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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to give some thoughts on the news, highlight the stupid, because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.
And then we're going to phone a friend. This week we're going to give Ashley Hinson from Iowa's 1st Congressional District. She's the congresswoman there. A freshman and up-and-coming rising star in the Republican Party. Somebody I've gotten to know just a little bit, but I want to hear a little bit more about her story because she wasn't supposed to win that race. She's got this wonderful, beautiful family. And, you know, she's just one of those people that has just risen up and decided, hey, I'm
all right, I'm going to go do this. And she did it. And she's an impact player there in Washington, D.C., in a pivotal state and part of the world there in the northeast portion of Iowa. And I think she's got a big, bright future ahead of her. So we'll look forward to ringing her up and hearing a little bit more about her story and how she pulled that all off. But let's start with a little kind of my take on some of the news and some of the aspects of the news that maybe you –
Maybe you don't hear about as much as we should otherwise. I find it fascinating with this whole discussion about the reconciliation package, which is $3 plus trillion, and who knows what they come up with on their...
And then also the one point, whatever it is, trillion dollars on the quote unquote bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed over in the Senate that is waiting a vote in the House of Representatives. Now, Democrats are acting as if they have some big mandate from the American people and the president has lurched left, not to the center. He was pitched and sold as somebody who could bring the country together and
That's not really happening. You can't see really any effort by Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi to even try to get some Republicans on board with this stuff. The idea was to unite the country and the margin of error here for getting something through is so small. You get five people together in the House of Representatives and guess what?
If they don't go Nancy Pelosi's way, they don't have a majority anymore. So I think the Democrats know that they will not be in power for very long. I think they have overreached. They have not lived up to their promises yet.
But part of the sub text here, the interesting sub story, if you will, just below the surface, which I find fascinating, is Kamala Harris. Now, Kamala Harris rose up. She became the Attorney General of California. She became the senator from California.
And then she was going to run for president. She actually got off to a good start. She raised a bunch of money. She had a big rollout. I think people had some real expectations. Then she started talking, answering questions, and going before voters. And it didn't take them very long to figure out that maybe she shouldn't be their nominee. In fact, one poll there in California. Now, keep in mind, that's her home state.
before the voting even started had her sitting like in eighth place and and that's not an exaggeration it was she was polling so poorly that she dropped out of the race before they even had a vote happen um particularly there in her own i mean andrew yang was out polling her um in california against the sitting united states senator it was that bad somehow some way
Joe Biden selects her to be the vice president. And I think you've seen the dropping plummeting poll numbers for both her and Joe Biden in part because the two of them together are not in sync. They are not good communicators.
And oftentimes the role of the vice president is to go in there and do some things that the president can't. Well, since the president really isn't very mobile, he's not very good at speaking. He's not very good at answering questions. You would think that what they would do is utilize the vice president. Oh, no, no, no. So here we are with reconciliation and the infrastructure bill.
And they're having problems with Congress. Now, Joe Biden was there for what? Forever, nearly 50 years. But he selects another United States Senator in Kamala Harris. Well, she's part of the body. She's there. You would think that with Democrats, she could go start to take some one-on-one meetings, go meet with some smaller groups and be able to have these types of discussions to try to bring them together in a cohesive manner to pass a bill.
But she's nowhere to be found. In fact, you don't see her going up to Capitol Hill like, say, a Mike Pence did for Donald Trump. He was repeatedly on Capitol Hill going to the Republican Study Committee. I went to a meeting once where Vice President Pence came to that. He would go to meet with the senators. He was a regular fixture there on Capitol Hill, and he was an asset in bringing Republicans together.
Not Kamala Harris. So here they come down to the critical date. The Speaker of the House had said September 27th was the day that she promised the more centrist members of her Democratic caucus that they were going to have a vote on the infrastructure. Didn't happen. That was a Monday. And by the end of the week, we thought, thought, everybody thought last week they were going to actually have this vote. Are they going to have the vote? Are they not going to have the vote? Are they going to have the vote? Not have the vote?
furious phone calls Susan Rice and Brian Deese from the White House are up there meeting with Manchin and Sinema. By the way, another part of the subtext there, if you want to see who's really controlling things out of the White House,
Those are the people. Susan Rice, Brian Deese. And you need to learn more about them. Brian Deese from BlackRock. He was also part of the Obama administration. Susan Rice, obviously from the Obama administration. You know her a lot from Benghazi and those types of things. They're the ones that actually can go cut deals for the White House. Set that aside. They're trying to get the vote. And where's Kamala Harris? You know where she went?
She got on an airplane and nobody's explained this yet. I mean, maybe it'll come out in the next hour. I don't know. She got on an airplane and she flew to Palm Springs, California, spent the night and flew back the next day once things had calmed down. Now,
I don't know. Maybe she has somebody in the family that's ill. Maybe she needed to see a doctor. Maybe she, I don't know. I'm not, it's unfair to speculate. I'm just saying there could be a million different reasons, but I find it mysterious. When you're the vice president of the United States, you don't really get private time.
And when your taxpayers are paying for you to fly to California, you know how expensive that is for a vice president and all the security apparatus and communications and everything. When she landed at the airport, one report said that there in Palm Springs, the media was not allowed to film it. What do you mean the media wasn't allowed to film it? They just put such a tight lid. No comments, no questions, no photos.
of her getting off the plane or getting back on the plane to fly back. Why was she gone? Why wasn't she there up on Capitol Hill? I think it's a very interesting subtext for foreshadowing how she plays and what she will do
in terms of not only her own personal political future, but how the Biden administration actually tries to get things done on Capitol Hill with such a shallow margin of people because she was nowhere. Second big story that didn't really get the attention that really is near and dear to my heart. Here is the Inspector General, Michael Horowitz.
There he's the inspector general for the Department of Justice. He's also the head or chairman, I think they call him chairman, of CIGI, which is the inspector general organization. 72 inspectors general there represent 13,500 people. They have a collective group. He is a powerful voice in the IG community and on Capitol Hill because he's also the chairman of that. Well,
The DOJ's, the Department of Justice, Inspector General Michael Horowitz and their team issued a report on FISA abuse.
