How concerned are you when they see this left messaging that's attractive to them? How concerned are you about that phenomenon?

Well, it's something that we need to be fighting against.

I think our message should be really clear.

Not only is socialism or communism an evil ideology that's killed more people than any other ideology in all of history, but we've also got to, on top of that, show young people in particular that the people who are trying to—these leftists who are trying to sell you on this utopian idea that you can get all kinds of free stuff from the federal government— are the people who put you in this current position in the first place.

In other words, they're the ones who created an environment where working class wages have been stagnant, where whenever you're young and you go to school and you're being taught that races should be pit against each other from some left-wing ideology, and then you go to college and you have a massively inflated tuition price, and then you graduate, and you hit the job market and houses are really expensive and your wages can't keep up with inflation, that economic environment was created by the left.

They are not the ones who are going to solve your problems because they're the ones who created these problems in the first place.

And on top of that, on top of the economic problems they've created, they have completely I think in many ways tried to dissolve American culture through a mixture of mass migration and left-wing social programming.

What makes you want to go from the frying pan into a greater fire?

I mean, are the federal judges ignoring the Supreme Court that has attempted to be able to say things like that?

Well, and that's sort of the, I guess you'd say, the perennial issue that we've got here right now.

We've got a lot of big and I think very important pieces of legislation, that we would like to get to the president's desk.

You know, we've had many good bills that we've passed out of the House.

I mean, most recently, you know, a ban on members of Congress trading stocks, and that's being sent over to the Senate.

But we do need the Senate to figure out a way to get bills passed, because right now, with that 60-vote threshold, you're seeing... basically a level of sort of procedural obstruction that is stopping us from getting, again, very good and common sense pieces of legislation to the president's desk.

I have a long time been an advocate of using a talking filibuster in order to get legislation passed.

What else bothers you at 3 o'clock in the morning?

I mean, are the federal judges ignoring the Supreme Court that has attempted to be able to say things like that?

Well, and that's sort of the, I guess you'd say, the perennial issue that we've got here right now.

We've got a lot of big And I think very important pieces of legislation that we would like to get to the president's desk.

You know, we've had many good bills that we've passed out of the House.

I mean, most recently, you know, a ban on members of Congress trading stocks and that's being sent over to the Senate.

But we do need the Senate to figure out a way to get bills passed, because right now, with that 60 vote threshold, you're seeing basically a level of sort of procedural obstruction that is stopping us from getting, again, very good and common sense pieces of legislation I have been a long time been an advocate of using a talking filibuster in order to get legislation passed.

But that's the kind of thing that we need.

What else bothers you at three o'clock in the morning?

Tell us why you did it.

Yeah, I mean, listen, every time Democrats start, whether it's a convention or even down to, you know, their local HOA gatherings or city hall gatherings, oftentimes you hear them give these land acknowledgements.

And the whole purpose of that is to denigrate America's history, denigrate our culture, to try to make the case that America is a fundamentally bad place.

And first of all, I don't think that most Americans believe that, even though a lot of Democrats do.

Right.

And I think but I also think that that is A deeply repulsive belief system.

I mean, this is the greatest country we've ever seen in the history of the world that has created more good, done more good for more people, that has created more prosperity and created more opportunity for its own people.

What have you found in all that great work?

Tell us why you did it.

Yeah, I mean, listen, every time Democrats start, whether it's a convention or even down to their local HOA gatherings or city hall gatherings, oftentimes you hear them give these land acknowledgments.

And the whole purpose of that is to denigrate America's history, denigrate our culture, to try to make the case that America is a fundamentally bad place.

And first of all, I don't think that most Americans believe that, even though a lot of Democrats do.

That's right.

But I also think that that is a deeply repulsive belief system.

I mean, this is the greatest country we've ever seen in the history of the world that has created more good, done more good for more people, that has created more prosperity and created more opportunity for its own people.

What have you found in all that great work?

Why is this important that we get this right and that we get justice for Charlie? And, you know, what does this say about assassination culture in this country writ large?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

I mean, it is.

Important to get this right, I think, for two main reasons.

One, simply for justice for Charlie and for Erica and for his family, because we need to make sure that if anybody commits a crime in this country, no matter who you committed against, if you murder somebody, you need to be in jail or you need to get the death penalty, in my opinion.

And to the extent that we don't see justice in crimes like this, particularly that are so public, I think you truly do start to see the rule of law in civilization unravel.

So the crime itself, apart from the political aspect, speaks to a very core part of what it means to be American and to live in civilization.

But the floor is yours, Congressman.

Why is this important that we get this right and that we get justice for Charlie? And what does this say about assassination culture in this country writ large?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

I mean, it is important to get this right, I think, for two main reasons.

One, simply for justice for Charlie and for Erica and for his family.

