosen ones, you're pretty well up to speed. And, you know, as long as you're paying attention to the breaking news and... There's always something you miss. That's how I feel. You know, you read as much as you can, but there's always that something you either missed or you could have said better. I think of artificial intelligence lately. It's scary. It's going to take over all of our jobs, but I think journalism is going to be even more valuable for a human being and
at the wheel to say, that's a deep fake. That's misinformation. That came from there. And I think our jobs are going to slow down. So when news breaks, news in quotes breaks, and you want to be the first to report, I think, no, no, no. You want to make sure that news is actually legit. And then you report it. I think our jobs are going to change drastically to keep up with the computers and the bots. Yeah, you got to be able to. We're not going to be replaced. Yeah.
I think of the world in the way it's going to change jobs and industries and politics. In politics, the deep fake going into an election, whether it be pictures, videos, statements, audio recordings. You know, we heard that story, right, about the woman whose daughter, she thought she was kidnapped because somebody had taken a voice print and then called on the phone. She was convinced it was her daughter, right, because the voice was so accurate. Yeah.
It scares me. It happened in the Chicago race, too, for the mayor. There was a deep fake of the more conservative Democrat candidate that went out saying, you know, the police should kill more people all at once. And that wasn't true. Who knows if it impacted the vote? But I mean, come on, people saw that. Yeah. And that's that's scary stuff. Yeah.
All right. I have some rapid questions I need to ask you. That'll help illuminate a little bit more who you are, what you, how you think. So get ready. So I don't care how many times you've gotten up at 3 a.m. to do, you know, produce something. I used to wake up at 1 a.m. when I anchored the 5 a.m. show. Oh my gosh.
What are you going to do if you have a show that starts at like one sometime or two? It would be really, we do it. Could you sleep in on the weekends? I could. Yeah, I have three kids and they're young, so no, but I could sleep in with no problem. Yeah, no, I have no problems falling asleep ever. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Lauren Simonetti right after this.
You can fall asleep. I can fall asleep right now. Close my eyes and fall asleep. Really? That says a lot about this podcast. So I appreciate the endorsement there, Lauren. It's really sweet. We're going to run that on our promotion right there. I could fall asleep right now. That should be the opening. Yeah. No, I can't. I could fall asleep like on command. I admire people who can do that. You can't do that. No. You have to be busy. And you know what? Now they've gotten older.
I can't sleep in to save my life. Really? It used to be in college, I had to set the alarm for noon just to make sure I was up, right? Now, seven o'clock rolls around, I feel like I slept in. And for you, that's like noon. Can you do 10 a.m.? If I go back to bed, if I can somehow convince my brain that I don't have anything else to do. What time do you go to sleep at night for the most part?
My wife goes to bed at like 2. So I usually stay up till 12.30, 1 o'clock. Okay, so you're not... But my wife can just outdo us all. She just...
And she gets up early and she exercises. She's fit. And she's like, it's amazing. Some people don't need sleep. I don't need sleep. Some people just don't need sleep. She needs sleep, but I just wish she'd go to sleep earlier. Hmm. Anyway, another topic. All right. These questions are about you. Sorry, go. We'll do Julie questions later. I should do, I should have Julie on this. You should actually. I like being married. You might need a moderator though. I like being, I like being married. Yeah. It's gone well for us this far. Yeah. Maybe. All right. Uh,
First concert you attended. Oh, New Kids on the Block, Jordan Knight fan, big time. Oh, yeah. You know, I have ties to New Kids on the Block. How? My older half-brother was their manager. Seriously? Oh, yeah. I traveled down the road with them. I got so many New Kids on the Block stories. I hung out with Jordan. Yeah, I know all them. Yeah. And KOTB. But my first concert might have actually been with my parents. Might have been, wait, wait, hold on.
