Recording of “The Bulwark” Podcast

e e e e e e e e I'm Glenn pal welcoming you to the Texas Tribune Festival every year this weekend is about big ideas about the future of our state and our country in case this is your first rodeo you're going to hear things and meet people you don't agree with and that's the point at trip Fest the rules are we listen to each other we treat each other with respect despite our differences so be kind be courteous and most of all be civil and if you can't be civil well I happen to know a hitman [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] all [Applause] right good hello Texas hello Austin it's good to be back at the of Joe Burrow's great victory in 2019 time I was here good to see you all I'll do a great start yeah am I um we'll just do a little bit of football at the end we're mostly do politics um if you got any questions for the speaker please submit them at texastribune.org ask our questioners I in we'll get to him at the end I get to do the questions for the first 45 minutes so if that's okay uh and we're doing a live podcast so we're all going to play pretend right now ready 3 two 1 hello and welcome to the Buller podcast I'm your host Tim Miller good to be with you uh my guest today is Congressman Colin aled from Texas hey Congressman good hey man how's it going uh we are here at the we're here at the Paramount Theater we just learned Harry Houdini he played here in 1916 oudini Miller it's it's been quite a quite a trajectory it's come quite down yeah the wrong trajectory uh it is uh it's 9:00 a.m. on a weekend in Austin so we're moving a little slow here so not me I behave last night but uh so we'll start with an easy one for you sure uh you're running against Ted Cruz Ted Cruz yay or nay I mean can we say hell no you hell no no listen I mean we've had 12 years of Ted Cruz uh we we've seen feels longer yeah we we we we've kind of seen this this story play out and you know listen he's been an extremist yes he's been all about himself yes uh he's been dangerous to our democracy yes but the fundamental thing is he doesn't care about all 30 million Texans that's how you can go to Cancun when the lights go out for all of us because what else would you do right for any elected official and something like that happens you know you want to spring into action you know Ted want to see if there's a good deal at the Ritz Carlton and it's funny and it's not funny because Texans were dying y and in Dallas I was working with FEMA to try and bring down you know Federal resources we were working with our County to find buildings that had power on we called them warming centers I mean can you imagine eating a warming Center in Texas right and there was so much to do I was volunteering at a local food bank because when the power goes out the food goes out and you know for you to be able to just do that but then come back and say what was I going to do I couldn't hang electrical wires it's like well listen Senator there's a lot that you could do but the first thing that would be required is to care and you know I'm a fourth generation Texan I'm a fourth generation Texan my family's from Brownsville my grandfather was a customs officer there I grew up in Dallas raised by a single mom I played football at Baylor every time I came here to to Austin I let them win um it was a that was my gift uh to UT um although my mom went to UT so I I can say hook them horns um and uh oh come on Tim and so I know who we are and we're not who Ted Cruz says we are otherwise my story wouldn't have been possible yeah and so that's why we're going to beat him on November 5th um this is uh it's going to sound like a joke question kind of but it's a serious one uh which is you can't beat somebody without understanding like what their appeal is and like what is Ted Cruz's appeal like how like what do people like about him and how can you win over at least some percentage of those people since he's won twice yeah I mean this is a this is a tough question to ask me it is tough right um I'm genuinely asking because it's a zero for me on every category Charisma niceness policy I can't I I got nothing but some people like them yeah well listen you know I went to Baylor uh you know I grew up around a lot of folks who uh you voted for George W bush uh who you know real conservatives uh who I respected and I think there was maybe a time uh when there was a thought that maybe he was a real conservative yeah uh that you could actually that would actually try and conserve right sure in the classic sense and protect uh and also grow the economy and do the conservative kind of actions that you know I think is by and large what we see have seen in Texas for some time uh he's not been that yeah he's been a radical yeah he's been a radical who doesn't believe in the Constitution that's how you can be the architect in the Senate side of January 6th he's a radical who when we have common sense legislation that conservatives are saying this is a good idea uh like you know when we had the chips and science act come up and John Corin is helping to push it through in the Senate and I'm helping to push it through in the house you know he votes against it y uh when we are talking about protecting and preserving our role in the world I'm on the Foreign Affairs committee we had funding coming up for Israel Taiwan Ukraine and humanitarian aid for what was happening in Gaza and around the world you know I voted for it uh John Corin voted for it a small handful of radicals in the Senate voted against it some on the far left and some on the extreme far right and he was one of those right so you don't believe in standing up for Taiwan or Ukraine you don't believe uh in investing in our economy you're not a traditional conservative so I think the idea is that uh that he might have once been that I think has been disproven so whatever that appeal was I think we know that's not true I hope so I don't know uh it's certainly not certainly not his personality um that's doing it uh speaking of real conservatives uh Liz Cheney yesterday was over here I don't know do you guys see that she made a little bit of news and she said she was gonna be supporting you in the in the senate race what what's kind of your reaction to to that well you know Liz is a patriot she really is uh she's a friend of mine uh but more importantly I respect her and I respect her because what she has done is you proof positive that there are folks who want to put their country over their party over their personal Ambitions you know I was on the house floor with her on January 6th yeah um I have my story of what happened that day um you know I I texted my wife at one point you know whatever happens I love you she was seven months pregnant with our son Cameron and at home with our son Jordan who wasn't yet too and you know when you're the only former NFL linebacker in the room um and there's a mob at the door you're the first line of maybe everybody like what you going to do Colin you know uh you know so I took off my suit jacket which is actually a violation of our house rules you know and and I thought I was going to have to hold the door the president walks through to deliver the state of the union and my my colleagues were saying you know we're I'm going get behind you Colin I was like okay I guess I could you know my job was to put people on the ground but one at a time be right um and and but on the sixth um you know I saw the determination in her eyes and she has been so consistent ever since and I have tremendous respect for it because to me she is a true conservative and that means that she believes in the Constitution she believes in the rule of law she believes in accountability and she knows that Ted Cruz is a threat to all of that and so that's why I'm honored to have her support and I want everyone out there in Texas who feels like they are