Because we need to make sure that if anybody commits a crime in this country, no matter who you committed against, if you murder somebody, you need to be in jail or you need to get the death penalty, in my opinion.

And to the extent that we don't see justice in crimes like this, particularly that are so public, I think you truly do start to see the rule of law in civilization unravel.

So the crime itself, apart from the political aspect, speaks to a very core part of what it means to be American and to live in civilization.

But the floor is yours, Congressman.

Where do you wanna focus? Where are you focusing first?

Well, the, the core issue that we focused initially on is Medicaid fraud, in particular, uh, in Ohio.

So we all saw the, the Medicaid fraud scandal at the beginning of this year with the Somali population in Minnesota.

We wanted to continue that work in Ohio, uh, where you had, uh, an enormous amount, we believe about a billion dollars a year, uh, of fraud in the home health sector.

That includes, um, personal care services that may or may not have been given, um, and have been receiving an enormous amount of, of Medicaid reimbursements.

Uh, and this, by the way, is also done predominantly by the Somali and the Bhutanese communities, uh, in Ohio.

That's where we began.

What, what would be the federal statute to look at something like that, and is there one against that type of circular funding?

Can you explain that one to me? And should the Congress and not the courts be deciding who actually gets to stay in America and who has to be given a quick trip back to their original home?

Well, absolutely.

I'll give you the context here.

Last week, we voted to extend temporary protective status for Haitians in the U.S. Now, this was a program that was originally started in 2010 that would allow Haitians who were fleeing a disastrous earthquake to come into the United States temporarily, hence the name temporary protective status, and then they could go back into their country.

And since then, the program has been re-upped and re-designated over and over and over again.

to the point where it's just become de facto amnesty.

In the House just last week, with every Democrat voting for it and a few Republicans voting for it, voted to extend that temporary protective status.

So that takes the existing immigration law that says, no, we want you to be unlikely to end up as a public charge, and it turns it on his head.

Um, what jumped out at you from that discussion, and does it support your theory that the party is dividing and destroying itself potentially?

Well, the party is, is certainly dividing.

I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me is how absolutely vapid Frances Gill's, uh, comments were during that entire interview.

I mean, she came across as somebody who had never even thought through anything that she was advocating for.

From asking, you know, "What government agency do you believe has done a good job in serving the American people?" her first response was the VA.

I mean, one of the biggest, uh, concerns that I get from constituents every single day is that they're veterans who can't get prescriptions filled at the VA.

They can't see a doctor.

Why?

There's no problem there." Obviously, there's something different going on now.

The president summarized it so well whenever he said, you know, you didn't need new laws, you just needed a new president.

But I think that highlights the, the key issue under the Biden administration, which is that open borders under Joe Biden were not... was, was not a mistake.

It wasn't, uh, because he was incompetent even, even though he was incompetent in many ways.

It...

Open borders under Joe Biden was a result of a deliberate policy decision that his administration made to deliberately not enforce American immigration laws that are already on the books.

In other words, it was intentional to flood our country with millions of, of illegal aliens from all over the world, totally unvetted.

Mm-hmm.

Why, why is this even this complicated?

Well, I mean, I, I think candidly, I think you, you've got two different visions of, of, uh, you know, what the American sort of welfare state should look like.

I think that o- on the Republican side, we basically believe, um, at, at a core level there should be a, a, a social safety net to help people get back on their feet to become self-sufficient.

And it's always been the Republican view that if, if you wanna drink Coca-Cola, drink all the Coca-Cola you want to, we just shouldn't have to pay for it.

Um, but I've got no pro- I love Coca-Cola.

Um, I think on, on the other side of the aisle, you- you've got this view that- that SNAP and all of these programs should be as expansive as possible, to have the government have their hands in as much of this as it possibly can so that they can use it as a political cudgel against the other side of the aisle, against, uh, my side, the Republican side, um, to, to try and claim that we're taking away something, uh, from the American people that they're owed whenever we are making these basic distinctions that maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't pay for junk food for people.

Um, they, you know, they wanna use that as a, a, a hammer, uh, against us, that we're trying to take things away whenever obviously we're not.

Any thoughts on that?

The American people watch folks like the woman today, uh, squirming in her seat, and then what changes for them?

Yeah, for, for the Smithsonian Institution, I, I think that there, there are a few steps here.

First of all, we recognize, and I think it, it became very clear after the work that the president has done, the White House has done to expose the Smithsonian Institution, um, in the hearings that we've done in Congress, it, it's very clear that this is an institution that has been promoting Marxist ideology for quite some time, really probably the past five or 10 years, um, and that there's a, some deep fundamental rot.

Um, you have exhibits at the Smithsonian, um, that refer to Mickey Mouse as racist, that have pictures of, of guys in bondage gear, uh, promoting sexual fetishes.

There's an exhibit that essentially encourages illegal aliens to vote in American elections.

