Tim Kennedy And His Fierce Protection of Justice
45:46 Share

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 and the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and hey, thanks for joining us. We're going to talk, give some hot takes on the news, highlight the stupid, because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone a friend. I'm really excited to have this conversation with a guy named Tim Kennedy. Now, some of you are going to be huge fans of this guy because he's been a fighter, he's been a warrior, and he's got a new book out. It's called Scars and Stripes.

One of the best titles that I've heard of a book that's coming out there. It's been way at the top of the charts, if not the top of the charts on both the audio book, the book, but scars and stripes, Tim Kennedy. Uh, it's got a huge, massive, uh, social media following. Cause the guy literally is a fighter green beret been in the army, still in the army. Uh,

I hope to draw out of him a good story about how he was able to be in the Army but also be in the ring and just a tenacious fighter and a great story. I've never chatted with him before. And so for our Phone a Friend segment, yeah, we're going to give him a call because I want to hear his story. And he's been gracious enough to grant us some time. So we'll get to that in just a minute. But let's give a little bit of a hot take on the news. And I think I just...

I feel inspired today when I go through this because I went over, I was on foxnews.com and I saw this story about a gentleman. His name is Harry Whistler. No T in that, like W-H-I-S-L-E-R.

Harry just turned 100 years old, and he was interviewed. Not everybody gets to 100. That's what I guess we all aspire to is let's get a healthy, vibrant 100 years old where we're still doing amazing things. And he still remembers and tells this great story about meeting with General Patton back in 1945. This is a guy who served our country and served it well, and I get inspired by him. I love

My father-in-law, a number of days ago, had his fifth birthday. And they're amazing people. My mother-in-law is also still with us. I lost both my parents and I miss them and I'm sad about that. But my father-in-law also served in Vietnam and was an orthopedic surgeon there.

serving in what was called something a little different there, but essentially a MASH or mobile hospital unit, and having to deal with horrific things, doing triage, trying to figure out how to save the maximum number of people and being away from his family for a long, long time.

But I just keep thinking there's a whole generation of people. They're getting pretty, you know, they're getting a bit older now. A lot of them are passing away. But this amazing generation of people who stepped up, answered the call to serve, I'm just, I'm buoyed up by them. And I know we're getting ready to turn the corner into July 4th. And I hope it's not just Memorial Day or July 4th that we remember and inspired by these people.

You know, my father-in-law, Agon Johnson, he has this great philosophy, and that is use it or lose it. And, again, he was an orthopedic surgeon, so he knows a lot about body and keeping your joints moving and all that. Well, he puts on that headband, and he and his wife get down and do exercises. I mean, push-ups, sit-ups, all kinds of things, walking, balancing, walking.

squats, you know, not with a big, you know, bar and weights on the side, but various squats to make sure they maintain their mobility. And, and, you know, you fight things as you get older and things hurt and maybe they don't move in as the way that they used to, but use it or lose it, I think is, is what it, what it takes. And, and so this,

This person tells this great story. This World War II veteran, Harry Whistler, who's brushed shoulders with George Patton. There's all kinds of stories in that. I hope you all have... My guess is you have somebody in your family that has that kind of story too. And I just get inspired by those. And I guess that's also a big part of why I'm excited to talk to Tim Kennedy. Because...

He's done that. He answered the call to serve, and I think – I have to ask him about it, but I think he –

He saw what happened with 9-11 and then decided, hey, I'm going down to the recruiter's office and I'm going to join it. I'm going to get involved and I'm going to do that and I'm going to be there and I'm going to step up and I'm going to answer the call and I'm going to do that. So that's what I get excited about. All right, time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There is always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. ♪

All right. We, uh, a couple of weeks ago, we told you about this story where people were actually spending time, money, resources, and legal thought going before the court, arguing that elephants are actually people. Um, the court, uh, had to evidently address this issue that is, um, really championed, not necessarily in this particular case, but the issue in general by Cass Sussstein, who's, uh,

who was the chief regulatory czar for Barack Obama. He now is working on homeland security issues, really the chief legal person behind the scenes. When you see all the problems and challenges going on in homeland security with securing the border, and those of you that agree with me that

We're doing these things on purpose. We're not just getting a flood of people because of some climate change issue in Central America. That we've actually created a magnet and an invitation for millions of people to come to this country illegally or try to game the system as they try to apply for asylum claims. And they just flooded the zone, if you will, by coming into the country. Well...

