Rep. Brad Wenstrup: From The Army To Congress & What It Means To Serve
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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. Hello, this is Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Lots happening, a lot going on, and we're going to dial up today one of my

One of my favorites, Dr. Brad Wenstrup, who's also Colonel Wenstrup for his time serving in the military, but he's also Congressman Wenstrup representing Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. And fascinating person. He was the doctor on the scene when Steve Scalise was shot. Hopefully I'm going to ask him about that. Hopefully he'll walk us through that.

what he did in Iraq serving in for our nation and just kind of the state of play as to what's going on here in the United States. He's a wonderful human being. I think he's got a lot to share and probably somebody you don't know a whole lot about his background. And I, anyway, we'll give him a shout and we're going to some thoughts on the news. And of course, highlight the stupid, because as we know, somebody is always doing something stupid somewhere. So,

Let's kick things off and talk about a couple of key things in the news. And boy, given the velocity and the amount of information that's flowing at us right now, we could take a couple of hours on the podcast to just talk about a variety of different things.

One of the things, but I'm going to try to touch on some things that may be a little bit deeper that you've maybe seen, but try to offer a unique perspective on. The parliamentarian for the United States Senate made an important ruling here that may be glossed over most people. But what she said was, is that the budget reconciliation cannot be used to legislate on budget.

So what the Democrats have done is they've realized that they've given up, just like totally given up, not even trying to do some bipartisan stuff. Like the promise of Joe Biden, the promise of all that, it's just a lie. It was all fiction. They have not been reaching out, working, trying to craft things with Republicans. Yes, they did a bit of an infrastructure, a big infrastructure, a trillion plus dollars,

But you notice they didn't just rush over and pass that out of the House. No, what they really want is this reconciliation package. So what does that mean? House, Senate pass different budgets. The president submits a budget. But then through the reconciliation process, you'll only have to get it to a threshold in the United States Senate of 50 votes.

And so what they're trying to do with the Democrats is put everything in the kitchen sink, every liberal wish list, every Green New Deal thing into this budget reconciliation. Problem is not everybody is buying off on that. And because they only have 50 Democratic senators, they can't lose a one of them.

One of the things the Democrats were trying to put in there was to fundamentally totally change how we do immigration in this country and do amnesty for literally millions of people. But fortunately, the parliamentarian said, "Oh, no, no, no, that would violate the Byrd rule." What is the Byrd rule? B-Y-R-D, the Byrd rule is about Senator Byrd in the construct of these rules

there ended up being what's called the bird rule. And that is you can't legislate in this package called reconciliation. What you have to do is you have to keep focused on budget items. It can be tax increases. There can be things that affect the budget. But if you're fundamentally changing the law

And then that requires a different process. You can't use it. That would be a violation of the Byrd rule. The parliamentarian said, no, you can't do that. Big blow to the Democrats. They're not going to be able to do that and push it through. So hopefully that becomes a little clearer.

The other thing we're dealing with is this mass, this huge surge of people that are down on the border. I mean, we're talking 10 plus thousand people at just one gate, if you will, coming into the United States, plus all the other hundreds, literally hundreds of thousands of people that are coming across our borders. We'd be millions if it kept on the same trajectory through the Biden administration. But, you know, I saw online and I think it's a really big, important question.

which is, how is it that something like 12,000 Haitians show up at this port? It's not on the ocean. We talk about it's in the middle of Texas. How did 12,000 Haitians get from Haiti, where a lot of them, I assume, have no resources? They had yet another earthquake. It's a poverty-ridden country.

How is it that they got from this island nation? Did they take boats? Did they take an airlift, go to Mexico, travel north? And who funded all that? I think it's one really big, important question that I've never seen anybody of any sophistication answer. You know, we have a central intelligence agency, but I think we really need deep answers as to how all these hundreds of thousands of people continue to make the trek through Mexico and

and make it up north because they're not all Mexicans or Guatemalans or El Salvadorians. They come from more than 150 different countries. So what's going on? Who's funded it? And it's not onesie twosies. We're talking 12,000 people. So I would love to have some answers on that. I hope people keep asking the question of who's funding the Haitians and how they're going to do what they're doing.

I think the Democrats have big, big problems, not only on the border and what's going on there and their budget reconciliation. Afghanistan, I want to remind everybody, there are still Americans with American passports that want out of Afghanistan that are behind enemy lines that cannot get out. It's stunning to me that President Biden and Kamala Harris just abandoned them.

The other thing I keep a keen eye on is what's going on in Minneapolis and some of these other cities around the country, because crime, law and order, it's kind of gone amok here under Joe Biden and the progressives.

Remember, it was literally, it was just over a year ago that Kamala Harris was out bailing people out, helping to raise money to bail people out of jail as fast as she could so that they could get back out on the street to participate in these riots or whatever you want to call them. But...

enough violence that at least they were arrested. There was the allegation they haven't been convicted, but hey, let's get them bail money as fast as they can. Well, some have advocated that we just do away with police. Just get rid of it. Minneapolis and other places, they're literally looking at abolishing a police department. And you know what? I kind of hope some of these places do it because I'd love to see what you think life in America is going to be without a police department.