What came out along the way in the investigation into what happened with this Russia collusion hoax that went out there, all the crap that went on with Hillary Clinton and her emails and all that, what percolated up here is how did the Obama administration,
Go to the FISA court, right? They went to this special secret court. Okay, nobody's there. They're not holding hearings. I was on the Judiciary Committee. I tried to go to a FISA court presentation or hearing. They wouldn't let me do it. That's how secret the thing is. I was just a member of Congress, just on Judiciary, just Chairman of the Oversight Committee.
Can't go to one of these things because a lot of it is pushing paperwork to a judge. Now, these judges are especially called highly secretive because it's supposed to be foreign intelligence that they're looking at.
not spying on Americans, but foreign intelligence. Well, they found out that, you know, even though the report, the Pfizer report says verified at the very top of it, we found out that Mr. Comey and others had signed some things that really weren't verified and that really were incomplete. And so,
What part of the consequence of that was, the Inspector General was going to randomly go look at other FISA filings that had gone to the court. And here's what they found. Okay, I'm just going to read as a multiple page report.
I'm going to read this portion of the findings by the Inspector General. In March 2020, we, being the Inspector General, issued a management advisory memorandum, which
By the way, my experience, this MAM, the Management Advisory Memorandum, they give this to senior management at the Department of Justice when they know that they've got to fix something immediately. There is a real ongoing problem and it demands immediate attention. So in March 2020, we issued a Management Advisory Memorandum to report that our audit had identified Woods procedures, noncompliance Woods procedures.
Woods procedures are the background, the justification for each of the facts. So if you state a fact in your report, you need to have it supporting documentation in what are called the Woods procedures. And there's a procedure for documenting why you know certain things. Again, because the court doesn't have...
an adversary. That is, you don't have a prosecutor and a defense attorney. It is a one-way court. They just present the information as fact. And so the court relies on the Woods procedures to document and show why they believe this to be the truth. There has to be supporting documentation.
So they issued this ma'am to report our audit had identified Woods procedures noncompliance in all 29 FISA applications we reviewed. So they reviewed 29 FISA applications. 100% of them had problems, which we approved, which were approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, FISC, between fiscal years 2015 and 2019.
Department of Justice thereafter notified the FISC of 209 errors in those applications. Think about it. 209 errors in 29 applications.
four of which the Department of Justice deemed material. Our further audit work identified over 200 additional instances of Woods procedure noncompliance, where Woods files did not contain adequate supporting documentation for the statements in the 29 applications. Although the FBI and NSD subsequently confirmed the existence of available support elsewhere,
We also identified at least 183 FISA applications for which required woods file was missing or incomplete. The numbers are absolutely stunning to suggest. Now, two things, a few things. The Inspector General issued 10 recommendations. The FBI and the Department of Justice said, "Oh yes, we'll implement all of your recommendations."
But where's the court on this? If you go to court in any other instance, you lie to the court, you don't provide the right documentation to the court, you can be found in contempt. You can go to jail. You get fined. Do you think anybody's going to be held to account for this? No.
Remember, we had one person, Kevin Clinesmith, who had to plead out. The allegation was that he had altered some documentation to make it more like what the FBI really wanted to do, which was to get Donald Trump. He ended up having to plead guilty to that, probably lose his law license, lost his job.
A very minor slap on the wrist considering the implications of what they were trying to do. It's just a stunning finding. I think the court is complicit in its shoddy, terrible, incomplete work. The lack of ramifications for lying to the court, providing inadequate information. And shame on the court for not pushing back saying, where is this information? If an auditor can figure it out, the court could have figured it out. And they didn't.
The next part is, is there anybody within the FBI that's going to be held accountable? Is there anybody within the Department of Justice that's going to be held accountable for all 29 FISA applications? Remember, they took these things at random. So we know the situation is much worse than that. 29 applications. Anybody getting a fire? No. Not going to hear about that.
All right, it's time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. Nothing gets bigger marks for me on being just flat out stupid than the White House assertion, starting with Joe Biden, that this whole reconciliation package, the three plus whatever trillion trillion dollars costs zero. It doesn't cost anything.
That is the most absurd comment. You know, it was really highlighted by Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday, when he said to Cedric Richmond, assistant to the president,
on his show last week. He said, I got to stop you there. It doesn't cost zero, he said. Now, you can pay for it either by borrowing it or you can pay for it by raising taxes on corporations or the wealthy, but it doesn't cost zero, said Chris Wallace. Well said. Best summary I've heard of it. This is absolutely insane to say that it's zero. I guess you're figuring out why
It's projected that our national debt will be close to $40 trillion.
10 years from now. When I entered Congress, I was elected 2008. The debt, national debt was like $8 to $9 trillion. I campaigned on that. I thought it was absurd. Now it's $20 plus trillion on its way to $40 trillion. We pay more than $1.5 billion a day just in interest on that national debt and the interest rate is near zero.
I talk about this a lot because it is one of the biggest problems out there. And when you have politicians and the White House and others just lying to you. Now, some people say, oh, well, it was the Trump tax cuts that did this. You know what? When they cut taxes, guess what happened to revenue to the Treasury? It went up. There was more revenue to the Treasury, not less.
So don't pretend that you've got a bunch of millionaires and millionaires and, according to Joe Biden, trillionaires that can just suddenly be taxed more and would magically go away. There is no scenario, never been one, in which you could tax these people 100%. And guess what? You still don't make the dent that you need in order to balance the books.
So, just the lying, the deceit, and the idea that they're trying to sell this reconciliation package to the country by saying it doesn't cost anything, it's all paid for, that qualifies for just being flat-out stupid. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back right after this.
I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com. All right, it's time to phone a friend, somebody who's right in the middle of all this. She's a wonderful person, beautiful family. Her and her husband have these...
Two cute boys. She was on television for a long period of time there in Iowa. She was in the state legislature, decided to get the gumption up and run for Congress, and then she won. And so it's time to phone a friend, time to phone up Ashley Hinson, the congresswoman from Iowa's 1st Congressional District. Hello, this is Ashley.
