Boy, how'd you get it on the ballot?

Well, the city council put Prop Q on the ballot.

This is Prop Q last year that I'm talking about.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

Now, I mean, we had that great victory, 63-37 on first Tuesday, November last year.

And I remember waking up the next morning feeling kind of two emotions.

They're being used as pawns.

How would you respond to the main points they put out today, Matt?

Yeah, our charter amendment author, Bill Aylshire, who served as Travis County Auditor from Tax Assessor Collector, from 1980 to 1985 and county judge from 1987 to 1998 and is one of the most respected local attorneys this county has ever produced.

Did a press response to that, a press conference response to that today.

I'm happy to try to summarize the points he made, but I'd start by saying this.

It's probably not a coincidence that nearly every person who spoke at that press conference today is funded by taxpayers, right? Yes.

Six council members, you had council candidates, you had the city employee union, all of whom are either wholly or largely funded by taxpayers.

So they love the system as it is now.

This coming from a group that pays an outside consultant on whether or not they should breathe every minute.

I own a radio station, and I own KTBB Radio in Tyler, Longview, Texas, and I just got a money bomb dropped on me yesterday.

Yeah, I'll bet.

I'll bet.

So congrats on that.

You deserve it.

But look, the challenge Paxton's facing has, I think, three or four elements to it.

And these are all marginal elements, but when you add them all together, it's why we have a 50-50 race right now.

of error? I don't think Ken will win outside the margin of error if he wins at all.

Is this just a canary in the coal mine as to why the city council does not want to full city audits because they know there's going to be other problems with other programs and other agencies?

I'm sorry to interrupt.

There's no doubt.

Remember, guys, this is 25 nonprofits.

It was a very narrow audit.

I honestly don't know the number of nonprofits that are city funds.

It's certainly in the hundreds.

Several of those NGOs, those nonprofits, made a donation to try to encourage you to vote yes on Proposition Q to get more of your tax dollars.

Matt, is the ceasefire an off-ramp?

Yeah, it seems like it could be.

Certainly for now, we know it's two weeks and they're going to enter into direct negotiations with to try to take the ceasefire proposal that each country had and merge them, I guess, into one that's acceptable to both parties.

You know, the question is whether the United States is satisfied both militarily and with the objectives being met.

You know, the first objective is to, you know, totally eliminate the the national security threat iran poses to america to its allies to its personnel in the region to you know etc um that that threat is i think largely eliminated um now the question is if they possess any nuclear material um can you say that the threat has been completely eliminated and i think i think the answer that's no and i think that's going to be the key question heading into these negotiations which i guess are going to commence soon in pakistan as soon as friday Um, and, and, and that is, uh, you know, will Iran give up the nuclear ambitions, uh, voluntarily, uh, if not with the United States and Israel, perhaps with partners in the region, go in and seize that material.

Um, that, that to me is going to be the big sticking point.

And I I'm a little bit.

Explain that threat, because I think polling suggests that not many Americans understand or believe that there is a threat posed by Iran.

Matt, how do you see it?

Well, he's dealing with the domestic political challenge of high oil prices, which are creating high gas prices.

The longer term challenges, how to resolve this in a way that reduces or eliminates the national security and domestic homeland security risk from this regime, while also having some type of government in Iran that we can perhaps deal with, even if it's not one that we're close allies with, but one that we no longer be seeking to try to do harm to America.

I don't see at the moment a real clear path.

And part of the reason for that is you know when you take out you know 90 of the leadership it's hard to have someone to to negotiate with whether it be a ceasefire whether it be an agreement uh it's you know very hard to do that um the country's been destabilized uh and i'm glad it happened i think the president's shown tremendous courage uh the military has been extraordinary um but you know it's creating a difficult situation in terms of, you know, ending this active war period that we're in.

Look, it's not going to continue forever.

And obviously you have the Strait of Hormuz, which has such a direct impact on the price of oil, really for not really as much for the United States, but for the rest of the world, which of course affects spot oil prices.

Would seem like, too, it's made the messaging regarding affordability that much more difficult.

Matt, explain the importance of these speeches.

Yeah, I mean, they obviously come at a particular moment in a presidency.

And so there is some variability.

You know, maybe your last State of the Union after eight years is probably less important than your first formal State of the Union when you're one year into office.

As we head into the midterms, you know, this particular state union always provides an opportunity for any president to sort of reset, uh, to refocus, uh, to, to lay out, um, what, what they've done up to this point, uh, and to begin to set the message in the direction for the midterm elections.

And that's what Republicans, you know, we're looking for.

Um, I think on affordability, clearly that's a major issue across the country.

Is nine months ahead of the midterm enough time to push the reset?

Matt, your take.

you know right now the the political incentives are are not aligned in the sense that you know it's a democratic state uh state and local officials are very opposed to ice in both minnesota and minneapolis uh and at the federal level trump administration feels like they're they're doing what uh president trump campaigned on in terms of enforcing immigration law um i'm not sure that i see a a clear pathway through something that both sides can accept uh obviously uh president trump has announced He's sending his boarders, our Tom Holmans, who to Minneapolis.

He has decades of law enforcement experience that perhaps the White House feels that they need a new messenger or a new quarterback for this particular mission.

I do think that the leadership's been a little bit unsteady at times on this particular matter in Minneapolis.

They need to be more clear.

The messaging needs to be more clear.

If there are limits, more appropriate limits on ICE officials that need to be implemented, That could be something that could be looked at.

Do you think immigration is becoming a political liability for Republicans based on what has happened in Minneapolis?

Matt, how do you see it?

Well, I'd say it's a sign of American strength.

I think it restores deterrence around the world.

Look, I think American voters want to be proud of America, and they want to believe they live in a strong country, and they want to believe that America is doing the right thing.

And I suspect that when the dust settles, 80 or 90 percent of the public will believe that going in and capturing and arresting Maduro and ending the threat he poses to our country and bringing him to justice was the right thing to do.

I do think there's going to be a period of time here where Venezuela is going to be in some level of uncertainty.

They can't obviously have elections tomorrow.

And I guess is this taking focus off the economy, which seemingly most folks elected him for?