All the things that these first responders do, if you run into trouble, guess what you're doing? You're calling 911 and you want a good quality police officer, a first responder, a fireman, an EMT to get there and help you get out of a problem. But what are you going to do in a big city like a Minneapolis if there's no police department and there's a mugging or a shooting or a rape? Well, then what are you going to do? Call a social worker? Good luck with that. I want to see what happens there.

And of course, we're still dealing with COVID, the mandates. And you know what's stunning to me, and I just think it's worthy of highlighting is, how come, how come the Democrats have no investigation into the origins of the COVID virus? How come that that isn't there? I just fundamentally, it has killed hundreds of thousands of people. It is something that every one of us in America is dealing with.

and is just malpracticed by the Democrats to not address it and have a serious investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. It's just stunning to me that they can't and that they won't. All right, so it's time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right, so now we have to go back and look at Afghanistan and I.

Usually when you get into this, when I think of the stupid, I think of some silly, you know, horrific, dumb things. But somehow, someway, our United States USAID, it's called, decided through, this is the Agency for International Development, evidently put out a press release. Because they have decided that they are going to put $64 million, Americans' money,

into the pockets of, you guessed it, Afghanistan. We have spent so much time, so much treasure, and now we have no ability to offer oversight or administer this aid that they think that they are literally going to flow 64 million more dollars, more dollars, through the United Nations and these non-government organizations called NGOs

to deal with the situation in Afghanistan. I got to tell you, I just think that is so incredibly offensive. It is stupid. It just doesn't make any sense to me. And what they're saying is, we're going to take money out of your wallet, out of an American's pocket, and we're going to give it to somebody else. But there's no way to oversee it. There's no way. We don't have an embassy there. We don't have...

Now, I'm not saying we never give money to places that don't have embassy, but come on. After all we've been through, that we have Americans? No. This is slush money. And I just think it's absolutely stupid. All right. I was going to do stories from the halls of Congress, but you know what I think is actually best? Is to call up somebody who's still serving, who's started serving in Congress since 2012.

He's the congressman from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. But let's call up Dr. Colonel, because he served in the military, and Congressman Brad Wenstrup. Hello. Hello, Brad Wenstrup. Hey, it's Jason Chaffetz. Thanks so much for joining us on this My Jason in the House podcast. Thank you. I appreciate it. Glad to be with you. I hope you're doing well.

Well, thank you. The Congressman and I, Brad Winstrip, Colonel Winstrip, I should say, we served together in the United States Congress, and it was an honor and privilege to do so. And just a wonderful, great guy. And I thank you so much for coming on and talking a little bit about your background. I'm glad to do it, and it's good to connect with you again. Yeah, you know, I...

Some places, sometimes people are put in just precarious positions. It's always interesting to me how sometimes you cross paths with people that you're just like, wow, I would have never met this person otherwise. I probably would have never met you otherwise, representing Ohio's second congressional district. But

You probably most notably, at least in my world, you served in the military. Where did that come from? Why did you decide, hey, you know what, I really want to go serve in the military? Well, you know, I think it probably started under the Reagan era because he highlighted our military so well, especially the greatest generation. And I always wondered who are these guys?

you know, no one in my family had ever served in the military. And it was just kind of something that was out there. And I can remember, you know, practicing medicine at Cincinnati, Ohio. And during the first Gulf war, there were a couple of local doctors that were reservists that got called up. And so it kind of planted another seed in my, in my brain to say, you know, I, I could do that. I could do that. You know, if we go through, uh,

at least my lifetime in 1979 you had the iranian hostage crisis but you look at all the attacks on america whether it was our embassies tanzania kenya beirut uh you know our marines in beirut the uss coal you look at all these attacks right and and and on the world trade center and i remember thinking you know if we need to go somewhere i'm willing to go we keep getting attacked so in 1998

I literally called 1-800-USA-ARMY and said, hey, I'm interested in joining the reserves. You know, there was no payback on tuition. I already paid that off. I was well into my practice. I was in a large orthopedic group with 26 doctors and I was operations chair for that group. You know, things were things were going along just fine. And but

But this was something that I thought to do, and I'm very glad I was in a large group like that because when I got called up in 2005 to go to Iraq, I was there for a year, and my partners, great Americans, took care of me and my patients. So you grew up in Ohio? Did you grow up in Ohio? Yeah.

Yeah, born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Locally went to St. Xavier High School, then the University of Cincinnati, and then I did all my medical training and residency in Chicago and came back to Cincinnati to practice. Started with my own practice and then joined the large orthopedic group. My mom is still in the house that I grew up in since age five, and my dad passed away a couple years ago, so we're pretty entrenched in Cincinnati area.

Now, growing up, what was growing up like for you? I mean, Cincinnati's a beautiful part of the world, wonderful people. But, I mean, were you like, hey, I'm really good at, you know, medicine and science? Or were you out the kid, you know, throwing dirt clods and playing tackle football?