Ashley, hey, this is Jason Chaffetz. Great to talk with you today and just another fabulous day here in Iowa. It's not raining and the trees are changing colors. It looks great. Good, good, good. Well, I should be calling you Congresswoman and I got to tell you, I'm just thrilled that you made it to the finish line. And I'm just kind of fascinated by your story because I
You have a background. It just seems, and I want to learn more about it because it just seems like you represent so many people because you've just had a very real upbringing. But, you know, those that actually get to the finish line and actually win elections, I kind of find that they've done some things along the way that maybe everybody else hasn't done or had some experiences. And so, I mean, when in the world did you actually think, you know...
I really should run for Congress because I think I can do that better than they can. When did that actually dawn on you and you had the little discussion with your husband and said, yeah, I think we should do this?
Well, I think it was, you know, I guess I would take us back in time a little ways because I spent 10 years as an on-air journalist in the Cedar Rapids area before I ran for office. And so I guess the reason I ran in the first place was because I was a taxpayer. I am a taxpayer. And I remember back in 2008, 2009, when I saw our, at the time, Democrat trifecta government here in Iowa, they overstepped.
way overspent the budget. And we have a balanced budget amendment here in Iowa, unlike the federal government. But, you know, when I looked at that and I saw them having to make huge cuts across the board because they were so irresponsible with spending and money, frankly, it just ticked me off, right? I mean, I was getting out of bed at two in the morning. I wasn't making that much money at the time.
the time and I was working my tail off and to see them, you know, disrespect my money. So, so egregiously, I think that for me was like the first inclination I had that I was like, oh, I think I might be able to do this better than them. Right. And so that, that was, you know, 10 years ago plus. And then it finally took until 2015 when I ran for state house, when the opportunity presented itself where I was like, Hey, yep, I can definitely add something to this conversation.
So, you know, it's one thing for people at home to say, hey, you know, I want to run. I can do this better. No, they're wasting their money. I mean, a lot of people do that. And look, you're on television, right? So you've got some name ID that maybe a lot of other people didn't. But how did you couple that together? How did you say, you know, here's what we're going to do. All right, here's the first step.
Right. Well, I think it came down to something as simple as I realized, yes, I had people who knew who I was, but they didn't know politically who I was and what I cared about, what my ideas were. And so I basically while I had that name ID, I had to start over in that sense. And so what I did, obviously, for my statehouse race, I knocked out.
thousands and thousands of doors myself. I mean, I would go out in the afternoons. I would knock for three or four hours and I would go to every single neighborhood and just talk to everyone, right? So that gave me the best opportunity to really just get in front of people, hear what was on their mind, answer their questions and get back to them if they had a question I couldn't answer. And so that kind of was...
I just built it from the ground up for lack of better way of saying it. You know, I, I didn't rely on that name ID, although I'm sure it helps me. I still feel like, um, the saying, you know, this is a position that's not given it's earned. And I, I went out and earned it and it takes that time and that, um,
transparency, authenticity and connecting with voters on that granular level. And so I did that. And and then for my congressional race, obviously trying to run a congressional campaign during a pandemic is there's like zero manuals for how to do that. And you just have to figure it out. And so we still we went everywhere. We took precautions, but we were trying to make sure we still connected with people because ultimately,
it was even more important during a pandemic that people knew that they had a leader who they could count on. And that was the story we tried to tell campaigning for this job. Yeah. When I first ran for Congress, I remember somebody gave me some sage advice and I said, cause this person had been through a lot of campaigns, not as a candidate, just, you know, worked on them, that sort of thing. And I said, okay, so what's the secret sauce? And he said, I'm going to tell you the secret sauce is there is no secret sauce.
And I said, that's the secret sauce? He said, yeah, that's the secret. And he said, I said, so what do you have to do? He said, you have to work harder. You just have to go out and talk to people, be yourself and figure out what you believe in. And it's not more complicated than that. It's just the overwhelming majority of people aren't willing to do that. And then you got to couple that with, you know, an engaging personality where people do want to talk to you. So
So hats off to you for doing that. But let's go back for a little bit because you were born in Iowa, right? You grew up. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your family because not every little girl grows up and goes to Congress.
Yeah. Well, it's interesting. So, um, we love to say corn fed Iowa bread, right? And that's definitely me. I grew up in, um, the Des Moines area. So central Iowa, um, my parents, um, my dad was a financial manager and my mom, uh, had been a teacher and she actually was an art teacher and, uh, they met at the Des Moines symphony. So my family's background was very, we were just very musical family. I grew up playing violin and piano. Um, my sister played as well. My brother, um,
They both still play. My brother's actually in the New York Phil. So very musical thing. Wow. And then I, yeah. Oh yeah. We get very proud of him. Proud sis. In case you play.
He plays bass and it's the right size instrument. I play violin and that fits me. My brother is six foot seven, so the bass is the right thing for him. He would look silly playing a violin, I think, but the bass suits him for sure. So yeah, very musical family. So I grew up playing music and then it was in high school. My high school had a little radio station and
And I only took the radio class because at the time I had mostly guy friends in high school and they were all in the radio class. So I said, oh, yeah, I'll do the radio class. And then I totally got the bug. And so I was into journalism. I was into radio. I did the morning radio news on our our little high school station. And then my radio teacher was like, well, I think you could probably get a job in TV, Ashley. Have you thought about that? And
He connected me with our local ABC affiliate in Des Moines, and I got a job running cameras and teleprompter when I was in high school. Well, I was playing in the Des Moines, so I was playing in the Des Moines Symphony also. So I was a violinist and then I would go over on cameras and run the teleprompter and edit tape for the local news.
And, you know, just kind of came to the decision that that was what I wanted to do. And then my path took me to University of Southern California. So I went as far west as you could go without going into the ocean and went to school out there. It was great and learned a lot.
There's no better learning lab, I think, for journalism than a big city. And so that was a great experience for me to go to L.A. and also just learned a lot about about life in that city and about my Iowa values and that this was the place that I wanted to get back to. You just figured out that California, it's not really where you want. You didn't want to live. You wanted the weather in Los Angeles, but maybe not the living 24 seven. I get that. Yeah.
