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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. And this week, as we usually do, we're going to give some thoughts 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. This week, we're going to call the attorney general for Arizona, Mark Branovich.
I haven't spoken to him before other than being on air. I've interviewed him. I have been on a panel with him on Fox News, but I haven't had a conversation with him. He's a fascinating figure. He's running for the United States Senate, but he's the attorney general of Arizona, one of the hot spots with immigration and everything, and just a fascinating individual. So we'll call Mark Branovich back.
after giving a little some thoughts on the news. So let's jump into the news. With all the things happening in the news, one of them that probably slid by you that maybe you didn't see, but really caught my attention. It was from foxnews.com and it was a grant is given by the U.S. taxpayers. So this is your money from the federal government. It's $158 million. And
that is going to the Vera Institute of Justice. Now, this is a left-wing not-for-profit. This was a grant given by the Department of Health and Human Services. This is a massive amount of money. And the contract in 2021 is to, quote, provide immigration-related legal services to unaccompanied minors,
according to USA Spending, which has this database of contractors. And what I want people to understand is that this is how they do it. This is how the left will use the bureaucracy and will be able to manipulate things in such a way. Think about how much money that is, $158 million. So the administration has an open border policy. It basically allows the flow of people coming north to
And then, as only America does, we give them legal advice, give them other ways to find ways through the system so that they don't get deported. They don't have to go through the system in such a way that they get the best legal advice that there is. And so the Vera Institute of Justice is
According to the article, quote, Vera Institute of Justice as a behemoth progressive not-for-profit out of New York City with well over $140 million budgets that they use to fund a slate of progressive causes and initiatives across the country. And they're engaged in criminal justice reform, bail reform, immigration. Hey, if you want to be a not-for-profit and do that, great. But when you get such a massive amount of money, you're
$158 million from the federal government. Yowza. You need to be aware of that. Second thing that's catching my eye out there is just this overall just being soft on crime. You know, we talk about it a lot here on the Jason in the House podcast, but there's this case out of Baltimore where a man was originally charged with 18 counts of arson. 18 counts of arson. But then he was let out of jail after only serving six months in
According to the article, Luther Trent set his ex-girlfriend's house on fire while three people were inside. In a video he recorded after his release, Trent was surprised by his lenient plea deal. Even he said, quote, I shouldn't be out right now, end quote. That was his quote, his take on it. The guy that was the perpetrator said, I shouldn't be out right now. Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney for Baltimore, Maryland, said,
Well, she's taken a little bit of heat, as she should, because she dropped the number of charges from 18 down to one. Unfortunately, this is not the first time these things have happened across the country. You look at the Attorney General Gascon in Los Angeles. You look at the new district attorney in Manhattan in New York giving out a list of things, of things he's just not going to prosecute anymore.
Ultimately, I think this is the responsibility of the voters. Voters empower these people by electing them into office. And if they're just not going to enforce the law, not going to prosecute it, I mean, what are the police supposed to do? These are people that have been arrested and charged. Maybe they're not guilty. But when you don't go through the process and you don't actually try to prosecute them,
You're soft on crime and you're going to exacerbate the problem. And I don't think it's a coincidence that so many of the metrics have been rising on crime. And I don't know how the Democrats sustain this long term, but holy cow, that is just continuing. Well, that brings us to the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.
All right, this one comes from News 8 in Clearwater, Florida. The News Channel 8 there in Florida. This is the headline. Glitter thrown at man during Clearwater argument. Two women arrested with felony. Now, how bad was the glitter that they had to be arrested with and charged with a felony? Well, the thing is,
Well, according to WFLA, two women are facing felony charges after police said they went to a man's apartment in Clearwater and started throwing glitter at him during an argument. But it sounds like it was a little bit more intense than that because it started at 3 o'clock in the morning. And they started arguing with him as he stood on his fenced balcony outside.
Not only did they throw the glitter at the supposed victim, but the arrest affidavits stated that the man was hit in the head and torso. Officers said one of the women then climbed over the balcony fence, went into the man's apartment, threw more containers of glitter at him. Then she unlocked the front door, let her accomplice in, and then they started throwing glitter all over that apartment and more containers of glitter at the man. Not only that, they must have been upset.
But oh my goodness, can you imagine how bad it is? A house full of glitter. It must have been out of control enough that not only did the police come and arrest these people, but they've actually been charged. You know, it just kind of highlights the idea of prosecutors in Florida. Maybe a little bit different than somebody who is starting a house on fire.
and drop the charges, these women are throwing glitter and they're getting charged. My guess is they're probably not going to do that again because you know what? It sounds like something stupid that they did if they actually did it. And that's bringing on the stupid. All right. Somebody who is very familiar with prosecution because he's the attorney general. He's the state's top cop.