Yeah, it's that same Cass Sunstein who's making all that happen behind the scenes. Well, he and other very weird, strange, bizarre legal thought have thought that animals should have the same legal standard as people. Like, this is a legitimate thing. Like, Cass Sunstein has argued that deer should have the same rights as a person. And so if you go out hunting and you shoot that deer...

and you kill it for food for your family or whatever reason, sport, you get a tag, whatever it is, that you could be held up on murder charges. Well, over there at the Bronx Zoo, they were trying to argue that this elephant had a right to freedom and rights like people anyway.

But a judge in New York's top court had to take this on their docket. All the things out there in the world, this is what the court in New York had to deal with because of this lawsuit. And the judge basically came back and said, while the elephant may be intelligent and deserving of compassion, she cannot be considered a person being legally confined to the Bronx Zoo. So...

That elephant will continue to be under the direction of the Bronx Zoo, which is a great zoo, I've heard. I've never been to it. I look forward to going to it. But the Bronx Zoo evidently will continue to have this elephant. And hopefully they treat her well. But she's not going to be released out so she can go, you know, roam the countryside there in the Bronx in New York. And for the court having to take all this time and the people who believe that animals should have the same rights as animals,

As people, well, that's bringing on the stupid. All right, let's go on to give a call to Tim Kennedy. Tim is a warrior. He's a fighter. And he's got this incredible book called Scars and Stripes. And I want to hear his story, talk about what he's gone through in life. And so let's give a call to Tim Kennedy.

Good morning. Hey, Tim Kennedy, Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for letting me call you this today. I really do appreciate it. It's my pleasure, Jason. How are you? Doing great. I am honored to talk to you. You're a fighter. You're a warrior. You're a family man.

I mean, you're an inspiration to a lot of people. And I just fascinated to chat with you, get to know you. I've never chatted with you before. Even though this is the phone a friend section, I hope at the end I can somehow call you a friend. But I'm really inspired by people who just get up and make good things happen. So thanks for joining us. Yeah, yeah. I definitely get up and I don't stop doing things. And I try to do good, but, you know, I'm not perfect in my batting average.

Yeah, well, nobody is, you know, but you fight each day and you like literally fight. Like you fight for your country, you fight for sport, you fight for a lot of different things. And how do you explain that? I mean, not everybody has the physical capabilities that you have, but there's also a huge mental component to this, obviously. Yeah.

You don't have to be the type of physical fighter that you have to, you know, be in mixed martial arts and do the types of things you do. But tell us about that experience and kind of what you've learned along the way here.

Yeah. I mean, I'll argue that, um, it's sometimes even, uh, it's negative to have, you know, physical prowess and, and, uh, athletic ability because it makes sometimes your mind weaker. If you look at like mother Teresa or Gandhi, you know, or the man that stood in front of the tanks at Tenement Square, um, there's no physical prowess there, right there, but there's no doubt that those are fighters. They're fierce, passionate fighters. And, uh,

I guess it comes down to what is the purpose and passion that what is the, you know, what is the thing that you're fighting for? What is the, the why of why you're so dedicated to these ideas? And then once you have that, once you have the why, then you can start adding all the attributes that make you very fierce in your ability to, to be successful at these fights and win many of those battles.

Mine, obviously, ended up being in the octagon and overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the U.S. Army Special Forces and fighting human trafficking and drug cartels and poachers and pirates and terrorists. I just don't like evil people, and I want people to live in peace and be happy. So I had my why, and then I just had to go get good at it.

