Jenny Beth sits down with her longtime friend and coalition partner in crime for many battles in Washington, DC, The Honorable Paul Teller. Paul spent many years on Capitol Hill as the Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee in the House and as Sen. Ted Cruz's Chief of Staff. Paul spent all 4 years in President Trump's White House, first as a Special Assistant to President Trump for Legislative Affairs, and then as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Vice President where he was a liaison between the White House and conservative coalition partners.
Jenny Beth sits down with her longtime friend and coalition partner in crime for many battles in Washington, DC, The Honorable Paul Teller. Paul spent many years on Capitol Hill as the Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee in the House and as Sen. Ted Cruz's Chief of Staff. Paul spent all 4 years in President Trump's White House, first as a Special Assistant to President Trump for Legislative Affairs, and then as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Vice President where he was a liaison between the White House and conservative coalition partners.
Website: https://advancingamericanfreedom.com/
X/Twitter: @AmericanFreedom @JennyBethM
Paul Teller (00:00:00):
I still wonder what the other side thought or thinks it's doing right. How can you possibly embolden the world's leading sponsor of terrorism? The mortal enemy of us, as you said, of our great friend, Israel, frankly, of even other more friendly Arab partners in the region,
Narrator (00:00:21):
Keeping our republic is on the line. And it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author of filmmaker and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she is most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:00:53):
There are many people who work tirelessly behind the scenes in the conservative movement to fight for the values that you and I hold dear. My next guest is one of those people. Paul Teller and I have worked together for more than a decade on some of the biggest battles that have occurred in our nation's capitol. He's worked on Capitol Hill for conservative rock stars like Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Jim Jordan, and he also worked in the White House for President Trump and for Vice President Mike Pence. Paul has dedicated his life to fighting for freedom, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to him today. Paul Teller, thank you so much for joining me today. Absolutely. In a few minutes, we'll talk about how we got to know each other and Capitol Hill battles. Oh yeah. Look forward to
Paul Teller (00:01:35):
That.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:01:35):
You are a Jewish conservative. Yes. And Israel is a few of us in the news right now. Tell me, what were you thinking on October 7th when the Sabbath massacre occurred?
Paul Teller (00:01:46):
I mean, that would be our entire show, I guess, right? Just that reaction, but we don't necessarily want to do that, but obviously just disbelief at first. How could this be happening? It was you get little news reports, little social media, little, we have friends and family over there. We have friends of friends or family of friends. All the different combinations and messages were coming in from them, and it's kind of like, is this real? Is this happening? Then once it sets in right that this, oh my God, this is actually happening. You just have this tremendous anger. We had this, the disbelief turned into anger and you just wanted to, I guess, fight back, reach out to something, and yet you just feel helpless. So I try to do as much as I can through public policy channels, which I guess we'll be talking about today. But yeah, obviously just a horrific day, and it's unfortunately going to become one of those days where I think every year, like nine 11 and other such holidays, we'll be noting it with horror and hopefully with hope as we go forward.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:02:59):
I hope that we do get to a point where we can look at it with hope, but right now it is just a terrible situation. What are the kind of public policy messages that you think are important? In fact, before we get to that, one thing that you said very early on, and I may have even messed up an interview because I don't know all the ins and outs of international policy, but it's very important that we're talking about what happened in the Gaza Strip and that Hamas did, and what are some of the messaging things that we need to understand about the history of this situation of Israel?
Paul Teller (00:03:41):
And that's a great point. I think what I've been amazed from the left, and there's a lot to be amazed at what's coming out of the left, and I'm sure we'll get into that, but one of the almost immediate messages was, oh, see, we need a two state solution. This will solve it if we just had a two state solution. What's amazing saying that at this moment is isn't that exactly what the problem was? In other words, Gaza was an entirely Palestinian controlled area. No Israelis were living there, no Jews were living there, and the Israeli government didn't have any effective control. And of course, you look at the map, Gaza's, this little rectangle carved right out of what just should be regular Israel, and yet this is what we get. And here's the thing, none of this is new. In fact, I was pulling up some of my old documents from the Republican study Committee, we'll get into that history, but from 2001, 2002, when I believe it was Hamas, but certainly just Palestinians from Gaza were reigning rockets into Israel, into the same towns that have since been destroyed or where so many people were killed or injured.
(00:04:47):
So none of this is new. And yet again, some folks on the left are saying, well, if we just had a two-state solution, and again, I go back to saying, that's effectively what we've had in that part of Israel, and this is what you get.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:05:02):
We also were having to fight back against attacks from the left. I would imagine from other countries as well on social media that Israel has the right to defend itself. If somebody did this to America, we would want to defend ourself, and Israel has the right to do the same.
Paul Teller (00:05:21):
Yeah, no question. Any other country would do this, right? Especially proportionally. Right? And there's different numbers. I haven't actually run the math, but reports say that the equivalent of 1400 deaths to Israel would be like, I think it was 30 or 35,000 deaths in America. So just imagine a day where it was, let's call it 10, nine elevens on the same day, and would we show restraint? Would we talk about ceasefire? Would we talk about even civilian casualties in the area where we were retaliating? Never in a million years, you have the right in wartime after you've been unjustly attacked to just go in and clear out the enemy. So it doesn't mean we should cheer that there will be some innocent loss of life. Of course, that's not the goal. And that I guess is the difference between the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. One of the many differences, right? There'll be civilian deaths in the Palestinian areas, but that's not the goal to kill Palestinian civilians. The Gazen and Palestinian goal was to kill Israeli civilians. That was the entire purpose of coming across the border and coming into these homes, communities, and just doing all the horrible things that folks have been reading about.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:06:34):
And most countries separate military bases from civilian places like hospitals and schools, and that doesn't happen in Gaza, right?
Paul Teller (00:06:47):
And it's nothing new, right? This is decades and decades of them doing precisely that where they'll either dig these sophisticated tunnels that we're all learning about, or again, even just sometimes we've seen pictures, read stories about just weaponry and other stocks just in the hospital, just in a community center in a school, you'd open up, oh, there's the chalk, there are the erasers, and there are the grenade launchers. I mean, just right in the same building. And it just shows you the total disregard for life that the Palestinian mindset has, that they just would put their own kids, their own disabled, their own age in, and just any human being there deliberately in harm's way, knowing that rockets can come raining down on them from what they would see as the enemy side.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:07:38):
So as we look at what the options are from a public policy standpoint in America going forward, what are some of the things that you think should be happening?
