James Talarico: The Bulwark LIVE from Dallas

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Hello and welcome to the board podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller, we're here in Dallas. And our guest on today's show is "Sentacana de James Telerico". Hello and welcome. We don't want to look to this. You're in a primary still, and we decide to keep it as a surprise for people.

It's a nice surprise here in Texas. How you feel? It's got to feel good to get a little wind under your belt and 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 y'all for the world, welcome. 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 going to 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 know, they're doing a good job, bro. I don't know. I have just a few complaints, even if you're going to take, well, I want to talk about Texas and the Senate race, a little politics here and 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 have to talk about the news first.

And while we were back there, it just really came on. Rollator is supporting 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 dish 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 Sand Branch, Texas, which is just a few miles from here. That community doesn't have any running water. It doesn't have basic super 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, and Tim, we're always told that there's not enough money for schools, not enough money for healthcare, 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.”

Even doing either of those things. I always supporting it. We may be doing the exact opposite. 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 our moves and the bombing of oil fields and cutter and elsewhere.

Price of a barrel of oil now is up to $110. Do you have mixed feelings about that at all? It's kind of good for midlands. The, the sad thing is that this present was elected to do one thing and one thing only and that was bring down costs.

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 or hurting Texans in particular.

And the estimate is 2 million Texans are going to lose their insurance because of these cuts.

This present who was elected to lower costs is 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 folks here in DFW flipped a state Senate seat in Terran County. 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, the other big war related news is the Trump's counterterrorism chief Joe Kent quit the administration.

Not a big fan of any Joe Kent fans. Not as Joe, you know, has quite a headless 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 war in Iran, he wasn't signing up for war. That was pushed by Israel as we're talking. He's on with Tucker Carlson right now.

“Sounds like the FBI is now going to be investigating him. How do you, how do you process that? How do you think about that in Texas?”

You, you're kind of big moment, really, 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, and they didn't want to be in those foreign wars. So how do you think about like talking about the Joe Kans 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 going to start any more wars, and now he's started multiple wars just in the first year of his administration. 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 and 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.

“I mean, 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.”

I 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 Amorella 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, and, and you know, I'm, I'm, I stay to the very end of the event side, 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, 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 MGG, I'll take that as a maybe.

No, you're not going to 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, 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. Yeah, I do want to welcome those folks into our coalition. I, I'm really not interested in purity politics, like I, I'm interested in building political power so that we can transform this state and this country.

Then you're just doomed scrolling and complaining on Twitter.

Okay, which this feels like it's never does.

That feels like it's called a sub tweet. And 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 and 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 yet. 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 feeling for a long time that everyone secretly agreed with us.

And if they didn't, they were a bigot or racist or misogynists 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 your speaker, my language, because there is. I, I think this weird view that all of the non voting Texans are just like Democrats just haven't count, well, can up yet. There are 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 of things. We don't want them to vote. I, I, we, on our campaign, we, this is something you and I have in common.

And I did the episode of, uh, of surrounded. Oh, she was really on YouTube.

“Yeah. 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 things. Yeah. We are opinions. Yeah.

And we, you know, uh, and that's a good thing.

Like I honestly think there's, there's, within the parties and within, among partisan people, like there's way too much rigid orthodoxies that can never be questioned.

Yeah. I love that people who aren't really into politics, um, they kind of have a grab bag of some progressive views, some conservative views. 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 isn't fit into a box.

And most Texans, most Americans don't either. And I think we should embrace that. Uh, 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 jibbley. I don't have to.

I wanted a cigarette, and I said to the guys, I was like, can we do this again tomorrow? Uh, I just, it was, I don't know, it got me, you know, my synapses fire. I mean, I, uh, I get bored very easily. Um, and it's why I enjoy, it's why I enjoy serving in the Texas legislature, because it's like being lions in 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 jibbley. Because it's an opportunity to change hearts and minds, and like that's so rewarding. The no offense to MS now. But I just, I, I don't, um, 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, um, it's sometimes fun to preach to the choir.

But, um, I don't feel like I'm doing any good in some of these media spaces. Like I feel when I'm on jibbley or on Rogan, actually reaching people who aren't with us. Yeah, totally great. All right. If you've been with me for a minute, uh, you know how much I love souls out of office beverages,

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The other news item from today I want to touch you about was Mark Wayne Mullin from up on the other side of the red ribbon.

Um, he had his confirmation hearing today. This is kind of there are some fireworks it's going to 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 conferred 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 he didn'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 would be in no one Mark Wayne Mullin. 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. I, 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 and to this country to me is immoral. It's unconscionable, it's unacceptable and it has to end. I, I just, 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 Texas 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 that 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 told those are mutually exclusive and they're not. Yeah. You know, I saw on the internet, which isn't real life, you got a little shit over that. What you were saying on surround it about how it was, you know, the mistakes of your party that let us hear.

“And a lot, what a lot of people would say is, well, what about the James Lankford bill that Donald Trump blocked and the Republicans in the Senate blocked?”