I grew up in part in Arizona, and so we're thrilled to be able to dial up the current attorney general. Somebody ends up, I guess I just, I really admire because I just, I love the clarity in which he talks. I've been on Fox with him multiple times and excited to be able to dial up the current attorney general, Mark Branovich. He's also a candidate for the United States Senate there in Arizona. Let's give him a call.
Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Yeah. Hey, this is Jason Chaffetz. Thanks, Mr. Attorney General. Thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Well, I'll tell you what, Jason, I'm glad I picked up the phone because I actually like talking to you. So thank you very much for calling me.
Well, we can solve that. We'll see where we're at at the end of this. No, I appreciate it. Look, Arizona is near and dear to my heart. I don't know if you know this, but I actually went to grade school and high school there. And my mom lived there until she passed away. She had a long bout with cancer, but she passed away there. But my wife, Julie, was born and raised in Mesa.
And so we we got Arizona quite a bit because we have so much family there. Oh, yeah. And I I'm so sorry about your mother. And but you did get a chance to grow up here in Arizona, which is obviously a great place to grow up. I grew up here, obviously, myself. I don't know.
where you went to high school, where your wife went to high school. I went to Shadow Mountain. So I actually live right near the high school still. I live right in the neighborhood I grew up in. I went to elementary school, middle school, Shadow Mountain High School. And so it's kind of like an old glove for me that, you know, you grow up there and you see some of the changes. But in a lot of ways, Arizona is still the same place that it was in the 70s and 80s.
Yeah, I went to Cocoa Paw and then I went to Chaparral High School and my wife went to Keno. And then she was a Westwood warrior. She went to Westwood. She was a Westwood warrior. Yeah. There you go. So we got some...
Go ahead. Sorry. I'm Eastern European. We talk over each other all the time, Jason, just so you know. That's for people listening. That will happen. No, I made a joke about, oh, Chaparral's where the rich kids went. I was trying to make a joke about that. I don't know if you got that or not, but...
Yeah, we got that a lot. And there was a lot of truth to that. But I still remember, I remember as a little kid, my parents said, hey, you got to ride your bike to school. And I went to Kokopan and I rode my bike. And there was like a wall in between us where we were. And so I had to put my bike up and over. And I must have had the most sturdy bike in the history of bicycles because I was
I literally would lift that bike up and over this wall. It would go crashing down on the other side. I would hop the wall and then I'd continue journey. And I did that every day for years. I don't know how my bike survived. Was it a Huffy or a Schwinn? That's the question, right? See, I think I had a Schwinn, but I think I also had a Huffy along the way.
Yeah, the Huffies were pretty popular at one point. And then I delivered the newspaper. In fact, I delivered the Arizona Republic when it still used before it became super liberal. So I was a paper boy and I had a Schwinn and Schwinn was like the go to bike.
And in fact, I still have that bike and it's in my mom's garage. And every once in a while, she's bugging me to get rid of her, do something. And you know how it is. It's like, you just hate to get rid of anything that's that good and sturdy. So I still have my Schwinn paper boy bike and it's still surviving. The tires are flat, but at one point, you never know. I might have to have a backup plan. So in case I need to break that. Yeah.
Listen, you've accomplished a lot. You're the Attorney General for Arizona. You're running for the United States Senate. But let's go back to those early days because that's what's fascinating to me. You obviously have a love of the law. Your wife is engaged. She's a judge.
So she loves the law. But my understanding is you were born in Detroit, right? Or born in Michigan, but you came to Arizona when you were like two years old. Exactly. Yeah. As Kid Rock might say, I'm a Michigan boy. Can you feel that? And the, yeah, so I was, the funny thing is, well, not funny, but you know, in the Midwest, I'm Eastern European families from the
former Yugoslavia and places like Chicago, Detroit, you know, Milwaukee, there, there's a huge pocket of people that, you know, families, you know, fled communism or came to the United States after world war two, you know, from Poland, from, you know, Yugoslavia, you know,
Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro. And so that's where my roots are. And I really had not spent any time after like a lot of folks, you know, they move out West and, you know, my family, you know, came to Arizona and this is where I grew up. So Arizona has been the only life I've ever known. But, you know, one of the things that I tell folks, and I've told my daughters, this is that
You have to have an understanding and appreciation for history. And when your family has not just studied history, but lived it, you understand how important freedom is, how important liberty is. As Ronald Reagan used to remind us, it's not something that we're born with. It's not something we pass on to our kids through...
know, our blood through genes. It's something that must be fought for every generation. And that to me, just that notion, you know, that we need to have a rule of law, that any government that's big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away. You know, those kind of principles, you know, kind of get ingrained in you. And, you know, I went to a church. I still go to a church that's
full of a lot of immigrants and a lot of folks from Eastern Europe. And, you know, they have a lot of those kind of shared common experiences. So I don't know how many brothers or sisters you might have had, but what was it like when you were young? I mean, did you, I don't know what you did growing up. I mean, did you, did you play sports? Did you like, were you a computer nerd? I mean, what computers were kind of just starting to break out about then. So what were you doing as a young kid?
