[laughs]

Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm gonna be on Team Hopium.

Look, two years ago when I ran, um, we...

Senator Jon Tester ran then too.

This was the most expensive per capita race in the history of the nation, that Senate race was, and it totally nationalized everything here.

$321 per voter was spent on that race.

I mean, that is an astounding sum of money.

Walk us through why you got there, why you wrote this book, and kind of where you land on this.

When we tried to warn some people during the campaign about it, they were in denial, but I don't think they're in denial anymore.

One story though about...

Like, I was in the Billings clinic, um, during campaign, shut the door, wanted to talk about Medicaid expansion.

They said, "Hey..." And I wrote a Substack about this, but this is what's coming down the pike for the country and for Montana.

They said, "Just so happens we have a older native American gentleman who was just, uh...

We just put him in the ICU.

He had multiple heart attacks this morning and his story is one you oughta hear." I said, "Well, what happened?" They said, "Well, a couple weeks ago, Gianforte..." Who is our governor, had used this, this trickery which...

Sorry.

Can you explain what's going on? Because when you hear about an administration that wants to sell off some of our most precious land, it's got people worried.

Well, it should.

Thanks for having me, Stephanie.

You know, you're right.

When it comes to things that are exceptional in America, public lands is chief amongst them.

Um, I'm a big advocate of our rights and the words in our governing documents, and those are beautiful, but no place else on the globe do we trust, do citizens trust themselves to own 640 million acres.

So if you're a single mom in Chicago or a farmer in Iowa, or you're sitting on a set in Washington, D.C. or New York, you own this land right along with everybody else.

Why is it different this time, Ryan? 'Cause they may get it?