conservative that they believe in those things that they're a moderate that they're somebody who feels like U they don't see themselves reflected in this version of the Republican party they they're welcome here they're welcome in our Coalition I want their they want to have their support in this campaign but also want to represent them in the Senate um yesterday on stage one of your colleagues offered a different Theory for why Liz was supporting uh you and K Harris uh Dan kensaw said that uh Liz and Adam kiner are putting their feelings above basic conservative policy he said that their feelings were hurt uh that Donald Trump has been mean to them and that was that was why that was that's Dan caw's Theory what what do you think about that I think folks should remember that when I got to Congress Liz was the chairwoman of the house Republican conquest yeah and even at that time we knew Kevin McCarthy was really weak it was thought that she was going to be speaker yeah right and for her the path all the way to January 6th was she had voted for Donald Trump and and both election twice uh she had not broken with him significantly uh and on January 6 she could have you know done what Kevin McCarthy did you know he gave one speech one day and said that the president Bears responsibility for this and should be held accountable and then a week later you know he's taking a picture right bringing some Skittles down there absolving yeah she could have done that and then she'd be speaker probably right now yeah right so she made this choice because she had she's was standing on her principles and if if that's something that's foreign to Dan or anyone else then maybe they should follow her example instead of you know maybe they should rever her maybe they should look to her as an example you know instead of you know trying to mock her because you know this is incredibly difficult yeah um there is Shany was on a ticket running for president there was another name on that ticket you might remember you have a you have a constituent a couple constituents uh in the Bush family uh George and and Laura um we don't know how they voted though I suspect how they might have voted uh in the past for you and um I'm wondering was have you talked to him lately have you made a phone call have you uh lately no we we no as you said I represented him and um you know he he he called me after I got elected and I I let it go to voicemail and he left me a really funny voice for he's like Congressman he's like it's George Bush you know and he's like I'm not you can do it to the W do will frell yeah and then I met with him and uh we had a great meeting and you know he was hilarious you know he was we laughed the entire time I'm a big Rangers Fan I don't if there's any Rangers fans here but uh you know I I I grew up going to Rangers games when they were basically letting you in for free CU they were so bad um and you know he had been a part owner of the Rangers and we were talking about that and uh but also talking about you know what was going on you know in the Republican party yeah uh and how in many ways uh he felt like he was the keeper of of the true flame yeah right of of what that was and that it was changing so much and his his dad had just died uh and they'd had a you know great funeral that many ways was a repudiation of some of these things right about service and putting country over self and a long career of being a public servant you know from serving in World War II to Congress to the CIA to vice presidency you all the the long career that you his dad had uh and you know I I know that this is not what he wants for you know the Republican Party of the conservative movement yeah and I think our Coalition as we've talked about backstage is a is a is a interesting one you know what I mean and it's one that I think is pro democracy fundamentally y I think it's Pro Constitution uh and it believes in who we are and who we can be instead of trying to radically scrap all of this that we've done for the last 250 years yeah well I think the Coalition has some other things uh together uh W wrote about this in his Memoir there these The Four Horsemen of peril he wrote about Andi was talking about this on Fox the other day yeah I was listening closely to see if she would say one important name she didn't at the end of it like are you going to mention it but the four horsemen were nativism protectionism isolationism and populism he said that they all the if if any of them were rearing their heads it would bring Peril to the country like that opposition to those things is another thing that the broad Coalition has that's right right and I I just do Wonder like if there is a way to kind of Leverage that to to speak to these voters that you're going to need these people that have been Republicans their whole life yeah well I mean that's that's how elected to congress was in a district that was a republican District um be had a 22- year income Republican to get there uh it was you know many ways if anybody knows you know kind of North Dallas it was kind of the heart of you know what used to be the heart of kind of the Republican Party old school big hair you know big big elephant broaches you know we can all picture it yeah like I think one of the most uh you know expensive ZIP codes in the country you know was in my district Highland Park and um and you know listen that is the Coalition that that we've always built and that's the one that I've served in Congress in terms of representing them uh and that's the one we have to do here in the Senate but if you care about you know those things you just mentioned and particularly if you care about you know the US's role in the world or if you care about you know how we're seen uh or if you care about that this project of ours that we've never gotten perfectly but that we've been trying to perfect over time uh then to me you know come on in the water's fine you know what I mean like you know I'm then the most bipartisan texting in Congress if you're looking for somebody who work across the aisle that's me if you're looking for somebody who will represent you and not embarrass you who won't pitch you against each other that's what I want to do for our state and we have the exact opposite in [Applause] Te well it sounds like you have W's number um which I don't I only have jebs I'm I'm working him too but uh I don't know may may you just give him a little buzz and be like hey for hey Mr President will you put Laura on the line you put Laura on the L that's right you know maybe maybe we can get her nudge just just nudge a little bit because I just I suspect that they're that they're not going to be checking the box for Donald Trump um but it'd be nice for them to share that with us uh what else we got here so these same voters that we're talking about they do still have some concerns about I mean it's nice that Dick Cheney and AOC are voting for the same presidential candidate uh but like some of the people in Texas still have some concerns that like the aoc's The World God lover are going to like have be very influenced over over policy in the next Administration and and kind of rationalizing their vote by talk by focusing on policy so as you kind of think about that you said you've been the most bipartisan member like are are there issues where you feel like there's elements of the democratic party that you descent from yeah well I'm somebody who never has approached things from a purely partisan perspective so that's that's part of the the background that I come out of because I think when you're a football player and you've been kind of the backgrounds that I've been in you're more focused on like results and so you to me I feel like I'm in a results oriented business which is that my job is to deliver for folks who are out there working hard and I I imagine my mom who was taught for 