Well, I was doing both of those, actually. And, you know, it's kind of funny because my first weekend when I joined the reserves, I ran into a guy who lived down the street from me when we were like five or six years old. And there he was, a reservist as well. And I remember my mom saying, well, I'm not surprised because you guys had your little army uniforms and you were always playing army. And here you are both.

in the military. And we did, we had our, we had periscopes, we had all kinds of stuff that we played with, but you know, I grew up playing law sports and loved that was probably best at swimming, but love baseball and basketball and did all of those, you know, high school, very competitive and all boys high school to get on those other teams. And I was the better swimmer. And we were state champs all four years that I was in school for swimming and

And but then still continued to play a lot of more recreational basketball and baseball and just, you know, grew up in the neighborhood riding my bike around, you know, going through the neighborhood. We all did that. And, you know, I think one of the things that I will always remember is at the time, soft drink bottles were worth two cents. And I knew what bushes to look in and everything else. I ride my bike around, collect those.

and I'd fill a wagon full of bottles, and I'd go down to this local store, and my mom would say, okay, you got 10 bottles, that's 20 cents. You can get two packs of baseball cards and bring the other dime home. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Congressman Brad Wenstrup right after this.

From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com. Yeah, you know, I remember going out and collecting like aluminum cans. Aluminum cans are the thing you'd get in a big garbage bag.

which probably had more plastic in it than anything else, right? But you go get that big can. And I loved crushing them, right? I'd find one, split it in half, then I'd jump on it and crush it. And next thing I know, I had this big mess of can. Then I'd go down with my mom or dad, put it in the recycling bin, and out would spit a bunch of coins. And then you're right. I could ride my bike up to a 7-Eleven. There was a 7-Eleven that I'd ride my bike to. And

I get some bazooka gum and, you know, that was kind of like, you know, idyllic type of household. But what was, you know, everybody I've ever talked to, if you really kind of dig a little deeper, they've gone through some hard stuff, right? Not everybody just glides through this life. You know, I want to talk about what you went through when you were in the house with Steve Scalise, but let's go before that because, yeah,

Growing up, what was your first job? What was the hardest thing you went through kind of going up and leading up until college?

Yeah, you know, I don't know if it was actually hard necessarily because I was able to walk to school. And then in high school, we drove to school. But there was just always a set of expectations that you tried to live up to. And I think that was maybe the challenge as much as anything else. I mean, I can remember when my dad lost his job and I said,

you know what dad everybody loves the work you do he's an optician I said you'll you'll be hired tomorrow and and darn if two days later he wasn't getting offers but you remember things like that where there's the the uncertainty you know we talk about first job I mean I did everything I caddied I cut grass I rake leaves I even had a patient one time and come to my practice hand me a little piece of paper that I had handwritten on there my name my phone number

drew a leaf and said, you know, if you need someone to rake your leaves. And here I was a practicing physician surgeon. And she still had that in her drawer. Can you believe that? But I worked at a drugstore during high school where we delivered drugs and and we stocked the shelves and did all those types of things. And but mostly I waited tables for nine years. And I would tell you that was one of the hardest jobs I had.

All through school, I was waiting tables, but I actually liked it because it got you to learn to deal with people, which we certainly have to do in Congress. But also as a physician, you know, you're always dealing with people individually and people with problems.

And so those were great experiences and they were they were hard work. You know, my first car was a Ford Maverick used and my next car was a Pinto. So, you know, you can you can figure that out. But I was very proud. I was very proud to have earned those things myself.

and to be able to pay for those. But so there was just the challenges and the challenges that come with wanting to aspire to do more. I knew at a young age that I wanted to be a doctor. There was a show on when I was a kid called Medical Center. And so from really about second grade, I knew I wanted to be a doctor. But as we talked about, there was also another show called Combat.

And I always wondered about our military. And like I said, Ronald Reagan brought that even out in me even more that that desire. So, you know, I got no complaints with with my upbringing. I always said that to my dad later in his years, I said, I don't think you ever punished me that I didn't deserve it.

Well, yeah, I mean, that's the, you know, you're a young man. You start to learn about consequence and what happens and what happens and what doesn't happen and everything.

You work out for the swim team, then you're going to do better on the swim team. If you don't work out, yeah, you sleep in. You're probably not going to work out so well. But I love those early jobs, those early adventures because, yeah, I cut our neighbor's lawn. I can't even remember what they paid me. But I remember being in Arizona, it being hot and just miserable. Oh, sure. And I do worry. I worry like this younger generation, right?

that they miss out on all these opportunities to go work. And, you know, my parents, they told us, hey, you can't just play soccer. My sport was soccer. You can't just play soccer all summer. I said, well, yeah, that's what I do. But when I turned the corner on, like, whatever it was, 13 years old, they said, no, no, that's not what you're going to be doing.

I even got to the point where I had to read. I had to read an hour a day. And my parents made me log it. So I had to literally on a piece of paper write what time I started, what time I stopped, and what I read, and from what page to what page.

So we're doing that with my son right now. He's in second grade. Last night in the car, he was reading aloud to me the child's version that Bill Bennett wrote on Book of Virtues. I don't know if you've ever seen that. And he's reading that. He had a lot of new words reading Bill Bennett's book, as you might imagine. But that was good. And we do log it.

And actually his school requires that. So, well, you know, we, we enjoy doing that and he's coming around the other one other thing. And this probably lead to another topic at some point, our conversation, my son, he picks up everything now. And it's not like I've had these deep conversations with him, but he picks up everything now and he goes, look, daddy,

Made in China. Look, daddy, made in China. You know, it's kind of funny that reminds you of one time I went to, you know, I traveled all over the world before I was in Congress. And then when I was in Congress, and I remember being in, you know, weird places like, you know, Afghanistan and this, I think, well, you know, I should buy something to have a little, you know, memento here.

