James Talarico: The Bulwark LIVE from Dallas

I'm your host Tim Miller. We're here in Dallas and our guest on today's show is

Santa Canada James Telleriko. We know we booked this. You're in a primary still and

so we decided to keep it as a surprise for people. So it's a nice pleasant

surprise here in Texas. How are you feeling? It's got to feel good to get a

little win under your belt during the real works ahead but you got to feel good.

I'm feeling good and it's so good to be in Dallas, Texas. Thank you all for the

world welcome. You know it's been great and I feel like people are finally

believing in Texas again that we can change the politics of the state that we

can push back against the extremism and the corruption in our government and I

think we're gonna surprise a lot of people in November in the state. You

don't think they're doing a good job here so far the incumbent you don't think

they're doing a good job right? I don't. I have just a few complaints you have a

few critiques. Well I want to talk about Texas in the Senate race to do a little

politics here in a minute and talk about some other stuff. We'll have a little

bit of fun at the end. You know it's a live show but we got to talk about the

news first and while we were back there just really came on Reuters reporting that

Trump is looking at bringing additional troops to the Middle East as part of

the Iran War. This obviously seems like it's escalating though you know who

the hell knows he could just turn around and quit tomorrow. We don't know with

him. What's your assessment of what we've seen there and just your

initial reactions to this war? Well you know as a millennial I saw how

military disasters like the Iraq war robbed this nation of young lives of

billions of dollars and of our moral standing in the world and I

worry that this president this administration is making the same mistake with

another forever war in the Middle East and I was a few weeks ago in San

Branch Texas which is just a few miles from here. That community doesn't have any

running water. It doesn't have basic sewer infrastructure. Every dollar we are

spending bombing people in the Middle East is a dollar that we are not

spending in our communities in this country and Tim we're we're always

told that there's not enough money for schools not enough money for health

care not enough money for veterans but there always seems to be enough money to

bomb people on the other side of the world and so I I think it is possible to

support the democracy movement in Iran it is possible to stop Iran from getting

a nuclear weapon without this kind of reckless military intervention. Oh we

even doing either of those things. Are we supporting a democracy movement in

Iran or maybe doing the exact opposite. Yeah I mean the the single best way to

empower the regime in Iran is to have this kind of bombing from America and

you're seeing them burning American flags when the regime was on its back foot

just weeks ago and so I worry that we've done the exact opposite and we've

empowered the extremists in Iran and we have weakened the democracy movement

in that country. Yeah I saw it today because of the closing the

straight of hormones and the bombing of oil fields and cutter and elsewhere price

