Jenny Beth sits down with former Congressman and current congressional candidate from Arizona, Trent Franks. Trent is staunchly pro-life and has made it a part of his life's work to protect the unborn.
Jenny Beth sits down with former Congressman and current congressional candidate from Arizona, Trent Franks. Trent is staunchly pro-life and has made it a part of his life's work to protect the unborn.
Trent Franks (00:00:00):
And the rule of law is so vital for equality to prevail. And when they can take the law and weaponize that and turn it really back into the rule of man, then we have lost thousands of years of ground and we have to make sure that we don't let them do that.
Narrator (00:00:17):
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, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's 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 (00:00:49):
The Honorable Trent Franks is a former member of Congress who is motivated to run for office, primarily to protect the innocent. He's staunch defender of life, an advocate for American energy, and he's very concerned about protecting the American power grid. Trent is once again running for Congress because he can no longer sit on the sidelines in these critical times. Well, Trent Franks, thank you so much for joining us today. You have been a member of Congress and you're running for Congress again. Yes, ma'am. Now, how long were you a member of Congress?
Trent Franks (00:01:22):
I was a member of Congress for 15 years, and that was started in 2002 and almost to 2018.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:01:31):
And you are stepping up to do it again?
Trent Franks (00:01:34):
Yes, ma'am. It's a glutton for punishment.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:01:38):
Why in the world are you running again?
Trent Franks (00:01:40):
Well, that's such a good question because I have, my children are twins and they're going on 16 years old, and I've had such a wonderful, beautiful, precious time with them and my quieter days. But as you know, the circumstances in the world right now are pretty frightening. I mean, I know everybody that's running for office tells everybody how disastrous things are and how only they can fix it. And I'm not about that. But I am here to suggest to you that everyone that's a thinking person understands that the world's in a pretty spooky scenario here. I mean, we could be at the brink of a world war, you never know. And China and Russia, they see a weakness in our national leadership now and with things in the Middle East, it could catalyze all kinds of things. Duke Ferdinand was killed that started World War I, so we shouldn't underestimate the power of a conflict to catalyze a broader conflict.
(00:02:39):
So I am very concerned about where we are in the world. I'm concerned about in America. It's not the water on the outside of the ship that sinks it, it's the water on the inside. And I served six years with Joe Biden, and I am sorry, I don't mean to start off the program with a negative perspective, but this man has always gravitated towards the politically expedient no matter what it meant, principally, no matter what it meant for the country. And I just can't believe that he is the president of the United States, and it's not so much him. What scares me most is that the American people would elect such a man to be their president, and we've kind of fallen into this woke mentality and the left seems to have gone completely out of their mind. And unfortunately they've had a modicum of moving the needle.
(00:03:30):
And you don't know whether the furniture's going to start floating in the room or not. But to really focus on your question, it's predicated on the disaster at hand and the fact that maybe this next election at least there's a chance for us to see a major sea change in national leadership. And there might be an opportunity to sort of recalibrate the trajectory of the country back in a direction of sanity. And I love my 16-year-old twins enough to say, okay, daddy's not going to be around as much, but I'm going to try to make sure that the light of freedom falls across your face. It has mine, and that it continues to do so.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:04:10):
How did you first get involved in politics?
Trent Franks (00:04:15):
Well, that's a fair question and I get beat up for it a lot. Okay. Oh boy. Yeah, I went to the National Affairs Briefing. Now you understand, my grandfather was drafted the run for the US Senate among his close allies when he was, and he was sorry for not doing it. And instead he gave a speech called the Spirit of the Nation to the Colorado Republican Party and things like that. And he was a wonderful champion, but I think he was always sorry that he didn't, but he was tickled to death that his grandson, when he was 26 years old, ran for the legislature. I was 26 when I ran for the legislature this time and the first time and lightning struck and we got elected. We had no right to, it was a heavy Democrat district, but we sort of polarized the Democrats on important issues and we brought the Republicans home and we were able to prevail.