And I remember being in China and just laughing at myself, really thinking, I should buy something here in China. My whole house is full of stuff that already is stamp made in China. I don't need to buy something here to bring it back. Say, hey, look what I got in China. Wow. You can go to Walmart and get it tomorrow. They could probably deliver it to me cheaper that I could actually buy it there. But it was...

kind of a sad state of affairs i'm glad your son's picking up on that because yeah i mean yeah i don't know in early on there were a lot of stuff that was made in japan and uh but then china just came roaring through but um let's go back to that so you go to college tell me about the decision then to go because medical school that's not an easy path

No, but it's really all I really thought about doing. It was, you know, the idea that you could actually be helping people. And I can remember in one of my med school interviews, they're like, well, how much do you hope to make? And I said, well, I've never even given that a thought.

I assume I'll do okay. Most physicians do, but I've never really given that a thought. So it's all I wanted to do. And it could be challenging in college because I was working throughout my entire college career and holding down jobs as well as being in a fraternity, being active in the fraternity, holding leadership positions there.

and trying to get good grades. And that got to be tough sometimes, but you persevere. I mean, there was one course I didn't like the grade I got, so I took it over and got an A the next time. So if you got your goals on something, you know what you have to do and you go for it.

And it's one of the things that I really admire. And you've been through this when you're nominating young people for the academies as a member of Congress. It's just amazing to see how hard they're working to try and achieve that goal.

Yeah, you know, Mike Pompeo, we had him on, the former Secretary of State, but a colleague of ours that was serving in the Congress, and he talked about that, going to West Point, and how he, like, oh boy, I didn't get as good a grade there as I should have. So he'd work hard, do things, go back, do them again until he got it right. And I mean, that's what you expect and hope in life, but also in the military. And

But tell me about, I mean, you served in Iraq and that cannot be easy to say the least. Tell me about that moment when you got called up and it came the morning or whatever it was when you had to actually leave the house and say, all right, here we go.

Yeah, that's a tough one. You know, fortunately for me at the time, I was single. But I had gotten a call in the fall of 2004, and they said, you're being called up. You need to go to processing in Birmingham. And I go down there and go through the whole nine yards physical and everything else, and then they tell you where you're going.

And as I got up there, I remember the woman saying, oh, someone took the slot yesterday. So they must have called two people in case one of them wasn't eligible. And I said, well, where was it? And he said, it was a 90-day backfill at Fort Carson, Colorado. I'm like, oh, okay. And usually for reservations.

It is 90 days and for reserve physicians, I should say. And that's so you don't lose your practice and go bankrupt, which we learned from. Well, then it was it was March of 05. I get a call again and it's like, OK, you need to be a processing this week. And actually, the unit you're deploying with is Combat Support Hospital. And they're already at Fort McCoy training to get ready to go over to Iraq.

And he wouldn't tell me where we were actually going, which I thought was kind of strange when I went to processing. But the other thing that was a shocker when I got that call is I said, okay, well, how long is it? And he said, well, your orders will say 18 months, but it probably won't be that long.

And you're telling me I got to go next week and I have surgeries lined up for months and patients on the schedule. And this is why I said my group came through for me with that many docs to be able to take care of all these patients. And so I worked until I had to leave and

It wasn't until I got to the airport at Fort McCoy that I was told that we were going to Abu Ghraib prison and that our mission was not only to take care of our troops, which you would expect, but our mission was detainee health care. So we're going to Abu Ghraib a couple of years after the scandal. And our combat support hospitals, I found out, was our tent type hospital, but built inside of a warehouse that had warehouses.

holes on the roof from rockets and mortars and that I was going to be there at least a year.

And so off we went and, you know, went to work. And, you know, I have to say it was the worst thing I ever had to go through, but the best thing I ever got to do. And that was mostly because of the people that I dealt with. And part of our mission, you know, when you take care of people that want to kill you, you're winning over the hearts and minds. And they had a different impression of America that they never saw before because they're

Because, you know, as far as they were concerned in their closed country, America was responsible for any problem they might have had. And and also I was convinced while I was there that some people just got swept up to be taken in. Because if you were a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison, you got your three meals a day and you got health care.

And that wasn't necessarily available out on the economy for a lot of people. And so really, you know, it was an interesting mission. And we even had a detainee told a nurse one time later in our year, he said, you know, you all the angels of mercy in here and people know that. And we got to take care of some of the kids from around and,

Two of my interpreters are now U.S. citizens and have built their family with kids here. One's a cardiologist. The other's doing family practice. And that kind of ties into why I was so passionate about getting our interpreters out of Afghanistan. And we even got laws passed in a bipartisan fashion to try and expedite it. But too big of a rush. And now hundreds, if not thousands, are left behind in Afghanistan. But the experience...

at Abu Ghraib was really, it was a great surgical experience for one and medical experience too, because you had so many things that were endemic to the area and you had things that you just never saw before. And in part because they didn't have healthcare. So a lot of things that might be taken care of in the United States the next week, people lived with for years.