Paul Teller (00:07:50):
Yeah, totally. And frankly, some of the things are already underway. Newly minted, speaker Johnson put out an excellent appropriations bill for supplemental appropriations to Israel, and it's very targeted. It's very limited in scope, low dollar amount compared to what we do in Washington and has an offset, which is also fiscally responsible, does not have Palestinian aid because why aid the enemy of the friend we're trying to help? And the folks who started this in the first place, and it's not attached to anything else that divides the GOP doing this Israel aid package unites the GOP frankly unites the whole Congress. Folks who are around the country are always saying, can we look for things that actually bring Democrats and Republicans together? This is it for the most part. We know there's some on the Democrat side that won't agree with anything, but for the most part, this really should be unanimous.
(00:08:41):
So that's one thing, but kind of a second subset we've been talking about is just make sure that, like we were saying before, we don't fund the enemy at the same time. So that means making sure there's no dollars going to anything Palestinian related, not just Hamas, but Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Palestinian Liberation Organization, any of those entities, they all work together. They all trade funds, they all support terrorism, unfortunately, and of course, and I'm sure your listeners are super familiar with this, but Iran, the Biden Tar Administration has bolstered. Iran did the exact opposite of what the Trump Pence administration did, and has funneled either directly or indirectly, billions of dollars in cash in exchange for hostages, or frankly even just in exchange for restarting this Iran nuclear deal, which supposedly is supposed to bring peace to the region. And as we see, all it's doing is fueling terrorism, fueling attacks on American targets around the region, Iraq, Syria, and other places. So yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:09:46):
We back in 2015, worked with Senator Cruz and had a rally to oppose the Iran deal. And in 2015, actually a lot of the presidential candidates today were there, including Trump and Cruz. Cruz of course is not running for president right now. And DeSantis spoke at it. Mark Vin, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Phil Robertson, a lot of people spoke at this. One of the things that we said as Tea Party, Patriots action took this on was that the Iran deal posed an existential threat to our country and to Israel. And if it was implemented, Israel would be attacked and Americans would be attacked. And eventually America, you've got the little Satan and the big Satan in the eyes of the Iranians, Israel being the little Satan and America being the big Satan that we would be attacked as well. And as we watched what happened with the Sabbath massacre on October 7th, I was thinking, everyone who warned about this, we were right to be concerned back in 2015 and throughout the Biden administration, and now we have to pay a very heavy price.
Paul Teller (00:10:58):
Yeah, no question. And you just wonder, I still wonder what the other side thought or thinks it's doing right. How can you possibly embolden the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, the mortal enemy of us, as you said, of our great friend Israel, frankly have even other more friendly Arab partners in the region, and yet somehow we think let's embolden those guys that'll help us, our allies. I am not even seeing the logic there. It might just be purely ideologically driven that anything that Trump folks did, the Biden folks have to do the opposite. I mean, that's the only thing I can come up with. But like you said, it even predates Biden where the left has seemed to embolden Iran for years.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:11:49):
Well, and it went back to the Obama. So while it may be something that is anti-Trump on the left, I think that there is an ideological divide with how to deal with Iran, period.
Paul Teller (00:12:03):
Just let's be extra super nice to them and they'll just ease off. And frankly, not to divert topics. We can get to that later too. But similar logic, I think for China where a lot of folks, including the conservative movement, and I'm guilty of it, but years ago, thought that if you just trade with China and be a little nicer, that they'll be a little nicer to us. And we see that that did not work in China, and it's not working in Iran, the Middle East at all. And I think that's why it's so important that Israel is doing what it's doing now. You can't just say, let's talk more. Let's negotiate more. No, you just harmed and killed tens of thousands of our citizens. When you count everybody altogether, the time for discussion will come later when we eradicate any possible terrorist threat ever coming at us again. So yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:12:58):
Let's go back to the bill that as we are recording, this is currently moving through the house. You said something about how it's $14 billion and it is offset. Now that makes sense in Washington dc, but people who don't live in DC may not know what that means. Explain that. I
Paul Teller (00:13:14):
Know, and I apologize. Yeah. So as Jenny Beth is very well familiar with, a lot of times Washington just spends money and just borrows it and spends it or takes it out of some other account, just spends it doesn't say, Hey, let's spend new money here and let's cut lower priority spending here so that it's kind of a net zero, it's equal for the taxpayer this time they're actually proposing to do that. So while it's about $14 billion in totally new money to Israel, supplemental emergency aid, however you'd want to call it, instead of just leaving it at that, which would be the normal Washington Way, speaker Johnson and House Republicans are saying, no, we're going to cut other spending that we don't like. Or it's lower priority so that the taxpayer is made whole. And in this case, they're proposing to eliminate 14 billion in the unspent aid to the IRS General Revenue Service. For
Jenny Beth Martin (00:14:08):
Me.
Paul Teller (00:14:09):
I mean, I would imagine everyone's on our side supportive of that, especially because that was the additional money for them to hire additional agents to come after the average citizen to come after conservative groups and lean in on them even more heavily than they already are. So it seems like a wonderful trade. It's good financially, and again, both policies are great. You're helping your friends and you're taking a whack at the IRS. Perfect.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:14:35):
So it will be interesting to see how that vote happens by the time we air this.
Paul Teller (00:14:42):
It may
Jenny Beth Martin (00:14:43):
Have already happened, but that is the kind of thinking that we've been calling for years that we want to see happen in Congress. No, in
Paul Teller (00:14:52):
Fact, I harken back to it's 2005, this is how old I am, but I can remember political memories from 2005. We had this at the Republican Study Committee, house conservatives proposed operation offset, we called it. And actually Mike Pence was the chairman of the RSC at the time, and it was offsetting federal aid to the Gulf Coast region. Hurricane Katrina had just devastated the area. And I think universally everyone felt, yeah, let's help out as best we can within reasonable limits, but can we please cut lower priority spending so that a weather disaster doesn't turn into a fiscal disaster? And that effort did wind up getting us some offsets. I don't think it was fully offset, but we got some and it was worth the effort. And like you said, we just need to do it more. Frankly. We should be doing it every time. It shouldn't be a rare thing.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:15:43):
Absolutely. So tell people who are listening and watching about what is the Republican Study Committee. They may have heard a little bit about it with Speaker Johnson becoming speaker, but you are very familiar with it. And then also about what the House Freedom Caucus does. Yeah,
Paul Teller (00:15:59):
Absolutely. Yes. So sorry for bringing that out without all the background details. Was privileged to work for the Republican Study Committee. It's a caucus of US House conservatives. Was actually formed in the early 1970s when some house Republicans felt, hey, Nixon and his folks Republicans in the house we're going a little soft working too much with the Democrats. We need a principled conservative pushback alternative in the house. So they created this kind of agitator caucus and it just lasted for decades and decades, was privileged to work. There again, it was 2001 through 2013 through seven different chairman, some names your listeners would certainly know. And it always was known as the caucus that would push on principle that would advance the constitution. And sometimes that meant going against your fellow Republican president or fellow Republican leadership. And again, it got to be known maybe a little bit as the troublemaker caucus and trouble in Washington means, as Jim Jordan says, you're standing up and doing what you said you would do that gets you in trouble in Washington, and it still exists to this day, but kind of spun off from the Republican Study Committee.