All right. So let's go back, though, because I was in politics for like eight and a half years. I've been on Fox for five years or so.

And the number one question I get when I go speak around the country and interact with people is, well, what can I do? Like, I'm just this one person. Like, you know, I do my job. I go to work. I have my little family. But I just feel powerless against this huge, massive wave of bad stuff that I see happening, whether it be political or like human trafficking or, you know, some of the stuff you just mentioned. So maybe we should do it this way, Tim. Let's go back to the beginning because, you know,

You grew up in California, right? You had a family. I mean, you started as a young kid. Walk us through your life. I was born in and kind of the early memories of what life was like for you in California. Yeah.

Yeah. This is, I'm glad we're starting there because you know, this is one of the many reasons why it is so important. There is nothing special about me in truth. In fact, I was born with, with such a severe disability. They didn't think I was going to survive as a baby. So,

So, you know, I had a heart defect that was, you know, this is in 1979 and they're looking at me and they're convinced that I'm not going to be able to survive with my heart functioning at 30% to 40% reduction of its capacity. So they're trying to convince my parents to do open heart surgery on a brand new newborn infant.

And, um, my, my parents, you know, believers and very faith driven people, they, you know, they, they pray, they go to the church and ultimately they decide not to do the surgery and they, they let me fight.

And so as a baby, I struggled to breathe. I was always smaller and slower. I was, you know, weaker. And, you know, I started walking early, but I would take steps and I would sit down not because I couldn't walk because I was out of breath. You know, like that old shoulder mounted video cameras. My dad used to walk around. You know, we have those home videos and you can see it. And you see all these other one year olds that,

are regular fat one-year-olds and then there's like this skinny little Tim. So I had like this chip on my shoulder and even by, I was born in September, which made me, you know, I was small, but I was also young for my, you know, I was four going into school.

Into kindergarten, when somebody made fun of one of the little girls in my class, her name was Laura, and made fun of her haircut, which looked like a boy. I followed that little boy up to the top of the playscape, and I punched him in the mouth, and I shoved him off. So even though I was little, I still had this fierceness about justice and doing the right thing. And if you try to bully somebody around me, you would have this little –

ferret sized human, you know, like a honey badger that would just like be attacking you relentlessly. And, you know, this carried all the way through. And, you know, my first wrestling tournament, I think I was 10 or 11 years old. I got pinned in the first match in a single elimination tournament and

And I remember standing in the middle of that gymnasium, embarrassed, you know, humiliated. It was like a 30 second match. And the guy lat dropped me and pinned me. And that was the end of my first tournament was about 30 seconds. So I walk off the mat, shameful, you know, and 15 years later, I'm fighting for world titles.

And this is that struggle. This is the process of not being special, not being unique, not being like having no gifts to be good at something, but then dedicating yourself to hard work and discipline and regiments and then seeing the byproduct of it. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Tim Kennedy right after this.

Fox News Radio On Demand on the Fox News app. Download the app and just click listen. When you swipe left, you can listen to your favorite Fox News talk shows live. Swipe right for the latest Fox News Radio newscasts on demand. Fox News Radio on the Fox News app. Download it today. Going back to when you were a little kid. So,

Do you remember times when your parents came and said, listen, Timmy, we love you, but you can't be pushing people. You can't be hitting people. We got to get along here. I mean, did you have conversations like that? Or were your parents like, all right,

you want to get stronger let's do some push-ups like i i you know rob o'neill's a very good friend of mine i i love you know the in and i love what he wrote in his book he said if you want to do more push-ups do more push-ups it's like such simple advice i mean but what was it like for you when you were again going back to those early years it was a little bit of both you know um