Yeah, I lived down in that area for a while and beautiful weather. And boy, California has gone off the rails at this point. All right. That's another topic, though. But yeah, I was going to say that's Looney Tunes. When you were in high school and you're running teleprompter and working the cameras, you ever you ever screw that up?
Oh, probably. I think there was a couple of times when I, you know, I would move for you. You had to this is the days before robotics when you literally move to make room for the graphic and the shot. And there were a couple of times when probably the anchor space might have had a graphic box over it. But you learn very quickly not to do that. And you fix it.
But no, I think it was a great experience. And I tell people, you know, in every profession, it's great if you can learn to do all the jobs. Right. So I learned how to do all the behind the scenes jobs and worked my way truly up to being a reporter and then on the anchor desk. So I think having the appreciation for how all those things work together is is it's really good to have that that experience.
As I call it, I put the CPR filter on just about everything I do. Context, perspective, and relevance. So having that kind of to draw on is really, really important. So growing up, what was your first... Did your parents... Did you play sports? Did you... I mean, you're playing the violin, but...
Did they make you get a job at a young age? What did your parents do to kind of help mold you so that, you know, not every kid who gets through high school goes to college and maybe not every kid should go to college. I don't think there's anything wrong with going and choosing a vocation. It doesn't mean you have to go to college, but you did. But what was it that was going on in your household and did they make you work?
Yeah, well, and I think what it came down to is they instilled those. I talk about Iowa values all the time, hard work, authenticity. They all pay off. If you if you know who you are and you do what you say you're going to do and you work hard, then, you know, that's the best chance of success you can have. So I mentioned I grew up in a musical family and I played basketball up until about eighth grade, seventh, eighth grade. I broke my head.
a hand and i was trying to play violin and i had to like tape my fingers together and it was at that point you know i was trying to hold the bow with like taped fingers and my dad was like nope you're done um but i i grew up playing i got um i worked very hard got very good at the violin and i
played weddings. I played gigs all over town, starting in like sixth, seventh, eighth grade, we'd play at weddings. And, and that was how I started out working. And then by the time I got to high school, then I actually was really decent. And I played in quartets. And you know, I mean, we would I would sub in with the Pioneer String Quartet, which was the Des Moines Symphony's quartet if they needed a, I subbed in with them a couple times. So I got good enough where I became
that was my job, right? I would play weddings, I would play events and I would make money. And I taught violin lessons. I had a couple of students when I was in high school that I started on violin.
I actually don't even know if they're, I should check to see if they're still playing, but, but no, I, I, I had an unconventional, I guess, career path in the sense that my work ethic came from drive to, to be competitive. Also, I think that's a lot of what I learned in, in playing the violin and working hard. And I wanted to be first chair and I knew what I had to do to get there. And that was making sure that I was doing the right thing.
making sure that I was the best, right? I just had to work hard to get there. And so I think that taught me a lot about life in general and what it takes to succeed. And over preparation favors, you know, makes you successful. So that's what I would say about my upbringing and my drive to be competitive. Yeah. You know, my wife plays violin. She did growing up. Her mom played, her sisters play. And
And it's a beautiful instrument, and it does. It takes a lot of work, a lot of talent. It also takes an aptitude that yours truly does not have. Nobody's going to ever accuse me of singing on key. Somebody has to listen. Oh, you don't want to hear me sing. You do not want to hear me sing. So the violin is the better option, truly. All right, very good, very good. Now, along the way, somehow you met your husband, right? I mean, unless that was an arranged marriage.
Yeah, no, it was, well, it was arranged by my aunt, I would say, because I moved back here to Iowa and my husband actually, he's a little bit older than I am. And he and my cousin growing up were best friends in Waterloo, Iowa. And my cousin got married. I had just moved back to Iowa and both.
I went with my mom to my cousin's wedding and my aunt actually seated us next to each other because neither my husband, Matt, or I had a date. And needless to say, the rest is history. We talked all night that first night. And by the next Friday we were dating. And then a couple of years later, married and we have two kids. So it's a,
It's been a whirlwind of a ride. I think back to, I met him here or remet him. I knew who he was growing up, but remet him in 2005 and we've been married for 13 years now. So it goes fast. That's great. And you got two cute little boys there and I see them in the pictures and whatnot. And, um, you know, I,
It's hard being in Congress because you have to be away so much and people say such silly and stupid things, you know, just aggressive things. And I don't know what kinds of experiences you've had with that, but I hope they see that there's more benefit than there is a negativity to it. But that really is the hardest part, I think, of being in Congress. Right.
What do you find? Yeah, it is. It's hard to be away from your family. Absolutely. And I love my children and I fight for time on my calendar to be with my family. And I am pretty ruthless about that with, with my schedule and trying to protect that time with them. And I, even this morning, you know, I walked my eight-year-old down to the bus stop and came back, got in the car and went to go do a round table on election integrity. Right. So I'm, um,
you make it work as a working mob. And I think that's exactly what we need more of in Congress right now as people who understand, okay, I got to make the pot of mac and cheese now. Oh, I got to jump on a zoom. Oh, I got to make sure that they have clean clothes to wear tomorrow. Oh, what am I going to do about this? So I think just having that kind of insight has been really helpful to bringing those discussions to the policy tables, in addition to everything, you know, that I'm obviously learning from my constituents in those conversations too. But
I think it's important that you still have balance in this job. And that's, I think, something that I definitely struggle with because I'm putting 110% in. But I...
this job may be a couple years it may be longer than that but i know one thing that i always be a wife and a mom and so they are they still have to be top priority for me yeah that was the hardest part you know especially when i became the chairman of the oversight committee is the balance and it's hard to explain to people but i said look the balance just just got out of control for me and when
In my case, you know, you love your wife and adore your kids and you're gone and you have to raise a ridiculous amount of money. It just kind of drove me nuts. It is pretty much a good old boys club. Do you feel that?
You know, I somewhat and it's interesting because you talk about like some of the judgment and things people say, right? You know, I was knocking doors for my statehouse race and I had a lady actually say to me, oh, how dare you leave your children? And I said, well, excuse me, ma'am, I beg to differ with you. I think I'm setting a great example for my kids.