(00:17:13):
It was the House Freedom Caucus, I believe, 2014 I think is when it was created. And it was mainly a group of house conservatives who felt that the Republican study committee gotten a little bit too big, too many members in there that weren't as kind of hard charging principal conservatives as had been in the past. So they said, we need to form our own caucus. And I would say so both exists side by side now. And if you had to say what's the specialty of each, I think RSC has remained or retained, I should say, its expertise at policy development. So they'll write a detailed white paper analyzing a bill that's coming to the house floor, giving you the details, why conservatives should be concerned, options for amendment ideas, things like that. Freedom Caucus specialty seems to be floor action. How do we advance a certain principle or stop something really bad by actually going to the floor, taking hardcore action, communicating it out to the grassroots, building that inside outside alliance. So it's good to have both going forward.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:18:12):
Yeah, I think that it is recent. Was it most recently Mike Johnson was the chairman of it, or had someone else become chairman?
Paul Teller (00:18:21):
I was going to say, I think there've been maybe one or two since then. So Kevin Hearn of Oklahoma, his current chairman, but Johnson, I'm forgetting my math. It may have been one or two chairman ago, but relatively recently. Right? Yeah, exactly. And actually his executive director, Dan Ziegler, so the RC executive director under Mike Johnson, we just learned is going into the speaker's office with Speaker Johnson. And we see that as a win because Dan Ziglar also worked at Heritage Action, which is the kind of activist arm of the Heritage Foundation. And so he comes from the conservative movement, he understands us, he's worked with us, he knows us and will certainly be an open door into the speaker's office and leadership in general, which conservatives haven't always had over the
Jenny Beth Martin (00:19:06):
Years. I was thinking the other day, I don't think I've ever been in the speaker's office. Oh, is that right? Okay. Been
Paul Teller (00:19:11):
In the
Jenny Beth Martin (00:19:11):
White House. I've been in the minority leader's office, but once they became speaker, we never really had a lot in common with Exactly. Vayner or Paul Ryan McCarthy. Certainly not Pelosi.
Paul Teller (00:19:23):
Yeah, right, exactly. Well, I'm guessing that's going to change. I don't want to speak for them, but I'm guessing they'll invite us in for meetings and consultations and things like that. So looking forward to that.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:19:32):
Well, I think that'll be a good change to happen inside of the Republican conference. When you step back and you think about the fact that conservative groups, whether it was Tea, pretty Patriot's action or others weren't even invited to participate, how could we help them advance anything if they're doing something good when they weren't really communicating with us very often? Well,
Paul Teller (00:19:58):
And the frustrating thing, I'm sure you've felt this over the years too, is sometimes leadership in conjunction with corporate allies around town would create something, come up with a legislative package or solution and then say, okay, here's what it is. You're going to support it. Right? Jenny Beth or write conservative movement. And it was like, we don't really love it. We didn't help create it. We could have told you early on that we wouldn't have liked this, and here's what we've been saying. So that's kind of been frustrating over the years when folks just develop things without you and then are mad at you for not loving it as the deal, as they'll consensus package. But again, I would imagine that's not going to happen anymore under Speaker Johnson. I would expect that we would see much more bringing in conservatives on the front end so that they know any concerns immediately and ideally incorporate those into the legislation.
(00:20:54):
And I think frankly, perfect example is this Israel Bill, he heard the conservative movement saying, our focus right now is Israel aid. It's an emergency. Let's just do that. These other complicating factors that some are saying to attach onto that Ukraine aid border security aid, we can handle those separately. And even border security aid, which you may think, wait, don't we all love border security aid? Well, it depends how they do it, right? The proposed border security aid for this go around would just really help the Biden administration take in more illegals and disperse them around the country. So it's things like money for flights and buses and processing centers and judges to hear the cases of all these thousands of people coming across every week, every month, that doesn sound like day every day. It doesn't sound like a conservative solution. So yeah, isolate the Israeli, he heard that from the conservative movement, did it, and then we're moving forward and we've got to support him.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:21:58):
Right? Exactly. I think that we're going to see some very positive changes. I'm not naive enough, or maybe I'm cynical enough, I don't know which or both. I know that everything that our organization is going to advocate for, we're not going to get,
Paul Teller (00:22:13):
Which is true with any.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:22:15):
And I think that we are smart enough to understand that. And sometimes you have to stand for a principal because somebody needs to be standing for that principal. And other times you can say, okay, we're not getting everything, but we're getting something and so we can support it. Or if we don't completely support it, we can at least point out the good and not attack it. Exactly. Right. And sometimes that's kind of where we fall, so we remain neutral. Talk about the positives without completely supporting or attacking it. Yeah.
Paul Teller (00:22:46):
Well, and also how I hope Speaker Johnson and the whole leadership team uses the conservative movement, if we can use that term, uses relies on the conservative movement, maybe works with is a better phrase, is to say, Hey guys, I'm getting pressure not only from the Dems, but moderate Republicans, kind of just regular run of the mill Republicans. Any chance you can help me and cover my right flank here by proposing X, knowing that negotiation will have to come to a more middle solution, but if they rely on the conservative movement to tug things to the right that could get better solutions for America, frankly. So we're hopeful. We're hopeful that that would be a great way to rope us in, not just to kind of send supportive press releases for things they negotiate with other people, but bring us into those negotiations, help us tug things to the right as far as possible.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:23:41):
And you're familiar with that because that's what you were doing when you worked for President Trump and Vice President Pence. A lot of your job was coalition building and including people. Yeah,
Paul Teller (00:23:53):
Absolutely. It's great honor to be in the White House all four years, January to January survivor, I guess. And yeah, most of that time working in the legislative affairs shop under President Trump, first three years, fourth year was directly in the Vice President's office, but all four years doing conservative outreach, different groups, the Hill, and especially how many of the conservative groups were working with the Hill to advance the president's legislative agenda. And a lot of times it was building coalitions, bringing different opinions together, delivering sometimes not the greatest news, but sometimes delivering fantastic news. And again, like you were saying, very often working with folks to say, Hey, we could really use some pressure from you guys from the outside public pressure and sometimes private pressure, but public pressure on a certain proposal because the president is hearing from other voices that are maybe not as conservative as we would like. And so yeah, that was something that I think we did well together and as a movement. So yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:24:59):
I think that we did, and one of the most important parts about that that I think Speaker Johnson could learn from, I think he already knows this inherently or instinctively, but we didn't see it from other speakers, is that when you bring people in and you at least listen to what they have to say and they feel like they're being listened to and you're acknowledging what they're saying and you're telling them the plan for how they can get there, even if it isn't as quickly as they want, they develop a lot more respect. Even if they're not getting everything they want, they can say, okay, we support this much, or we won't completely attack you for not doing what we want in another place.