Well, I think I was a renaissance man, even from an early age. I was the youngest of four kids. One of my sisters passed away just a couple years ago. So I still have two sisters, older sisters. And so I was the youngest and I was the only boy in our family. And my sisters, if they were on this show,
they would tell you that I probably was a little spoiled and got a lot of attention. And that probably explains the psychology of me today. But I was, I mean, I think I was like most kids. I mean, I grew up, I did play sports growing up and
I was also telling my daughters recently about this. So I played like tackle football growing up. So when I was a kid, when I was like in the second, third, you know, all growing up, started playing tackle football in the second grade. And back then, like even when I was, you know, sixth, seventh grade, you know, you get like what we used to call getting your bell rung. You get like knocked out and someone have the smelling salts and you get back in there. And I was like,
I sometimes joke that if people also, if they have a problem with what I say or do, it's probably because I suffered too many concussions growing up because between riding a skateboard and playing football and other sports, you know, it's, you know, it does cause injuries at times. But I was never like a great athlete. I was...
I love sports. I still love sports. I love watching sports. I love the Arizona Cardinals. I grew up loving the Suns. They were the only professional team, sports team we had growing up. So I love sports. But at some moment in high school, you realize that, well, my future path is not in sports. I'm not going to play middle linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, which at some point you realize your dream is not going to come true, playing middle linebacker. So I was also...
you know, good at academics. I love to read. I still love to read. I leave, I read nonfiction every night. I was always brought up with, you know, read, read, read and education's the key to upward mobility. And, and so I read, I still read a lot. And so, you know, I did when I was, you know, in high school, you know, I ended up, you know, being on like the speech team, the debate team, you know, kind of the, the geekish wonkish stuff I would say, but you know, I, I'm fortunate because I,
My core group of friends, we don't, we didn't always agree. We kind of gravitate toward each other. And I, my, my core group of friends that I'm friends with to this day are people I met back at desert Cove elementary school, or my friend Don, we started delivering papers together and, you know, the sixth, seventh grade, and we're still great friends. And, you know, my friend Jacques, my friend Mark, we all grew up together and we don't always agree on stuff, but we make it a point to,
It's been tough this year with everything going on with COVID and, you know, some government officials trying to lock us down. But, you know, we make it a point to get together for each other's birthdays and to catch up. And, you know, if our wives were here talking about this, they would say that when we do get together, we're like a bunch of old high school guys. It's like nothing ever stopped or dropped off the way we act around each other. And I think that's one thing about COVID.
You know, the one of my all time favorite movies is It's a Wonderful Life. And, you know, that movie, you know, Clarence the Angel, there's like the description in the Mark Twain book that says, no man is a failure who has friends. And I think that every every person that has close friends is truly blessed. And I'm really, really blessed to have the same kind of core group of friends that literally go back to my grade school days.
You know, we moved around a bit and, uh, but yeah, some of those people that you, you get to know along the way in life and you keep in touch and you, uh,
You know, it's funny because every once in a while when you rent for public office, then suddenly people say, oh, yeah, I went to grade school with you. And I'm like, I have no clue who you are. But that happens when you rent for public office. You know what that's like, Jason? I mean, it is funny. Not funny, but we get, you know what that's like. And there are sometimes people will call the office. I always joke that we're the state's.
largest law firm by number of lawyers and the most important if you look at all the stuff we're doing. Our receptionist or we get emails, people will call and be like, oh, Bernovich and I went to grade school, went to high school and
I have no idea who the person is. I mean, sometimes there's like people, like there's people that I haven't talked to in 20 or 30 years that will reach out and you're like, oh my gosh, I remember we went to this college together or something like that, which is kind of cool. But yeah, there's also people that you're like, I feel bad. Like I have no idea who this is, you know? It does make you feel guilty and you're stuck in that position of,
I just, I mean, I just, I'm as candid as I can. I like, help me here. Help me remember. And sometimes they'll pull out a picture and I'm like, oh my gosh, why do you still have this picture? This is unbelievable. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more of my conversation with attorney general Mark Branovich 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. Okay, so your household, I mean, it's one thing to have a passion for reading and to, you know, be a little, you know, loving football. I mean, that just kind of sounds like the all-American way here. But not everybody is willing to...