And in doing this and, you know, a man would not be getting asked the same question. And that was, you know, that's true. I think that absolutely there's a double standard there. It doesn't mean that you're a man serving as any less of a father because they're serving and versus a woman. So I think that's interesting. But I have had a couple of people, you know, they'll use the word now, young lady, or
or things like that, that I feel like are, you know, a little bit passing judgment. And I'm 38 years old. I've had, you know, working career in the private sector before I got into this experience. And so I think that we can't discredit that everybody comes from a different background. And I'm not afraid to push back when I feel like I'm...
I'd say this tread lightly if you want to talk down to me because I'm not afraid to fight back. But I also think that that's, it's important to know how to navigate within the, the, the, the place we work, right. Which is dominated by men. But increasingly, like I look at my office, I've got a lot of great women working for me. I've got some really great men too, but I got a lot of really great ladies working in my office. And we had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and all,
It just happened that only the ladies were in the office. And it was like, OK, well, we're a we're a woman led office. And that's, I think, a great story to tell. No, it is. And we need more women in politics, whether it's staff or campaign or candidates and certainly members of Congress and mayors and everything else, because I think the balance is huge.
is not necessarily a healthy one. And there are some really good people who have found that balance. I think of when I was serving, Kathy McMorris-Rogers and Kristi Noem, who was a little bit before you, Mia Love, who was a little bit before you. Some of these women that I got to serve with, I just thought they have figured this out where
They are wonderful, great mothers, but they're great members of Congress and they kind of balance it all. And why should there be distinguishing difference between, oh, he's not a good dad or he is a good dad? I mean, it's so inappropriate in so many different ways, but I still think that that is a good old boys club. And it's kind of embarrassing. Sometimes you walk into these meetings and it's just a sea of men, right?
Yeah. Well, and I think what I've tried to do is flip the script on that, obviously being a new member. And we had a great class of Republican women in 2020. And we can build on that. We've got, you know, hundreds of people running for Congress already for 2022. And I think it's a record number of Republican women have stepped forward to run. And that makes me so happy because I do think you're right. I think it
Congress needs to look like more like America. And I think within our party, we we have a great story to tell there in terms of who's in our tent. And I think our members of Congress should absolutely reflect that. And I think this is the year where we took great steps toward that. We had Republican women. We had Republican minorities. We had Republican veterans. And I think that that
You know, when you bring that kind of expertise, that context, as I said, to Congress, I think it makes for better legislators. And so that's, you know, been interesting to be a part of that class. And as we're looking forward, you know, I think we do need to make sure that we're recruiting candidates who have
stories like mine to tell. And not everybody has to have the same background. And I think that's what our founding fathers intended was truly a citizen legislature. And I don't know that they intended, you know, at the time they wrote the constitution, they probably didn't think, oh yeah, working moms are going to be in Congress, but I'm glad I'm there. And I think it's, you know, really imperative that we have more working moms there. I brought both my boys out over the summer. We did camp Congress and
And at the end of June, my youngest was out. And at the end of July, actually shut down week before the August recess. So that was pretty crazy week for Max to be out with me. But they learned a lot. They got to see what mommy does for work. When I said, oh, yeah, I'm going to go vote or I'm going to go to the meeting. By the end of the week, they were like, yeah, OK, can I just stay in the office and have my iPad mom? They understood it a lot better at the end of the week.
Well, Kristi Noem was probably the best one that I saw who just constantly had her kids there with her and I thought it was great. I remember our own daughter came in and we had her work at the front desk and she was pretty young. But she was answering calls and greeting people when they came in and I just thought it was great. So being a freshman, you haven't even gotten through your two years.
When I got to Congress, Democrats had the House and Senate and the presidency. So we were in the minority on all fronts, much like what you have now. But what's the biggest surprise? What's the biggest maybe difference with the state legislature? But what did you have or what have you experienced that you didn't anticipate going into it?
Yeah, well, I knew when I ran, I wanted to run against the chaos and dysfunction I saw coming out of the house. And boy, Jason, it's on full display. That's all I can say. The last nine months, like I knew it was going to be bad, but it's worse, right? And just in terms of how they're managing the process, I'm a firm believer in due process, decorum, you know, meetings and respecting majority and minority opinions. I think the biggest thing that I've seen is just
I wish I could say I was surprised, but the raw power grabs from Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress, it's terrifying to me for the American people. You know, I hate to say it, but every day a socialist spending bill doesn't come to the floor of the U.S. House. I think that's a victory. And I wish I didn't even have to say and utter those things out loud, but they just have no...
They have completely lost touch with kitchen table conversations that Iowans and Americans are having. And it couldn't be clearer to me.
You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back right after this. Yeah, it's so true. You get outside that bubble of the Beltway, and this is where I worry. There was this saying from Harry Reid, who is the Senate Majority Leader, the Democrat from Nevada, and he said, you'll never lose an election because of process.
And yet I look at that. I believe you're on the budget committee, correct? Yes, I am. Yeah. And I was on the budget committee, you know, when when Paul Ryan was the chairman or was the ranking or he was the chairman at that time.
But, you know, if you don't get the process right, then you get a really bad product at the end of it. And I believe since the 1972 Budget Act, only one time in the history of the United States Congress since 1972,
has it ever gone through the entire process the way it's supposed to? And then we look around and say, all right, if the Democrats are able to pass the bill that they are proposing, we're going to be $40 trillion in debt. I mean, the numbers are so staggering. Something's got to change. And maybe what should change is changing the process by which we do it.
