Senator Mike Braun’s Political Climb
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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. Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us. We're going to have some good fun discussion today with Senator Braun. He's the senator from Indiana. He's now

Put his hat in the ring. He wants to run for governor of Indiana. And we're going to have a good discussion with him, I'm sure. I want to give you some thoughts on the news. Highlight the stupid because, you know, hey, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we'll have that conversation with Senator Braun. So let's jump in first to the news. And, you know, I like to try to touch on things that...

Don't just come and go in just the moment, but highlight some things that maybe you haven't heard of a little bit.

I hope everybody does here and see, and I have not yet read his book. It's called Saved, but the story about Benjamin Hall. Now, if you watch Fox News, Benjamin Hall, foreign correspondent, I can't remember his official title, but I can tell you that he was serving for Fox News as a reporter there in Ukraine, came under fire and was severely hurt. And by all accounts, as best I can tell,

It's fairly remarkable that he even survived. And he has been going through rehabilitation for months and months. I just saw a video of him. Looks like he had to have a leg that was amputated. Untold number of injuries and emotional toll. Has a sweet family.

And I hope we all take chance to look at those people, whether they be like Brian Mast, a congressman from Florida who served our country and was hit by an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan. There are a lot of these inspirational stories out there.

where people suddenly found themselves on death's door, were able to fight back, and now they have to live a life that's hard. It's difficult. They have to overcome challenges. I think of my own son-in-law. My son-in-law had an accident in a pool and has a spinal cord injury and changed the trajectory of his life. But attitude defines your altitude. He has a shirt that's like that, and our daughter jokes about that too.

And I think we can all garner some inspiration from that. And so I hope you have a chance to see, hear and read the story of Benjamin Hall. And he has a new memoir out. It's it's called Saved. And I just want to highlight that because I do think it's newsy when somebody is able to overcome those types of obstacles and to see him thrive and have a smile on his face.

But boy, he's been through some hard, hard time. That's for sure. Also wanted to highlight a couple of stories that I saw on foxnews.com. NBC News, they have a new incoming boss. And I think the point that was being made here is when they were looking at the reports on the attack on Paul Pelosi. Now, there's body cam footage that is now out online.

I'm not going to talk about the body cam footage itself, but what's interesting to me is that NBC News put out

a fairly detailed report making some really serious allegations that was suddenly pulled back with no explanation as to why it made it through the editorial process to get on air. But then why was it pulled out? And I, you know, the point of this article is that the new NBC news chief has really got an opportunity to,

to go out and share and try to gain back some credibility there at NBC as to why this happened. Was it inaccurate to start with? Why did it get pulled back? Why was it not aired out? And I think as this new footage comes out, we'll see more and more about the reality of what was happening. But I think NBC News does need to...

offer some further explanation. And with the new news chief there, there is that opportunity to do that. That's just my take on it. I also highlighted again, Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi still in the news. She still serves as a member from the state of California there in the House of Representatives. Personally, my guess, just a guess, is

not based on any other information than my gut and a guess, she will not make it through this term. She'll get appointed to something by President Biden, maybe be an ambassador in Europe or something glamorous like that. That's my guess. But nevertheless, at least at the recording of this podcast, she's still a member of Congress. And she was slammed on Twitter last week because she

She reportedly sold 30,000 shares of Alphabet. Now, Alphabet is the parent company of Google. And that just happened to be about one month before the Department of Justice announced an antitrust investigation lawsuit against the tech giant. So, is that a coincidence? Look, I think it's problematic. Members of Congress trading individual stocks.

either put it in a blind trust or put it in a mutual fund. But this idea that you're trading on individual stocks, I think continues to be a problem. And there has to be a way.

um to be able to put a halt to that because it creates this idea of insider trading and i i i it's just a real real problem and here this one's a little suspicious you sell 30 000 shares of a very valuable stock that's a lot of money coming into your pocket oh and then by the way the department of justice suddenly comes in 30 days later with a lawsuit i mean

Lots of things happen to the big company like Alphabet, but that one seems a little suspicious. All right. Time to bring on the stupid because, hey, you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. More often than not, well, maybe that's a little aggressive, but oftentimes you want to see stupid, you want to look to Adam Schiff, the congressman out of California. Yeah.

You know, he was denied a position on the House Intelligence Committee when Nancy Pelosi was the speaker. He was the chairman of that committee, but he lost the trust of America by repeatedly analyzing classified information, coming out to the media, spinning it in his for his own political gain and creating distrust because that information ended up being totally, completely false.