be an orator. They're not willing to stand up and talk about it. And, you know, our son went through debate and it was great because it did, it made him kind of get up on his feet. And now he's a practicing attorney. And, and,
And it's just fascinating to me what happened or what went on. Was it, were you debating things like at the dinner table? Did you, where did you decide that? Hey, I, I not only have a position, but I'm willing to stand up and argue it. You know, Jason, it's funny. This is almost like a therapy session. I really haven't thought about this stuff in a lot of ways, but I, but I do think that, you know, first of all, people, I think from at least, you know,
Eastern Europeans said a lot of folks from Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary,
tend to be very opinionated. And in fact, there's a running joke that, you know, if you get three Montenegrins, the Brnoviches, it's a Montenegrin name, but it's like, if you get three Montenegrins in a room, you're getting four opinions. And so, you know, I think that there's a lot of like debate and, you know, people expressing their opinions. And it's just something that, you know, I think that culturally it's always been part of, you know, kind of who, you know, where my roots, my relatives are. And, you know,
The other thing about it is, is that I think that when you're the, like I said, when you're the youngest, it's, you know, you got to like talk and talk fast. And so I think I know when I was, when I was prosecuting cases, I was, you know, as a criminal prosecutor, court reporters always used to tell me, slow down, slow down. I can't get it. I was talking too fast for the court reporters. And so I think that,
that part of that goes back to the fact that when you're the youngest and maybe, you know, you're a, you're a public school kid with kind of a funny last name that you just learn that when I got the floor, I got to get in as much as possible. And I got to make my point hopefully as not always succinctly as possible, but as powerful as possible. And so I think that there's probably a certain dynamic to that when you're the, when you're the youngest and the only boy and you come from like kind of a culture that
very much of like, hey, stand up for what you believe in, tell people what you think, you know, stay true to your word, you know, and that's kind of the virtues Montenegro has historically been known for. I think that kind of just kind of permeates or seeps into you
And then you combine that with, you know, my group of friends, my core group of friends, you know, we were in high school. In fact, I make the joke that, you know, one of them is a socialist. One of them is a Democrat, even though nowadays I don't think there's a difference, but you know, so, so we would, we would disagree on stuff and we'd kind of go at it. And I think that, you know, once again, you just kind of, it almost permeates or you unconsciously without thinking you do it. And, and,
And like I said, between that and reading and stuff, you just kind of gravitate it. I think I don't know how your son was, but I just kind of it's almost like a natural gravitation towards speech and debate. And you do that and then you're doing policy stuff. And then you almost it almost becomes like a self-fulfilling or self-perpetuating cycle. And then you start doing more and more of it. Then you get better at it. The better you are at it, the more you do it. And then you're like, gosh, you can make a living arguing and debating. All right. That's something I should be doing then.
So you have a conservative approach to you. So where does that come from? Is that from mom? Is that from dad? I mean, not everybody, you know, there's that saying that, you know, young people, you know, you got to be a Democrat. And then when you get, you know, you get smart, you get a paycheck, then you kind of gravitate and you end up being more conservative. But what does conservatism mean to you?
And what is it in your kind of core, your heart that that has you lean that direction? How do you explain that to people who maybe are more independents, maybe they're liberals? Because, you know, in Arizona, it really does have a cross section. I mean, it's not nearly as conservative as, say, Utah is. But what does that mean to you? Where does that come from? And why is it so important to you?
Well, I think a couple of things, Jason. One is that, you know, I love Barry Goldwater and he was one of my political heroes. And, you know, growing up, he was still a U.S. senator here in Arizona. And I was fortunate enough to meet my idol. And one of the things about Barry Goldwater is.
and not only my family, but a lot of people from Eastern Europe, a lot of people that fled communism in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, they, they love Barry Goldwater because he really did speak truth to power before a lot of people would. And he recognized the evil of, you know, centralized government and communism. And so, you know, Barry Goldwater was a big hero icon, you know, and I'm, he,
He'd use the word term saint, but saint in a lot of ways for a lot of people in Eastern Europe. And so Barry Goldwater used to remind us that any government that's big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away. And he was really consistent in pushing back and fighting for individual liberty and against the overreach of power.