And yeah, absolutely. That's a conversation because if, if it hasn't been followed according to plan for, for that long, longer than I've been alive, then that is a problem because the last thing I want is to see a broken process continue to be perpetuated. And if we need to be doing it differently, then that's something that we need to do. The first thing I think we need to do to put a stop to all this nonsense is to fire Nancy Pelosi once and for all. And I hear that from so many people because you know,
regardless of where you are on all of these policies on what's happened in Afghanistan, what's happening at the border, the chaos that we're truly seeing, the lack of leadership and the breakdowns that we're seeing in Washington right now, it's a disservice to every American. And so that's really unfortunate. And I think the only way we right the ship is to make sure that she is retired. But ultimately, I think that is the biggest surprise for me was I came from the Iowa legislature where we did respect the
minority in the process. And they got to rail on policies they didn't like about in debate. They got to file amendments. They got to, you know, say their piece. And we let, you know, we always let people say their piece and give their two cents. But I was always willing to engage. Like when I ran subcommittees, I was always really engaged with the minority because ultimately I knew that
someday I might be in the minority and I wanted to make sure that I could get stuff done also. And so that's how I chose to engage there. That's how I'm engaging in DC now because I am in the minority and I know that hopefully I'll be in the majority in two years and, and be leading the policy discussions. But I think ultimately we've been able to get things done even as a freshman office because we've tried to operate that way. Yeah. It's you know, it's surprising how little debate actually happens in,
I really look over at the United States Senate. It's supposed to be the most deliberative body on the face of the planet, and yet, you know, when's the last time you saw...
two senators kind of going at it in a debate. Yeah, like a colloquy? Yeah, like an actual back and forth. And in Congress, in the House, you get one minute here, five minutes there. Maybe you're yielded some time on the floor for 45 seconds. If you're on the committee, maybe you get two minutes. I mean, it's really hard when you're talking about big, weighty issues where
and things that are going to affect all of us. And especially when they couple it together in a continuing resolution or reconciliation package, which is, you know, a thousand plus pages. And then not even every member gets to offer, you know, their thoughts. It's just, how is the vitriol? How is the person-to-person communication? Because I can't believe that Nancy Pelosi still has in place
this policy where you have proxy voting. I never experienced that. And it strikes me as just being fundamentally, totally wrong. Well, and it's created a huge schism in the process as well, because ultimately you have members of Congress who have, other than to come to vote for Nancy Pelosi, have not showed up at the Capitol to do their job in over a year. And I think that is a complete breakdown and taxpayers should be furious. And I think everybody should know about that.
because ultimately, and I haven't, I have not done proxy voting because I believe it's important that I am there to vote in person. That's what taxpayers are paying me to do. Um, and so I've been there. I think the other thing, you know, this is about control and, um, the longer they can keep that pandemic mentality going, um,
in Congress with the restrictions. I think it is a way for Nancy Pelosi to control her caucus and what happens in that capital complex. And so unfortunately, you know, when I talk about that chaos and dysfunction in D.C., a lot of it could be averted by ending some of these pandemic era policies that are are not needed anymore. I said it a long time ago, you know, we were allowing
Americans to travel. It was safe enough for us to get on airplanes yet. And members of Congress had priority access to the vaccine, yet we were not, we were allowing people to not come in. I think that that is just the wrong message. We shouldn't be sending that message to the American people and we should be showing up to do our job.
No, I think you're 110% right. And it always bothered me that somehow some little plexiglass was going to solve this by Nancy Pelosi when she needed their vote. Even the people who were COVID positive voted.
were brought in to vote for Nancy Pelosi because she needed their votes. So when they were actually COVID positive, she let them happen. I mean, I could ask, I could, you know, if Dr. Monahan, who runs the House Physician's Office, the attending physician's office, if somebody is COVID positive, I guess maybe you could give them a temporary waiver for a week or two or something.
but not in perpetuity for more than a year. It runs to Nancy Pelosi's favor, and it is outrageous that our process is being run like that. Well, it's being manipulated. Yeah, it's totally being manipulated. And I'll give you a great example. So right after the election last year, I came down with COVID myself. And so I actually was like,
I was heartbroken because I had just been elected to Congress. I wanted to go out for freshman orientation, meet my new colleagues, get the lay of the land, see the Capitol, and go in and see where I was going to be working and serving. And I came down with COVID, and I followed all the protocols. I worked from home, did everything virtually.
we didn't have anything to vote on at the time, but I still remember Dr. Monaghan gave me clearance after 10 days, which I think would have put me flying on Wednesday. I still couldn't fly though, because the airlines required you to have a two full week, right. To even get on a plane. So I wonder how many of those Democrats who flew in to vote for Nancy Pelosi checked that box and, and still got on a plane and came and voted for Nancy. Right. I think that's,
a valid question and it was very frustrating to me as someone who still didn't get on a plane to go out and do that orientation even though Dr. Monahan had cleared me you know I was beyond the you know I guess infection place or whatever transmissibility there but you know I think I found that to be immensely frustrating because it's do as I say not as I do that
that's a great point. I hadn't really thought about that. So these people are COVID positive, but yet they still fly in. I mean, that's something worth looking at. That'll be another conversation, but you make it a really good point. Yeah, okay, dig into that, Jason. There you go. Yeah, see, that's my oversight stuff. I love that kind of stuff. So yeah.
I gave you a good to do list then. Yes, yes. But no, I was thinking about that and I just think I found that to be immensely frustrating. Well, yeah, to say the least. And just the way she runs the calendar and are you going to go home? Are you going to vote? Are you not going to vote? I've lived through those frustrations. What's your greatest hope? Why...
Ultimately, you sat down with your husband and your family and you made a decision and you thought, "Alright, I'm going to do this." But what was that driver that kind of pushed you over the edge and said, "You know, it's okay. Yeah, they're wasting a lot of money. Yeah, I think I can do this better. But I'm willing to get up and leave my home and the place I love in Iowa and go out and do this for a spell.
for a time, what do you ultimately hope to achieve? And what was that driver that said, yeah, this is why I want to do this?
Yeah, well, I think it comes down to a couple of things. You know, I value my family and my life here and the freedom that we have. Iowa is a great state to live and work and raise a family. And what I just don't want to see is that continued creep of government in my life. And I had conversations with my neighbors about this and other families about
who value those same things. And ultimately, you know, somebody's got to step up and say enough is enough. And I'm going to fight for these reasons. And that's really why I decided to run for Congress, because I wanted to make sure that to the best of our ability, we could defend and protect taxpayers because I'm one, my husband owned a small business and, you know, was paying his taxes. And he'd always text me a picture of it when I was in the state house.
honey, spend it wisely. And so I, um, I'm very cognizant of, you know, a dollar's value and, and,
and the constant group of government into our lives. And so that for me was, you know, I looked at that as just a really important thing to do to protect our way of life and keep that intact for a long time. And so you need people who are willing to speak up about those things. And really it's fundamentally that simple. Like if I thought to myself, if I care enough about this and I want it to be intact for my family and all these other families I'm talking to, then I got to do this.