Security clearances are not a right. I think you have to earn them. And when you lose that trust, then you lose the security clearance. I kind of jokingly said, I don't think Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, who was also denied a position on that committee, could even pass a background check to become, you know, your crossing guard at your local school.

These are just not trustworthy people. And why should the government put people in jeopardy by trusting somebody like an Eric Swalwell, who, according to the FBI reports that we hear through Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, you know, had relations with a Chinese spy. Fang, fang. Like, why would we trust this person? Why take the risk? There are lots of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that can serve on this committee.

Then I also think you get in, serve and get out. It's not, hey, you continue to serve throughout your term. I remember John Boehner and others had this approach that said, look, you can serve for about six years, then you get out. We don't want any one person to see too much intelligence. It creates a security risk. And I think that's right. So they've had more than their time in the sunshine, more of their time behind closed doors, seeing classified information that rank and file members of Congress cannot see and

It's a select committee and it's a select committee for a reason. And that is the select committee gets to be selected by the speaker and certainly approved. The minority can offer their, their personnel, but the speaker gets the ultimate decision as to whether or not they serve on that committee. It's just time for new fresh blood. And for Adam Schiff to go on Tik TOK and say that the Chinese are, are laughing at us.

Have you not been reading the intelligence reports that maybe TikTok is too closely tied to the Chinese government and that's where he goes to complain about not being on the Intel committee? Oh, my gosh. The joke's on you. That is absolutely stupid. All right. And the other one I wanted to highlight was just kind of fun. There was a basketball game going on.

And Loyola was playing this basketball game and with 16 minutes and 30 seconds left in the second half, they had to stop the game because the allegation is somebody from Uber Eats was delivering some McDonald's and the Uber Eats delivery person walked on the court looking for the person who

that they were trying to deliver their McDonald's to. So hats off to somebody who orders McDonald's at a basketball game. But does the Uber Eats person, it literally walks on the court to try to find the person and the referees have to say, all right, timeout, wait a second. We can't have somebody walking around on the court. And they were from Uber Eats. And I just smile at this one and think, all right, dude.

That's a little stupid there. You can't go on the basketball court in the middle of a game to deliver your Uber Eats. And that's bringing on the stupid. All right, time to get a hold of Senator Braun. I've had some interaction with Senator Braun. I look forward to chatting with him. And he is a freshman senator from Indiana. But now he said, hey, I'm not running for a second term. What I want to do is...

I want to run for governor of Indiana. You said businessman at heart, and I look forward to this conversation. So let's dial up Senator Braun from Indiana. Hello. Senator Braun. Hey, this is Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for answering the phone. I appreciate it.

Well, sometimes you don't know who's calling in, but I had a good inkling here that it was going to be somebody I wanted to talk to. Well, thanks. You know, that whole caller ID thing, I've got to make sure that, you know, people don't do that if I'm going to get them to answer the phone. So I do appreciate it.

Hey, good to be on with you. You know, I've had the pleasure of interacting with you a bit. And actually, one of my former staffers, Katie Bailey, has been one of your key staffers. And so I've kind of got to know and see and pay attention probably as much as anybody just because I really do appreciate her. She's really hardworking. And I've just really admired what you've done in running for the Senate and being in the United States Senate.

Well, getting back to Kaylee, Katie, she was Tom Coburn's LD. And Tom Coburn, when I was asked, who do you admire in the Senate? He was talking about these fiscal issues back way before it's got this significance now. And Katie has always been tuned into that as well and lucky to have her. So, yeah, we've had a really interesting four years together.

coming from where I did, which is being an entrepreneur, a school board member for 10 years. That call actually came in for my wife back in '04 and she fended it off kind of very adroitly. And I was listening to the conversation and said, well, maybe my husband would be interested.

that was my first foray into the public arena and then three years of state legislator. And I was going to go back to my business and 18 and then looked out

out east where most of the issues seem to be. And that got me motivated to run out of nowhere to run for Senate. And well, the rest is history, I guess, at this point. Yeah, but you didn't take the easy path here. I mean, you had, I mean, to run the gauntlet the way you did with somebody who essentially, I mean, you didn't really have a political pedigree here. It wasn't as if you had

you know, done all the classical things to suddenly run for Senate, but you were able to kind of shoot through the middle. And that's a testament to, to you personally, what you said, how you did it. Um, and people just ultimately believing in you.