not only totalitarian governments in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, but also for pushing back against federal overreach because he recognized how when a government becomes bigger and bigger, it becomes less responsive, it becomes oppressive. And so just loving Barry Goldwater
Then all of a sudden you're like, well, I'm going to read The Conscience of a Conservative. And then you're subscribing to National Review and you're reading this and you're getting exposed to these ideas. And you realize that there's this consistent thread throughout the history of the conservative movement. We talk about even going back to, you go back to Burke, even going back to the Bible. I mean, there's this notion that
our rights come from a creator and not other people. And there is this consistent strain amongst the conservatives, amongst the intellectuals, a recognition that no other person gives you your rights, that they come from a creator, they come from God. The framers of our constitution understood that. But even as I said before then,
framers recognize that if you look at the history of the world, that when governments become big, they become oppressive. And then when you overlay that after the framing of our Constitution with what happened with Marxism and communism, that's just all. And we see it even today with the progressive left. There's just a consistent strain of do you believe in the dignity of human beings and that our rights come from the
the creator, or, or do you believe in the perfect ability of man? And that if we only have the right group of people in charge, that they will make sure that everyone gets everything they need. And it really is kind of boils down that in my mind, kind of that fundamental difference between statism and freedom. And so,
I think in Arizona, I still think that maybe we're not as red as Utah, but there still is this very independent, very Goldwater-esque streak in the people here. And maybe it's kind of that Western or cowboy ethos of rugged individualism and kind of permeates you even if you weren't born here. Maybe you know people that are from here. And so there is this
notion, this feel here, even amongst people that are independent or Democrats that, look, government can't solve every problem. And, you know, maybe, you know, we disagree sometimes on, you know, the size and scope of that. But clearly, I think there is a strain here where Arizona still is a right of center state. And, you know, I remind people that I got more votes than Cinema Orbit, Sally, in 2018, even though, you
spent millions of dollars attacking me. And I'd like to think that's because folks respected my, you know, principled conservatism and my making sure that I understood that, you know, the government's not the answer to all of our problems. Yeah, I think there's, I think voters also understand
They smell out and they understand authenticity. There's something intangible about that. And, you know, I haven't met you in person, but I've been on and I've interviewed you in the past on Fox News. I've been a guest with you on Fox News. And so I've kind of got to know you a little bit, you know, at least on a professional level. But there's an authenticity to what you believe and a conviction that I'm sure just...
Yeah.
That's why I wanted to ask you about that, because I think at your core, you really do believe this, but in a respectful way, in a conservative way, that is really about individual liberty and self-determination. And you're right. I think the Intermountain West, and I would include Arizona in that, I think there's sort of a libertarian streak in there. And there's sort of this Western attitude that, hey, we can take care of ourselves. I don't need some big brother in Washington, D.C. doing it for me.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's if you look at, you know, the positions I've taken throughout my career. And I remember when I first ran for AG, I never run for office and I'd worked at a think tank called the Goldwater Institute.
And, you know, I had spoke about the, and I wrote about the importance of property rights. And, and in fact, I opposed, you know, smoking bans, you know, and that was a big issue, you know, controversial issue 15, 20 years ago. And I used to tell folks it's because not because I want people smoking or kids smoking or anything else. It's because I believe in property rights. And I believe that once the government starts telling a business that,
that you've got to do X, Y, or Z, that it opens the door to all sorts of unintended consequences. And what's next? Are they going to be telling people how much fat they can have in their burritos or how much caffeine they can have in their sodas? And I know some folks are dismissive of that, but
Literally, we see that happening. And then we also see that the overlay of what the unintended consequences when it comes to religious liberty, where there's cases where, you know, people are trying to force people to do something against their fundamental religious beliefs. You know, and I always tell folks, just because you open up your business to the public doesn't mean the public gets to run your business. And so that was one of the things. So when I was running for AG, I would talk about things like that, like what I consider very principled,
ideas that I think reveal ultimately what I believe. And I believe that it was important as an Arizonan to push back against the federal government, federal overreach. And so when we were involved in litigation, you know, over job killing, you know, ozone or EPA rules, I mean, it was all because it was the federal government was doing things that it was not allowed to do under our constitution. And furthermore, it was unaccountable and it was leading to
Less jobs, less productivity and higher costs. And so it wasn't even good policy. But, you know, of course, every time and you know this, Jason, every time you take a principled position on this stuff and the left comes out and says, oh, my gosh, why are you for dirty air? Why are you for, you know, you know, whatever against health care, whatever the issue is. And it's no, no, no. I'm I'm for the individual and I'm for the Constitution.
And once you let, or once you cede power to government, we don't get it back. And that's the great history lesson. Kind of going back to, we were talking about the beginning of this is the great lesson of history is that we as individuals,
Once we see that authority to central government, you don't get it back. And that's why I fought these vaccine mandates so hard is not because I'm, you know, anti-science or I'm pro this or anti this. It's I am pro constitution and nowhere in the constitution is the president have that authority. And so I have been really, really consistent on that. And I think and I hope people respect that, that since day one and I never run for office before I run for AG, quite frankly, I.
I think politics is, I'm not a big fan of it, but I think that you got to step up when you see something's wrong. That's the way I was brought up. And I think that I've been pretty consistent on these issues, dealing with the size and scope of the federal government. I think people do respect that at the end of the day. No, you've been a real champion of that. And it's been impressive. Let's go back to a little bit about your decision to run for office, because there's a lot of people that want to be attorney general or be a United States Senator, right?
But, you know, very few are able to run the gauntlet and actually get there. But sitting around the table one day and, you know, what happened? What did you say? Hey, you know, honey, I think what I should do is put our family out there and just let them beat on us for a while. We'll have a few million dollars rain down on us. And, you know, we'll have them say all these things that aren't true about us. But I think that would be a really good idea to take this
income cut in pay and be the attorney general. What was the thought process in your family and what ultimately kind of led you to drive and say, this has more positives than negatives. I'm actually going to put my hat in the ring and I'm going to run.