And so it was extremely up and extremely down. We were attacked about three, four times a week. But the attitude I took into there is I have my down times, but at the same time, I'm not going to let them beat me. And so you try to keep a smile on your face throughout, but there were time for tears for sure. And very interesting from the standpoint, I

You know, we had the care of Saddam Hussein. I operated on Chemical Ali, the guy who was responsible for killing tens of thousands of Kurds. And, you know, from the doctor's standpoint, you do what you're supposed to do. We got him well. And then three years later, their court system decided he was very guilty and hung it. That's fascinating. Well, thanks for your service, because I got to tell you, that is...

My type of experience with this is very limited, but I did go visit a hospital that we had been doing an investigation on the oversight committee. Unfortunately, some Americans had done some stupid stuff and bad stuff, and it culminated in a few of us in a congressional delegation trip visiting this hospital. It was supposed to be the nicest hospital in Afghanistan. I have no doubt that it was, but it was the creepiest hospital.

scariest, most depressing thing I've ever, ever experienced in life. It was so cold and so dark and so just almost felt evil. And I, and you know, we were there because of how bad the patients had been treated and, uh, that was not showing up in the reports. Like it should have. In fact, people were lying about that. So, um,

When we moved through the hospital and they took us into this room and there was a young man there and he was chained to the bed. And I swear he would have killed me if he could have because I was in America. He would have killed me. I mean, his disdain was just unbelievable. And I can't imagine the horror and the things that he had gone through. And so...

for you to do that kind of thing day in and day out and undoubtedly, um, not as cold, not as dark. Um, but I don't know. I mean, I just, it was just always amazing to me, you know, as a member of Congress, the reason I was going to Afghanistan and,

And Iraq, I've been to both a few times. You know how it is. You blow in and you blow out. You're there for hours at a time. They're moving you to the next place. But I can't imagine. And there's so many people, men and women, who got up off their couch like you did and served. And I'm just very humbled by it, very grateful that people like you would get up there and do that. And it's not comfortable, and there's not a break, and you can't just go home on the weekend.

Right. Just like the song says, I can't call in sick on Monday because the weekend's been too strong. And we had two-point restraint on our detainees. We had one arm and one ankle that were strapped to the bed comfortably. But that generally worked. Sometimes we had to do four-point if somebody was extremely belligerent and aggressive. But it's been interesting. I still serve in the reserve. My official title is

medical policy advisor to the chief of the army reserve, just got selected as a consultant to the surgeon general of the army and

And I still am on staff at Walter Reed. And as a matter of fact, a couple of weeks ago, I was in D.C. and I got a text that evening on a Monday night and said, are you in town? Because we have another medevac coming in from Afghanistan and could use the extra hands. We've been going for three days straight. So I ended up operating on one of the Afghanis that had his leg injured.

pretty well shattered from the ISIS terrorist attack. And we were pretty busy and down to three and four year olds. So it, I mean, it's an honor to serve and to serve with so many great Americans that do this type of work and, and do it, do it willingly. Well, you also, you're on the house intelligence committee. I know you care a lot about agriculture, but you know, back in the,

Back in the day when I was still in Congress, before I'd left, you know, I wasn't on the congressional baseball team. But I, you know, I was an office dweller. I slept in my office like a lot of people, which meant in the morning I'd go down. I showered every day, and you'd use the congressional showers and get, you know, a little bit of a workout in the morning. And this one particular morning, some people started coming back from baseball practice and saying that there was a shooting.

And, uh, can you walk us through what, what you went through there? Because if not for your efforts, I don't, you know, I don't know that, uh, Steve Scalise would be with us today, but suddenly you find yourself, Steve Scalise is, is shot and you run into that scene and, and help, but walk us through that from your, your vantage point, what was happening and what went down?

Yeah, it was a pretty horrible event, obviously, from the standpoint. There were 136 rounds fired, and most people don't know that. But there was a lot of divine intervention. The shooter had been living in his van for two months right outside on the street, right outside the third base left field line. And he was using the YMCA across the street for Wi-Fi and for showering and things like that. His social media was full of anti-Trump, anti-Republican messages.

uh, type of, of, of posts. And so he obviously came with a purpose. And that morning he even asked one of the players that was leaving early, actually two, um, are these Republicans or, or Democrats out here? And this is in Alexandria, Virginia. And they both said, no Republicans, because there's a lot of people walking by every morning, walking their dog or whatever the case may be. And so, um, he actually, um,

Open fire around 7 o'clock in the morning, and he started his shooting beyond the dugout on the third base side. Well, lo and behold, the groundskeeper later told me, he said, I don't know why, but I locked the third base gate the night before. This is a field with very high fences. You can't just hop over them.

You would have to climb. And this man was equipped, as we now know, with a with a high power rifle as well as a handgun. And he started shooting. His first shot was towards third base where Trent Kelly, who's a two star in the National Guard and veteran of Iraq, it missed him because that gate was locked.

And he hit the link in the fence. And you can go back and see that today. Well, his next shot was at Steve Scalise. And Steve was hit. And he tried to crawl away. He was playing second base and crawling towards the downfield. And he came to a stop. And meanwhile, everybody else was just running all over the place. This field happened to have dugouts that were about

Six steps down, and that served as a bunker, and you can still see the bullet holes over the first base dugout where people were diving because the only exit was towards that side, towards the first base side. And if they couldn't safely get out of the exit, they were diving into there, and other people were hiding behind trees, etc.,

Well, divine intervention is the fact that Steve Scalise was there because Steve and leadership has a detail. So there are two undercover Capitol police sitting in an unmarked car over by the first base site. And without them, there would have been 20, 30 people killed. And, you know, you talk about an insurrection. This is an armed insurrection where he could have changed the face of the House of Representatives in one morning.