Paul McCartney, it was. But it was like a half concert. You know one's cooler than the others at this point. Yeah, I'd agree. McCartney. High school, what was your mascot? Viking. Because there were a lot of Vikings in New York at the time, right? Could that be allowed now? Is that PC enough? No. Hey, captain of the cheerleading team, I know the Viking is the mascot. What were your school colors? Blue, gray, and white.
Yeah, it's safe enough. Yeah, it was pretty safe. It was pretty, it was pretty actually. Um, what was your very first job? Not, Hey, no, come on. That doesn't count. Waitress fired, not officially fired, but I wasn't put back on the schedule. So I guess that means I was fired. What restaurant was this? I don't remember. It was an Italian place on Staten Island. So it wasn't like Burger King? I was actually fired twice, I think. Okay. So,
And I don't know which one came first. I worked for my friend's dad needed coverage at his Italian place. And I would not write down the orders. I'd memorize them and talk to the guests. You're smart enough to actually do that. I make good tips. I did it for like two weeks, but then they didn't invite me back. And I feel like the same exact thing happened when I when I worked at the Mexican bar slash restaurant also on Staten Island. You didn't like writing it down, did you? But I never got them wrong.
I believe I've been around you enough. I believe you that you got all the orders, right? I have no doubt about that. Oh, I wasn't good at carrying things on my arm. Like you have to twist your, your wrist and your arm that way and carry all the dishes on your forearm. The bus boys used to carry all the dishes for me. Maybe that's why I got fired. I didn't do enough work. I did clean the tables. And you took the tips. I'm sure I split my tips. Good for you. But yeah, I think I got fired twice.
You know, you better keep this TV gig because there's not that to lean back on. All right. Oh, bra specialist in Victoria's Secret. I'm not going to ask you about that. I don't know which one came first. These are all my first jobs. Did you get fired from that? No, I did not. I got promoted there. They might have all happened at the same time. I think, you know, I was able to work two jobs. I've had all these jobs, too. Yes. All right. So...
Okay, I lost my train of thought. I never lose my train of thought. Yeah, okay. If you met Bigfoot, what would you ask him? What size shoe are you? Yeah, that's a good one. What do people usually say? I would ask him, I would show, I'd roll the tape and see if that's really him. And say, see this video here? Is that really you? Because you say you're in Oregon, but this one's in Colorado and you know.
I'm kind of fascinated by Bigfoot. Why? I think it's so funny. I seriously cannot get enough. Of Bigfoot. Of Bigfoot. The Yeti. I cannot get, yeah, Daryl, as they call him. I just can't get enough of it. It's hilarious to me.
All right. Did you grow up with any pets? No. No. No pets? You don't have any pets now? Do you want to try a dog? My kids are begging for a dog. Why won't mom get them a dog? They have to pick mom or the dog. And they usually say the dog, but they say they're stuck with me. We're going to try the dog. Because I have three pets. They're my children. I don't have time for a pet. Literally. It always becomes mom's responsibility. Yeah, no doubt. And they make a mess inside and out, and you've got to clean it up. But
If you don't grow up with them, you probably aren't going to. I think that's true for the most part. And it's hard in the city. I'm on the city, though. I have a house. I'm in New Jersey now. But, all right. I can barely keep up with my children. I know. Maybe later in life when they're a little bit older and they can actually walk the dog and do stuff. And they can actually take them out in the morning. But right now, mom can't take them out. I totally get that. Most embarrassing moment. Ooh. Ooh. That one I need a heads up on. Oh. No. No.
That wouldn't count. There's been so many. There's got to be some clips on air. Do you keep those? The on-air? No. All right. We'll move on. We'll bump on. You get a pass on a lot of things here. If you could have one person, dead or alive, that you can invite over dinner and say, hey, family, gather around. Guess what? We've got a special guest tonight. Elvis. Love Elvis. I don't even have to think about that one. What is it about Elvis? I know everything about Elvis. Oh, my God.