Well, I think that was part of that entrepreneurial gut. And I tell people that it can do you well in politics because you got so many things that you don't have full information on. Being an entrepreneur, you're constantly trying to outmaneuver your competition. And depending on what level you start that at, you're kind of on your own for a lot of it. So a lot of parallels. But when I did decide to run for Senate,

I saw that Trump had won Indiana by 19 points in 16. And then again in 2020, he won it by 16 points. And Jason, to me, he was the manifestation of half the country teed off with business as usual in D.C. and

He hit that right on the money because this place is you've been here is worse than what you can imagine when you see it up close like I have for four years and like you did for a while. Well, and look, you also I think the good people there in Indiana, I think you.

You built something that was real. You had real jobs. You had great success. You know, when I, when I first ran for office and with all the respect, I'm very friendly and have great admiration for the person that I defeated. You know, it's,

It's sort of the American way. You put your hat in the ring, you fight, but you also have respect for your opponent. And he had served in the Congress for 12 years when I took him on, and he pointed out their differences. But part of what I argued was, look, if you want different results, you're going to have to elect different people. And why don't you elect somebody from the business community? We'll probably get a different result than you.

just adding and throwing another attorney at the problem. - When Rick Scott and I came in in '18, we were both proud that we knocked it down from 62 attorneys to 60. And most of them, Jason, had pivoted right out of law school into an elected or appointed politics.

And now they all want to be U.S. senators, congressmen, and they've never done anything in the real world. So I view that as almost a necessity. Term limits, which I believe in them even more now than I did before I came in,

would churn the system enough, similar to the way it did naturally. I always cite Washington and Jefferson. They hurried back to Mount Vernon and Monticello because they actually liked what they were doing before better. And imagine how long they could have camped out by setting a bad example then. So maybe someday we'll get there. Yeah, you know, President Washington, I think, is one of the, if not the greatest leaders

political heroes of mine, not only given the time being the first president and all of that, but his farewell speech where in essence, and I'm paraphrasing poorly, that, you know, this nation needs to be turned over. Yeah, I could continue to serve in perpetuity, but really it's time for somebody else to do it. I think that's right. When I went into Congress and I took a position for a long time that,

You know, our founders essentially do have term limits. You know, you stand for election in the House every 24 months and every six years in the Senate. But as I've even stepped further and further away from it, I think term limits are an absolute necessity. I really do think you get in, serve, and you get out. And by the way, I think there should also be term limits required.

For the bureaucracy, if you're going to serve in the senior service there, I'm not talking about your rank and file post, you know, postal carrier. I'm talking about people in the senior management of our federal government.

they, too, should have term limits because they get entrenched and they tend to run the place. I'd agree with that 100% as well. That is a part of the world I come from. That's all intuitive. If it's not intuitive to you and you struggle with it, you're probably not running an enterprise that's going to be agile, going to be competitive, adapting to changing trends and needs. Government has just

solidified into all the things we know that don't work in the real world. And we've just covered a few of them. And then, Jason, you talk about how we've evolved. Think about it. When I got here, we were $18 trillion in debt. Now we're 31. You look at being just $5

trillion in debt in 2000. You had a couple wars on the credit card. You're up to 10 trillion. Obama says you're going to do that. We'll double down on domestic. You're now 16 trillion. Two more years gets us to 18. When I got here, 2018, 18 trillion in debt. And now Biden, unapologetically, is

not even considering inflation and the new interest costs, puts out a pro forma budget last year, later than when it should have come out, $45 trillion in debt for our kids and grandkids in just 10 years. And it'll be worse than that, sadly. Yeah. And just the interest on that debt, I think we're paying close to $2 billion a day

you know, interest rates were down near zero, but then they started going up and guess what? We got to pay that. It's going to outpace what we spend on defense spending is what we're going to pay on the interest servicing our debt. And that is shameful because we got a group of senators. We call ourselves the breakfast club. And we are talking about these hard issues, doing a press conference every week,

Wednesday at two o'clock and it's really been getting a lot of attention. It's the first time in our chamber, you know, we're throwing this stuff out there and trying to make it very easy to understand, not sugar coating it. And that crowding out effect you're talking about, I had fun with the reporters right before Christmas. I said, does anyone out there know what 1% of 30 trillion is?

jason that's got so many zeros you'd have to really be good at math and 15 seconds of silence and the first one that stepped up said 300 million because that seemed like a huge figure off by a factor of 10. 300 billion 300 billion yeah yeah and if you take the four percent interest rate rise that we've had recently and once that gets priced into it you're right there where we're crowding out both defense

and domestic discretionary spending. And six to seven years down the road, interest will be equal to the total of both of them. And that's when we're going to really hit the ditch hard. And hopefully, we'll make adjustments before then. They have to. And look,

Look, here's the thing. So many people are impressed with your approach, serious approach to tackling these issues, talking to everybody on both sides of the aisle. But, you know, you have a very conservative bent to you and approach to you. I think that's grounded in your professional background and I'm sure personal background.