27 years in public schools here in Texas and she sometimes had to work a second job you to make ends meet for us and I think those folks are out there here in Texas every day hoping that their elected officials are working as hard as they are but then there are things that come up that you have to respond to and my family's from Brownsville yeah my my grandfather joins the Customs Department in 1939 uh and doing what he was a customs agent at the Gateway bridge in Brownsville which is the bridge you know crosses over into Mexico uh and he served in the Navy in the Pacific and World War to it's where my mom my aunt were born and raised that's spent a lot of my childhood in the valley visiting my grandmother there and so when you have a huge surge of migrants so we had a record number in December 23 you have to identify that as a crisis and respond to it with smart policy with resources and you have to to you know have that sense of urgency and I didn't see that for some time for my party I felt like there was maybe an idea that well if it's being said on Fox News it can't be true right right you know and while that's a pretty decent rule of thumb but you knowen rule of thumbs exist for a reason while while I disagree with having an inhumane approach to the southern border you have to have a secure one yeah and there is a difference and so to me uh you know having stunts like putting buoys in in the river with razor wire around it that's not border security yeah that's just being cruel yeah but what you can do is put real resources into it have real Personnel real technology and so uh I didn't see that and so I was very critical of the party I was critical of the White House at the time but then when we had an effort that did come up finally uh a bipartisan effort with $20 billion for border security that no state would have benefited more from than Texas uh for, 1500 new CBP Personnel 100 new immigration judges I think, 1400 administrative Personnel help of the Asylum over a billion dollars for cities like Brownsville that have been impacted by these surge of migrants more money for technology to catch Fentanyl and I was for it and said let's go for it let's do it right put out a statement immediately uh Ted Cruz said no and he he said no and he even openly said because he was worried that the impact it would have in November yeah so what does that mean it means you think you're more important than Texas right right the your election is more important than Texas and I and I describe it as um going down to South Texas going down to the valley and treating like you're on a safari where you you you put on your outdoor clothes you know that Lindsey Graham picture right right you know he's wearing his border agent uh costume right right and you you got the tag still hanging off you know drinking a chardonay on the boat yeah and you want to look tough right and you get your binoculars and you point things out okay you you oh there's problems I see this I see that well then you go back to DC and do nothing about it yeah don't just point out problems be a part of the solution that's what folks in the valley expect right and so and and here's where I may upset some of my you know Democratic friends here all right good um we have to be much more more realistic about energy uh in Texas we're an energy State we're the number one wind energy state in the country we're number one solar we're number one in oil and gas LG in particular is an incredibly important part not only of our economy but also of our foreign policy of our national security yep so when the Biden Administration puts a pause on new LG uh facilities and and CER certificate certificates that hurts our national security and the Texas economy so I wrote an Ned in in the Houston Chronicle saying this is a bad idea IDE because you know we're asking the Germans to do what we're asking the Europeans to do we're asking them to wean themselves off Russian gas right because that's funding what they're doing in Ukraine yeah right and you know what we're replacing it with Texas LNG right so it doesn't make any sense Winn it's a win-win and also it's a it's a better cleaner fuel than coal or than some of the Alternatives that we see popping up particularly in Asia and so we have to have a more realistic conversation around energy that our Energy Mix is changing but we cannot you know in Texas you cannot talk about you know taking away hundreds of thousands of jobs in the energy energy industry and I will never allow that to happen yeah how do you get the folks that you need um to to hear your message on that I mean I was driving between Dallas and here yesterday and uh you know this one of these built only in Texas Billboards must have been 100 feet wide I was like Biden Harris letting the terrorists come in across the border we all know that bill everybody knows it okay I don't know it was new to me new to me we don't uh we don't have any of those in New Orleans um uh but uh you know okay like that is out there in the water table you know like that that that the Democrats just don't want to do anything about the border that they're letting everybody come across that they want to stop drilling like how do you you know kind of outside of this room like get that message to people that need to hear it well of course we just have to show up and talk about it but also I mean this is the record that I've had yeah and so people don't have to you know past performance is the best predictor a future uh performance and so you know this is what I've done in Congress when we're you taking up uh the inflation reduction act you know some of the initial proposals in that were going to be fairly punitive to Texas and so I and some of my Texas democratic colleagues like what well was like basically instead of saying we want to incentivize you to to capture all the methane if you don't there would be this these big penalties and that that might sound fine yeah when you have a smaller producer right those are the ones who have a hard time keeping up with the regulations the big guys can do it just fine it's the smaller ones who you then if you're penalizing them you might drive them out of business as opposed to incentivizing right right and so that that was the the change in the policy that we fought for and that we got along with Joe Mansion uh in the Senate and that's the kind of thing where you can still move towards having you know much more climate friendly policies and the inflation reduction Act is going to reduce emissions by 30% by 40% by 2030 so that's a it's a big climate bill but you can do it in a way where you're incentivizing the behavior you want as opposed to you know attacking or or penalizing um all right I want to talk about one more kind of I guess this more policy than y thought it was no I'm yeah baby we're going to do we're going to do a little more policy and then well then want to give you a little candy at the end don't you worry I'm this is you know I I know our job up here you got to it's nice it's sour and sweet you got to do the balance you know you got to get both um skitt but one of the hallucinations that they got on over on Fox talking about those guys is that um you know if kamla Harris gets in in there and if the Democrats hold on to the Senate K all red gets gets in there and there's 50 Democratic senators they're going to kill the filibuster they're going to pass the green New Deal they're going to socialize Healthcare they're going to expand the Supreme Court to 19 people I don't know they're going to want that yeah um what is that is that realistic the filibuster has to change um because it's broken um and if you don't mind Tim I'm going to do a little history here do it okay so the history of the filibuster as you many Senate observers will know was that it was used almost exclusively uh to block civil rights legislation to block