of a barrel of oil now is up to a hundred and ten dollars. Do you have mixed

feelings about that at all? It is kind of good for Midlands. I mean the the sad

thing is that this president was elected to do one thing and one thing only and

that was bring down costs and now he is doing the exact opposite not just the

the price of gas but I mean the price of food the cost of housing of of

healthcare you know here in Texas our state leaders didn't expand Medicaid and

so a lot of our fellow Texans depend on the Affordable Care Act on those

subsidies and so these cuts to the ACA are hurting Texans in particular and the

estimate is two million Texans are going to lose their insurance because of

these cuts so this president who was elected to lower costs has actually made

things more expensive and I think it's why you're seeing such a backlash in this

state and in this country to me may know that the folks here in DFW flipped a

state Senate seat in Tarrant County. Oh yeah it was a it was a it was a it was a

district that the president had won by 17 points in 2024 and so this

community shocked the nation by flipping a state Senate seat and I think that

we're going to shock the world when we flip a U.S. Senate seat the other the

other kind of big war related news is the Trump's counterterrorism chief

Joe Kent quit the administration not a big fan and he Joe Kent fans not

dance Joe you know has quite a hit list as far as his background is concerned

but his resignation was basically pure America first it you know to include

it some conspiracy theories but it also said you know fundamentally when he

signed up for this you know he wasn't signing up for a war in Iran he wasn't

signing up for a war that was pushed by Israel as we're talking he's on with

Tucker Carlson right now it sounds like the FBI is now going to be

investigating him how do you how do you like process that how do you think about

that in Texas and you you're kind of big moment really maybe maybe not your

original big moment but on the national stage for those of us non-texans was

when you went on Joe Rogan you know and that audience like there's some

overlap people who really did believe in maybe the non-racist part of the

America first movement you know they didn't want to be in those foreign wars

so how do you think about like talking about the Joe Kent and communicating with

those people and offering something to that that constituency I mean again we

just talked about broken promises when it comes to the cost of living crisis but

there was also a promise made by the president during his campaign that he

wasn't gonna start anymore wars and now he's started multiple wars just in

the first year of his administration and so I I can sympathize with the

disillusionment that some of the folks in the MAGA movement are feeling and I

think this is this is there is bipartisan opposition to this war in Iran I hear

it from people across the state of Texas not just Democrats but

independence and Republicans too who think it's reckless they think it's

counterproductive and they think it is it is a wasteful use of our resources when

we have so many pressing priorities here at home so room in this Tel Rico

coalition for America first magnetize a mtg calls you up and says hey I think

before you I mean this I've told I've told people that if they want a small

insular group of people who agree with you on everything you should start a

social club but a political party is meant to be a big tent it is meant to be a

group of people who don't agree on everything but agree on the big stuff and

Tim I have you know in the course of the primary campaign I went to literally

every corner of Texas I went from Beaumont to El Paso from Amarillo to Brownsville

and I held so many events with with so many Texans who showed up I can't tell

you the number of people who came up to me at the end of those events and whispered

I'm not a Democrat like like they were in the witness protection program yeah

and and you know I'm I'm I'm I state to the very end of the events I shake

every hand I take every selfie I answer every question and you know you hear

that 12 times in a photo line and you want to tell people that they're not

alone that they yeah that they they can join this movement we're building

because it is big enough for every Texan who is fed up with the

extremism and the corruption in our government so that's a maybe then on

M.T.G. I'll take that as a maybe no you know but endorsements you take

endorsements out of state you never know I don't know she's going through some

shit I mean and to be that to let's I mean to just in all seriousness like we

should be extending an open hand rather than a closed fist to those people who

are questioning their past support for the president or their past support for

the party like I I do want to welcome those folks into our coalition I I'm

really not interested in purity politics like I I am interested in building

political power so that we can transform this state in this country and improve

people's lives like if you don't win political power you can't help anybody

then you're just doom scrolling and complaining on Twitter okay which

this feels like it ever does that feels like it's called us up to you that that

that is the purpose of politics is to win power and improve people's lives and

that requires persuasion you know there's this there's this thing in in my

party here in Texas where you know people will say that Texas is not a red

state it's a non-voting state and I understand where they're coming from in

Texas does have one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country but

there's there's also a point where that argument is used as an excuse not to

persuade people who aren't with us and that is so deadly in a democracy because

the whole point of this democratic experiment is that we're supposed to make

our argument we're supposed to make our case and we're supposed to win hearts

and minds that's how you build a big enough coalition to govern and I want us to

get back to that in the democratic party there was a a feeling for a long time

that everyone secretly agreed with us and if they didn't they were a big

it or a racist or a misogynist and we didn't need their support and I hope that

the 2024 election was a wake-up call to everyone in our party that we have to

start reaching out to people who aren't with us yet and building a bigger

coalition I love that because I do yeah that's you're speaking my language because