But now you put your hat in the ring. You want to run for governor. So explain the transition and why you want to run for governor as opposed to continuing on in the United States Senate. I mean, you've only been there one term, right? So why the transition?

Well, I wasn't going to do it more than two terms. And when you get to, I feel as snappy as I did 10 to 15 years ago, but you'll find out every year once you get to a certain point, that marginal year in the future takes a little more thought than maybe what it did 10, 15 years ago. So it's going to get worse out here, Jason, before it gets better. We're at the leading edge of trying to get

a coalescing around common sense and not just sticking your head in the sand about what will be inevitable.

And life is generally not simple. It's an either or. So in 24, I'd either have to run again for that second term in the Senate or come back and maybe set the agenda. I believe that the states will be that laboratory to show what works long term. We've got a lot more flexibility. Most states have hard guardrails that keep you on the straight and narrow. Indiana is a leader like on school choice.

We're a fiscally well-run state. We still have some of the highest health care costs in the country. And I don't know if you and I have talked about it, but that took that on 15 years ago on my own business. It'd be for another podcast. I'll put a teaser out there. I reformed it, cut costs by 60%.

have not had a premium increase for my employees while my kids now run the business. So in 15 years, it can be done. And we've utilized market tools, even in a system where that doesn't work very well. A lot of that kind of stuff

I can orchestrate as governor. And I'm going to stay involved in conservative politics, I guess, until I decide to hunt and fish full-time. And that's a ways down the road. I just think, in 24, what I've accumulated in terms of life experience, I can put it to better work as a governor as opposed to a senator. Well, there is something about going home, doing it at home -- because you're right.

I think that experience as governor, previous to my being in the House of Representatives, I was chief of staff to Governor Huntsman. And the ability for a governor to actually do things and get things moving and being the chief executive officer, that does make a difference. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Senator Braun right after this.

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Senator, I want to go back to your childhood because I'm fascinated by people who accomplish what a lot of people want to do but aren't able to do it. And it's kind of how did I build this? How did I do this? How did I get there? Start with where I was born and kind of walk us through those early years and kind of what informed your conservative approach to not only business but also politics as well.

it's a great question because i get it asked often once you've taken a little little business over 37 years and turned it into a national company and you've done it in your hometown you do get involved in politics and often what follows is who was your mentor uh you know who helped you along the way right and that i had to really think about because

Because you know who they were? It was my family and my community. And then I thought about that, how blessed anyone would be if you could say that. Because that context would give everyone an opportunity, I think, to prosper in the long run. You know, I ended up getting highly degreed.

lived away for two years. That was from in the late 70s. And then unlike anyone else, then we moved back to my hometown. My wife and I went to grade school together. We hardly associated at all until our senior year in high school.

And I always ask her after we got married two years out of or right after we graduated from college, dear, how many people told you that you were really, really lucky?

And she was so nice. She said, well, there were a few. So I got lucky there. And we wanted to raise a family, raise four kids, three of whom now work in my business. But if you go way back, I came from a community that was pretty monolithically German Catholic. That's got a lot of heritage with it. It was very faith based. It was a clergyman.

close-knit community, which I think has nicely expanded itself in a way that's broadened itself out as a community. But that was the context. And other than that, I was a normal kid. I was mostly interested in sports.

Books came fairly easily. Didn't really pay much attention to them until I was later on in high school and then wanted to be a doctor, wanted to be a surgeon until I found out that was going to take nine years. So even once I got in college, I started reading.

shifting gears to get to that right place, which was eventually going to business school. Tell people all the time, you got a lot of forks in the road. If you're blessed with a solid upbringing, which I was,

life is going to be easier in the long run. We need to figure out how to get that as a context across the country. And that's not like an ideal that I think is impossible to reach, just something that was there a little easier to attain. We just need to find out how we adapt it in maybe some of the urban areas that have lost that. And when you lose those roots, you're

I think there's a reflex to turn to government, and I've never found government at the national level to be the answer. It should maybe be a backstop. The founders never intended it to be the primary function in our lives, and I'll keep preaching that until I get many years down the road. Tell us a little bit about sort of Indiana values. We talk about flyover country. We talk about the heart of the country.