My family is very justice and right, believing we're going to fight for the right thing. But there's also a degree of that turn the other cheek in there. So sometimes it was go do more push-ups. I remember swimming laps in the pool over and over and over again and having to tread water with buckets over my head because I got in trouble. But then I also remember my dad –

somebody did an assault, you know, but like they were really, really rude to my sister. And I pushed them through a phone booth and ended up getting in trouble. And the police were there. And, you know, my dad show up, they're like, so this, this 13 year old girl is essentially attacked by the 16 year old boy. And my 15 year old son defends his 15 year old sister or 13 year old sister. And who's in trouble right now. You know, and he wasn't talking to me. He was talking to them. And I remember like,

being so proud of my dad standing up for me, but also standing up for his sister, but also standing up for what was right. But then we got home and he's like,

Hey, know when to pick a fight and how to win a fight. You didn't need to do that. You could have thumped him and smashed him without pushing him through a phone booth. You made a scene. I was like, all right, dad. So there was a balance there. Interesting. What did your parents do? Oh, my dad's a monster. He was a narcotics officer. A monster in the best way. I meant that as a compliment. Right, right, right.

He was an undercover narcotics officer. He worked for some joint task forces. My whole entire childhood was him as an undercover police officer. He'd be the white trash dude in the wife beater gang.

shirt with stained jeans, trying to buy meth on the corner. You know, sometimes he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and flying to the central America and the Caribbean to, he bought a plane full of cocaine from Pablo Escobar and brought it back to the United States and distributed it and then rest, then arrested everybody in the whole entire network on the South, you know, in central California on like one go. So pretty, pretty rad dude.

Yeah, you know, the guys that do that, not to deviate too far here, but I tell you, I've got the greatest admiration for them. And sometimes it's interesting as a kid because, right, dad is kind of a hooligan, ruffigan, right? He's...

He's trying to project because he's undercover that he's maybe not, you know, just your average nine to five working, working type. I, we have some good friends, my wife and I, and, and this guy was an undercover police officer. Well, we would go to church with them. And,

And people would look at this guy and say, oh, he's really fallen away from the church. And he's obviously got a lot of problems in his life. And I'm like, he is doing more to save and protect your way of life than you could even imagine. How dare you kind of pass judgment on him and say,

This guy is like fighting things in the middle of the night while you're sleeping peacefully. And the contrast was just so stunning to me. But thanks goodness we got people like your dad who are out there doing that day after day. That's the truth. You know, we had a red phone in our closet and, you know, we would have

you know, we'd have cover stories to tell, you know, when somebody would call, you know, police officers work shifts and kind of regular hours, you know, so, you know, if they called like three days in a row and let's say they called, you know, between nine to five, well, that's what,

and my dad is not at work and they call the next day at nine to five and my dad is home like it's either his day off or he's not a cop and he's not on shift work and if they call the next day at nine to five and he's off again like all right cool like we know we're good but then they call at night and say oh my dad's you know not home i think he's like out doing some work stuff

And now that randomness of his schedule isn't the government-feeling schedule that police officers normally have. So we had all sorts of things that we would do to help add a layer to my dad's cover because what eight-year-old is going to lie on the phone? Yeah, going way, way back.

My grandfather, who's since long passed away, was a career FBI agent. But for a long time, his cover was he was a milkman. And, you know, you can get up close in a house by being a milkman. And so, but evidently my dad, when he was young, would go to school and say, yeah, my dad's a G-man. He's in the FBI. And the teacher kind of pat him on the head and said, oh, yeah.

Johnny, that's a cute little story. We feel for you. Wink, wink. We know your dad's actually just a milkman. And it was a great story. And there's lots of people who got through that. All right, but let's get back on track because you obviously had a dad who also knew how to fight, right? He knew how to protect people. You got to be sharp-witted. You got to be super talented in protecting yourself, right?