Well, I will tell you what, Jason, I wish I had talked to you before I did, because you might have been able to talk me out of it. Because just the way you described it, temporary insanity, I think is the short answer. But, you know, it's funny, because I don't come from a political family. And I still have a name that people can't pronounce, people can't spell. You know, I know when I'm on sometimes on Hannity's radio show, whatever, and I'll give my website or whatever. And it'll be like, that's terrible. And I was like, oh, that's the name they were getting. I got, you know, so it's the only name I got, you know, but
But it's tough. But I do think on a macro level, it does. I think I hope it affirms the amazingness of this country where some first generation guy like me who has a name that people still can't spell or pronounce literally goes from one generation from, you know, from.
being a first generation American to the state's chief law enforcement officer, the attorney general of the state. I think it's just the promise of American in a nutshell. And I'm, I'm very proud of that. And I hope no matter what happens in my future, that someone, someone out there listening to this or kid out there can be like, well,
Well, hell, if Brnovich can do it, I can do it too. And I think that I hope that someone gets that less out of it. But I never planned to get into politics. As you said, I have a great wife and you alluded to this earlier. She was at that time a state judge. She's a federal judge now. And...
We were sitting around the table and at that time there was an incumbent attorney general. He was doing some things that I thought were inconsistent with the office. I think that when you're the government, when you can take away people's livelihoods, their life, liberty, property, you're held to a higher standard.
And I think especially as prosecutors, you're held to the ultimate standard because your job is to do justice. And there was folks, there was a group of us, including the former county attorney who's now on the state Supreme Court here, that were kind of frustrated with what was going on. And I was a gang prosecutor, I was a former assisting this attorney. So I understood the justice system. And you sit around, you're having coffee or a soda with people and
And we were lamenting how bad it was, but he was an incumbent. He had a reputation as a nasty campaigner. And so everyone was afraid to take him on. And I guess I was naive enough, maybe because my days debating or whatever as a prosecutor. And so I started thinking about it and some people started talking to me about it. And literally what happened was we were at the dinner table. It's funny you mentioned this. We're sitting around, we're at dinner, and I get a call from someone I used to work with who was friends of that attorney general.
And they literally call and they say, Hey, we're here that you're maybe thinking about running for AG, just so you know, you know, this isn't the debate society. This isn't the debate club. You know, this is nasty. We're in, they basically were threatening me saying they were going to destroy me, destroy my reputation, all stuff. And I remember I hung up the phone and my wife had heard the call and she looked at me and said, Hey,
oh, this sucks because now you have to run. And that was kind of the genesis and the origin of me. So who knows, maybe my life or things would have been differently if someone hadn't called to threaten me, telling me they were going to destroy my reputation and that running for office is not a debating society. But that kind of
Set it on the path. And because I had never run for office, I was naive enough to think, oh, well, you know, you just we're going to go out and talk about the issues and we're going to do them. You know, unfortunately, that's not the way things work even now. I mean, you know, people want to take something you said and try to take it out of context. And, you know, Jason, when you alluded to this earlier, look, I don't have a speechwriter. I don't have a script. I know what I believe, why I believe it.
And so I will tell people what I think. I don't use notes. And, you know, sometimes, you know, it's kind of, I've used this analogy before. It's kind of like, I'm a big Grateful Dead fan. You know, they don't, they don't have a set list that, you know, sometimes, you know, you may hear a five minute version of a song and sometimes a 20 minute version of the song. And so, you know, I go out and I talk and nowadays, you know, people record everything. They tape it. And I have no problem with that. But then they try to take a sentence out of context and there's something out of context. It's like, no, no, no. Plot.
play the five minutes before or the five minutes after what I said to put it in context. And, you know, unfortunately people don't do that, but I was brought up to believe, and I teach our kids this, that if you do the right thing for the right reason, you do it in the right way, it's all going to work out in the long run. In the short run, maybe sometimes you got to take some punches and, you know, you got to go with the flow, but in the long run, you do the right thing in the right way, it's all going to work out. And I hope, but maybe I'm still...
am naive enough to believe that that's the way the world works. But, but in my core, of course, I think that, and I believe that. And that's why even I'm running for the Senate, I kind of, I mean, it's like I said, politics stinks, it's tough, but I just feel like there's this moment in history we're in right now where we're
The left, the progressive left, has taken over the Democratic Party and they're concentrating all this power in D.C. And so I feel like I'm the best person to stand up for that because I understand it because of my own history and just under my understanding of my personal history and also just my understanding of history in general. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be right back after this.
Well, again, I think you're demonstrating the authenticity that I think A, permeates from you, and B, is one of the critical components. Because, you know, people need to agree with you on policy and principle, but they ultimately, I think, vote for who they like, who they know, who they believe. I've told this story before, but after my very first election, and it was at a state convention, and
And I'm pumping gas at the Costco. And the guy across from me is also pumping gas. He says, hey, you're Jason Chaffetz. And I said, yeah. And he said, he said, hey, I voted for you.