You know, I it's really hard for me to find somebody who was born, raised and grew up in Indiana. That isn't just a downright nice person. Like, I just I can't think of somebody. I just can't. And it's got a reputation for that. And that's earned. But what is it about Indiana that's just, you know, good family values?

Our state nickname Hoosiers, it's got a lot of different derivations in terms of how we got there, but generally the other H goes with it, Hoosier Hospitality. And we are hard workers. We are enterprisers. My hometown was blessed with probably more entrepreneurs per capita than

than any other place in Indiana, which is an entrepreneurial state. So that means we are risk takers. Oftentimes, Jason, people will ask, well, what's the differentiator? I say a few simple things. You've got to generally be willing to take a risk. If you don't take a risk, you're in that broad band of mediocrity. You don't want to bet the farm. Hoosiers are willing to do that.

Hoosiers are self-reliant, but also appreciate the community. You throw faith, family, community,

enterprise in there and kind of a context of a state that's grown up with a kind of an independent streak. You can't ask for a better place to grow up. And then the other H is humility. Almost all Hoosiers are not going to be crowing about what they might have done. They're just going to prove it by, uh,

practicing what they preach and then executing on it. And I'm lucky I'm from Indiana, I guess. So you've mentioned your hometown a few times. What is your hometown? How big was it? And, you know, growing up, what was it like? So from Jasper, Indiana, and I think the name was gotten from looking in the Bible and Jasper was mentioned as a

a rare kind of gem or something to that effect and there's the namesake not a german name and uh 8 000 people when i grew up in the late 60s through the early 70s we're now a booming 18 000 but most communities like ours have either stayed the same or shrunk in

And that's due to the heritage of that entrepreneurial enterprise, because we've had so many large companies started in my hometown. I moved back and started a distribution and logistics company. Most of them have been manufacturing. Our county was roughly twenty eight thousand when I grew up.

We're now 42, but the characteristic that would distinguish it, I think we got 13 or 14 Catholic parishes, or we used to. I think we still have 11 or 12. And in my hometown, three large ones. So faith has been intertwined with that family and community.

And there's where we've really kind of attenuated over time is, uh, faith is increasingly taken out of the equation being substituted with government. And I think that's a bad way to go. My own opinion. Did you play any sports growing up? I was, uh, basketball was number one in Indiana and, uh,

We had such good basketball players then. I didn't start as a small forward until I was a senior. We had B teams that would generally beat a lot of the varsity teams around the neighborhood. I was a split end on our high school football team, and I was a high hurdler. I ran the hurdles. So, really...

Three sports. And again, that was something that everyone participated if they were able and did it in a lot fewer sports that were available at that time. But yes, sports, girls, and probably education was secondary or tertiary at that time. Well, there's an honest answer. So...

But, you know, I'm fascinated about this, and some of the previous podcasts I've talked about this as well. There's something about sport that...

prepares people for, I think, the real world because you learn to win. You learn to lose. There's camaraderie. There's competition. You got to work hard. You get to see what other people are doing. You work with others. I just think it's... When I think of basketball, you can't help but think about Indiana. And the

So what is it that you've learned or seen from sport that you think is healthy for America and for kids?

- You know, when you look at your willingness to take a risk, when you look at your judgment in life, when you look at whether you're interested in sports or not, I think some of that is hardwired, but I think a lot of it can be acquired as well, just if you're looking, if you're paying attention, if you're curious. And I think when you do get into athletic sports,

It draws out competition and transparency and all the things that later in life you might take a more of a political or a functional look at. It's all there in sports. And when you do it, you're

you're going to have more disappointment probably than euphoria. I didn't get a start on the basketball team until I was a senior and I appreciated all that I got out of it and probably didn't know even what was going on until later down the road when you can look back. So I like competition. I like sports being intertwined with formal education in the books.