anti- lynching legislation I'm a civil rights lawyer by training this is you know personal for me uh but it was used very sparingly and it was a talking filibuster what that mean it meant that you would hold the floor and you'd speak and so you know they had they'd have rounds of speakers and no other legislation could move while they filibusters and so that's how they would prevent a Civil Rights bill you know for so many decades from passing even when there were enough technically votes to do it right what it has morphed into now though is that it's applied to every single Bill and you have a dual track where you can fill a buster your bill but something still moves and so this is actually ahistorical where we are now which is that every vote is a 60 vote threshold and you're not having to stand and speak and explain why you're filibustering right you're just you just say I feel I object yeah and then so what it actually I think has done has contributed to hyperargininemia [Applause] like the budget that we're going to hopefully pass at some point um where we have to come over and do all the votes to get it passed because there's only going to be about you know 70 or 80 Republicans who want to keep the government open um but except for that it's it's almost entirely majority ruled the Senate doesn't operate that way and I don't want to see it become like the house but the current filibuster doesn't work and so to me we do have to reform it we have to fix it we have to go back to the the original formulation for it um let's oh one other thing yeah please and that is also why we will codify roie Wade uh and make it the law uh so because you know we haven't talked about this yet Tim but you know what's been happening here in our state is a tragedy my wife and I have been blessed with two healthy pregnancies in Dallas in the last 5 years I've got a five and three year old I know you have a first grader you know when you I I didn't I never met my father my birth certificate ific in my mom's name and and nothing else uh and so when you grow up the way I did you go to every single ultrasound appointment yeah every genetic testing appointment and you hold your breath because you don't know what they're going to say they're like oh you do do the little ultrasound they're like oh it's a boy I'm I can't see anything I don't know what are you talking about you know and all you want to hear is the doctor say everything looks good but if you do hear the news that some Texans going to hear today across our state or there's a problem with a baby or there's a problem with the pregnancy the next thing you want to hear is and here's the plan for how we're going to make sure you're okay but in Texas what women are hearing isn't that they're hearing and there's nothing I can do to help you and you're either going to have to bear this or come back when you're sick enough or you're going to have to leave our state and this is not who we are as Texans uh there's one thing I know about us as a fourth generation Texans that we believe in Freedom and this is not it and so we have to restore roie Wade to this country and to the 30 million Texans here who are living under this for people like Dr Austin dinard who's my friend in Dallas she's an obgyn she's a wonderful person uh her husband is an OBGYN she's already mom and she noticed herself on the ultrasound uh that her baby's skull wasn't forming and Austin uh who is just the the best person had to you leave Texas I think she she's a sixth generation Texan she's even longer than I am uh had to leave Texas to get the care she needs and come back and feel you know Shame about what was going on we have cities and counties in the state saying we're going to see we don't think you should be able to drive through the city or the county if you're going use it to access an abortion how they get enforce that they going to pull Texas women over ask them what's the nature of your travel ma'am yeah can I inquires your condition or with this bounty law that we have here are they going to turn us all into informance informant on each other yeah where it's you're looking over your neighbor's fence and saying I wonder what what her condition is what's going on with her this is not who we are and so the only way for us to fix this in Texas is to cify row at the federal level yeah the uh uh the Bounty law in particular for me um I I I mean I think it's been very brilliant as a marketing strategy the way that the Harris campaign and you have like kind of re adopted the term Freedom like around this context but the other thing the other way that it is anti-traditional conservative I mean you know when I was growing up when I was a college Republican we didn't like the damn trial lawyers all right going to yeah we're going to sue everything like like this whole notion like the incentives are so wrong yeah in a way that that anybody that's looking at this clearly from from a conservative perspective should be able to see right where it's like we doctors there all these horror stories coming out of Texas where doctors where where you know the the conservative people say well Tech technically they could have done that procedure right like under the law but like the doctors don't know they aren't sure and they're scared that they're going to get sueded and so they're like they'll go to jail right and so they're like we'll walk past us you know you go to the you go to the hospital down the street you know and um and like there have been all these stories are coming out that the that the incentives are are forcing doctors to not give care that's even legal care that's right that's scary even if you are pro there's two Texas women who recently filed a lawsuit uh to clarify uh this law who had ectopic pregnancies yep anybody who has been through you know having kids or you know an atopic pregnancy is incredibly dangerous it is not a viable pregnancy it forms in the foping tube and it the only thing to do is to make sure that it doesn't become a rupture and they were turned away by hospitals in Texas in two different parts of Texas two separate stories they were turned away or in one case one of the women's doctors came with her to the hospital and demanded that they treat her and they were saying no and I know who was saying no it was some lawyer right up in you know headquarters saying we don't want the liability of treating this woman and so they were both turned away and they both had ruptures or had to have phian tube removed uh and now their future fertility you is at risk this is outrageous and the other thing I'll say is that from a conservative perspective turning Texans into uh you monitors of each other is how authoritarian States operate yes right that's one of the things they do right is where it's like a lot of these Cas these are wanted bab you know what I mean like a lot of these These are women that want to have or couples that want to have the children it's like even if you're pro-life like even if you're down the line pro-life and believe that life begins a conception the law is that's right it's an authoritarian backwards law well so one quick example of that yeah uh Lauren Miller she's an E8 generation Texan I I always laugh cuz I didn't know we had eight generations of Texans like uh I met an E Generation back to Mexico yeah I met one in the valley the day who said her family was in Mexico and then it became Texas and she's an eight generation Texan um and unist she was already a mom and she got pregnant with twins to your point about being pro lifee one of the babies wasn't going to make it and it was killing the other one and her and at the hospital where I was born in Dallas Presbyterian Hospital her doctor threw up his hands and said you have to leave the state right now and so as sick as she was she went to Lovefield and she flew out of the state and she got a procedure