there is I think this weird view that all of the non-voting Texans are just

like Democrats just haven't come woken up yet they're all resistance liberals

I think somebody that doesn't launch the news and doesn't vote and doesn't

care about what's happening they might be for Trump well well so more I mean

just saying I so a couple things we don't want them to know I am I we on our

campaign we this is something you and I haven't come in I did the episode

of of surrounded on YouTube and I sat down with 25 undecided voters in

Texas and it was a conversation that was wide-ranging and I think something if

you go back and watch that episode on YouTube you'll you'll realize a truth

about politics which is that undecided voters or non-voters they tend to have

pretty heterodox opinions about weird opinions yeah and we you know and that's

a good thing like I honestly think there's there's two in within the parties and

within among partisan people like there's way too much rigid orthodoxies that

can never be questioned I love that people who aren't really into politics they

kind of have a grab bag of some progressive use some conservative use you talk

about Joe Rogan you know Joe Rogan is for a universal basic income he's for

universal health care and so you can you could try to put him into a box but he

doesn't fit into a box and most Texans most Americans don't either and I think

we should embrace that and I think it's it's a mistake that hyper-political

people make when they think that all these non-voters or you know infrequent

voters somehow secretly agree with them on every single plank in the

Democratic platform I don't know about you but I loved doing Jubilee I

have to like I wanted a cigarette and I said to the guys I was like can we do

this again tomorrow I just it was I don't know it got me you know my synapses

firing I mean I I get bored very easily and it's why I enjoy it's why I enjoy

serving in the Texas legislature because it's like being a lion's head all the

time and and it's why I like going on Rogan I like going on Fox News I like

going on the Christian Broadcasting Network and I love doing Jubilee because it's

an opportunity to change hearts and minds and like that's so rewarding that no

offense to MS now but I just I I don't I don't feel like I'm accomplishing as

much when I'm in the echo chamber and sometimes it feels good to be with people

who agree with you and it's sometimes fun to preach to the choir but I don't

feel like I'm doing any good in some of these media spaces like I feel when I'm

on Jubilee or on Rogan actually reaching people who aren't with us yet totally great

all right if you've been with me for a minute you know how much I love souls out of

office beverages been hawking them for a while there's a sparkling THCBD beverages

that are nice for a little night on the couch watching love story or you know

for a weekend hang at the pool and now Soul is launching something new some mood gummies

the mood gummies are often something balanced maybe aren't sure if you need to pick

me up or a wind me down a little bit of both something in between well the mood gummies

have balanced formulas designed to keep your level souls a wellness brand that

makes delicious hemp drives to CBD and THC products designed to make feeling good simple

souls new mood gummies have precise dosing clean ingredients and formulations designed

for predictable effects so you can choose how you want to feel while staying in control

if you're looking for that bright social energizing buzz you could do the uplift gummies

three milligrams of sativa THC plus CBG are perfect for daytime plans or beating the afternoon

slump or at night time if you're looking to wind down the mellow gummies offer a three milligram

indica THC plus CBN pairing ideal for cozy nights and fully unplugging so make today a good day

and get yourself some soul gummies right now soul is offering my audience 30 percent off your

entire order go to get soul calm and use the code the bulwark that's get soul calm promo code

the bulwark for 30 percent off the other news item from today I want to talk to you about was

Mark Wayne Mullin from up on the other side of the red river was he had his confirmation hearing

today was that's kind of there's some fireworks it's kind of interesting because he had previously

basically said that Rand Paul's neighbor like had a few things right when he kicked Rand Paul's

ass and Rand is the chair of the committee that he needs to be confirmed through so yeah awkward

so there's like a lot of back and forth and then he refused to apologize yeah he wouldn't even

just say sorry man you know things got a little heated he wouldn't do it so you know that

confirmation is I think really hinging unfortunately on John Federman so we'll see what happens

with that but I guess the obvious question is you you would be a no on Mark Wayne Mullin I would

I would and here's and here's why I mean I would be a no on any potential secretary who is not

willing to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that's actually

focused on public safety you know I you know this time before I was a politician I was a public

school teacher in San Antonio Texas on the west side of the city and and I taught a lot of

undocumented students and those students tended to be my most patriotic students yeah they they

understood something about this country that a lot of us who are native born forget that this

is supposed to be the land of opportunity that this is supposed to be the place where dreams come true

and they believed that in in their bones and they believed in this country even when this country

didn't believe in them and so the fact that we have the most powerful politicians in the country

terrorizing my former students and their families people who work hard every day to contribute

to this economy into this country to me as immoral it's unconscionable it's unacceptable and it has to

end I um how does I mean we we should be cracking down on the cartels not our communities we

should be deporting gang members not small business owners yeah we should be hunting down human

traffickers not moms and babies this is something that I think most Texans agree with and on and

this is something I said on jubilee it was the failures of my party it was the failures of the