And I think when you combine the two of them, you're going to get the best out of any individual. And it doesn't mean that anyone has to do

both of them. You can do either one of them. But as long as you're not thinking that life is going to be laid out comfortably in front of you and where you're going to depend on especially government to be your business partner in life, you're going to learn early on through competition that it works. It works in the private sector. Right now, I think we're in the

throes of trying to replace private enterprise and competition and transparency. A lot of the large companies, once you're successful, Jason, lean to government for protection and forget their roots. I'll never forget my roots. I embrace competition, transparency.

School choice would be an example of that. When you have one of anything, even if you competed to get there, that's not a good place to be for good outcomes in the long run, whether it's in government, academics, or the business world. I think you're absolutely right that too much of the dependency and, hey, there needs to be a safety net. We don't want anybody to totally fall.

fall down, but that's temporary. Let's help you get back up on your feet, become self-sufficient. But if you're just going to game it to try to do the least, that's not a formula for success, not for the

not for the people who fund the government, which is us, the taxpayers, but it's also not for the individual. Exactly. And this is why I continue to gravitate back to sport. You're right. You aren't going to all have the euphoria of becoming the state champions, but if you learn to do those things and

you know, work hard and work smart and see success around you and, and experience winning and losing. I think it's a real, I think it's a real plus. And I worry that today's generation, you know, they aren't out there. They're so tied to their phones. They're so tied to social media that they don't go out and have real experiences and just go out and play until it's dark and cold and hungry. And then you come in

You know, in their bigger cities, I worry about just the safety and security and the ability of somebody to get out and try something and do something new and and have life experiences. And there's a lot of concerns. I guess the older I get, the bigger the perspective is and and the concerns about the macro approach to how we create an opportunity for our younger generation to thrive.

And it's so important. When I was on a school board from '04 to '14, of course, we weren't wrestling with critical race theory, masking kids, trying to teach, you know, remotely. And being a senator, I was able to ask Cardona, our secretary of education, when he had just come through Indiana and he was complaining about the school board meetings being a little rowdy because our guy didn't win.

And then the subject changed to who should be the most important stakeholder in our kids' own education. And he was having a lot of trouble getting parents out of his mouth and that family and parental involvement. It's a must school choice. Indiana's been at the forefront of it.

more states are catching on. And I think that it is so important that even there, we don't lose sight of choice and competition because it really hones any endeavor to be better. And whenever you have too few, it starts to operate like government, which you got to constantly keep it in line in a place like

DC that has its own printing press and can keep swiping the credit card annually, it's even worse. So yes, a lot of that applies at those most seminal basic levels. And then you get to a place like where you've served, where I'm serving currently, and so much is at stake, I think, for the future of our country, where you can't look to a place like this

to be leading your life. It does not have a good long-term outcome in my mind. No, no, I think, I think you're absolutely right. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be right back.

All right, Senator, we're going to transition here a little bit as we kind of get near the end of this podcast. I got to ask you some personal questions. And, you know, no matter how many basketball games you've watched, participated in, you're probably not properly prepared for this. But, you know, we're going to do it anyway. I hope that's OK.

I'll go for it. Alright. It's good to make you a little bit nervous. Everybody likes somebody in politics to be a little bit nervous. This is just personal stuff. We want to have a little fun with this. What was the first concert you attended?

Seanana. Really? In Indiana? In Bloomington, yes. All right. Okay. What was your high school mascot? A wildcat. All right. Well, that makes sense. That's better than most. I appreciate that. Yeah.

Yeah, what was your first job? Not, hey, your mom and dad saying, hey, you need to take the garbage out on Tuesdays. Not that. The first job away from your family, what was the very first thing you actually got paid to do? It's seared in my mind forever. It was stacking lumber as a sophomore or junior in high school at one of our furniture factories.

And it was outside. And imagine moving one board from a disorganized pile onto slats and doing that all day for eight hours. You'll appreciate the value of hard work. And maybe it'll give you some guidance on what you may not want to do. Yeah. You know, I talk a lot about some of my first jobs and

I learned real quickly, I was a white-collar guy. I better get some skills, because pulling weeds in Arizona in the summer, that was tough duty, what I was doing back in the day. And by the way, my second job was learning how to weld when I was in college. And I could still pick up a...

uh, stick and I think lay a bead down. So, uh, I was, uh, thankful for that. Oh, very good. Very good. All right. If you could meet one person, if you could go to the family and say, Hey, uh, guess what folks, we got somebody fun coming over tonight. Anybody in history, dead or alive, you could have one person come over and spend the, spend the evening, break bread with them and, and have a little discussion. Who would that person be?