done for by 15 minutes cost her $3,000 and it saved the other twin oh my God and I've met that kid and it's because she got that that procedure that she was able to have that baby so you want to talk about being pro-life in Texas that wouldn't have happened and there are other Texas women who don't have $3,000 right to go out of state who that's going to happen to there are 26,000 Texas women who've been forced to give birth to their rapist child this is according to the Houston Chronicle it's not my number so to go back to your point this is not pro-life uh this is uh deeply deeply anti freedom and it's not a it's not a slogan yeah uh if we want to restore Freedom we have to restore this SM um speaking of authoritarian um how do we like the Attorney General you go this state is he popular in here it's got to be one got to be one is his sister in here or something um somebody's got to like him in here right uh keeps getting elected uh there's a story that um I just as an out of stator I just don't it's like you know it's hard to judge it's like again for me the rule of thumb is Ken Paxton is doing something it seems shady it's probably Shady but uh why don't we talk there are these raids on on uh Democratic activists Latino groups um that were registering voters and uh it seems pretty disturbing but talk about that story so there's that and there's also that he's suing and threatening to uh two of our biggest counties beay County and Harris County because they're they're mailing out voter registration forms Travis they're saying and Travis as well is that okay that was yesterday I was in the Hill Country yesterday okay um and and so let's get this straight okay the counties in Texas run the elections so this is the government entity responsible for the election that's saying here's a registration form that you can fill out and you can mail back and then we and the Secretary of State's office will will verify whether or not you are eligible to vote in Texas and all these other steps as well to be checked against our DPS records uh and so and then you'll be able to vote that's the voter registration process in Texas and so our attorney general is saying if you mail out these forms for them to send back in for us to verify you're going to be getting non-citizens voting in Texas so is he saying that the Texas uh you know the government in Texas can't verify who's a citizen and who's not right right but I think we all know what it in charge of the government right and exactly right it's like the Secretary of State's appointed by the governor but then also your point about these raids on lulac lulac is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country it is not new and you know when you have you armed uh men show up at you know 700 a.m. or something to an 85-year-old's house and go through her underwear and make her stand around in her night gown while you search her house and take her phone and her computers because she's trying to help seniors vote we know exactly what you're doing this is not about election Integrity this is about voter intimidation right and what they want to do is send a message to Texans that voting is not for you I I tell folks all the time that we're a non-voting state and I as a voting rights lawyer I I know part of the reason why and part of it is this overlapping laws but also this sense that it could you could get in trouble I've tried to register voters before before I ever ran for office and I never by the way I never asked anybody who they're going to vote for right I just wanted them to vote but I Tred to register them and I'd say you know okay here's the form and I say no I don't want to I said well why not I said well I've got parking tickets I said well you know these systems don't interact right but then you start to see these things happening in the news and if you're not you know if you're working hard and you're not falling as a Libertarian parking tickets are kind of authoritarian at times I I got the cameras I don't like it's side hopefully if we get over the authoritarian threat we can go back to arguing about like that I don't know but you know if you're working hard and you're just seeing this stuff pop up on your news every now and then you don't really know what to make of it you might think that and think listen I I you know I just I don't want to get any trouble yeah I you maybe maybe voting is not for me and that that is exactly what they're trying to do and so this is what we have to do now in Texas is say they're trying to stop you why are they trying to stop you right because your vote is powerful don't let them and that's what I think we're going to do um all right uh we got to talk about one more tough one and then um and then we can maybe have a little fun uh there's a school shoot another school shooting in Georgia earlier this week um JD Vance I don't if you know him uh he's running for VP uh here's what he said about it um I don't like that this is a fact of life but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines you've realized that our schools are soft targets and we have to and we've got to bolster security at our schools so that's his solution this is just going to be a fact of life and the only answer is to bolster security at the schools what do you think about that you you and I both have kids we do little ones we do and I just did School pickup with my buddy's kid in your neighborhood yesterday when I was in Dallas and I was just thinking about it the whole time watching all those little kids walking out of the school after yaldi the morning after I dropped my kids off at their preschool in Dallas uh and I watched my little one you know waddle in and my older one you know was holding his teacher's hand as he walked in and I was just thinking if anything happens to them I don't know what I'll do I don't know what I'll become like my heart is outside of my chest right now right and every parent had the same look on their face that day and I refused number number one to accept that this is how we have to live but number two we after yaldi we did put hundreds of millions of dollars into school safety we passed a bill called the safer communities act uh it was the first time in 30 years we've done anything to address gun violence at the federal level uh I voted for it John Corin was the reason it passed in the United States Senate uh to his credit oh man please clap John Corner yeah um I can do that I can do please clap jokes to his credit and I'm probably not doing him any favors yeah he was booed booed off the Republican stage after that but to his credit he did that we closed some important loopholes in the background check system we increased scrutiny on purchases uh for folks under 21 we had hundreds of millions of dollars for school safety funding for states to set up their own red flag laws which Texas has not done uh and so we we've and we also had a bunch of money for mental health because folks say uh often after these shootings this is a mental health crisis and this is about school safety those two are both true yeah they're they're always leaving out the third component right which is a too easy access to two lethal of Weaponry yep right I'm a Texan I know exactly who we are okay I went to Camp gr Spruce at pum Kingdom Lake okay if y'all want to know how country Texas you know I can get um and when I when I was seven years old we had a rifle rerange where I was learning pum Lake Pome Kingdom Pome Kingdom don't don't sell it short okay don't sell it short all right I don't I'm I'm learning Texas culture right now all right okay don't sell it short it's it's a it's a kingdom um and uh I I haven't met the king but um and we had a rivalry range where we were learning how to shoot 22s when I was 7even years old it wasn't until I left seven yeah yeah no yes really yes you held a gun when you were seven yes