Biden administration that opened the door to this extremism that opened the door to mask men

and unmarked vehicles kidnapping people off our street so both parties have failed us on this issue

over the last 30 years I think Texans and Americans are just looking they're looking for leaders

who are going to hold two things in their mind at once being pro immigrant and pro security

because like we've been told those are mutually exclusive and they're not yeah um you know I saw

on the internet which isn't real life you got a little shit over that what you were saying on

surrounded about how it was you know the mistakes of your party that that led us here and a lot

what a lot of people would say is well what about the James Langford bill that Donald Trump blocked

and the Republicans in the Senate blocked like there's something to that right like Donald Trump

wanted there to be chaos because he wanted to help his election absolutely but that was in the

fourth year of the Biden presidency right there were three years before that so talk about those

three years like what you think they should have or could have done differently well and the proof

is that they were able to get the border under control four months five months before the election

right and so they knew how to do it and I've heard from people who served in the in the Biden

administration who said that uh the administration the president himself they were listening to

these groups um for people who aren't super into into the infrastructure the democratic party um in

recent years there've been a series of advocacy groups that claim to represent the interests of

different communities like here in Texas but actually have no real connection to the actual

people on the ground and those groups convinced the administration that it was racist

to support border security and nothing could be further from the truth it was it was my colleagues

in the state house who served border communities in south Texas in alpasso who were constantly telling

me about the chaos in their communities because of the Biden administration's policies and that is

not compassionate chaos is not compassionate and we as democrats were the party that's supposed to

make the government work for people and this was a prime example of government not working for people

and again you know i i the republicans have been attacking me by uh taking something that i say

about uh the border and and basically cutting it out cutting it off mid-sentence i usually say

yeah so i i have said throughout the whole campaign that our southern border should be like our front

porch there should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door meaning you can welcome

hardworking immigrants who want to contribute to this country and keep out people who mean to do us

harm not mutually exclusive goals but the republicans don't want you to know that those two things are

possible and so they post this clip and they cut it right before i say lock on the door so it just

sounds like i want open borders but um i think i think this is where most Texans and most Americans

are out on the issue and it's why they're frustrated with both parties because in the democratic party

they see a party that's pro-immigrant but doesn't seem too concerned about security then they throw

us out they elect the republicans a party that's very concerned about security and seems to be pretty

anti-immigrant yeah and they're dissatisfied with that too so they want a party they want leaders who

are going to hold both those values together at the same time yeah you did uh you did pretty well in

Rio Grande Valley and with Latino voters during the primary um i've had Bobby Toledo in the show who's

running down there uh this is a good guy uh run it for a republican seat there uh so thank you

with the general election like this was a huge shift you know over to republicans and i think

that was caught a lot of democrats by surprise right because they convinced themselves that there

was a demographics destiny argument that how could any Latino vote for Trump because he's obviously

racist which he is and like and so it's like we don't need to try and when i talk to Bobby or i

talk to some other people you know in that community oh you hear a lot of is like two issues one

was border security what you're just talking about and the other is faith you know like a lot of

folks in those communities are Catholic or or Protestant uh Hispanics that feel like the democratic

party you know is godless or whatever as a short term like what is your plan for kind of re-engaging

those voters that were lost yeah and you know my family is from south texas my mom grew up in