It would clearly be Thomas Jefferson, because I look at what he did to form the system. He was at that early stage of when we were pioneering. He issued and chartered the Expedition West program.

And I guess the next two people I would love to sit down and talk to would be Lewis and Clark, because if I could romanticize and do one thing in life, it would have been to been on that adventure forever.

And then quickly I sober up when I think about I would have not had air conditioning. I would have not been sleeping on a bed. I love the outdoors. I love to hunt and fish. I've always had an affinity with Mother Nature. And that still would be something that when you look at what they did and actually made it back,

intact, I think maybe less one of the party. That's amazing to me. Yeah. You know, that's a great answer because Lewis and Clark, I've read a few books about them and I, I too have a great, just love and affinity for the outdoors my whole life. Now I'm into wildlife photography cause I don't have to go get a permit. Uh, and, uh, I can go out and try to get the right light and get in close to the big game and all that. I just, I love it. But, um,

You know, Lewis and Clark, what they did, how they did it, exploring. I mean, the mosquitoes they had to deal with. It's not like they had bug spray with them or a net to go over their net. I mean, it's and you're right. And then to return it, it was absolutely amazing when they did it, how they did it. And that whole traveling party they went with.

Boy, that's a whole nother podcast into itself. All right. I got to keep moving. Uh, what unique talent do you have that maybe most people don't know? I mean, can you like juggle or can you, you know, do what is there some, what is the unique talent that you bring to the table? I mean, on that quirky stuff like that, um, yeah, I'm trying to think, uh,

It's funny because over time I'll be watching a show or something and I'll see two different people. And the only person I've ever entertained this with is my wife. And she says, "This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, but it is so much fun." I'll see two people and then blend the faces together and give that combination as someone we each know

And she says, oh, my gosh, that is perfect. And she said, that is absolutely worthless. And but anytime and I do that at least once every two months, we'll just be watching something. And she'll have to laugh so hard because it's a perfect combination of two different people. I've never heard anybody else even laugh.

try that, but that is kind of like a worthless talent that we have fun with. Yeah. I think you could chalk that up to worthless talent. My wife and I actually do something similar to that. We don't blend the two, but we play that little lookalike game where you're like, we were in the airport recently and we're walking down and, and she'll say, Hey, have you seen, and she'll name a person lately.

And I know that's a clue to start looking around. And sure enough, I'll be like, oh, yeah, they're right over there because it's just the lookalike game. It's not derogatory in any way. It's just the idea that, yeah, that really looks like somebody that we both know. And it does put a smile on your face and like, no, that's not good one. Or like, oh, my gosh, that's what's the word? Doppelganger, whatever that word is. Yes. Yeah, that's it.

All right. Just a couple quick more. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? You mean together? Yeah. Okay, good. That's a good answer. The judges love that answer. It's just not right. It's just not right. Best advice you ever got?

to get a line of credit when you don't need it, because when you need it, you won't get it. That is good advice. See, you are truly a business person. That's a great... It's so true. It's absolutely true. Senator...

I thank you for your time. Thank you for your service. It's hard to be away. It's hard to be serving in, you know, nobody's going to shed a tear for all the airplanes you've been on and time away from the family and your wife and all that. But,

But I recognize it and I see it. And I wish you nothing but the best of luck as you run for governor. You know, we need good people who get into public service. And you just strike me as one of the people who who talks from their heart and really cares and can do the right thing. And it has success that can help mentor and move a state and do some innovative stuff to really make a difference in people's lives. So good luck for that.

Well, thank you so much, Jason. Always enjoy our conversations. All right. I can't thank Senator Braun enough. Very kind of him. Really is a good, good person. You know, he's not the big flashy guy who's going to be on every show all the time, but...

But when you talk in terms of competence and reliability, I can just tell you over the years that I've kind of gotten to know him, he's just a very trustworthy person who works hard, works smart, does the right thing. And we need more of those kind of people running for Congress and running for the United States Senate and running for governor, quite frankly. Just good people who care about their country, have had great success, and now the latter part of their career,

They're willing to serve. And I think that's a good thing. So I thank the senator for joining us. I want to remind everybody 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. I hope you're able to rate this. I hope you're able to subscribe to it, but certainly rate this. I would appreciate that. And head on over to Fox News Podcast Networks at foxnewspodcast.com. Got to go with good colleagues that have great shows out there. So again, like it, rate it, review it. That would be great. And join us next week when we have another exciting guest.

I'm Jason Chaffetz, and 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.