okay okay I don't know it wasn't until I left Texas I'm out of my element I'm out of my ele I was in the Denver suburbs you know yeah it wasn't wasn't until I left Texas and started hearing from folks that it's unusual in other states yeah to give a gun to a seven-year-old it right you know what it was about and I'm being serious it was about learning how to safely and responsibly handle a firearm yeah that's the whole thing it was incredibly safe and I know it's funny but they you know it was all very root you know very wrote and so like there was no chance for any accidents it was very safe and it was about learning how to do this safely and to have fun yeah that's the Texas culture that I believe in one of responsible gun ownership one where this is part of our culture folks have a lot of firearms here in Texas that's good that's fine uh you know most of the folks I grew my you know anyway most folks I grew up with have small arsenals you know what I mean um and and that's fine but we have to be responsible with it yeah and this is where when we come to things like you know what happened in Georgia where having access to an AR this is we see what happened with the father who's been charged uh and then then we see what happens we have to have laws in this country that take and keep these incredibly destructive weapons out of the hands of folks who shouldn't have it Ted Cruz voted against that bill okay so Ted Cruz voted against the Savor communities act he seems to believe there's nothing that we can do uh to help save lives consistent with the Second Amendment I fundamentally disagree [Applause] um uh our man my you know my man BTO um got in a little trouble on this one I mean though I say what you want uh but I do think that as you talk about this balance right like how you win over Texas voters like how do you kind of think about that challenge right like this this idea that maybe you know sometimes uh you know there are people in Texas that feel like the Dem Democrats are going to like you know come and start confiscating their arsenals you know yeah listen you know I obviously there's some folks that if you're fetishizing these things and you know that we're probably not GNA have an open conversation right but I come across a lot of well-meaning Texans and I do mean well-meaning who'll tell me you know listen this is you know it's important to me this is a part of our culture is a part of you know that I've taught my children you know how to hunt I think we should have the ability to have self- protection no one's putting that in question when I'm the United States Senate they'll have nothing to worry about but we will do is make it harder for folks that shouldn't have access to these high powerered rifles to get access to them and that's what I think it's consistent with who we are as Texans and the Second Amendment uh so just just to be clear so seven-year-olds should you be able to go into a Walmart and purchase we an AR15 here and I just I it's hard for me to know the rules these days but uh apparently apparently teenagers can just buy ARS now in a lot of plac that's true actually unfortunately and we have to change that uh the shooter in yaldi the murderer um murdered 19 children and two teachers yeah he couldn't buy a beer he you couldn't buy a handgun yeah but you could buy an AR you couldn't buy a Sig you couldn't buy a Zen right and so th this is obviously absurd it's obviously absurd right and so we can change that but we have to have leaders in place who want to amen um let's all talk to do a little politic and so when I I had bet in the p a couple weeks ago and um I was asking about your race and um you know the challenges and on the opportunities and uh here was his feedback he said um you know I think he can win if he can raise and deploy enough money we should see more of them more unscripted moments more connecting with people what what do you think about that like what's the how do you do it how do you break through where he wasn't able to listen this is a we got a great state it's a massive state in the last month we've done 50 stops in 22 cities and we also have to have the resources to make sure we can communicate in the biggest medium markets in the country and also in markets that places that are completely siloed from each other yeah what happens in Houston nobody knows about in Dallas by and large what happens in Austin is unknown in El Paso right because the distances are so vast here and so it it is a challenge in terms of you know making sure that you can get in front of everybody uh but I we're doing everything we possibly can uh to make sure we do that but also we're making sure that folks know what Ted Cruz has not been doing I want to make sure folks know what I'll do and who I am how I've served in Congress how I serve in the Senate uh but one thing that you know we have done and that I think will continue to do is show what Ted Cruz has not been doing over his time in the Senate that he's trying to take away Social Security and Medicare that he is singularly responsible uh for this abortion ban that we have in this state because he put the judges on The District Court the circuit court and the Supreme Court he backed the state legislators in primaries often who are more extreme to then who the ones pass these laws at the state level he called for and and cheered the do's decision and actually when he ran for president wanted to go further would have a personhood so-called amendment that would ban things like IVF and certain forms of abortion or certain forms of um birth control and so you know listen we have to make sure the Texans know that as well and that fundamentally the choice here is between most bipartisan Tex in Congress who will care about all of us who will represent all of us who's served in a way it shows it's possible to bring folks together instead of hitting them against each other versus the most extreme senator in the country who's been all about himself and who has been podcasting more than than you Tim he's podcasting a lot I'm beating him in the rankings I've been checking I've been checking he had me for a little while we passed him I don't know the campaigned him a little bit can you imagine though representing 30 million people and then doing three to five podcasts a week it's a lot it's a lot a lot of podcast a lot of bloviating right you know um what about the getting attention side of things I don't know you know I so putting on my old former Republican strategist hat you know Republicans like to do those ads they got the guns and they're shooting people and they're like I'm going to take we're going to take out the you know we're going to take out the the ballot boxes was one I saw recently maybe you you should do like some tackling drills like I'm going to be taking out Ken Paxton you have like little fake Ken Paxton I I don't know is there do you need to do do you need to do any do you need to steal anything from my old people to get any attention or anything okay I'll take it we'll just brainstorm we're brainstorming yeah we're just we're just brainstorming um I told you back no bad ideas in a brainstorm no bad ideas let throwing stuff against the wall um I was I was uh last night I was watching the uh Eagles Packers game with uh one of my one of my friends from college and he brought a mutual friend along and he's one of these like Joe Rogan listening Bros and there's like a lot of conversation about this right now there's this hu like an unprecedented gender gap there's always been a gender gap but unprecedent wide gender gap there's a group of young men out there that are not socially conservative that don't want a Donald Trump autocracy really but like culturally they have felt whatever dis SE disaggregated from the Democratic establishment fairly or unfairly how do you how do you like get it feels like those should