At the same time, they've downplayed the role of the Founding Fathers in American history.

I mean, it, it's really nuts.

Why? What is the game? Is it a financial game? Is it ideological game? It doesn't make sense to most Americans.

How is it possible she doesn't know her own policies?

Yeah, that, that's the question.

And you know, I, I think that we've gotten to the point where so many institutions, um, like the Smithsonian have been just thoroughly taken over by leftists, that, that, that this is part of kinda the, the culmination of the long march through the institutions, the left's intentional push To take over civil society.

And, you know, whether she...

It, it's interesting.

Did she know her policies? Did she not? I, I'm not sure that, uh, th- it's difficult to tell, and I'm not sure, uh, at, at a certain level the leftists really even believe their own ideology.

It- it's more something that they are able to use as a cudgel to control other people, because if the left can label everything evidence of white supremacy...

But I mean, what's going on with this party? I mean, do you think Talarico has any shot in your state of Texas, God bless Texas?

Explain the overall mission of this task force and why targeting illegal DEI policies is such a priority right now.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You know, the, the purpose of this task force is to ensure that [clears throat] institutions, whether in the government or outside of the government, are not abusing the American people.

In particular, we're focused on constitutional rights that we have seen, especially under the Biden administration, government institutions and other organizations trample on.

Um, and one of the things that we've been focused on, we've looked at a lot of different things.

We've looked at fraud, [clears throat] abusing the American people, um, by wasting tax dollars.

Mm-hmm

What changes for them?

Yeah, for the Smithsonian Institution, I think that there are a few steps here.

First of all, we recognize, and I think it became very clear after the work that the president has done, the White House has done to expose the Smithsonian Institution, in the hearings that we've done in Congress, it's very clear that this is an institution that has been promoting Marxist ideology for quite some time, really probably the past five or 10 years, and that there's some deep fundamental rot You have exhibits at the Smithsonian that refer to Mickey Mouse as racist, that have pictures of guys in bondage gear promoting sexual fetishes.

There's an exhibit that essentially encourages illegal aliens to vote in American elections.

At the same time, they downplayed the role of the founding fathers in American history.

I mean, it's really nuts.

The Smithsonian Institution is governed by what is ostensibly a nonpartisan board that Congress oversees and that board then oversees the Smithsonian Institution.

Why? What is the game? Is it a financial game? Is it an ideological game? it doesn't make sense to most Americans.

Why can't they answer?

Well, I, I think that the left has, and, and for, uh, for the past decade or several decades, they've built up so much institutional power.

It's the, the sort of the culmination of the, of the long march through the institutions, where the left has really never had the answer for anything that, for, for this kind of nonsense that they, they spout because they've had the ability to just coerce people into believing things that are nonsensical.

You know, if you're...

Ev- everybody can relate to, if you're, you know, in college, or you're at a, at work, and your head of HR comes up to you, or the college diversity group comes up to you and makes you sit through some diversity seminar.

And they tell you, "Why don't you sit down and, and reflect on your own inherent racism or your own implicit biases because everybody is, is racist?" I mean, this is the kind of stuff that they put us through, and we've never been able to sort of make them answer for it, make them actually kind of explain what they mean by this.

Because the obvious follow-up is, um, if everybody is inherently racist or inherently biased, you know, why, why don't, why doesn't the left tell us who they're racist against or who they're biased against? But I, I think that the problem is, again, that the left has had so much institutional power that is now finally starting to erode as, as sort of peak woke has, uh, is behind us, that they've never actually had to elucidate any of this.

If the midterms go the Democrats' way, if 2028 goes the Democrats' way, are we gonna be right back to where we were in 2023?

Uh, your reaction watching yourself back, Congressman.

[laughs] Um, well, you know, it, it's, it's amazing she'll go down the road of, you know, we don't, uh, eh, you know, I'm not gonna make s- any kind of normative judgment about Mickey Mouse being racist or not.

Whenever the entire Smithsonian Institution makes moral judgments about our country and about all, eh, you know, all the perceived, uh, sins of, of the white man, uh, and the people who have run this country, I mean, that is, that is the, the Smithsonian Institution today.

But, you know, it, it's, again, it's another example of just how ridiculous this stuff is.

Um, I don't even know what it means to say that Mickey Mouse, uh, is rooted in blackface minstrelsy.

I don't, uh, you know, h- honestly, I don't even know where they got that from.

Um, I think to most normal people, Mickey Mouse is just a cartoon that people like to watch whenever they're five years old, um, and is kind of an iconic American figure.

Mm.

Uh, your reaction watching yourself back, Congressman.

[laughs] Um, well, you know, it, it's, it's amazing she'll go down the road of, you know, we don't, uh, uh, you know, I'm not gonna make s- any kind of normative judgment about Mickey Mouse being racist or not.