Paul Teller (00:25:41):
Yeah, a hundred percent. You build that trust, that fellowship, even that kind of leads to future wins hopefully. But even if it's like, Hey guys, you're going to kill me. I didn't get the thing you were asking for. Here's what I think I did get in exchange. Here's how we can work together in the future. Please don't beat me up over the head. Yeah, nine times out of 10, that will absolutely work. We will absolutely comply, if you will with those requests and live to fight another day. But you're right that some of the leadership in past years where we worked together didn't always see it that way. They'd rather have beat us over the head and sometimes even publicly, rather than kind of bring us in the fold as friends throughout the process and we return in kind. So yeah, you're exactly right.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:26:34):
Going back to your work with the Republican Study Committee, that's when the Tea Party movement first started. Amy Kramer, who was a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots and also the Atlanta Tea Party with me, she and I came to Washington DC and our congressman was Tom Price. Absolutely. And he was the chairman of the Republican Study Committee at the time. Absolutely. I don't even think I knew before we went to DC that June what the RSC was. Now I call it the RSC probably. Yeah. But I met you then in his office, and really you taught me so much about how Washington works and the way to think about the kind of calls, calls to make if you're putting pressure on a member of Congress. And I learned a lot about the timing and inflection points from you, and then also from Michelle Bachman, especially when you're dealing with the media and then Louis Gomer and Steve King who were the
Paul Teller (00:27:38):
Trium
Jenny Beth Martin (00:27:39):
Everyone to the right as far as they could. But I learned so much from you, and I think that over the years, part of the reason that the House Freedom Caucus ultimately started is because a lot of people who were elected through the Tea Party movement didn't completely agree with what the Republican Conference was doing. But I can remember being in his office and meeting with you. I also remember one time where I got home, it must've been in July or maybe August, I don't remember exactly which month, but sometime during 2009, I got home on a Friday and you said, I think that there's some congressman who'd like to speak with you, so I'm going to put you in touch with 'em. And it happened to be Michelle, Steve and Louisie, and they said, so we know you just got home. Can you please fly back? Oh God, tonight
Paul Teller (00:28:30):
Actually, I actually do remember that. I actually remember that it was
Jenny Beth Martin (00:28:33):
Like, today, you need me there tomorrow morning on a Saturday at 10:00 AM possible.
Paul Teller (00:28:38):
Right?
Jenny Beth Martin (00:28:39):
Okay. Okay. Let me see if I can, and I did. I
Paul Teller (00:28:43):
Actually do remember that. Oh, wow. Classic.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:28:46):
But it taught me, and you helped with that, that sometimes what's happening on Capitol Hill is so urgent that if you want to make a difference, you really have to drop everything else. Time is now and go do it. Because if you miss the opportunity, it's over and there's not another chance to take action on whatever that vote might be. No
Paul Teller (00:29:06):
Question. And let's face it, our adversaries, they're working seven days a week, 24 hours a day in different time zones, that kind of thing. So yeah, if we kind of turn off our phones Friday at 3:00 PM go to happy hour and don't turn it on until Monday 7:00 AM with our eggs or whatever, we would miss so much of the fight. We'd be behind the eight ball to say the very least. Yeah, well that's great. I totally remember that. That's great. And yeah, Tom Price was a great chairman, wound up being HHS Secretary Health and Human Services secretary under President Trump, and it's just still a great conservative down in Georgia, of course, great activist. But yeah, I think that's what you mentioned too, is another great point. We should emphasize that many of that Tea Party class of 2010 came in with such great promise.
(00:29:56):
They were elected as these movement winger activist conservatives. We don't have to name names, but let's just say more than a handful, really turned out to not be that. And frankly, many of them had joined the Republican study Committee because for better or for worse, and we can get into that, there was a policy at the time of basically any conservative or any freshmen I should say, who wants to join. We just let 'em join on the notion that, well, they know we're the conservative caucus. They want to join us. That's great. They must be conservative. Well, looking back, that was obviously a mistake because there were some folks that really weren't conservative. Maybe they branded themselves as conservative to get elected in 2010. Then they got to Washington and didn't act as conservatives yet. They were within the RSC and pushing and proposing things that were less than conservative. So yeah, that definitely was part of the problem, helped spin off the Freedom Caucus, things like that.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:30:52):
So yeah, so it's been a learning experience from you, and one thing that my team and I, we always go, okay, now what is Heller saying? If we trust your instincts on it, and sometimes I appreciate it. You and I have been on coalition calls with other groups and we'll hear whatever the latest plan is that may be happening on Capitol Hill that deals with spending, and you and I are both, and we all know you need to watch for that continuing resolution that's going to hit sometimes time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they're all in January thinking of, I don't know. They're much more optimistic than you and I are. Well, and
Paul Teller (00:31:32):
That's the thing, and I hate that we've become that way, these jaded, cynical, whatever. No, but the truth is, and hopefully we're both still smiling and pushing onward, whatever, and there is still hope for conservative wins, but yeah, you're right. So much of this stuff, it's like, Hey guys, we've seen this movie before. We've watched this. We know how it's going to end. It's like a Hallmark channel movie. He's going to get the girl at the end. You know what I mean? There's going to be a continuing resolution that continues all the Biden spending that we hate, or there's going to be an omnibus appropriations bill where they shove everything into one bill or maybe two kind of still giant bills where they'll put everything and say, oh, it's not an omnibus. It's two bills. But it's still a lot of funding of things that we supposedly oppose that we supposedly said we'd get rid of that very often doesn't have the opportunity to be amended to be changed by conservatives on the floor. That's very unfortunate, but I hate to say it looks like barring some really weird change momentum, we might even be headed for the same thing this year, this month and next month. And not that it's Speaker Johnson's fault. He was obviously handed this sandwich
Jenny Beth Martin (00:32:48):
Sandwich. Think why he was he's speaker right now.