be getable folks for you you know NL player you're not scary you're not you know what have you thought about that no I have and you know it's actually interesting because you know because I'm raising two boys and and I I I think a lot about uh you know where masculinity is at the moment um but also how do we in the in the course of this campaign how do we reach these increasingly disaffected young men uh and you know in a lot of ways that was kind of I wasn't disaffected but I was in their shoes you know I was you just trying to make it you know uh I was when I went to law school at 28 years old as the first time in my adult life that I was not making my living off the sweat of my brow right I knew I know what it's like to shower after work you know not before it right like uh you're podcasting like me and Ted Cruz that's not really a problem you know you can maybe he gets sweaty podcast and he's kind of I don't know he's not really in fit so it might be might be honorous for him but it's not one of those jobs but you know I was you know I was captain of the team at Baylor and I think what comes with that is is kind of an understanding uh and you know and work working around young men who are kind of feeling like well listen you do you care about me though right and I think that's that's fundamentally a lot of what we talk about uh in politics can feel to I think to young men like it's not about them uh and so that's my job to make sure that they know that I'm going to make sure that they have opportunities to take care of their families uh to get ahead uh that we want to put in place these ladders of opportunity that they can then take advantage of and it's up to them from there and that fundamentally I'm going to care about them I wake up every day thinking about what's best for them as opposed to what's best for me and that's the message that we have to make sure we break through on but I do think you know coming from you know single parent background going to our Public Schools uh you know playing sports here here and having made it in that regard this is what you know a lot of young men that I come across this is what they'd like to do or what they'd like the kids to be able to do yeah right and so that there's there's a connection that we have to build there yeah is there a way to get to I mean maybe you're already doing this and I just haven't noticed it since I'm you know not a Texan uh but like is there a way to get to these guys through I don't know Sports Talk or like you know other ways besides you know doing the traditional yeah and we we've been doing some of that and and that's that's some of the stuff I really enjoy actually you know it's it's because also it's it's not so political and listen obviously I'm in office I'm running for office I'm actually just not a hyperarc at things that way I'm not I don't wake up in the morning and think what's team blue doing today you know I'm I don't you know the my uh my thought process is not about politics at all time this morning I was you didn't have like a little picture of Walter Mondale in your bedroom growing up the great de Democratic leaders P an Richards an an Richards poster well I do have an an Richard that's that's an an kind of bridged the political cultural divide a little bit you know yeah that my my mom was a huge an Richards fan and so was I um and Cecil Richards is a friend um uh but you know listen like you know I woke up this morning and all I wanted to to you figure out was what happened in the game last night you know um and that's how a lot of people are and so those are the those are the opportunities I appreciate uh so what's what's the problem with the Cowboys things are things are ugly over there it seems like they're in shambles the Texans are going to be good Texans are going to be good I think but the Cowboys are in shambles they had such a good year and it's just all falling apart is Jerry what's what's happening Jerry Jerry blowing it I don't I I don't think they they won 12 games I mean you know listen they they they flamed out in the playoffs yeah um and that's been a consistent problem for them not performing in the playoffs but they got an incredibly talented team I think they're having a good year actually you think they're have a good year but I just don't know what they'll do in the playoffs U and so I think they're going to be okay they got you know we got a lot of talent but to me the better team in Texas professionally is probably going to be the Texans they got a uh and I say that as somebody who the Texans were my division rival when I was in the I really did not like uh the Texans that was back when uh they they were really good and Matt sha was a quarterback Andre Johnson at receiver uh Adrian Aon Foster at running back they had kind of a a triple attack there uh and they ran this really annoying stretch play that was very hard for defenses to stop anyway you ever get a good hit on Aran Foster uh Aran probably I I was I was more of the guy who came in in short yardage and goal line or somebody got hurt or special teams which is what they do before they go to to the commercial got it yeah so um that's how I made my career uh but I think they're going to be really good they got a great young quarterback and they got a really Talent the team good and I played against their head coach actually who's a great guy all right we're going to audience questions I'm boring people with football we've seen two seen two ladies leave already nothing wrong with that we can talk about uh we can talk about whatever youall we can backstage we can do a little gay lady talk you know we can get off this football um we had some questions ion do we have you have questions are you in charge of that there's an ion somewhere hey there he is there you go there he is actually before we get to I can we just end the podcast here hey everybody that was congressman Colin all R running against Ted Cruz thanks so much for coming on the bullar podcast yeah thanks for having thank you thank you thank you okay first question uh water levels in Texas have remained critically low in places like Brownville in the face of recent droughts what can you do to help ensure that Texas doesn't run out of water yeah um I was just in the valley water yeah we are actually are just in the valley and they have been going through a drought although it was raining uh which is good and I really mean that uh listen there's there's multiple components to this there's a foreign policy one uh which is that we have to make sure Mexico kind of keeps their commitments and releases the water that the valley uh relies on uh there is an infrastructure challenge uh here in Texas we waste billions of gallons of water uh to faulty and aging infrastructure uh this is something that we try to address and and we the money is starting to come in uh with the infrastructure bill that I voted for that's T crws voted against right uh and then there's efficiency and making sure that what we have you know we're using more wisely it's not just in in the valley it's also in the Panhandle uh folks relying on uh the ogalala aquafer there uh that is being drawn on and we're facing some very real water challenges and we have cities like DFW and the DFW metroplex that are growing so incredibly rapidly and and when it comes to things like that you have to plan decades in advance uh and so this is why it's important to have people who actually are serious about investing uh in what's come what comes next so when you see the bipartisan infrastructure Bill uh which Mitch mccon voted for which I voted for I'm on the infrastructure Committee in the house and you see someone like me say we're getting you know $35 billion over five years and it's going into our water infrastructure into our roads and our bridges our airports our ports of Entry our ports this is the kind of things