So Steve goes down. I was, again, divine intervention. I had just batted and I grabbed my glove and I was going to the outfield. And this occurred to me a couple of days later, I kind of got a chill thinking, why did I change my mind? And I, and I went back and put my bat down and got my glove and I went down to the batting cage, which is outside the fence of the field in a cage down the first baseline. So when the shooting started, I was like, who's doing the shooting, who's doing the shooting. And, and,

You know, it's kind of like I think that was a scene in Saving Private Ryan. I was trying to figure out one shooter or two because the sound is echoing off the buildings and trying to get a grasp of this.

But I was in the best position I could be in because I could see Steve, I could see the shooter, and then I could see Capitol Police engaging. And I could see where people were hiding behind trees, etc. So I just got outside the batting cage and laid on the ground. Well, the shooter was moving and he went behind the dugout on the first base side, again, still outside the field. He never did make it onto the field.

And now he's shooting at the dugout and he's down towards home plate, but he's being engaged. But Capitol Police only had two handguns. And so the guy continues to move around. There's a building outside the field behind home plate. He goes behind that, comes out around the other side. Now he's shooting down my lane, if you will, down the right field line. And I can see the blaze of the rifle. So I get behind the restroom that was nearby and I'm able to peek out between between shots.

And I could see Steve and Ian looked like he had stopped moving at one point. And so I was on the ready once I thought it was safe. And one of the Capitol Police, she was down because she was shot in the ankle. So it came down to one Capitol Policeman. And at that point, Alexandria Police came in and it was two that ran in. And so now it looked like three on one. And actually, I found out later there was a sniper further away.

And as they were closing in on him, that's when I started to run. And they hit him and he went down and then I ran even more and was able to get out to Steve. And I assessed his wound and it reminded me of one that I saw in Iraq where we weren't able to save the soldier because the injury went up into his belly. His injury was blunt. Steve's was ballistic.

But I immediately asked for a belt because I went up, I pulled his pant leg down. I saw his entry wound, but I didn't see an exit wound. So I knew it went up into his abdomen. So I put on the tourniquet as high as I possibly could and kept him steady, kept and didn't want him to move in case, you know, some of the bleeding was stopping internally. He was still conscious at the time. He couldn't move his left leg or foot. So I knew it hit nerve. I knew it hit his hip. I knew he was bleeding out inside.

And then when medics came, I said, how fast can you start an IV? Because we needed to keep fluid into his blood vessels. And they didn't have it with them. It was on their ambulance, which could not drive out to the hospital.

So it wasn't like, you know, an army medic, right? It carries everything with them like that. But things started showing up from the, I found out the Capitol Police SUV. I found a clotting bandage, which I put into the wound. I put on a regular tourniquet, even tighter, that came rather than just using the belt. We had cut Steve's clogs.

uniform down so we could pick him up in like a sling when the time came. But I asked him to start drinking fluid. You got to get fluids in you. And people were bringing water and whatever. And the medic, unfortunately, understood what I was saying when I wanted an IV. And so although Steve's wound looks small compared to, say, Matt Micah,

who was a young staffer out there working with us. He got hit across the chest and just missed his heart. But he was less severely wounded than Steve, but no one could tell that. But the medic, the paramedic knew what I meant and he pushed Steve through and

and made him a priority. And by the grace of God, also there happened to be a helicopter in the air that was being worked for the parks, but he had flown in Iraq and he landed. And as he said, when he picked up Steve, he flew that bird like he stole it, got him to the hospital. And Steve got to the hospital, his blood pressure was zero. So arguably the tourniquet helped keep his blood pressure up for a while because we stopped some of the bleeding.

But he needed work right away. So it was actually his book tells it all very well. And and then and then I'm hearing from all kinds of media all across the country. So, you know, our phone numbers are sold to media because that was my personal phone. I texted my wife, told her I'm OK. I never heard from her. And about a half hour later, I called her and I hear this. Hello. And I said, were you asleep? And she said, yeah, I said, good.

So then I told her what happened. So fortunately, she wasn't sitting around wondering if I was dead or alive. But I had heard from my family in Cincinnati that was awake. Yeah, I remember some of the initial people that came back were just stunned. I mean, they were just...

and they were just sort of in shock, and they said, yeah, but Steve Scalise got shot in the leg, and you know, when you hear shot in the leg, it just kind of connotates that, yeah, he's going to be fine, and I've never heard you tell that story before, and I can't thank you enough for, you know, it goes back to what I was saying at the beginning. It's amazing how some people, they just find yourselves and your paths crossing, and

There you are with that very unique background and sophistication and experience. And I'm sure poised to deal with a highly stressful situation with an active shooter and to be able to lean on all of your experience there to help a good soul like Steve. A, I'm sorry you have to go through that. But B, I guess probably even more importantly, I just thank God that you were there to do what you did.