And I knew that the the congresswoman who held the seat before me wasn't portraying those Iowa values in the way that I knew taxpayers of Iowa wanted. And so for me, it was very clear I had to step up because Iowans deserved representation that brought some common sense to the table. And, you know, I talked about authenticity, Jason.
I mean, I'm still driving my same minivan that I've had since 2013. It's got 180,000 miles on it and it still keeps trucking. But I understand, you know, I don't I'm trying to make sure that I live as frugally as possible and preserve what I can for my kids and their generation. And so that's why I decided to do this.
Yeah, staying rooted with those things, the family, whether it's the minivan or making mac and cheese. For me, it was always taking out garbage. I get home from a rigorous work week in Congress, and I'm home. I kiss my wife, say hello to the kids. I'm home. She's like, great. Can you take the garbage out? Yeah.
Here's the list of everything I haven't had time to do while you were gone. Yeah. And when it's cold in Utah, it's not so fun to do. But that's what dad does. That was one of my chores. So everybody does their part. And I'm super blessed. My husband is a saint and he does so much while I'm gone because he knows that obviously with your role, you understand how much
not only the travel, right? Because that's the other thing you're getting home. Sometimes after votes, you're not getting home until nine or 10 o'clock at night. And then you have to turn around and go out in the district the next day and, and put in a full another workday. Right. And so my husband, I'll come home lots of times and everything's folded and put away and houses spotless. And then I leave and it's not spotless and there's stuff on the counters. And I'm like,
It is. I mean, we have, you know, a 10 and eight year old and I'm looking at the counter right now and there's an iPad and a Lego plane and some other, you know, little boy stuff out. But no, I mean, he manages a lot while I'm gone. And it is a tough balance to make sure that he has time to himself, too, because ultimately, you know, that's I want to make sure that he can grow his business and live his life, too.
Well, and he needs to hit some golf balls. My understanding is he's actually a good golfer. Yeah. He got to go on a little golf getaway this weekend. So usually when he says to me, honey, I want to go play golf, I say, yes, dear. You guys are like the all-American pair there. And the spouse does pick up so much of the slack because it's hard not having your partner there with you to do all the things. And just you're in D.C., and
They're in Iowa and they go to bed and have a conversation. But that really took its toll on me after a long period of time. But we won't belabor that. That's hard, but you have to make it work, right? I mean, that's what you do. That's what you do. So...
All right, I've got some rapid questions we're going to ask you. This is not something you can prepare for in advance. I don't care how many teleprompters you've run or read in your life, you are not properly prepared for this. And it's something that's going to get you in trouble. But that's why we do it. So let's just do these rapid questions just right off the top of your head and let me know what your answers are. Okay. Okay.
Pineapple on pizza. Absolutely. Yes. With Canadian bacon. Ashley, we were going, we were rolling. I was at the greatest admiration for you, but you got the judges do not like that answer, but
I don't know. Have you had Iowa Canadian bacon on your pizza with pineapple? I have no doubt. I have no problem with the Canadian bacon. I got problem with wet fruit on my pizza. That's what I got problems with. You got to dry it off before you put it on there. I don't know how you're making it, but if you take it out of the can and dry it off. I am not eating it. I look at it and I say, this is not right. Throw me some pepperoni. Throw me some sausage. Throw me some little ground beef or something on there. I like black olives. I like...
I like mushrooms on it. Next time you're here, Jason, we have Fong's Pizza in Iowa and they make a crab rangoon pizza. So we'll get some of that for you next time you're in Iowa. All right. That I have not tried. Jethro's, your barbecue out there, that I have had. And I do love that. Yeah. Jethro's in Des Moines. That's good stuff. Yes. Yes. All right. Who was your first celebrity crush? Oh, easily. Zach Morris. Mark Paul Gosler from Saved by the Bell.
A hundred percent. We get saved by the bell and you know, answers pretty quick. Okay. That there was like zero hesitation. There was zero hesitation in your answer.
Full circle story on that too. So I was out in LA as an entertainment intern at ABC seven and I'm doing a red carpet event for ABCs like 50th anniversary celebration. And who comes down the line that I have to interview other than Zach Morris himself, I about lost it. Were you like nervous and shaking? And did you, what did you ask him? What was your first line to him?
Totally fangirling. I don't know. I don't even remember what I said, but I clearly didn't fail that badly because the reporter I was with, I think he handed me the mic and said, here you go. I think he knew what moment was about to happen for me. This happens every time. Yes, that's funny. All right. Favorite menu item at Taco Bell? Oh, Crunchwrap Supreme. Oh, see? You know what you're talking about. I like the chalupas. My husband gets it without tomatoes and I get it with.
Yeah, I like the tomatoes. I like the tomatoes. All right. Person you'd most like to meet, dead or alive? You're going to have dinner. You're going to have somebody over. It can be alive, it can be dead. Who is that person you want to have over for dinner with your family? Oh, that's... You know, honestly, that's a really interesting question. I think...
You know, I think about like former presidents and the work that they've done. And I think if someone was if I had to pick someone who has passed, it would be Ronald Reagan, 100 percent. He worked for WHO radio here in Iowa and and has some good Iowa roots. And I would just be interested as someone who's, you know, kind of followed a similar path, you know, broadcasting to working in government. I would I would just love to pick his brain, especially in our current environment.
I think that would be really, really interesting to talk. Yeah. He'd be fascinating. I did have an opportunity way back in 1991 to spend a couple of days with them, get to know them a little bit. And what an honor, what a privilege to live. It just, the more I study what he said, what he did, how he did it. I just absolutely, absolutely love it. So yeah,
Well, you know, his statue in Statuary Hall has a little plaque on the back. My oldest son found it, actually. And I think he had a full-on American Treasure moment when we were walking around, you know, inside the rotunda there. But on the back of Reagan's statue, it says, you know, our best days are yet to come, basically. And he's pointing...
someplace. And my, my little boy was like, Oh mom, he's pointing to something. There must be a secret over there. But I think the secret is just that he was just such a positive finger for the future. Right. He had just an uncanny ability to have a positive outlook for America's best days are yet to come. Yeah. You know, it was, there were tough times there with Carter. I was just a little, little kid. And, uh,
But boy, Ronald Reagan put that spirit of America back on track and one of our best presidents really, really was. So, yeah, he'd be fun to have some dinner with, talk a little Iowa. That would be great. First concert you attended? Oh, it was probably the Des Moines Symphony. I know that's totally a nerd out moment, but I grew up going. That is the nerdiest answer we've had. I would have to agree with you.