And I said, well, gee, thanks. If you don't mind my asking, like, why did you vote for me? And he said, he said, you know, I just loved your energy. I just knew you cared. I can't even tell you what policies that you generally support, but I just knew you cared and that you'd give it a good, honest go and that you wanted it more than the other guy. And I was running against a 12 year incumbent, you know, Republican and
It's ingrained in me now. I just, I think that's so true. You, when you run, you run with everything you've got, you just lay it out there. And I, and I do remember when I was first elected, they were kind of showing me or, you know, making some recommendations on how to organize the office. And they said, you need to hire a spokesperson. Well, it's a small, I mean,
I remember our Congress, we get like 12 employees. So I'm like, I don't need a spokesperson. I know what I want to say. People of Utah didn't hire me to go hire somebody else to tell –
I can do that. Like that's, that's what I've been doing to get here. And, and so I think you've got a lot of that same, your office is much bigger. I'm sure you do have a spokesperson. I do have a spokesperson. You have to, you got how many attorneys and issues flying at you. I mean, but anyway, it was just sort of the approach and I can tell that you have that. And that's, what's refreshing. And that's, what's different about. Well,
about what you're doing. I appreciate that, Jason. I'll tell you, it's funny you say the gas station story. I have a similar gas station story, but mine has a little bit of a different ending. So I was at a gas station in Yavapai County, you know, up north here. And well, you know, you've lived here where, you know, Yavapai County Prescott is. And so I was up there and I was at a gas station and I walked into like, you know, whatever you pay or whatever. And some guy's like,
hey, has anyone ever told you that you look like that, you know, whatever they always mispronounce me, Bronner Stein or whatever, Bernadette or whatever that guy is that just won the AG's office. And so I kind of get this wry smile on my face and I said, oh yeah. And I kind of like, you know, play like, oh yeah, people have told me that. And he's like, he kind of looks at me and goes, I'm sorry about that. And so it's like, so at that moment I thought to myself, well, maybe I need a makeover or a different last name. I don't know. But I, you
It is surreal at times. And you know what it's like. You know, I just think that I'm living the American dream in a lot of ways. And I just am sort of so blessed and fortunate. And I've been to the White House a few times in my life now. And I've argued at the U.S. Supreme Court. And it's just sometimes, you know, I take a step back and sometimes my friends and I are together, the family, the
I think like, oh my gosh, this really is crazy. Because if you had asked me in high school, like, oh my gosh, you know, one day you're going to be arguing with the Supreme Court and then you're going to be going to visit the president in the Oval Office. Just so we're clear, not President Biden, but the other president, President Trump in the Oval Office. I would have never thought that was true, right? That doesn't happen to, you know, public school kids with a funny last name. But as I said, that is the promise and the dream of America. And I just want to make sure that that's available to everyone.
Everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, whether their name is Smith Jones or – Obviously, so many Arizonans have come to know that about you. It's not like you rode the wave of Montenegro. How do you say it? People from Montenegro who are there in Prescott, Arizona. Yeah.
Yeah. To get into office. It's not like you had a naturally born constituency that would just, Hey, he's, you know, he's from Montenegro. Of course we're going to vote for him. You know, that's you have to be above and beyond, but all right. It's been great to get to know you, but in order to conclude the Jason and the house podcast, we need to ask you some rapid questions and, and this very insightful as to who you are and what you believe. So you ready for the rapid questions? Yeah.
Sure. It doesn't matter if you are or not. We're going to ask him anyway. All right. Can I pretend like I've got a call waiting now and I've got another call? No, you can't bail out now. All right. First concert you attended? Jimmy Buffett with my sisters. Jimmy Buffett. Awesome. Awesome. High school mascot? Matadors. Shadow Mountain, Shadow Mountain, the pride of every... Shadow Mountain, Matadors. That's right. And we were the Chaparral Firebirds. All right. First celebrity crush?
Can it be a guy crush or does it have to be a woman crush? It can be whatever you want. I don't know. Maybe Farrah Fawcett. I don't know if that's, but that was, you know, 70s. Yeah, it's about the era, about the time. Pretty much it was on everybody's wall and everybody's mind back in the day. That is right. Everyone remembers that wall poster. Everyone remembers the poster. People out there know what I'm talking about if there was a certain vintage. Okay. All right. Favorite vegetable.
Oh, broccoli. It used to not be broccoli, Jason, but once again, I'm Eastern European, so I can't have short answers, but I, uh, I started doing a lot more of this, um, no carb stuff and it's really helping. And so I've gotten into broccoli with a ranch dressing. So broccoli. All right. Well, that's good. That's healthy. That's good. It's amazing how many people ask that question and can't name a vegetable. So hats off to naming broccoli, which I believe is a vegetable. Yeah.