Laredo on our southern border and yeah it's like his panic so so it's a val at the end it would

count it i uh it was just me and my mom uh when i was born and she was uh she very heroically left

uh an abusive situation to protect me and and um in sure i had a better life but the luckiest

thing that ever happened to either of us was meeting mark teloriko who then adopted me gave me his

last name and raised me as his own and he uh the uh hey shout out to mark teloriko um anyway his let he

is a first generation um american his family um came to this country from Italy so it's an Italian

last name but um but down there you know i i say teloriko they say teloriko which is much prettier than

you know i say well that are yeah but um but anyway but you know south texas one of my favorite

places in the world um the reo grand valley is one of my favorite places in the world i went down

there a lot because the reason democrats lost support in south texas and among hispanic voters across

the state is because we took them for granted we assumed they were a part of our base and we stopped

showing up we stopped competing for their votes i was told uh by my state representative that i

grew up with when he was teaching me about campaigning um he said you always have to ask for people's

votes and that sounds obvious but it's actually something people don't do in our politics anymore

you have to you have to ask for someone's vote you have to earn their vote you have to you have to

actively compete for it and so that's what i did in this primary campaign i went down to south texas

more times than i can count i went down to the valley a ton and and i listened uh i i heard their

concerns both about immigration but honestly primarily about costs um it's this cost of voting

crisis that's crushing people all over the state but especially folks in south texas and then we

developed a policy platform in partnership with them that could meet those needs and uh and i think

showing up and listening is is half the battle in politics and it's where our party should do a

better job of among all communities not just Hispanic voters i've been listening to uh you know a lot

of your speeches and your pitch over the past couple of weeks uh both during the primary and kind of

sense and and you talk a lot in this question of okay look trump got about a million and a half

more votes than come right so what we were talking about earlier there's got to be persuasion

and it's there's a turnout element to it there's a persuasion element and and you really focus in

the persuasion element on this top down politics like getting out of the culture war getting out of

the left right focusing focusing on the top down and i and i i believe there's something to it i also

worry though that like the cultural rift between the democratic party and parts of america and parts

of texas is very real and just like pretending like that isn't a kitchen table issue you know

pretending like they're not going to talk about whatever it is covid or trans or whatever whatever

anything like i i think that that's a losing bet right and that there has to be some engagement

on a cultural level to get people to listen to you how how do you kind of react to that well one

you were just talking about faith and um and it's in it's centrality in the lives of so many texans

and that people feel like the democratic party is hostile to those cultural values and they're not

necessarily wrong about that someone pointed out to me that every world religion is mentioned

in our party platform except for christianity and there seems like a pretty glaring omission uh

and that's you know i the agency is a page for like liberate literally every group you could imagine

like Hawaiian nationals shout out to our bad boys or white people yeah and that's just like a

and that's the point is like i get where the where that um i get the instinct sure and that is to

look out for people who are bullied people who are or who are on the outside and i i like that

instinct in the democratic party it just becomes a problem when that turns into pushing away people

who are in the dominant group who could very much be in our coalition there are i think so many

people have faced so many Christians in this state who who sympathize with the democratic party

on a whole host of issues immigration maybe being at the top of the list and they are just

they're waiting for a candidate campaign that's not hostile to those values and who's willing to

connect with them on these conversations of faith and spirituality and i think it's what's so

powerful about the movement that we're currently building in texas is that um we are building bridges

about things you know that are honestly deeper than public policy are you going to be able to go

into the mega church though oh absolutely the other woke church every every town's got the church

with the pride flag we love them we appreciate to be welcomed well and you're gonna go to see

Jolo Steen too i would love to i would love to visit i would love to visit his church uh i i um

i mentioned that i go on to Christian broadcasting network because you know i want to extend an

open hand to our to my brothers and sisters in Christ who are a little more conservative than i

am uh and and i think that kind of outreach will will allow us to build a coalition big enough to

win in a place like texas and it's been a long time since we've had uh leaders in our party who speak

openly and unapologetically about their faith and that's necessary because people have to

communicate their why and for me it's my faith but it may be different for you but

democrats always speak to people's brains instead of their hearts and their guts and every single

human being in this room across the state we make decisions with our heart and our gut and then

our brain justifies it that's where every person works but as logical as we all pretend that we are

and so if we as if we as political leaders we as organizers are not speaking to people's hearts

first then we're committing political malpractice and it's something that our campaign tries to do

everyday is focus on values before we get into policy minutiae because those values are unifying

and are transcendent and i think it has to be at the forefront of our political discourse in this