you're growing up, you're wrestling. What else are you doing in high school? And then kind of those such formative years, what did you go through? What did you decide to do? Because that sets you on a trajectory to do, I mean, entrepreneurial stuff. It's just amazing what you've been able to accomplish. If you start young, your options are limitless. I think people are trying to

figure out what they're going to do late and that's fine. But I think you should have direction as what you want to do. You know, I was talking to my seven-year-old this morning at the table and, you know, he's talking about,

where he wants to live. And, you know, he's, this is seven year old brain, you know, he's talking about Costa Rica and South America. And he's like, you know, like, did I go to Germany with you? And I was like, yeah, yeah. He's like, can I live in Germany? I was like, yeah, you can live anywhere that you want, you know, but you have to have a job there. He's like, well, I could be an engineer anywhere. Right. And I was like, yeah, for sure. So,

you know, like for me, I knew I wanted to, you know, I started at 18 as an EMT firefighter. And then at 21, we go into the police Academy, you know, the nine 11 happened and I was trying to enlist to go, you know, maybe seals to Marine recon to army special forces. It's like, but you,

there's a seller serial killer in, in my hometown and sinless Bispo. And I want to go to the FBI to go be a, to go hunt serial killers. So, but it's all still that kind of same direction, you know, it was like that public service is being that protector, that sheepdog, um,

And, and so I was doing things that, that moved me down that same, that same avenue, that same lane of life. So by the time I got to special forces, you know, like a graduate student, you know, I speak a couple of languages. I am an EMT, former firefighter, former police officer, you know, obviously a top 10 fighter in the world. And, and it makes it,

all of those skills made me useful to my team. And then once I got to the team, started adding all of those opportunities to learn and be good at my job. So I was just trying to be value-added everywhere I went. Yeah, that's, you know...

Some people, I think, going into high school and then they decide to go, hey, I'm going to go to college. But they really don't have that passion or that feeling. I mean, you had some real direction that sheepdog, as you mentioned, that you want to protect. And you're good at it, right? People gravitate to where they have an aptitude.

And when did you realize – it must have been pretty early, right, if you're standing up for your sister that, hey, yeah, I can protect people and I can beat the living crap out of people if I need to as long as it's a good and righteous endeavor. Yeah. I mean I think I was four the first time that like I cracked a bully in the face. And then that did not go away all the way until –

Now as a 43-year-old man, I'm even as passionate about protecting those that can't protect themselves and training people about how to fight for themselves. This is what my purpose is, and this is what I'm still trying to become better at. Where were you at on 9-11? Tell us, where were you at? What did you remember? What did you see? What did you feel that...

And did that, I obviously, I think it sparked a passion in you. Oh yeah. I was, I was working at a.com in California while I was going to grad school. And, um, you know, I would go in early living in California to answer the phone, um, for people waking up on the East coast. So I'd have to go in at like five, six o'clock in the morning, um, to be available for, you know, like regular East coast kind of customer service calls. And, um,

I would open one of my monitors and I would have like the news ticker from CNN going at the bottom. And when the first plane hit the building, it was like a news alert, news alert. And all the tickers started just saying the same thing. So I opened a live stream.

to CNN and this is early internet, you know, this is 2001. - Right, right. - You know, it wasn't like, dee, dee, dee, dee, but like almost. So, you know, this is like the beginning of livestreaming cameras. - The old AOL signal, the old song like. - Oh yeah. Yep, yep, yep, yep. - Yeah. - So when that second plane hit the building, I watched it happen live. And I was sitting in a cubicle by myself. There's nobody else in the whole entire building.

And, you know, there's no audio. And it was so – have you ever watched a movie and the audio just cuts?

And you're just like hit with the visuals of what you're watching. You know, every one of those people that would jump to their deaths, they didn't burn alive. I could, I could hear the impacts of in my head and I could hear them screaming. I could hear the sound of the building crumbling and the fire, you know, melting and burning. And I,

I could hear all in my mind and it just, it was, it just made me so mad. It made me so, so angry and I felt so helpless and I couldn't do anything. It was a sitting there in this cubicle. And that afternoon I walked down to the recruiter's office in San Luis Obispo. Wow. And, and what, tell us about that journey because you've served for, for a long time and did a lot of incredible things.

