... that was a unique part of this.

I, I think one of the things that we really tried to hit in the issue...

We probably spent about 10 or 15 minutes on the issue of slavery, and A couple things.

First of all, a lot of the founders, and I think this is again going back to the propaganda of the progressives that somehow, you know, a bunch of white-haired, old, old white men who were, you know, terrible on a whole variety of issues, including slavery.

That's unfair to probably at least half if not more of the founders who were adamantly opposed to the issue of slavery.

And in fact, that was one of the things that might have ended the Constitutional Convention and led to America being more of like 13 small nations, which they did not want.

I mean, they-- the, the country was already failing after the Revolution.

They can come in and regulate." And these rules are made outside of elected officials, and rules become Treated as laws

And it was really a great refresher course to see what happened during that movement in the early part of the 20th century.

So threadofliberty.com is where people can go to watch and it'll take them to the YouTube.

They'll watch it for free, threadofliberty.com.

But right, those different inflection points.

And the last inflection point that we really address is this, the rise of the administrative state.

And, you know, progressives, a lot of people have wanted to kind of the, oh, wasn't the progressive movement great? They wanted better food quality and suffrage.

Great, no arguments there.

But the hell that they went through, talk about that for a moment in the Reconstruction.

I thought, are you kidding me? Like, why do you think the president of the United States and his whole team would come and do this just because they're a bunch of cynical hucksters? I guess that's what a lot of the mainstream media elites think, that they listen to a word they say.

There are a couple of things at play here, Eric.

One is Trump derangement syndrome is an incurable mental disease.

And a lot of people have been infected with it.

It is incurable.

So we have to take that into account.

The other thing is, too...

This is their worldview.

How do you how do you make that? How do you get that to have staying power?

So one, I totally agree.

People want to talk about all these threats to the American Republic, to our country, all these things, China, Russia, whatever.

I think the existential threat to our way of life is the administrative state.

When you have unelected bureaucrats who are doing the real governing, and in many ways they are, their statutes and regulations, this is what frustrates me about Congress, Don.

They pass these massive four or 5,000 page bills that are kind of vague, and then they let the bureaucrats fill in the lines with their statutes and regulations, which do the real governing, because Congress in many ways is too afraid to take hard stances for fear it will hurt their reelection chances.

You know, I think the one thing that your dad has done in the second term, and I'm applauding, is he has shrunk the size of the bureaucracy, I think to the smallest size since it's been since the 1960s.

they're not.

I mean,

she is.

She's not she's not as right wing as you or me, but she will stick you hard.

But the thing that I remind people all the time, first of all, we're talking about Maine.

We're talking about a state that's not terribly conservative.

It's pretty incredible that every time we have needed Susan Collins to step up on big issues that are tough ones, whether it's Kavanaugh, you name it, guess who always steps up to the plate? It's Susan Collins.

And sure, she votes, you know, the wrong way sometimes.

Tell us about it and where we can find

Do you think Republicans have a better than 50% chance of holding the House and better than 50% chance holding the Senate?

I like our chances in the Senate.

I, I really do.

I, I think it's gonna be almost impossible for us to lose the Senate.

I've seen some turn, like some positive turns in our poll numbers in some of these Senate races that were a little too tight for comfort a few months ago.

I like our chances there.

Um, in the House, our redist- the redistricting wars, we have won.

What was your approach?

Tell me, what do you think is gonna happen in 2026?

(laughs) Many wonderful and interesting things, Kurt.

No, I, I think 2026 is gonna be, e- e- especially about the midterms, is gonna be about three different things, I think in my mind.

At least three.

Uh, affordability and healthcare, and, and I've told POTUS this, we're not gonna win on running against socialism or on foreign policy even though I really like what he's doing on the foreign policy front and, and love the resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine.

Uh, it's gonna be about affordability and healthcare.

How are we gonna make the lives of the American people better? Are we gonna make their lives, uh, better on the fro...

in Town Hall soon, I love J.D. Vance, which is why I want him to be in a hard-core primary fight.

How are we fairing at this moment?

So I wanna make a couple points really quick.

Virginia, there's about a quarter million...

We don't do partisan registration here, but there's about a quarter million more Democrats than Republicans inside of Virginia, so you're playing, you are playing a stacked... a, a rigged game, a stacked deck.