Just so we're clear, I'm very pro-vegetable, especially for the people in Yuma County. Very good. Pro-vegetable. All right. Most embarrassing moment. Oh, gosh. Um...
I don't know. People would tell you that I don't have, I'm hard to embarrass, but I am sure I have done something really stupid in my life that I was embarrassed about. If my kids were here, they would tell you I embarrass myself all the time. I'm going to guess it's probably walking in the neighborhood without my shirt on because my kids think they always are telling me I should not do that.
You know what's good about that is you embarrass your kids. There's nothing better than a dad. And the older I get, the more I kind of enjoy embarrassing my own kids. And it just makes me giggle. I don't know why. I'm threatening to buy a Speedo. My kids tell me that that's really not that's really a bridge too far. Well, if you want to put an end to your political career, just do that. And I'm sure that'll take care of it.
Very popular in Eastern Europe, though, just so you know. Yeah, I don't know how that's playing in Tucson, though. All right. I don't recommend doing that. All right. We thank you for that. Unique talent that nobody knows about.
I am probably the best air guitar or Jim Morrison impersonator on the Republican side, at least. All right. That's impressive. You didn't even have to. No delay in that answer. You knew what your talent was. I'm also really good at martial arts. So it used to be not as good as nunchucks.
Yeah, you know, I didn't know this, but we had Lee Zeldin on the Jason in the House podcast, and he was like the national karate champion when he was like, I don't know, a teenager or something. I had no idea. The guy's running for governor of New York, but I had no idea that he had these incredible karate skills along the way. It's just amazing. All right. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? No way. No way. Good answer. The judges like that.
I'm a huge I'm a I'm a pizza connoisseur. You know, I've swallowed a lot of aggression, a lot along with a lot of pizza in my life. And yeah, you got to have meat, cheese. Yeah. Good, good. All right. Last question. If you weren't in the law and you weren't in politics, you know, being the attorney general running for the United States Senate, then what would you be doing? What would you be doing professionally?
Well, ideally, I would be in a band somewhere and I'd be touring. I'd be getting ready for the winter tour right now. But you'd be on a cover band playing St. George, Utah.
Yeah, I don't know about a cover band. I feel like I'm more, you know, I can start my own band. No, but they, in all seriousness, one day I'd love to be a writer. I would love to be able to make a living writing. I feel like I've got a lot of good ideas and sometimes I say them pretty well, but writing is like anything else. It requires a lot of discipline, a lot of focus, and it's tough. I mean, you know this, you were in office at
how much time you spend, you know, not only in the office, but doing other things. And so I don't have as much time to write as I used to, but I wish I could write more. Well, you'll find, you'll find time to do that. I bet you're an exceptionally good writer. You're good orator and you know how to make an argument and you have, I think a perspective on America that's radiating out above and beyond Arizona. So I, I wish you all the luck in the world with your United States Senate race. And we just thank the attorney general.
Mark Branovich from Arizona for sharing your story and talking from your heart and explaining and sharing your journey along the way. So thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Thank you, brother. Thanks, everybody. Be safe, everybody.
I want to thank Mark Branovich for joining us. He's just, uh, you know, I love somebody who's got the energy, who's got the enthusiasm, who just pours his heart and soul in and just calls balls and strikes the way he sees it. Isn't that just what we want out of somebody who's going to be running for public office? So I don't know. I, I was fascinating to get to know him a little bit better. I thank him for joining the show and, uh, wish him best in all of his endeavors. But, uh,
I want to make one more prediction before we go. This podcast comes out on Wednesday, and later in the day, Joe Biden is going to have his first press conference he's had in a long, long time. And it's a press conference that's going to come out just the day or so before his one-year anniversary in office. And I hope he doesn't just go to his list. I hope he actually asks questions of people like Peter Doocy from Fox News and
and takes a variety of questions without some preconceived list. I don't think he can do that. These things generally don't go well for the president. But my prediction is that they're going to make some sort of announcement, something they're going to talk about that they're going to try to take with Build Back Better. The reconciliation process allows for them to slam through something with only 50 plus one votes.
And I think it's too good, too rich. They're not just going to take nothing. And I think they're going to try to use this as a way to help launch something. And then the State of the Union is March 1st. And I think they'll try to culminate that effort in a vote that is around March 1st. That's my guess. That's my prediction. We'll see what happens later on Wednesday.
Thank you for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. I hope you can rate it. Hope you can subscribe to it. And hope you go out to foxnewspodcast.com. Check out the other great podcasts that are out there. We'll be back next week with another interesting interview. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House.
From the Fox News Podcast Network. I'm Janice Dean, Fox News Senior Meteorologist. Be sure to subscribe to the Janice Dean Podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to spread the sunshine.