I've been in the military for 17 and a half years now. I've got two and a half more years until I can retire. And I first went into – there was 1,000-some-odd people in line at the recruiter's office. So it took a couple of weeks for them. Wait a sec. That had to be quite a sight. That's inspirational. 9-11 is happening, and you go down to the – and there's 1,000 people or so in line?

Thousands. Yeah, yeah. It was at a Vaughn supermarket in California. And it wrapped all the way down the front of Vaughn's out onto the street and people just waiting to talk to somebody in the military about what they could do. And I finally didn't get to see a recruiter until the 12th.

And then when I talked to him, it was like door after door to try to figure out what are we going to do? Where can I go? And we didn't know anything then. We knew we had been attacked. We didn't know who. We didn't know why. But America all definitely united to one idea of fighting whatever this new form of evil is. Yeah, you know –

I think oftentimes maybe the worst or the hardest of times make us the greatest and strongest that we are in humankind. And shed the politics and the other crap aside, you know, I still remember in Houston when they were having that incredible flooding and hurricane type stuff that had happened and just people helping people and, you know, natural disasters, hurricanes and everything.

national tragic events and terrorist attacks also bring people together like that. You don't want the horror that draws that united feeling together, but there is that surge of patriotism and hey, we're going to fight and we're going to win this thing and it's going to take some time, but we're going to go out and

Make sure the world hears us the way George Bush said that, that, that was, that was an inspirational moment. So what, why the, why the army? Why, why the green berets? So our army special forces, um,

They are the, I think the most unique special operations unit on the planet. You know, they, they, instead of doing things unilaterally exclusively by themselves as military operations, we do the soft model of by, with, and through. So instead of,

Think of Navy SEALs in the Bin Laden raid landing on secret helicopters and running in and killing the bad guys. The soft approach is having special operations, special forces guys co-located with people that share the ideals of freedom.

And they obviously would be enemies of those that don't. And we work with them. So we'll be training them, we'll be equipping them, and then we'll go fight alongside them. And that approach, we're able to learn a lot about the culture, which is why all special forces have to have a second language.

and at least a second language. And you learn about the center of gravity for every one of these cultures, every one of these societies. So then we can really fight for what's best for them. And there's an intimate connection between men that fight together and they learn what it really means to be brothers and fellow humans. So then when we go and fight for these cultures,

for these ideas. You know, we, we build these fierce, passionate fighters that are fighting for their own country and for their, for their own communities. And, you know, I just think it's, it's such a more effective way of doing warfare. So along the way, you also kind of convinced them to let you get involved in the professional world of fighting. How, how did you convince them to do that? Because

Well, they could easily said no. Right. Or could you just go out and do that? And you just did it. So they didn't know. Oh, there's that way. Yeah. They didn't know for like the first five years. Um,

I was kind of fighting in secret until one day one of the sergeant majors was watching a fight and, you know, some army ranger from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And there's no army rangers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, you know, walked out to the fight. And he's like, wait a second. This is one of my guys.

Yeah. Did he recognize you? He was, you know, you get on the Internet and you have like this big email system and all guys within the units, you know, he could like search my name and, you know, he found what unit I was in. Then he called my boss and then my boss told me to meet him to go in to talk to Sergeant Major on Monday. And so what tells about that conversation? Can you? I mean, you're still there, so I don't know. Maybe you can't. But how did that go down?

It was not great. So, um, I fought on a Saturday night and I flew home on Sunday. And when I got back, you know, my plane landed in the, you know, I opened up my boxes. My boss is like, Hey, meet me at the office at 8 AM in a good uniform. And, uh, you know, thank goodness I, I had put in my vacation, which we called leave my, uh, like my paid time off my PTO. And I show up, you know, first thing in the morning, um,

Not really lumped up, but my hands are a little bit swollen. And we walked into the Sergeant Major's office. He's like, so how was your weekend? And I was like, well, Sergeant Major, it was good. He's like, was it eventful? I was like, Roger, Sergeant Major. He's like, so what did you do? I was like, well, I was in Columbus. I was fighting in a fight. He's like, yeah, I saw that main event on Fox.