Everything. Do you like, are you a collector? What do you? No, I'm not a collector, but I do listen to his, you know, I just put on Sonos or whatever in the house. I'm constantly listening to Elvis. My kids know all about him. Now, I'm not a super fan. I just love his voice. Found him good looking. Love the story. I don't know. I'm just hooked on Elvis. There's a reason he's the king. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. All right. Pineapple on a pizza. Yes or no? Only with ham.
Ham and pineapple, you do that. The answer is no, but- You're also asking an Italian. Yeah, I know. That's why I wanted a good answer.
I'm fine with it, though. What's your favorite pizza? Hey, we're going out tonight. You get to order the pizza, Lauren. What are you going to get us? Superoni. Do you know what that is? Sounds good. Delicious, because it includes the word pepperoni in it. It's like a little pepperoni, and they usually put a hot honey drizzle on top of it. It's a new thing. And then they curl up when they... They curl up. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. Extra pepperoni, curleronis, or whatever you call them.
What's that other thing for you? What I mean by that is you want to get out, clear your head, step away from all the things of life. What's the other thing that you do? I'm a yoga teacher. Are you really? Although I don't teach. I want to. It's just I haven't got... I'm trained to. Right. One day I will. My wife loves yoga. I can't keep up. I'm...
huge into yoga. The issue is I don't have a self-practice and I should at this point. Do you take an hour a day to do it? I try to. So I start my, the first thing I look at when I do the schedule on Sunday for the week is all the different yoga classes that I could take at all the different studios I could take them at. But I'm such a yoga snob at this point. I only go to certain teachers. Can't you do it by yourself? I know. That's what I'm saying. I don't have a personal practice.
I like to go to certain people and then the issue is work gets in the way. Like I can't take a 9 a.m. class where the good teacher is. So there's some days I can take that 2 o'clock class, but some days I can't. So I give myself an option for every day of the week. And honestly, if I get three yoga classes in a week, that would be considered a lot. But if it was up to me, I had no responsibilities. I would do a hard, intense, hot yoga class six days a week.
That's good for you. I'm not going to discourage you from doing that. That's good. It's my sanity. I don't need a therapist because I have yoga. For me, if I'm getting a good exercise, how the music going clears my head. If I
driving the car and I can blast the music, clears my head. And what I really like is wildlife photography. Then I'm really out there. That's my husband. I love getting out in the great outdoors, breathing the fresh air. And when you're chasing down a grizzly bear or a moose or something, you don't have time to think about anything else or answer a phone or look at a text. You literally cannot look down because your head's on a swivel.
I think I asked you this once before. I told you this story. My husband took a trip, a solo trip, to take pictures of wildlife in some natural resort or whatever. And he left me behind. He didn't want me to come. I like this guy. We should talk to him. I mean, do you really believe that that's the story? I'm still doubting it to this day. No, I think so. And I didn't ask to see the pictures as proof.
Nice wife. My wife lets me go. Julie has her book club. She wants to go out and go do all that. Hey, no problem. Where did he go? I'm like, that's really what you want to do? I wouldn't go solo. No, he went solo. See, I've got some buddies who'll go out. That's what I'm saying, his solo trip.
I don't know. Maybe you do need a therapist. And when I'm in a bad mood, he does tell me, he's like, go take a yoga class, please. What? How bad? How bad? Come on. I'm not buying this bad mood thing. No, I'm pretty, I'm pretty great. What's the worst? Yeah, I don't, I don't have much of a temper. It takes a lot to annoy me.
I would start smiling. I'd be like, sure. I'm pretty down to earth. He'd agree. I think so. I don't think that would go. You know how you know all the guys get together? You know this. And there's always everyone complains about the wives and the girlfriends, right? It's just kind of the way things are. I'm going to deny that, but go ahead. Okay. Well, one of his friends said to me one day,
He never complains about you. He actually doesn't really say anything. And I was like, ooh, that was a compliment. He doesn't say anything was actually a compliment. That's a total huge compliment. I know. Yeah, stay out of that discussion. Exactly. Well, I've been married for 32 years and that is the right way to go, fellas. If you're listening to this and this is a question mark or you've been guilty of this, you're going to get yourself in a lot of trouble. That's good. Yes. We're 12, 12, 12?