Like, there's something to that, 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. And so they knew how to do it. And I've heard from people who served in the Biden administration, who said that the administration, the president himself, they were listening to these groups for people who aren't super into the infrastructure of the Democratic Party.

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 my colleagues in the state house who served border communities in South Texas, in El Paso, 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, the Republicans have been attacking me by taking something I say about the border and basically cutting it out, cutting it off in its sentence.

Yeah, so I, I have said about 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 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 pretty well in the Rio Grande Valley and with Latino voters during the primary. I've had Bobby Toledo in the shows running down there. This is a good guy running for a Republican seat there. So thinking about the general election, this was a huge shift, you know, over to Republicans.

“And I think that was cut a lot of Democrats by surprise, right?”

Because they convinced themselves that there was a demographics as destiny argument that how could any Latino vote for Trump? These obviously racist, which is. And so it's like we don't need to try. And when I talked to Bobby, when I talked to other people, you know, in that community. Oh, you hear a lot of, is like two issues.

One was border security, which you're just talking about. And the other is fake. You know, like a lot of folks in those communities are Catholic or Protestant. Panics that feel like the democratic party, you know, is Godless or whatever as a short term. How, 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 Loretto on our southern border. Tell them it's like Hispanic. So it's a vowel at the end.

Are we going to count it? I, it was just me and my mom when I was born. And she was, she very heroically left an abusive situation to protect me and ensure I had a better life. But the luckiest thing that ever happened to either of us was meeting Mark Talereko, who then adopted me, gave me his last name and raised me as his own. And he, the, hey, shout out to Mark Talereko.

Anyway, his life, he is a first-generation American, his family, came to this country from Italy.

So it's an Italian last name. But, uh, but down there, you know, I, I said Talereko, they say Talereko, which is much prettier than I said. World that art. Yeah. But, uh, but anyway, but, you know, South Texas is one of my favorite places in the world.

Uh, Rio Grande 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 represented 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 could count. I went down to the valley, uh, 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 building 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 it's where our party should do a better job of among all communities, not just Hispanic voters. And it's for our party. And with the checkout of the world, the best of the best of the best of the world. The legendary checkout of Shopify, for just the shop on their website, a little social media, and everything else. That's the music for your ears. Videos from the rest of the world, with Shopify, can be helped to a real help. Start your tests today for just one of your promo.

On Shopify.de/recorder. I've been listening to, uh, you know, a lot of your speeches in 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 com.

Right. So what we were talking about earlier, there's got to be persuasion. And it's just 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 on the top down.

“And 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, coven or trans or whatever, anything. Like 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. What do you kind of react to that? Well, one, you were just talking about faith and it's in its centrality and 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. And that's the geography as a page for like, literally every group you could imagine, like Hawaiian Nation. Shout out to my boys or white people.

And that's the point is like, I get where the where that I get the instinct. And that is to look out for people who are believed people who are on the outside. And I like that instinct in the democratic party. Sometimes 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, a 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 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, that's the other woke church. Every town's got the church with the pride flag. We love them. We appreciate to be welcomed.

Well, and you're going to go to see Joel Osteen. Well, I would love to. I would love to visit, I would love to visit his church. I, I, I mentioned that I go on the 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.

“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 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 every day is focus on values before we get into policy minutia because those values are unifying and are transcendent and I think has to be at the forefront of our political discourse in this country.

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Okay, I'm having fun. You know, that's the board podcast. We're not going to really have fun until we start dunking on the other guys. What? Whoah!

Whoah! Who are you written for in that other primary? There's still working things out over there. They are. They are.

I got to. Got to root interest. You know, I said, I said on on election night that it doesn't matter who comes out of this Republican runoff because we already know who we're running against. We're running against the billionaire mega donors in their corrupt political system. [ Applause ]

“And I think, John Coran and Ken Paxton embody the corruption in our politics.”

Obviously, obviously, Ken Paxton's crimes are well-known. 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. [ Applause ] But, don't laugh when I say this. I think John Coran may be even more corrupt than Ken Paxton.

And here's why. Yeah, see? I'm ready for the pitch. [ Laughter ]

John Coran, by the way, he was first elected to public office six years ago in 2012.

[ Laughter ] He got to the Senate when I was in middle school. Actually. And, John Coran, just last year, was the deciding vote on that big ugly bill. That big ugly bill that's going to kick millions of Texans off their health care.

That big ugly bill that's going to take food out of the mouths of hungry Texas kids all to give yet another tax break to his billionaire donors. And so, Ken Paxton was impeached for using his public office to enrich his donors. And that's exactly what John Coran does at the biggest scale. And so, we oftentimes think of corruption as something that's illegal. But corruption is really just the betrayal of the public's trust.

And by casting, by casting, that deciding vote on that big ugly bill. John Coran committed an act of corruption at the highest floor. And so, yeah. And it's also even the pay-brown paperback for an opportunity. It's like John Coran pretending like he cares about Ken Paxton's corruption.

Give me a fucking break. He's in the Senate. What about Jared's money from MBS?

“What about the crypto money that Don Jr and Eric are making?”