And he's like, how does this work? You know, our motto is to be the quiet professionals. And I just saw you fighting a main event on Fox. I was like, ah, well, so this was not my first fight. And, you know, this is this is like my 15th fight since I've been in the military. And then it was figuring out if I could stay with stay within special forces and still continue to fight. And that worked out, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was, it was figuring out what kind of unit I need to be in. You know, the national guard has two special forces groups, 19th group and 20th group. And in the national guard, you know, you have to have a civilian job that is like your regular work. And then you have, you know, you stay within your special forces unit as an M day soldier. And so I was able to, you know, my regular full-time job was being a fighter. And then, you know, my, my,

My M-Day position was as an 18 Bravo, which is a special forces weapons sergeant. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be right back. You've got this entrepreneurial streak in you too. Like you're not busy enough, you know, family, kids, you know, the army, you're fighting, but you, you, I mean, I'm reading about all these things you're doing with your entrepreneurial skills. Tell us about that, what you're doing, what you're involved with right now and,

and why that's so important to you as well. So I have a few businesses. The first one is Sheepdog Response.

Sheepdog Response is a defensive tactics training company. I train the military on law enforcement and teachers and, you know, just regular citizens about how to preserve and protect human life. So the mission statement of that company is to train and equip people to be able to preserve and protect human life. So we teach them how to shoot and how to fight and situational awareness and we teach them tactical medicine so that, you know,

heaven forbid, then the next shooting happens. There'll be trained people there. Um, just a couple of days ago. And a matter of fact, there, there was another shooting that was going to happen here in Texas and an armed and an armed person, uh, was able to stop that shooter before they were able to do anything. And, uh, so it was pretty amazing. Um,

And then I own a private school called Apogee Cedar Park, and I own an online youth mentorship program called Apogee Strong. And then I have an apparel company called Ranger Up, and I have a shoe company called Woobies. I have a supplement company called Live Relentless. I'm proud to be part of Black Rifle Coffee. And so it's a lot of companies that all share the same ideas about –

you know, loving America, capitalism, freedom, and then they're all doing great, man. It's wild right now. Wild times. Yeah, I know. I've been to Ranger Up. You got some cool stuff there. And I think your message is a good, positive one. It's about self-empowerment. You know, I don't want to get too much into the politics of guns and all that, but what's amazing to me is

how many people are arguing about our rights with the Second Amendment, but oftentimes they haven't fired a gun. They haven't owned a gun. They haven't used a gun. They don't understand how, like with me, how much safer I feel with my family knowing that I have a gun. And heaven forbid, I hope I never, ever have to use it, but I'm so glad that I've got it. And

And that's what's that's kind of what's missing in this debate. And I, you know, guns aren't for everybody. If you don't like them, you don't want to use them. That's fine. You don't have to pick one up or buy one or purchase any ammo or anything. But for those of us that are law abiding citizens and want to protect our families and want to enjoy shooting and things like that, I mean, get out of the way. That's that's my right as an American.

Yeah. There's lots of things that aren't being discussed in all of that. You know, I really want society and culture to go upstream into like the root, the root cause and the mental health issues that are happening with our young men in this country. You know, how the nuclear family is being broken down, how, you know, music,

social media movies all glorify violence in all really unhealthy ways. You know, how we've been stuck inside for the past couple of years with no healthy outlets. Like all of these things are building on top of each other, you know, and society has clearly been at a breaking point and it's been accelerated by all of this. And now it's, it's time to for us to start addressing these, these root core issues. Yeah.

No, I agree with you. I think there are a lot of people that are lonely. They've missed out on the social component and

They get locked in watching some video game, the mental health aspect of it. It's very complex and every situation is different. I wish there was just some magical, hey, if we just do this, then everything's fine. But it's never, ever going to be that simple. Tim, tell us about where you're going, what you want to do next, because you're still pretty young. You've done an awful lot here. But where...