New Jersey, I think it's 600 to 800,000 more Democrats registered than Republicans.

Again, rigged game.

So when people say we should draw, you know, take lessons from '25 and apply them to '26, you can't really.

... that's, that's the thing I worry about.

How do we bring them to heel?

So a couple things.

I, I, I still think there needs to be a case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court in which the Trump administration pushes the envelope and says...

A- and most of the administrative state, for those listening, I, I, I want to remind them, most of this administrative state resides inside the Article II branch, the executive branch of which the duly-elected president is the head of it.

And I want them to push a case to the Supreme Court to make a very definitive case in which they argue that the head of the executive branch, Donald Trump, has the ability to hire and fire whomever he pleases inside of the Article II executive branch, and push that to the Supreme Court and say, "Ultimately, it's up to whoever the president wants, uh, to have o- on his team inside the executive branch." And if they agree with him, if we can get that case, it'll probably take 18 months to two years so we don't have a whole lot of time, get it to the Supreme Court and they make the decision on behalf of Donald Trump in saying the executive has this power, then he becomes the Demolition Man.

So I know that Russ has got a couple things that he's working on right now, but that to me is the definitive case.

If we can get that to take place, Trump can start to fire hundreds of thousands o- of employees inside the executive branch, and even more so, Jesse, we have to literally implode buildings.

Am I wrong?

It's, it's bad." And we're just sort of like, "Yeah, just exercised power." What do you think?

Exactly.

No, I mean, this, this to me has always been...

I don't even want to say a great disappointment with Republicans, just shameful behavior by Republicans.

When given political power, they don't know what to do with it.

Um, you were given political power for a reason.

You should use it, and I think Donald Trump has actually started to inspire some Republicans, uh, to, to use, to wield that political power as it should be wielded.

How do they think this plays out?

... actually gonna go to prison, 'cause no one ever does, but I'm still enjoying this.

Yeah.

I have to tell you, I'm quietly optimistic that someone and, and, and actually multiple people are going to be prosecuted, uh, for what they did in this, this treasonous conspiracy.

Uh, Jesse, what Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday is that they have over 100 documents that actually link to President Obama actually directing this entire conspiracy out of the Oval Office, something that we've suspected for eight years, that this really would end up in the Oval Office, with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, John Brennan, James Comey.

A criminal conspiracy, uh, slow-moving, slow-moving coup against Donald J. Trump, uh, in which they not only attempted to, uh, destroy the peaceful transfer of power, but, but tried to take out Donald J. Trump.

So, I, I think there's going to be enough evidence.

A- and I would remind people, the statute of limitations, um, only begins on a criminal conspiracy when that conspiracy is disavowed.... or in the last case, a perjury.

Who can go to prison for how long?

Yeah.

And at the same time, uh, they have absolutely almost no interest in being fiscally responsible.

So, but then I take it a step further.

Congress has done this, but you expect Democrats to do the wrong thing.

It's Republicans in Congress that have been really, I think, kind of the villains of the 20th and 21st century in regards to they're not really representing the American people.

They're not representing the best interests of the American people in regards to who's actually legislating, but also how they're spending money, and I think they've been spending it irresponsibly.

So, you know, if you really wanna, you know, get down to brass tacks, Republicans in Congress, it'd be really nice if we started upgrading the quality of them in the primaries of '26 in the House and in the Senate.

Yes

[laughs] Right

...

he hit the ground running and made it very clear, uh, with his executive orders.

I mean, he- yeah, I kind of put them in three different buckets, Dan.

O- one was obviously the idea of border immigration/ci- citizenship.

Um, the other one was energy.

And then obviously, and, and then the last one was administrative state.

Shock and awe.

Okay.

But then the next step becomes [clears throat] listen, I...

Donald Trump to me, listen, nobody's perfect, right? We all have many imperfections, and nobody's a perfect person.

But I think Donald Trump's a man for the, man for the hour.

He has shown and demonstrated political courage.

I, I can't, I cannot even begin to imagine the last four years of the political, the lawfare that has been put on him, used against him, the incredible pressure to try and destroy him.

And I've told people this, and I'll say it here.

Yes.