And yeah, and exactly where God put me. I mean, you know, to not be out in the center field as opposed to being outside the fence and in the batting cage and able to see everything. I mean, that's the stuff that gives you a little bit of shivers. But I do credit the Army training and Army experience.

because I did not feel rattled through this whole thing for me. I felt rattled for others. But I just, very focused. I know what I need to do. Let's go. Let's, you know, see what's going on. But give me the chance to get to do that. And that was provided. You know, David Bailey, Crystal Greiner, the Capitol Police, God bless them, you know, because they saved a lot of lives that day. Yeah. I mean, they...

they were walking towards the gunfire into the gunfire and engaging. And, you know, it's one thing to train for that. It's another thing to have it happening and be live and, and to have to do what they did. And they're just wonderful human beings, you know, kind of people you see pretty much every day. Hey, how you doing? You know, and then all of a sudden your life is in their hands and,

Can't thank them enough as well. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Congressman Brad Wenstrup right after this. You go through that experience. You've continued to stay in Congress. You know, for me, it came to a point of frustration. That's just what's what's life like now there? I've been gone more than four years now.

But how has it kind of changed from the beginning of when you started to serve? I believe you were elected 2012, right? So you're sworn in in 2013. So, you know, the change that you've seen over the last few years and years

I understand what it should be. Everybody talks about a way it should be, but then there's also the reality of how it actually is. Right. It was always tough. Like you said, you would get frustrated with it. Our founders did not design it to be easy. I'm glad to live in a country where we get to elect our leaders. Their process was so well thought out. Throughout history, there have been great debates. We understand that.

But I think what's really bothered me in the last couple of years, and they use COVID as an excuse, is just how diminished the prestige of even being there is, you know, because even to the average person who, you know, calls Washington a swamp and this and that, when they come and visit, they go, you know, this is pretty cool. This is pretty cool that you get to stand up and speak and this and that.

But this use of proxy voting, especially after vaccination and things like that, I've been told by Democrats, we have some Democrats that have not been there in over a year and have not missed a vote. You know, it doesn't work well that way. You know that. You've got to be able to engage. And you engage with the other side, but you need to do it one-on-one and not through the media, right? That's where you get more done is when you really engage with each other and not through the media. But it's gone bad. I mean, you just go back.

As I said during first impeachment is, you know, I joined the military because our country kept getting attacked. Bill Clinton was the president. I didn't vote for Bill Clinton, but I'm glad to live in a country where we get to elect our leaders. And he was the commander in chief. And I respected that. But in this case, when Donald Trump won, they couldn't handle it.

And so we had to go through this whole Russian collusion first that they paid for and delivered and still don't acknowledge that they did this. And, you know, we know that there was nothing there. They made it all up. And so this is a really bad atmosphere to be working in. So, you know, difference in policy is one thing. But when you have a complete lack of trust in certain people that have positions of authority,

It really is. It makes it very challenging. And, you know, Adam Adam Schiff is the greatest example. He has told one story after another to prove to be false. And yet he's still the chair of the Intelligence Committee. And you wonder what his motives are. Is he there to protect the United States of America or is he there?

for political power and to use his position any way he can, which we saw people in the FBI doing. So you see all these things taking place within our agencies, within our own elected officials. And it's tough to watch. Ronald Reagan walked out of the Oval Office for his last time on his last day, clicked his heels and said, not bad, not bad.

And, you know, I'm in for the fight and we got to take back the House of Representatives. And so for me, it's like I can't leave when it's this bad. Well, I'm just glad that, you know, there's some really good people who care like you do. I think of yourself. I think of Chris Stewart. I think of people who, you know, are in the middle of the fight. They're maybe not on, you know, Fox News every night, all night, you know, but they

I'm not saying... What I'm saying is there's just good people who really do care about that. I think you kicked it off at the right point there, which is I think there's been a diminishing of the respect of what Congress is supposed to be. I'm not saying it hasn't been earned, but I do worry about it. Look, I've served in Congress, and it has nothing to do with Jason Chaffetz or Brad Wenstrup. It has to do, though, with...

you know being a member of congress i still remember and i don't know why this is so vivid to me but i do a lot we do a lot of parades here in utah i don't know how many parades you're doing back in in your district but parades are kind of a big deal here actually political and the history of parades is actually based on that's why they had parades that's how parade started worse they were political events so anyway we have this parade and it's a big one it's one of the biggest in the country and um

you know, more than 100,000 people kind of lining the streets and stuff and going along. And all the sea of people and that, and I still remember, I see this dad. And I don't know why this touches me the way that it does.

But I see what I perceive is to be this dad and he's got a young son. And when I walk by, he like the dad notices me and he says to his son, stand up and you can see him stand up. And I thought, wow. All right. Now,

I'm not saying, hey, do that because it's Jason Chaffetz, but respecting the office and having a little dignity about how our system of government works, I thought, it really just touched me. And I hope people understand that in the right way, in the spirit in which I share it, because

You have so many warriors online. It just, everything you say, I could say, yeah, the sun is coming up this morning and they just feel like it's an opportunity to nail you for something. Right, right.