that we're talking about and also resiliency for the extreme weather events that we know that we're going to be experiencing right uh and then when you see someone like Ted Cruz vote against it understand that that's what they're voting against they're voting against our ability uh to prepare for what's coming to deal with uh the droughts that we know we're going to continue to have this is an aspect you know that's we've had for some time but that because of you know the climate is continue to get worse so we have to prepare for that and to make these smart Investments thanks uh the next that's that's a that's a big cheers line you know [Applause] uh uh the next qu audience question the Texas legislature has passed uh many anti-lgbtq plus laws what are you going to do in the US Senate to represent and support lgbtq plus Texans man this is just heartbreaking to me you know I'm I'm of these people I think I I think that y'all means all thing I mean that's who we are as Texas you know like and to your point Tim about being a bit libertarian like Texans like this is this is actually I think fairly new this is not like an obsession you know people identify and who they love uh it's coming to our politics and you're seeing them targeting the most vulnerable people in our state and I I am sick of it listen if you want to there's one thing that I tell my boys every day not to be and it's to be a bully don't be a bully and that's what they're doing they're bullying kids in this state they're bullying People based on how they identify but we can override all of that at the federal level there's a legislation that I voted for co-sponsored that we've not been able to get through the Senate called the equality act the equality act would level the playing field in terms of extending the Civil Rights protections that we have uh based on race and gender national origin to uh sexual identity and how you identify and so and it would say right now in Texas it's still true that you could get married on Saturday and we fire it on a Monday the equality act would make would invalidate all that and so you know I'm I've been a supporter of that my entire time in Congress Ted Cruz I've never seen him spend more time on one single issue than when budlight had a trans spokesperson for one half second it's like one can like a promotional single can like this is more he spent more time on this than anything dealing with you know National Security or you know policy you spent weeks on this you know I thought cancel culture was a problem right exactly and also corporate corporations making a decision of who they of who they want to sell things to you want to be Pro business right you know but it's just an example though that leadership matters and having a leader who doesn't Target and pick on people but who who says I appreciate us for our differences I think that makes us great that that will make a huge difference for our state the uh um the on this that gets under my nerves the most I guess and now that I got a kid in school is the parents right side of this it's like we got to be par we got to take the gay Penguin book out of the school so that because the parents get to choose whether or not the penguin book's in there and and I was I was like well I'm a parent don't I get to have a saying that like why is it that the craziest Maga parent is the only one whose rights matter in this situation that's right that's right that's right shouldn't have parent deal you know like it's parents rights is just a code for like a certain type of parent also Banning books man like like have they heard of the internet like on you know what I mean like when they do that all they do is create a list for these kids to go read they're like oh oh thank you you know I should go check out beloved you know what I mean like you know it's ridiculous uh you mentioned fentanyl earlier how important is com combating the spread of Fentanyl and fentel related deaths to your platform and what policies would you implement I'm getting embarrassed about my questions the audience questions are all much more serious than mine well it is what like you know 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday right and uh UT is playing Michigan and everything you oh yeah that's right uh so uh we can align on this one I'll be for the horns today yeah yeah well well they're going to win so I'm not that's that's my professional opinion so um and so I'm sorry what was the question fentol f f okay okay all right so let's talk about it so uh you know fentanyl in particular uh is something that is very difficult ult to deal with the trafficking of it because it can come in these precursor chemicals and be combined you can buy a pill press on Amazon right uh and there are a there's a multi level steps that we have to take to this one is making China crack down on what is happening in China and this is something I've been doing in the Foreign Affairs committee uh because in an author an authoritarian State they know what's happening and they know who's shipping what to Mexico and to the United States and they can help us be a part of that uh when we've had disputes with them in the past they have sometimes said we're no longer going to help you on the fentanyl side and that has to be Central to our negotiations with the Chinese that you have to help us with this we're going to force you into doing this the other part of it is at the border but it's through ports of Entry uh and we have technology that can help us detect fentanyl uh it's incredibly expensive and we don't have enough of these scanners and that's what was in the bipartisan Senate border bill was funding for this right and so if you want to talk about being tough on fentanyl which I want to be and we've got to stop this this is unbelievable what's doing to our communities then you have to then make the investments in the technology that help us detect it and so when Ted Cruz voted against that he was voting for fentanyl in our state right and so then there's that and then there's some aspects of uh we've been working on that if something is being shipped under a certain value then sometimes it doesn't get the same scrutiny and it's it's it's very complicated but basically some of these small shipments are are going around our our tracking and we have to change that because this is how uh even in small amounts when you combine it you can have you know these uh produce fentanyl here in the United States and in Mexico and and bring it across and so this these are multiple Pathways to this but you have to make serious Investments about it and then the other side of it of course is on the public education side which we've been trying to do for some time which is informing our young people in particular you know that pill that you think is you know a peret or something yeah it's it's probably Fentanyl and don't don't take that right uh you know as a cons of mind uh family beautiful family their son U just you know happened to you thought it needed something to help him study uh and he he took a pill and it killed him and you know he wasn't somebody who was you pushing pills or anything like that he just he just wanted a study Aid and so part of this is we also have to in all of our capacities make sure folks know that this is a different environment you can't just buy stuff off the street you can't trust this it it is and probably you know can be incredibly deadly for you all right we're out of time thank you so much Ian hey everybody the big uh what go find somebody in your life go find somebody in your life that doesn't believe their vote counts in Texas because it does Texas can turn this is possible I think that the apathy is a big problem in this state and um I think this a man that can do it so good luck Congressman all right you thank you thank you everybody thank you all thanks everybody e [Music]