12. 12, good for you. Three kids, there you go. See, we had three kids. That's what we did. And our youngest is just about to get married.
So take lots of pictures, enjoy lots of videos. That's your daughter, right? Our daughter, a son, and then two daughters. You like your son-in-law. Oh, yeah. They joke. I have this Team Isaac hat because I was on board with them before the rest of the family was. That's how my parents are with my husband. All right. Last question. Oh, sorry. I keep interrupting because I'm a journalist. No. Last question. Best advice you ever got. The best advice I ever got. Other than your dad telling you not to go to law school.
Hmm. I've always sought out advice. This is hard because it's gotten a lot of advice. If you're giving... Go big. Let me frame it another way. Go big. You got a young intern who's now working for you who shows up and she wants some good advice. She doesn't know where she wants to go in life. She doesn't necessarily want to be the next Lauren. She wants to just do, you know, don't know what she's going to do. What advice would you give her? Get the coffee.
What does that mean? People are so afraid to do something small because they're better than that. And you are better than getting the coffee. You're working at Fox, for instance. And you know what? It's considered a nice gesture. You get the coffee. You meet the people. Hey, can I get you something? They're not going to take advantage of you. They're going to remember you. Yeah. And then one thing is going to lead to another. I'm just so sick of young people saying, I'm not paid to do that.
Do you know the things I used to do that I wasn't paid to do? You want to get ahead. How are you going to establish a relationship if you're, you know, putting your hands out and you're saying, oh, I can't do that. Your skill set is so minimal because this is your first job. Volunteer to go do that stuff. That's how you get to meet people, network with them. And you're right. You always, you get the tasks done.
And you're doing the task before you actually get paid for them, before you get the promotion. They have to see you actually doing it in order to go to that next step. So...
Good advice. Your job is not to get coffee. And if you're only getting coffee, that's a problem. I don't want to like have this misconstrued. But sometimes you have to do something unpleasant or not in your job description. 15% of everything you do is like, oh, I hate doing that. But you know what? It's part of working hard, working smart, getting up early, showing up early, working hard. Yeah.
You're right. People shouldn't be afraid of that. And I always say, because I try to take my own advice, it's always better to do something. You know when you have an event and you're really tired, you really don't want to go. It's always better to go. Just go. Just go. You'll meet people. You'll experience things. Yeah. You complain about it later. You go on ships and, you know...
Show up in different places. Show up in different places. Just make sure you have your makeup on. That's exactly right. I love visiting with you and getting to know you. Thanks so much for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. I really do appreciate it. You have to come on my podcast. We're momming today, but occasionally we invite men. Stuart hasn't been invited. Oh, wow. I'll definitely do it.
I can't thank Lauren enough. She's just so great. I really do appreciate her. I got a prediction a little while ago. Susan Rice, she decided that, you know, hey, I'm going to leave the White House. Now, she was a domestic policy advisor previous to that. She was the national security advisor to the president, President Obama.
It's interesting to me that she stepped down or announced that she was stepping down from her role literally 24 hours before Joe Biden announced that he was running for reelection. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think somehow, some way she wants to be in the mix there, whether she runs herself or whether she puts herself up as somebody who wants to be the vice president. That's my guess. That's my prediction. We'll see if it comes true.
All right. I hope you enjoyed this. I hope that you can go out and rate this. Please give us a nice little rating if you could. Subscribe to it. 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. Again, thank you for joining us.
rate it, subscribe, go over to foxnewspodcast.com to see some of my other colleagues who have some good shows out there. And I hope you join us again next week. We have another interesting interview. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.
This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.