Full on nerd. As far as like a concert concert, I mean, I'm trying to think. I know the first, I can tell you the first album I bought was Queen. And then I bought Billy Joel and Janet Jackson after that. So like those are kind of like my 80s to 90s era music. Were these cassette tapes back in the day? Was that what you were buying? Oh, I had New Kids on the Block in a cassette tape. For sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I got a long story about, about them, but that'll have to be, we'll have to save that one for, for another day. So new kids on the block. All right. What was your high school mascot?
Valley tigers. Grr. Cause there are a lot of tigers actually in Iowa. I can see why they would be the tigers, right? Oh yeah. Fierce, right? Fierce and nimble. That's me. Fierce and nimble. All right. So I have two more questions. So if you met Bigfoot, what would you ask him? How do you find shoes that fit? And what's your favorite color? Your favorite color?
Hey, Bigfoot, what's your favorite color? What if he's colorblind? You buy shoes in every color if you find one that fits. That's the, you know. I totally do. When I find a shoe that I like, I buy like two of them. As I think, what if they actually go out of stock or they stop making these things? Yeah. I've got a couple shoes that I have several of. Yes.
Yeah, no, but if I mean, legitimately, because I have size 10 women's feet, and sometimes it's hard to find big, big shoes. And so that would be my legitimate question for Bigfoot. All right, so Halloween's coming up. Do you know what you're going to dress up as?
Oh, that's for me. I don't know the boys. I, and we do take them trick or treating. And so we, my oldest wants to be something from among us, that video game. And I think the youngest wants to be, he has a, like a Reaper costume of some kind that he picked out. It's kind of, he just wanted to be scary this year. And I don't know why he decided he wanted a scary costume, but yeah.
I mean, I've gone as just about a, you know, in the past I went as April O'Neil, very fitting with the Ninja Turtles one year for Halloween, a bunch of us dressed up in a group and yeah.
So maybe something along those lines. I don't know. I just think it's such a fun holiday, especially with kids. And your kids are like perfect age for Halloween. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. They are going hardcore after that candy. They've got energy and they will not give up along the way. No doubt. You know, so in Des Moines growing up for Beggar's Night, they called it, we had to tell a joke to get candy. And so I moved here to Eastern Iowa and I
we started doing that at the doors and everybody was like what what are you doing like it just so it was a totally uh Des Moines centric and West Des Moines thing that you in order to get your candy you went up and said uh a joke right and that was just what you had to do and so yeah the fact that that doesn't happen elsewhere in the country I just was kind of shocked by that but um no the boys haven't had a kid try to lay a joke on me but um yeah I I'm pretty you can start it candy
You could start it. You could be like, tell me a joke, and then I'll give you the king-size bar. Well, that's the thing. If you want to be like the most popular family on the block, you got to give them the regular full-size bars. And if you catch it right at Costco or something, they're not too totally expensive. But I don't know. You can't get enough crunch bars for me. I just pick those things out and trade for them. Yeah.
Kids never know what they're... I look in their... Is that your favorite candy? I'll give you two. I'll give you two of whatever you want if you give me a Crunch Bar. They're all looking through the bag. So I trade with the kids when they come to the door sometimes.
Two Butterfingers for your crunch bar. That's the going rate. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Last question here. What is that other thing for Ashley Henson? So the reason I asked that is there's always something that if you want to go out, clear your mind, get away from it all, just...
go to a happy place and not think about all the stresses. What is that other thing that you do? So obviously I mentioned music and for me, really, that's it. I have a piano here in my house. And if I just need a minute, I go sit and play and grew up playing piano too. So for me, it's real easy. It's always out. And if I need just a couple minutes to clear my head and
I try, I'm not as good as I used to be, but I think that really is, is really fulfilling and it does clear my head. And I think that's, everybody needs a good hobby too. And I mentioned about balance and how important that is. And no, I mean, I think,
And being involved in music, obviously growing up was a great skill, but I still play and it still is that thing for me that just, it clears my head. It centers me. And, and honestly, it soothes my soul. And I, I think it's a great thing when I play, you know, I play with my church sometimes and people will come up to me and they'll be like, that's exactly what I needed. Actually, I just needed some violin in my life. So yeah.
I think that that is, that's my thing. That's my other thing. Music for sure. Yeah, I think you're right. Music, you know, I put on my headphones and whether I'm going by bike or in my car or whatever and listen to music.
It's so soothing. I like going out and doing wildlife photography, and I just find myself for hours on end focusing on trying to find a bear or moose. And next thing I know, I look up and I haven't been thinking about all the other stresses of life. So listen, I can't thank you enough for your service. You've impressed a lot of people in a very short amount of time for...
the approach that you've taken, the serious you take it, but getting things done, not only for Iowa, but for the country as well. And so, Ashley Henson, I cannot thank you enough. From Iowa's 1st Congressional District, thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast.
Thanks, Congressman, for having me. Well, thanks for listening to the Jason in the House podcast. I appreciate Ashley coming and joining with us. And I hope you will give it some nice marks, give it a subscription. If you can give it five stars, that helps us out. And if you want to hear more from the Fox News Podcast Network, go to foxnewspodcast.com, foxnewspodcast.com.
Or wherever you listen to podcasts, there really are some good ones out there. Fox is making a big investment, spending a lot of money getting a lot of these out there. So we hope if you like it, you'd rate it and review the podcast. And we'll be back with more next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.
Hi, everybody. It's Brian Kilmeade. I want you to join me weekdays at 9 a.m. East as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and, of course, what you think. Listen live or get the podcast now at BrianKilmeadeShow.com.