Do we have time for me to share a parade story? Yeah, go ahead. And it's kind of the opposite of what you had. Although most people in these parades, you know, the people that like your work will shout out and say something. But after the shooting, we increased our security at parades. We have undercover agents walking with us and

actually a SWAT team in the parade behind us. And, you know, I've got my wife and kids out there and it only takes one crazy person as we know. Right. So I'm walking this parade and this woman jumps out in front of me with her sign screaming and yelling, you know, you shouldn't even be paid, do a town hall where they just want a pinata to bust. Right. But anyway, and we do telephone towns. Anyway, she does this and undercover officer goes, ma'am, get back on the sidewalk.

And she does. A little bit later, she jumps out again, screaming and yelling at me. And again, ma'am, get back on the sidewalk. A little bit later, you know, now they're kind of ready for her and ready to call uniforms to come take her away. And she kind of gets that, but she wants to jump out one more time. It's a different agent. And she jumps out screaming and yelling at me, goes, ma'am, get back on the sidewalk. She turns to this officer and she says, who are you? You're not from this town. You're black.

There's no blacks in this town. Wow. He said, ma'am, get back on the sidewalk. And then uniforms are coming. So she ran away. This officer, God bless him. He turns to me, goes, I'll defend her right to say whatever stupid thing she wants. And then he jokingly says, but I really ought to move in next door to her.

You know, and I and I think of how we are just constantly being attacked as racist. This guy knows who the racist is. Right. And so anyway, so COVID kind of shut down a few parades, but we're back out doing them. But, you know, we're cautious because that's the world we're living in today. Yeah. When I first started, never even thought about having, you know, any sort of security detail that by the time I got to the end of it.

Yeah, most people didn't realize it, but I did. I had to hire some undercover policemen to follow me around and shouldn't have to be that way, but that'll have to be it. We'll have to tackle that in another podcast. There you go. All right, so as we kind of wrap things up, I've got to ask you some quick, rapid questions. I hope you're ready. I don't care how many push-ups you've done in the Army. You haven't been prepared for this.

Okay. All right. First concert you ever attended? Sticks. Sticks? That's better than most. That's pretty worthy. That's good. What was your high school mascot? Bombers. Football state champs this year and 4-0 so far this year. The Bombers. All right. Who was your first celebrity crush? Well, this is hilarious, I think. Shirley Temple. I was five years old.

How old are you, Brett? Surely Temple.

That's something my grandfather would have said. Well, you know what? My kids, I have them watching Shirley Temple, too. They're seven and three. And so just always was what that was my crush. I can remember telling my mom, don't tell dad. But I that's that I want her to be my girlfriend. Of course, she told dad. She's a wee bit older than you by like, you know, 50 years. But OK, yeah.

Well, those movies were still on. It's not like I was her age. She was still cute. Yeah. All right. Exactly. All right. Well, that's first Shirley. Chalk one up for Shirley Temple as we keep track up on the big board here. All right. I've had a few more since, but that's another story. All right. Do you have a pet growing up?

- No, we did have a Beagle for a while, but it really wasn't my mom's idea. It was my sister's boyfriend who gave it to her.

And he would the dog was better served by getting it out to a farm. You know, that's a pretty bold move to have boyfriend give girlfriend a dog. That's that's that's that's that's that's pretty bold, especially when the parents are like, what did you just do? All right. All right. If you could meet and hang out with one person for dinner, dead or alive, one person, who would that be?

Well, if it's just one, then I would say Pope John Paul II, and my second would be Ronald Reagan. Very good. Good answers. All right. Unique talent nobody knows about. Let me think on that. I can wiggle one of my ears. Just one?

Yeah, it's bizarre. I think it was because of an auto accident when I was younger that took out the right ear, but the left ear I can still wiggle at will, and I can move my eyes independently of each other. Really? Yeah.

That would be – that must have been quite the car accident. So when the ears go on and the eyes are going, no, it's a tree. So when you roll your eye, you can really roll your eye? Okay. Yeah. The big question is pineapple on pizza, yes or no? No. Yeah, good answer. This is why we love Brad Wenstrup, everybody. He understands that pineapples do not belong on pizzas.

All right. Last question. Who is your favorite oversight chairman from Utah's third congressional district? Oh, let me think. Jason Chaffetz all the way. You know, I ask that question each week and I don't necessarily always win that contest. So I'm glad to hear it. Listen, I can't thank you enough for your service. You've done some tough things for our nation. And I just hope you understand how many people across the country.

Not only, I'm sure, your congressional district, but across the country. Thank you for that service and the tough things that you've done and how you've been put in places to do things that are so unique. And your spot on the Intelligence Committee is truly vital and what you're doing in Congress. So thank you so much for joining us today on the Jason in the House podcast. Appreciate it. Yeah, totally my pleasure. Thank you so much. It's an honor.

You know, you got some people who serve and then you got other people who just step up and really serve. And Brad Wenstrup is one of those. He's just a wonderful human being and been in tough situations. Think about his service in Iraq. Think about what was going on in that ball field.

And I'm just glad he's on the Intel committee now because we need good, honest, decent people. And he is just a wonderful human being. And I can't thank him again for all of his service and joining us on the Jason and the house podcast. Hope you like the podcast. You can find more over at Fox news podcast.com. That's Fox news podcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We'd love it if you'd like it, rate it and review the podcast. And hey, we'll be back with more next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz and this has been Jason in the House.