Paul Teller (00:32:51):
Right? No question. No question. Because yeah, this train is maybe running down the tracks and too hard to stop it in time. We'll see. We're going to try right as conservative movement, we're going to make sure we get some conservative wins on any likely continuing resolution in the next couple of weeks and then see when we can actually cut government. That's the thing that I think conservatives, your listeners are clamoring for. When are we not just going to trim a little bit off the edge, a little less money than last year maybe, or just a little more money and be happy? No, when are we actually terminating programs, terminating authorities, shutting down buildings, shutting down agencies, let alone massive reforms and cuts and spending? So that's needs to happen.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:35):
It does need to happen. I think that what will likely happen, and you can give me your thoughts on it and correct me, is that we'll get to the Thanksgiving continuing resolution deadline, so it'll be late November 17th, I think. Yeah, I think
Paul Teller (00:33:51):
That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:52):
And it'll probably get punted, hopefully Speaker Johnson gets his way, and it's not at Christmas and New Year's, but a little bit later in 2024. And I think it's really important that the appropriation process for FY 2025 begins early in 2024, and they vote and they force Democrats and liberals and moderate Republicans even to take votes and to show the distinction between what conservatism is and what the leftists want. And then we're still not going to get based on what is going on in the Senate and what's going on, who is in the White House. We're not going to get everything, not even close to anything that we want, but it makes the case so that if we win in 2024 in the elections, then we've got good legislation ready teed up and ready to go, no question. And people have seen the difference and they're voting for something different that might cut some of the programs, especially with the woke stuff going on in the schools.
Paul Teller (00:34:58):
Yeah. Well, and frankly, you see a lot of that mentality on the Senate side, meaning you don't see a lot of amending going on. If you think about it, even just a few short years ago, the Senate was kind of known as, well, this is where any one senator can do anything he or she wants. You can amend this. You can propose that that's kind of been shut down in a bipartisan way, I hate to say. And so it is hard to get those votes that show differences. Why don't we offer amendments even if they're not going to pass, like you said, but let's get folks on record and say, Hey, you want to defend that program, this authority, that law that's got signed in during Covid, whatever, great. Go ahead. Let's put it out there. But you don't often see that. And while it's better in the house, this also goes back to our Tea party days where spending bills would come to the floor under what's called an open rule, which just is Washington speak for Any member could submit and offer any amendment that's at least the tiniest bit relevant to the bill, that kind of thing.
(00:36:03):
Even that has been restricted under Republicans and Democrats, and it would be great to go back to the ability for open amendment, an open free flowing amendment of process. I argue that that helps conservatives and we could get more of those votes that show the true differences and actually get some conservative priorities attached to these spending bills going forward.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:24):
And I think maybe this is where I'm optimistic, naively optimistic, but I think even if Democrats are offering amendments, that's good for America as well. I may not like the amendments and they may be creative enough to force some really tough votes or get things passed that I wouldn't necessarily like, but that is part of how the legislative process is supposed to work in America.
Paul Teller (00:36:51):
Exactly right. The notion that some elected officials feel like they should be shielded from having to do anything that's remotely difficult politically, and it's like, no, I'm not sure that was in the job description. Sometimes these votes are going to be a little bit tough, but the truth is, and we always said this out of the Republican study committee, freedom Caucus also still says it, if you just vote on principle, vote with the Constitution, vote with your conservative beliefs, your heart, you're going to be fine 99 out of a hundred times, and it won't actually even be a politically difficult vote, that kind of thing.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:37:24):
Yeah. It just means you have to have principles and what they are fall back on
Paul Teller (00:37:28):
Them every time. Exactly. But something we should also point out that you mentioned is if we kind of keep kicking the can down the road, a cr, maybe it's not to December, it's to January, it's to February, things like that, then you're starting to run into the spending bills for the next year, which, so these things may merge, be confused, be conflicted. It's hard to know exactly what to do. And too many folks also get really excited about the number. We cut a hundred billion in spending. Let's just say we even get to that, which would be nice, but sometimes you forget funding a little bit less of all the things we still hate is not the greatest win and that we shouldn't be cheering that. Right. So that's what I was saying before we got to actually start terminating things, actually shutting it down, pulling things. If you have weeds when you're garden and you just kind of snip the top of the weeds, most of the weeded is still there, the roots are there, they're going to grow back. So you got to actually, I know it's a little bit overused analogy, but you really got to rip it out from the roots. So I think we need to think more like that and less of how do we just trim a little spending off of all the things we hate?
Jenny Beth Martin (00:38:41):
Speaking of what will happen next year, one thing we should be thinking of right now and guarding against is a lame duck session of Congress tied at the same time with a lame duck president, potentially, hopefully. But we don't want all of that to happen in a spending bill to pass at a time where the new president or the reelected president, whoever it may be, has no say on it and the Congress
Paul Teller (00:39:08):
Maybe switch on
Jenny Beth Martin (00:39:10):
As well. And usually that's what seems to happen every four years,
Paul Teller (00:39:14):
Same kind of thing. It's that Hallmark movie, you know how it ends, but hopefully not again, hopefully, first of all, just being aware of it. Right? You're aware of it. I'm aware of it, are now aware of it. So that helps. And I think what we're going to see in Speaker Johnson and his team is that they don't want it to be that same way. They're not waking up in the morning saying like, Ooh, how do we do it? Exactly. The last 10 years, they're ready to make those changes. We just have to remind them of that. Right.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:39:43):
You know what we should do? Mike Collins, congressman Mike Collins had great social media. He
Paul Teller (00:39:49):
Really did. The speaker, what a comedian,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:39:51):
And he had the Groundhog Day video. Oh, that's right. We should go and talk to his team and tell them we need to create that now so that we can prevent that from happening next year.
Paul Teller (00:40:01):
No, that's a really good idea because, and again, your viewers are sophisticated enough to know this, but as a quick reminder, what makes these things so tough is when there's deadlines that fall leading right into a big holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a big recess like July 4th, the August recess where they take four or five weeks off for summer break and trips to God knows where, all kinds of stuff like that. It just creates that, I would argue artificial pressure to get something done before Thanksgiving. You don't want to go home for Christmas not having done X, y, Z. Maybe one other thing we could help is try to eliminate those deadlines, not even just in the legislation when there's literally a deadline, but just to help folks say, if we go home for Christmas and it's not totally solved yet, not a problem. The moon's not going to come crashing into the earth. You know what I mean? It's okay. We can actually legislate in January too. It doesn't all have to be done before the calendar winds down on December 31st, so that maybe could be part of helping with that psychological pressure to do things before holidays.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:41:10):
They create this momentum and there'll be a timer on the television, sort of like the Covid trackers. Yeah,
Paul Teller (00:41:18):
Countdown. It'll
Jenny Beth Martin (00:41:19):
Be a countdown until doomsday or countdown until physical cliff or until financial crisis or whatever it might be. Looming dead crisis. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It counts down every day and then it counts down the hour and the second as you get in 72 hours within 72 hours. And the media helps with that pressure. No pressure. I don't even think they create it. I think they collude together to help create the pressure. And yet you hit the deadline as we have seen over and over the earth keeps spinning around
Paul Teller (00:41:52):
The sun. Amazing how that works.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:41:54):
And the world doesn't actually end, and we don't go over an imaginary cliff. The cliff will be if we keep spending like we're doing and keep letting the government get bigger and bigger and bigger and more powerful and take away all of our freedom.