country all right let's have some fun okay i'm having fun you know it's the bulwark podcast

okay we're not gonna really have fun until we start dunking on the other guys who are you

running for in that other primary there's still working things out over there they are they are

uh gotta gotta root out interest you know i said i said on uh on election night that it doesn't matter

who comes out of this republican runoff because we already know who were running against we're running

against the billionaire mega donors in their corrupt political system and and i think

john corner and ken pakston embodied the corruption in our politics obviously obviously

ken pakston's crimes are well known and and you know i was i was part of the bipartisan majority

in the texas house of representatives that voted to impeach our corrupt attorney general

but don't laugh when i say this i think john cornering may be even more corrupt than ken pakston

and here's why yeah i'm ready for the pitch john cornering uh by the way he was first elected

to public office six years before i was 12 uh he uh he got to the senate when i was in middle school

actually uh and john cornering just last year was the deciding vote on that big ugly bill

that that big ugly bill that's gonna kick millions of texas off their health care

that big ugly bill that's gonna take food out of the mouths of hungry texas kids all to give

yet another tax break to his billionaire donors and so ken pakston ken pakston was impeached

for using his public office to enrich his donors and that's exactly what john cornering does

at the biggest scale and so we oftentimes think of corruption as something that's illegal

but corruption is is really just the betrayal of the public's trust and by

and by casting by casting that deciding vote on that big ugly bill john cornering

committed an act of corruption at the highest order it's also yeah and it's also even

of even the paper brown paper bag corruption it's like john cornering pretending like he cares about

ken pakston's corruption give me a fucking break he's in the senate what about what about

Jared's money from mbs what about the crypto money that don't junior and Eric are making

where's john cornering on any of that well and like i think ken pakston actually believes in his

extremism yeah i'll give him that i think he's a true believer yeah john cornering though is

the worst kind of politician he will believe whatever he has to to hold on to power yeah

and and i think that's like what people across the political spectrum are really fed up with so i

just believe that neither john corner nor ken pakston deserve the honor of representing this great

state in the united states senate ken pakston is loves his side pieces you know he loves them

earnestly um there's you know there's something honest about that uh

john cornering back to him did that i heard that every city is big john cornering

i'm wondering if there is anybody in public life more emasculated than big john cornered

sitting in daddy trumps cuck chair like he's now he's getting rid of the filibuster he's flying on

daddy trumps plane whatever you want sir whatever you want mr trump it's not doesn't give big

john cornering to me and that's honestly it's a you know one of the great things about this state

is that we value independence um we like people who think for themselves and i think what people

are looking for in the next US senator from the state is someone who will think for themselves

someone who will push back against the powerful people and either party and someone who's

going to do right by texas i think that's what we don't have currently and it's something people

are hungry for uh from their next US senator sarah asked me backstage if i thought big john cornering

was non binary and i was like that's a sensitive topic something like mark levin situation um

um okay do you have any uh well i guess uh one more thing before we get to the rapid fire round

is john cornering you know kind of solved the Damascus love for getting rid of the filibuster

do you see any encouragement out of that where where would you end up being on the filibuster

well in this case i agree with john cornering because i think we should abolish the filibuster

so that we can actually we can actually govern in this country i mean people of texas they vote

for leaders from a certain party and they want to see the results of that vote whether it's

the republican party or the democratic party what's happening now because of the filibuster

is they elect one party they see nothing getting done they don't see any improvement in their lives

and so they swing wildly to the other party and then they see more gridlock and so i think what

needs to happen is we have to improve this this feedback loop between the voters and the people

that represent them and people deserve to see the the results of their vote and then they can

make judgments about whether they want to continue slashing health care and slashing

food assistance for hungry kids or starting more forever wars and then they can

make a judgment and and adjust accordingly um right now they're not able to see the results of

their vote because of the filibuster so i'm all for a talking filibuster but this situation where

you know a certain number of senators can just veto any action to me is just a recipe for more gridlock

are there any senators up there you think you're doing good are there anybody on a model yourself

after absolutely i mean i um this probably doesn't come as a surprise but i'm deeply inspired by