Like, what are you out there talking about? What's important to you? And where do you want to go down the road here? Man, I, so I just wrote a book called Scars and Stripes. It came out on Tuesday. Yeah. By the way, that is the greatest title. I love that. Scars and Stripes. You cannot forget that. It's, it's such a great title. Anyway, keep going. Yeah, it is great. And you know, it's the number one book in the world right now. And yeah, I've,

last week was this crazy media tour from the library of Congress, a bunch of senators, um, Fox and friends in the morning outnumbered, like doing the whole media tour. I did Joe Rogan yesterday, uh, Jocko next week. Um, you know, talking that book really is just a carrier to talk about all of the issues that, you know, you and I have just been talking about, like, it's, it's a great book. It's a, it's a, it's a memoir written in first person, you know, so you get to live in the present tense of some of the craziest experiences and

You know, you get to read what it feels like to be in a gunfight in Afghanistan. You get to read what it feels like to walk out into the octagon for, for a title fight, you know, for a world title or main event fight for the UFC. And you know, the, the elation of winning and the humiliation of losing all of it. And that, that, that book really is this transparent vulnerable book that I think everybody will relate to and

it's wild because every single review right now is a five, like hundreds of five-star reviews. Everybody's saying the same thing. Like this is what they needed right now. You know, to, to kind of move them on to this thing that they have been too fearful of doing because they get to see me fail. And they're like, man, if that guy can fail, then I can fail. And if that guy can fail and get back up, then I can fail and get back up. And that's, you know, that's, that's what I'm trying to do is, is change the,

you know, this American culture to make us an individually responsible, strong citizen again. Yeah. The, the idea of self-determination, self-empowerment and, uh, you know, learning that you have challenge, everybody's got challenges, right? Everybody's having to deal with hard things in their life. Nobody's going through this without that, but how you deal with that, how you handle that, how you get back up, how you persevere, how you blow through those barriers that are thrown out in front of you. I mean, it's,

That's life, and you've done that out in front of everybody and taken some really hard knocks. You've given your share of hard knocks, but you've also taken a lot of hard knocks. I hear nothing but wonderful things about Scars and Stripes. It's a great title and should be pretty easy to find on the Internet or down at Barnes & Noble or wherever you buy books. Did you do an audio book? I did, yep, and I read it myself.

Yeah, you know, I've had a few books. I've had a few books. That's like...

oh my gosh, takes days to do it and get every sentence just right. But I think ultimately the product is so much better when you can hear it in your voice. Right. And so I don't know, at least my books that I've done, uh, not, not nearly as dynamic as yours. That's for sure. But we'll forego the rapid questions and, uh, just leave it at that. Tim, thank you so, so much. Thanks for what you've done for the country and, and, uh, for your service. And, uh,

God bless you. Thank you for taking time on the Jason and house podcast. Thank you, sir. All right. Take care. All right. Even though we ran out of time with Tim and we didn't get to the rapid questions, we didn't find out about pineapple on pizza. We didn't find out those key things. I think we know that this person has, has done some amazing things and,

And, uh, he's inspirational to a lot of people and I'm sure he's made mistakes and had challenges along the way, but you know what? I also hats off for, you know, uh, what 18 coming on 20 years now for serving our country and doing some amazing things. And, um,

and so providing a lot of inspiration to a lot of people and, uh, hope you get to know him and read his story. Look forward to seeing his book and, and reading it or hearing it. And, um, thank you so much for joining us on Jason, the house podcast. Hope you can rate it, review it and, uh, go out to Fox news podcast.com. You'll see some other podcasts that are out there as well. Uh, and I hope you're able to join us next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the house.

Cudlow on Fox Business is now on the go for podcast fans. Get key interviews with the biggest business newsmakers of the day. The Cudlow podcast will be available on the go after the show every weekday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.