Paul Teller (00:42:08):
And that's amazing. So I shouldn't say so few, but many politicians don't see it that way, especially with the debt ceiling that you brought up. So many folks just make it like, yeah, literally if we somehow hit that deadline, which by the way in and of itself is very often fake. It is fake. It's kind of made up. But if somehow we go right past that deadline, I mean, yeah, just big sinkhole are going to open up in the earth and we're going to all be sucked into the, I mean, it's as if we really can't go past it and come up with solutions to prioritize spending, still pay the bond holders and other people that the government has legitimate debts to, and then maybe not pay some of the lower priority spending that should be cut anyway. I mean, it's amazing that that's seen as crisis moment. So I think that's incumbent upon us to keep reemphasizing with our friends and others. It's really not a crisis. The deadlines are totally made up. And how do you know they made up, coincidentally, the debt ceiling deadlines always seem to come right before some sort of a recess,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:43:13):
Always
Paul Teller (00:43:13):
Early August or early July or amazing how that works. And it just coincidental, that's when there's going to be this debt crisis is just before people have to go on vacation. They want that feeling of you got to do it now, and when you have to do something quick and with not a lot of thought, you're not going to do the greatest thing and you're certainly not going to do the conservative thing, which in the case of debt and spending requires a lot of work to shut down agencies, the defund agencies and things like that requires more work than to just say, yep, same as last year, and just increase the numbers by 10%. That's easy. So it's hard work, but we're up
Jenny Beth Martin (00:43:51):
For it. That's right. Okay, so now you are working for Vice President Pence, former Vice President Pence, and what all is, and he's no longer running for president, so we don't have to talk about the presidential campaign, but what are the kind of things that you're working on that help advance an America first agenda that he helped advance as vice president? Yeah,
Paul Teller (00:44:14):
No, I really appreciate it. So the group is called Advancing American Freedom. We like to say our name is our mission. So quite literally every day that's all we think about. What are we doing to advance freedom in this country? And our argument is, if you advance freedom in this country, you're advancing world freedom at the same time. So we really do approach all issues, cultural issues, we call it opportunity issues, the economy, things like that. And then American leadership, foreign policy, that kind of thing. We try to do it all. We defend vigorously the policy successes of the Trump Pence years, no question, proud to have been there, prouder allies were there, proud for so many successes. We vigorously pushed back against the left in their attempts to undo those amazing successes. You saw it from day one, Joe Biden comes in and just in a flurry of executive orders in that first January undoes so many of the Trump Pence policies. You're seeing it on the border. You even see it. And this is unbelievable when I tell this, do you know he even undid an executive order that said, when you have new federal building construction, you have to take classical beauty into account. And he undid that. And it's just like, isn't that bipartisan? We all want beautiful buildings. You look at the
Jenny Beth Martin (00:45:32):
Left usually likes culture.
Paul Teller (00:45:33):
Well, yeah. And it's like you look at some of these government buildings that really are truly so ugly and wouldn't you want fewer of those and more of the ones that look like, let's say the US Capitol or something like that? Nope. So he even repeal that. So we push back on them repealing these things and advancing all their horrible left things. But then I think the most of what we do is just look future focused, not to be too heavily focused on the past and just say, how do we get conservative wins, policy wins, how do we help restore freedom? How do we restore constitutional thinking across these issues in legislatures around the country, in US Congress, in the culture, in the conservative movement, wherever we can. And with great allies like you, it's been easier. So thank you. That's
Jenny Beth Martin (00:46:17):
Great. And you've done the organization, you've written papers and there are things like that that you're doing, but you've also had a lot of amicus briefs, amici brief, I don't know how you say that. Yeah,
Paul Teller (00:46:30):
I guess, yeah, Amicus briefs. Yeah, exactly right. That's been part of it. We realized that the left for so long is trying to advance its policy agenda. I mean, they're trying to do it in so many arenas, but one major arena, the courts right, legal things that they maybe can't get through a legislature or get a popular referendum on or get a governor to sign, I have an idea, let's sue and get it through the courts. And so more and more we're trying to push back, and the right in general is trying to push back so many wonderful groups doing it. But yeah, we decided to jump in with a variety of amicus briefs on issues ranging from the chemical abortion, drug parental rights and education, and just so many other key topical issues where we can jump in, try to get as many allies on the brief as possible.
(00:47:17):
We don't just do it ourselves. We try to build that coalition we talked about earlier and just file in cases that seem to have some real life religious liberty cases or even we have one where we're on the side of fishermen who didn't want government bureaucrats on their boats while they were fishing. Literally, there was a regulation saying, if you're a boat of this size and this volume, you have to literally have a bureaucrat on your boat. And it's like, okay, is this America or not? I mean, it's unbelievable. So we're using a way to advance policy conservative policies, doing it the way the left has done it in the courts usually, not necessarily by suing ourselves, but pushing back when there is an existing case.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:48:04):
That is, I think, really very important. And it's a way that other groups can get involved and when there's alignment with what you're doing, step up and be part of a broader coalition.
Paul Teller (00:48:14):
And that's the thing too. And we started that from the very beginning. I think maybe our first amicus brief, we kind of just did us. We were just putting our foot in the water, okay, we'll do that alone this time. We didn't trust ourselves. If this was good work, then we realized people were noticing. We said, yeah, let's make sure that instead of just following it, filing these things as advancing American freedom, we can do it on behalf of 10 20. Sometimes we've had upwards of 70 conservative groups and leaders sign on saying, I agree with this logic. Let's side on the side of freedom, that kind of thing. So it's just a great way to bring the movement together.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:48:50):
That's great. Now you also are doing things within that organization that have to do with the border, and you had a border visit. Had you been to the border before that?
Paul Teller (00:49:01):
That actually was my first time physically to the board, been to South Texas. I was privileged to be senator and Ted Cruz's chief of staff. And when I was chief, took a visit to, I think it was Macallan, Texas and Laredo, Texas and some others, but didn't actually go to the border itself. We were close and we just had meetings and conference rooms, things like that. Might've gone to one border crossing, if I'm not mistaken, but at the time it was, I think we just went to illegal border crossing. So they were showing us how they scanned trucks coming through and the legal operations, but never saw the illegal stuff going on. Yeah, just a few months ago. And a colleague of mine went down, spent three days in that same region, Laredo, Macallan, that kind of thing, and could actually send your readers if they're interested.