Where's John Coran and on any of that? Well, and like, I think Ken Paxton actually believes in his extremism. Yeah. I'll give him that. I think he's a true believer.

Yeah. John Coran, though, is the worst kind of politician. He will believe whatever he has to to hold on to power. Yeah. And I think that's like what people across the political spectrum

are really set up with. So I just believe that neither John Coran nor Kim Paxton deserve the honor of representing this great state in the United States Senate. Ken Paxton just loves his side pieces. Yeah.

He loves them earnestly. There's something honest about that. John Coran and back to him. Yeah, that I hear that out of recent is Big John Coran. I'm wondering if there is anybody in public life more amassulated than Big John Coran.

Sitting in daddy Trump's cuck chair. He's getting rid of the filibuster. He's playing on daddy Trump's playing. Whatever you want sir, whatever you want, Mr. Trump. It's not.

Doesn't give Big John Coran into me. And that's honestly it's one of the great things about this state is that we value independence. 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 in either party.

And someone who's going to do right by Texans.

“I think that's what we don't have currently.”

And it's something people are hungry for from their next US Senator. Sarah asked me backstage if I thought Big John Coran was non-binary. And I was like, that's a sensitive topic. Okay. Mark Levin situation.

Okay. Do we have any? Well, I guess one more thing, before we get to the rapid fire round. Does John Coran's, you know, kind of solved it a mask is love for getting rid of the filibuster.

Where would you end up being on the filibuster?

“Well, in this case, I agree with John Coran 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 feedback loop between the voters and the people that represent them.

And people deserve to see 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 adjust accordingly. Right now, they're not able to see the results of their vote because of the filibuster. So I'm all for 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?”

There's anybody on a model yourself after? Absolutely. I, this probably doesn't come as a surprise, but I'm deeply inspired by Reverend Raphael. We're not crazy. Because not only the way that he balances 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. We're going to follow the same playbook so that we can end 30 years of one party rule in our state. There reminds me of one other question point that's her appetite. Reverend Warnoch was in votes in your heated primary where 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.

I'm just going to wonder how you're thinking about that and how you're communicating with that constituency. Well, thinking about a lot is my top priority right now in 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 hearing Dallas tomorrow morning. 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 Wednesday. Why did Texas.

Now there's the cheeset. A new keynote degree has now been taken to the church. Now there's a parking handle.

“The best thing to do is to test one of those cheeset, cheeset, cheeset, cheeset.”

Now there's some kind of test, call number 18. Cough and Casembaugh, Ablaut is the greatest union in the world. But as long as you're looking for it, we'll be able to do a parking parking and the cheeset minus action. All right. There we go. Rapid fire. We have a meat section and a Texas section in the meat section first.

How big is God's sausage? What'd you say? We know God is a man and some just wonder like how healthy it's hog is. So, I know this is rabbit fire, but let me just because. Do you hear the answer? Yes or no? Listen, I know that I was, that I was being provocative 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. I guess, salt to the mask, yes, it's kind of close. Okay, otherwise in the meat, there's a video going around if you're talking about, I guess, one of your state rap campaigns was a vegan campaign or what it's shadow. No, I'm looking side eye out as a former Republican. Where are you at on Texas meat? What are your favorites? Are you a vegan?

One, yeah, thank you for asking this very important question.

So, I want to just, I want to say this definitively and categorically that I deny all accusations of veganism.

And, you know, our campaign basically runs on Barbecue these days.

“You asked my favorite, I will give a shout out to, I think, the best Barbecue joint in Texas, which was in my old legislative district in Taylor, Texas, Louis Miller Barbecue.”

If you, if you, hey, all right, check it out. Next time you're in Taylor, best British, you're going to find so that's my pleasure. I'm a hipster, so I'm going to lob Barbecue in Austin tomorrow, but sorry guys, you know, it's not out.

I'll give you the authentic shit when you're asking me about crawfish at too far. Okay, I'm going to the hipster tour is join some Texas.

All right, we close the podcast with the song. We're here in Texas. Obviously Bob Willes is the king down here.

“And if you could give us maybe, you know, I don't know, like around what's what's a hill in the health country. If you did about Rushmore, where would the hill be in Texas?”

Do we have a hill?

A hill? Do we have a hill anywhere?

Oh, yeah, we have a hill country. We could do the Chisos Mountains in Big Ben. Okay, so a big band if we're going to make a Texas musician.

“Oh, about Rushmore. Who do you think we'd put up there? Oh my God. Who do you go?”

What? So, one, I'm going to start with the king of country music, George straight. Okay. Then I'm going to add, I'm going to add Selena Kitania, the queen of Tejano music. Then I'm going to add the patron saint of Austin, Texas, Willie Nelson. And then I'm going to close it out with one more one word musician. And that's the answer. That's right. All right. And no hold on. That's James Teller, he goes right up for Senate. Thank you.

Appreciate you. Thank you. I wouldn't be a really fan. Nobody swell in the Rio Grande. I wouldn't be an American. If it wasn't for Texas. The board podcast is brought to you. Thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper, associate producer Hansley Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz and audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.