Reverend Raphael Warnock he's great because not only not only the way that he you know balances his

his role as a faith leader and his role as a public servant in a healthy and responsible way but

also because he knows how to flip a red state and we i think in texas take a lot of inspiration from

what they've done in georgia and we're going to follow the same playbook so that we can end 30 years

of one party rule in our state that reminds me of one other question point got to rapid fire um

Reverend Warnock was invoked uh in your heated primary uh where you know there were some issues

across racial lines i think there's been some concern that like one of the things that could hold

you back in the general is whether black voters are going to be excited enough to turn out for you

and i'm just kind of wondering how you're thinking about that and how you're communicating with that

constituency well i'm thinking about a lot it is my top priority uh right now and for the next

few weeks and months is healing the divisions from this primary and i talked earlier about

taking people for granted taking communities for granted and that also applies to black voters in

the state and so i'm going to be doing the work to earn the trust and the respect and the support

of every black texan and that means showing up in the community in fact you know i'm here in Dallas

tomorrow uh morning i'm um i'm participating in a roundtable of black faith leaders here in dfw

and that's just one example of the kind of work we're going to be doing in the weeks and months

ahead so that we can bring our coalition back together and do something really special together and

that's finally win state wide in texas all right here we go rapid fire we have a meat section

and a texas section in the meat section first how big is god's sausage would you say

we know god is a man and so i'm just wondering like how healthy his hog is so

so i know this is rapid fire but let me just because

don't already answer no yes or no um listen i i know that i was that i was being provocative

with with that comment i made it on the floor of the house when the extremists in the texas

legislature were trying to pick on kids who were different and while it's maybe provocative

politically i don't think it's controversial theologically most christians believe that god is

beyond gender and in fact the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians says that in Christ

there is neither male nor female so if you have a problem with what i said don't take it up with

me take it up with the apostle Paul second apostle Paul reference of this podcast that's a first

that's a first um i guess all the mascus is kind of close okay otherwise in the meat there's a

video going around if you talk to him about i guess one of your state rep campaigns was a vegan

campaign or uh which i don't know i'm looking side i add as a former Republican uh where you at

on texas meats what are your favorites are you a vegan one yeah thank you for asking this very

important question uh because because this is a very serious allegation uh to make in texas so i

want to just i want to say this definitively and categorically that i deny all accusations of

veganism okay and uh you know our campaign basically runs on barbecue these days uh you ask my

favorite uh i will give a shout out to i think the best uh barbecue joint texas which was in my old

legislative district in taylor texas Louis Miller barbecue if you ate all right check it out next

time you're in taylor uh best brisket you're gonna find so that's my pleasure i'm a hipster so i'm

going to love barbecue in austin tomorrow but uh sorry guys um you know it's not up to i'll give

you the authentic shit when you're asking me about crawfish out to fail okay i'm going to the

hipster tourist joints in texas um all right we close the podcast with the song we're here in texas

obviously bob wills is the king down here i'm wondering if you could give us maybe you know i don't

know like uh around uh what's what's a hill in the health country if you did a Mount Rushmore where

would the hill be in texas do we have a hill a hill do we have a hill anywhere oh oh yeah we have

a hill country yeah we could do the chisos mountains in big bend okay so a big bend if we're

going to make a texas musician oh who do you think we put up there oh my god so

so so one i'm going to start with the king of country music George straight uh uh then i'm going

to add um i'm going to get i'm going to add salina quitenia uh the queen of tehano music

then i'm going to add uh the patron saint of austin texas willineelson and then i'm going to close

it out with one more one word musician and that's the answer yeah that's right all right

ain't no hold on that's James tell rico he's running percent what do you know

i appreciate you thank you thank you thank you

i wouldn't be a will a fan

nobody swelm the reo grand i wouldn't be an american

if it wasn't for texas the board podcast is brought to you thanks the lord of lead producer

kady kupert associate producer ansley skipper and with video editing by katie lutes and audio

engineering and editing by jason bros