(00:49:53):
We have a report on our website, advancing american freedom.com. But it just was probably one of the most gut-wrenching things I've ever done and seen. And to go, and you've done it too, and to see it with your own eyes, it just helped you bat down any argument that anyone says that's not happening. Well, funny. I actually saw it with my own two eyeballs or no, it's not that way actually. It is. I was there and talked to the ranchers who live right on the border, talked to the law enforcement on the border, and just saw these just terrible conditions that folks are enduring to make that trek up through Mexico and come across.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:31):
What was one of the things that stands out the most that you witnessed? Every time you're there, you see
Paul Teller (00:50:37):
Something. You see some, right, exactly. So we were privileged to have gotten a river boat tour, which normally sounds great. Hey, a riverboat tour. This of course not very glamorous and a little nerve wracking too because we're going down and as you know, the Mexico US borders right in the middle of the rivers. You have to make sure to stay on the right part of the water. And just, there was at one point we looked up, there was a little small craft that kind of flew over our boat and we were asking our guide, what was that? They're just looking to make sure you don't have drugs and guns or people on your boat. And we seem okay, so they're letting us go. I'm like, oh, great, fantastic. But I would say that on that riverboat tour, just seeing basically the little villages that pop up of people who come right up to Mexican border and the cartel say, no, no, you can't cross yet. You cross. When we say, and we say when you pay is a lot of it. And just seeing the filth, the garbage, the pigs, literal pigs sifting through the garbage. Sometimes you'd see people waiting and they were just filthy and overtly thin and all that. So I think that that's going to live in my head for a while. That's not something that's made up or dramatized on TV or whatever. That's real.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:52:08):
It's very real. I've been to a place in Texas where people go across the river and then they take off all of the clothes they had on and they put on different clothes and they just leave the clothes. And this is a property that a house is sitting on, and there are houses that probably were built along the river because it would be beautiful, nice view and normal circumstances, but it isn't anymore because it is just, it's a dump. I mean, they physically are dumping, dumping dirt, not dirt, but trash there and don't clean up. And then they just go on and in through the country, not legally at all, just they go
Paul Teller (00:52:50):
On in, strolling in. Right. And that's the thing that, another thing that struck me, we met with a rancher who's property right on the border, and he was saying that we've learned that if you see the cartels, especially if they have people with 'em and they're moving through or whatever, you just kind of turn around look the other way. Because if you approach them or imply that you're going to shoot them, report them, whatever it is, they'll just tell you, well, funny, I see your house over there. I know where you sleep. Your daughter's in there too, isn't she? Okay, good to know. The implication is we'll come get you, your daughter, whoever else. And so this rancher was telling us it's just sometimes easier to just kind of flip around and take a little stroll on another part of your property while they're going through. Just horrifying. Just think about that and maddening, right? This is your property, this is your land, and yet you're basically being told, don't worry about it. Ignore that. Ignore the international criminals that are traipsing across and doing horrible things, so horrendous.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:53:52):
And when you move away from the border and you get into the rest of the country and you live in a nice suburban neighborhood or even rural areas, you don't cross into people's yards, right?
Paul Teller (00:54:03):
Yeah. You would never,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:54:04):
I was taught you don't even go into the, you walk up the driveway. If you're going to the front door, you don't go through the grass. And so the things that we are taught growing up about respecting other people's properties completely just completely disregarded on the border,
Paul Teller (00:54:20):
And somehow these ranchers and other property owners there are just supposed to take it, right? Well, it's where you live. You're just supposed to. And no, it's outrageous. And it violates really just about everything that we believe in America from life to property rights and ability to pursue your own happiness and having international gangs come across your property. And by the way, some of them will actually come into the homes and just kind of say, yeah, thirsty. I'm just getting a drink or It's really hot. I need to get out of the sun. So I mean terrifying stuff. But again, there's not a lot law enforcement's trying to do all they can down there, but they're quite literally handcuffed by the Biden administration and their policy saying, no, you can't get these people and toss 'em back. You can't send them back process and send them in, and we will just hope they show up for that court date.
(00:55:14):
I'm sure they will. That was, by the way, another thing that I'm sure you learned as well, how I always thought until I was there that the cartels operate just on the Mexico side. I figured, no way. I couldn't believe it. They're deep into America sometimes because maybe the people they're helping cross haven't fully paid their debts yet. So they send a cartel guy to watch over the illegals that are maybe getting a little job to help get some money to pay the cartels back and the cartels will stay on the American side. Unbelievable. I had no idea. That doesn't seem to get out very much. At least I hadn't heard
Jenny Beth Martin (00:55:49):
That. And so there are few things going on. You've got the human trafficking aspect and the people who are coming in and falsely contrary to American law, claiming asylum and are being granted temporary asylum status even though it is contrary to American law and even international law. And I learned that during the Trump years, if you're claiming asylum, you were supposed to stop at the first country that can offer you asylum, which certainly in this case would be at least Mexico. Exactly. And that is not happening. So this is completely contrary to the laws. You have all of these people coming through, but then you've got criminals and people who've been deported who, and if you were deported under this administration and you can't get through a regular entry point, they're doing something really bad, letting everyone through pretty much. So those people, then people who are moving drugs through, and then people who were coming from countries of special interest, which kind of brings us full circle because those are people coming from Russia and China and Iran usually. But the people who are bringing, we'll come to the full circle part in a second. The people who are bringing the drugs through those people, as long as they can get past the interior border patrol and local law enforcement, once they get on the expressway in Tucson or San Antonio or Houston, they can go anywhere in the country. That's it. Yeah. They get to the interstate and the interstate connects every state in the country, and then they move the drugs through. And that's how the drugs wind up in our communities locally.
Paul Teller (00:57:33):
No question. And again, the border patrol would love to stop this. They feel hamstrung. They feel stopped by administration policies, which were the total opposite of the four Trump Pence years where I think we reduced illegal immigration by something like 90% during our four years, then the previous four years. I mean, just unbelievable success. But again, this is not something that Biden Harris felt was something they wanted to keep. They actually wanted folks to be able to come through, which again, is one of those things where I don't fully get right. It's easy to say, well, they assume these are all Democrat voters and cheap workers for their corporate buddies, and there's probably some of that. But when you hear about the child trafficking, when you hear about the international gang operations, the drugs, illegal gun movements and stuff, at that point, then shouldn't we all be unified?
(00:58:28):
I don't understand why even the left doesn't say, Hey, that's wrong. In fact, one quick anecdote that a law enforcement official told us, he was saying that we can't even stop known child sex traffickers. So they gave an example of one guy who came in, they'd seen him before, so he comes in, goes around somewhere else, comes back. He had seven children with him. And of course he says, these are all my children. Oh, well, one of them's a nephew, but these are all mine. And they're looking, and of course the kids have these horrified looks on their face, but this law enforcement official said, we just had to process them and let them into the country. This is a known child sex trafficker, so God knows what's going to happen or had already happened to those seven kids that he was claiming as her own.