Whenever the entire Smithsonian Institution makes moral judgments about our country and about all, uh, you know, all the perceived, uh, sins of, of the white man, uh, and the people who have run this country, I mean, that is, that is the, the Smithsonian Institution today.

But, you know, it, it's, again, it's another example of just how ridiculous this stuff is.

Um, I don't even know what it means to say that Mickey Mouse, uh, is rooted in blackface minstrelsy.

I don't, uh, you know, h- honestly, I don't even know where they got that from.

Um, I think to most normal people, Mickey Mouse is just a cartoon that people like to watch whenever they're five years old, um, and is kind of an iconic American figure.

Mm.

Your reaction watching yourself back, Congressman?

Well, you know, it's amazing.

She'll go down the road of, you know, we don't you know, I'm not going to make any kind of normative judgment about Mickey Mouse being racist or not.

Whenever the entire Smithsonian institution makes moral judgments about our country and about all the perceived sins of the white man and the people who have run this country.

I mean, that is the Smithsonian Institution today.

But again, it's another example of just how ridiculous this stuff is.

I don't even know what it means to say that Mickey Mouse is rooted in blackface minstrelsy.

So what specifically is you're hearing about today? And give yourselves in Washington a scorecard of how we're doing so far two years into this.

Vous avez introduit l'acte de proficienciation du langage anglais pour recéder à la proficienciation anglaise et l'exemption et l'exception des examinations civiques de l'U.S. de la loi de naturalisation.

Oui, donc, vous savez, d'abord, vous avez commencé à la première principale, qui est que la langue commune est ce qui colle un pays ensemble plus que presque rien d'autre.

En d'autres mots, si vous ne pouvez pas communiquer avec votre voisin, est-ce que vous pouvez vraiment avoir des liens civiques ou des liens civiques ? C'est évidemment très difficile.

Donc une langue commune, la langue anglaise, est et devrait être une partie principale d'être américain.

Mais malheureusement, sous la loi actuelle, il y a certaines exemptions de la requisition de la langue anglaise.

Donc si vous êtes au-dessus de 55 ou 60 ans et que vous avez été dans le pays entre 15 et 20 ans, selon votre âge, alors vous pouvez être exempt de cette requisition.

Et ce que ma loi fait, c'est simplement renoncer à cette exemption.

ça quand tu marches avec tes enfants dans un musée? Oh mon dieu, je suis choqué.

Do you agree with that assessment?

Of course they take sides in America's political debates.

In fact, the Museum of American History was promoting the idea that illegal aliens should be voting in American elections.

They were displaying merchandise that had sort of illegal alien insignia on it with the word vote below it, which was a very, very clear message.

The institution as a matter of policy had been promoting certain liberal ideas, explicitly viewing American history through the lens of things like race or immigration and migration or other sort of left-wing buzzwords and left-wing ways of framing history.

So of course this is an ideologically captured institution and that's the problem here.

But if you go through some of the things that the Museum of American History has been promoting.

What can we expect to see there?

You have to share elevators with Rashida Tlaib.

Yeah, that, that's exactly right.

I mean, the, the Democrat Party is now the Democrat Party of, of socialists.

And you know, it's easy to look at this and to say that those people are just the fringe on the left.

But remember whenever Joe Biden got elected, everybody thought whenever he was, uh, uh, whenever he won his primary, I should say, everybody thought Joe Biden was supposed to be the moderate, and then he governed as one of the most radically left presidents we've ever had in American history.

And that's because it i- these are the socialists.

These are the people who were running the country when he was in office, and that's the same thing that's happening right now.

What do you expect to find?

Did Speaker Johnson just kind of pick you out of the crowd? Did you raise your hand and say, I want to do this? How did that happen?

Well, one of the things that I talked a lot about on the campaign trail two years ago, was the ability that Congress has to run these investigations.

And you can get a lot of information on them.

And that really helps set, I think, the broad legislative agenda for the rest of Congress.

I mean, it allows us to expose the left.

So that's something that I talked a lot about to constituents or soon-to-be constituents when I was running.

And a lot of politics comes down to just trying to do the things you said you were going to do on the campaign trail.

What were you doing before you ran for Congress? What were you doing for a living?

Where do you want to focus? Where are you focusing first?

Well, the core issue that we focused initially on is Medicaid fraud, in particular in Ohio.

So we all saw the Medicaid fraud scandal at the beginning of this year with the Somali population in Minnesota.

We wanted to continue that work in Ohio, where you had an enormous amount, we believe about a billion dollars a year of fraud in the home health sector.

That includes personal care services that may or may not have been given to And have been receiving an enormous amount of Medicaid reimbursements.

This, by the way, is also done predominantly by the Somali and the Bhutanese communities in Ohio.

That's where we began.

What do you think is going to be the solution and how bad is the abuses in the nonprofit world right now?