(00:59:19):
So that goes back to the Trump years when the left and the media were saying, it's terrible, the Trump administration is separating parents from their kids. The answer was, because we don't always know who the real parents are, who the real kids are. And in a lot of cases, it's these traffickers that are bringing kids. So yeah, separate 'em at least certainly temporarily, if not more. So you can maybe get some honest answers out of the kids if you could talk to them privately. Hey, is this really your dad? You can get some of the truth out.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:59:50):
I have seen, I fly a lot. I'm on the road a lot I've seen coming out of different airports, including Phoenix, especially the red eye flights. I've seen people who I know are immigrants. You can tell what a regular business traveler looks like, and you can tell what an American tourist look just like someone moving through the country, not for business, but we tend to carry more designer bags or water bottles that are a little bit more expensive or just we're not walking through the airport with plastic grocery bags.
(01:00:35):
And so you see this and you think, I don't think that they're the normal. I think that they've come from the border and they're moving through, and I don't know where they're going, but they're flying through Atlanta to go somewhere. Then other times I've seen a group of people with a person who has paperwork for all of them, and then for certain, this is a group that is, they're moving through and our government is paying for this. So once they get here, we finish the job for the cartels. We send them wherever they say that they want to go, and we're paying for the flight, we're paying for the travel, the bus ride, whatever it may be, and moving them on throughout the rest of the country. The mayor of New York and citizens in Chicago somehow think this is a governor of Texas fault, and part of it is because he did bust some people to other parts of the country. But the fact is on the border itself, in their videos of this that are online that people can find before they even cross into America, they'll tell which city they're going to. Yeah,
Paul Teller (01:01:40):
Right. Great
Jenny Beth Martin (01:01:41):
Point. The sheriffs have told me they have written down the city that they're going to in a phone number, and then they get there. Maybe
Paul Teller (01:01:46):
They have family there or something, or
Jenny Beth Martin (01:01:48):
They're plugged back in with a cartel to do work. That's the sheriffs think. A lot of it's happening, and it is troubling to me to have learned all of that this year in May through July, and then watch it in real time, and I can't stop
Paul Teller (01:02:04):
It. I know you feel perilous, right?
Jenny Beth Martin (01:02:06):
Yeah. And the last trip where I saw this happen, there was a group of people sort of like what you were just describing, and there were two adults and there were a bunch of kids. I don't think they were a family, and all the kids had on really cheap sweatshirts that you would get at a big shopping center here in America for a couple bucks, not a very expensive one, and they were too big. They didn't really fit. So they probably got those from an NGO. And I just sat there looking at those kids going, I don't know if they're safe or not, and it worries me, and there's still nothing I Right.
Paul Teller (01:02:42):
You can't just reach out and
Jenny Beth Martin (01:02:44):
Grab them. I can't pull them and talk to them and pull them away from whoever their chaperone is. It's a very concerning situation. And I saw a mother who was just completely zoned out and her toddler was running around, and the mother, I just sat there and I was praying for the mother because no telling what kind of terror she
Paul Teller (01:03:06):
Went
Jenny Beth Martin (01:03:07):
Through to get into the country. And it is a humanitarian crisis that the Biden administration has created because they're violating our laws. Our laws actually ensure the rule of law and in the rule of law creates a stable society that the people actually want to go to. But we don't have that right now,
Paul Teller (01:03:30):
And that's the irony, right? A lot of these folks are escaping countries where there's no rule of law, and yet the first thing they do when they come to a rule of law country supposedly is break the law. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense, but you're so right. The human tragedy that we're encouraging through the open border policy, you incentivize this dangerous trip up through Central America and Mexico went out and elsewhere. Apparently. Now they're coming from South America, like you said, China, Russia, elsewhere on that riverboat tour at one point, kind of up on a ridge, kind of a shack looking thing, and Oh, what's that? The guy just very matter of fact was, oh, that's a rape house. Wait, a, yeah, what's known that? That's what that is. I'm just like, he just said it as if it was like, oh, that's a supermarket.
(01:04:18):
I mean, it just was so common in that area to just understand that that's going on full view of our eyeballs, but not in some secret hidden place. And yet that's supposed to just be tolerated and again, incentivized. I would argue from our border policies, so just absolutely horrendous. But going back to the cities, what you were talking about, Chicago, New York, whatever, they're shocked that all these illegal immigrants are showing up. When they invited them, right? They said, we are sanctuary cities. Send your people here. They probably thought you'd get five people, 10 people, whatever, not realizing the scale of the problem. Thousands and thousands and thousands, and it doesn't stop, as you were saying, and with a straight face, some of them are saying that this is Texas problem or Arizona's problem, why? This is a national problem. The federal government in the Constitution is charged with securing borders, with having an immigration policy. So this is not a Texas problem. I love that Texas is taking matters into its own hands, Arizona, et cetera, but to say that all the illegal folks should just stay right on the southern border, I mean, that's completely unfair. They shouldn't be in the first place, but the notion that they shouldn't be shipped to places that invited them to come, I mean, I think is a little disingenuous.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:05:37):
And those towns along the border can't. They can't. They can't. I mean, if New York City cannot handle the flow, then the town, those towns cannot, no
Paul Teller (01:05:47):
Question. And some of them you probably saw when you visited as well, they're decimated because they may have had even a little tourist thing going on, or just a nice community, a nice economy, nothing, because who wants to come and live there now, knowing that all it is is just cartel traffic, illegals, traffic, guns and drugs going both ways, things like that. So just horrendous.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:06:09):
It really is. Well, Paul, where can people go to find out more about what you're doing and can they follow you on social media as well, or follow your organization? Yeah,
Paul Teller (01:06:21):
Absolutely. So yeah, website, advancing american freedom.com. Little long, I'm sorry. That's the only URL we can get, but advancing american freedom.com, poke around all the things we talked about today. It's on there from the Amicus briefs Freedom Agenda, which we didn't get to talk too much about, but a platform for how to restore freedom in America that's on there. Ads and videos and press releases, statements, policy documents, you name it, it's all on there. All good stuff for freedom. Your folks will like it. And then at American Freedom is our Twitter handle or X handle is that we're supposed to say now. I dunno, do we say Twitter anymore?
Jenny Beth Martin (01:06:53):
I say both
Paul Teller (01:06:54):
XI, Twitter X, so yeah. So at American Freedom, follow us there. Check us out. We'd love to get your feedback and ongoing collaboration.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:03):
That sounds great. And maybe sometime we can do a board of tour together.
Paul Teller (01:07:06):
That'd be great.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:07):
That'd be great. Every time you go back, you learn something
Paul Teller (01:07:09):
New. Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. I should have gone to Eagle Pass. That was the one place we didn't get to with so much action there, but next time.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:16):
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Oh,
Paul Teller (01:07:18):
Really appreciate it. Great honor to be here. We'll be seeing you soon.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:21):
Great. This was Paul Teller, and I'm Jenny Beth Martin, and this is a Jenny Beth show.
Narrator (01:07:26):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:45):
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