(00:05:02):
But the thing that really, to answer your question, really got me involved in it was, and again, I have to be a little bit careful, it hits me where I live. Children's issues have been my life. And I know everybody loves children. I know they do. I know they do. But I just think sometimes we forget that these are the most precious gifts that God ever sends this way on this earth. And if we do right by them, the future will be okay. But if we fail them, there is no hope for the future. But having said that, there was this national affairs briefing in Dallas, Texas, ed McAteer and some of the other folks at the religious round table, but it was a politically oriented group of mostly Christian leaders but conservatives across the board. And they invited Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan was my hero when I was that age.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:05:51):
And what year was this?
Trent Franks (00:05:53):
This would be 1979. This is when he was running for office. Got it. I'd like to tell people I was just a toddler then, but I was just out of high school. But the point is that he moved my soul. I mean, you and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We can preserve this, the last best hope of mankind on earth. And I sensed what he was saying to be true, and it was coming from a heart that was truly dedicated to America. So I was primed in that regard. And then they showed a film, and again, it hits me kind of where I live. It always has, I mean, it's been so long, but it was a film about where they took an unborn child's life and they used the salt saline and it burns all the skin off the child's body entirely. And you saw actually on the camera where the child laid his head over and died on the screen.
(00:06:43):
And it was one of those moments that moved me so deeply because I thought, okay, first of all, there's got to be a better way an America like this. We can recognize the rights of others, we can deal with the interests of everyone and have a loving, open-hearted compassion for everyone. But we can't do this. This is not who we are, and if we can do this or if we accept this, this becomes the norm, then we'll forget who we are. Lincoln said it this way, he said, there is a basic, and I'm paraphrasing, there's a basic concept in every country from which all of its other lesser principles emanate and in our country is this idea that we are part of the divine, that we are created equal, and that everyone, even the smallest of us is created equal. So that was what moved my heart the most.
(00:07:41):
And it has been an amazing ride, and I don't say this to overdo it, but I set out to say Roe versus Wade has to fall. And without getting into detail, I think there's a book being written about it. I had the opportunity to be very critically involved in the process that led to that reality. And so it's been a long ride, but it's been worth it. And if I got run over by a truck today, I would have no complaints politically because I've been blessed beyond words, even though there's been a bumpy ride at times.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:08:16):
Now you were telling me that as a child you had a lot of surgeries.
Trent Franks (00:08:22):
Oh, I did, yes, ma'am. Because
Jenny Beth Martin (00:08:23):
You had a cleft palate.
Trent Franks (00:08:25):
Yeah, I was born with cleft, with the palate missing. And I am always a little nervous about talking about it because everybody thinks, well, why is he talking about that? But the truth is wasn't expected to actually survive because at that time I was born in a little mining hospital in a place called Eurovan, Colorado, which was a curve in the road eurovan. It meant uranium and vanadium. It was a mine there. My dad worked to mine uranium for the Union Carbide Nuclear Company, which was to make thistle material and ultimately fusional material for our nuclear arsenal. But I was born there and was born with the cleft and it was just a little podunk hospital and they didn't think we were going to make it. So they took me after I was born up to the cripple, they called it the Cripple Children's Hospital.
(00:09:13):
So I want people to know I'm not being politically incorrect, which is so sad these days. Everything is so politically incorrect that we can't even communicate with each other. But they did that and I was operated a number of times to close the face and to close the palate, and I came away without a speech impediment, which about 19 out of 20 times, there is a significant speech impediment. So I've been nothing but grateful all those years and I thank God and the good doctors that are out there that might be under our voice for giving people a chance because I had the chance then to go on to the legislature. I was chairman of the Child Protection, family Preservation subcommittee and the legislature, then they put me as head of the children's department or what they call the Governor's Office for Children in Arizona. And I was the head of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Caucus in Congress. And we had a critical role in seeing Roe versus Wade and held where it came from.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:10:09):
Is that history from what happened to you as a child, part of why you're such a strong advocate for
Trent Franks (00:10:14):
Children? I think sometimes it sounds like you're doing a self psychological analysis, but I think I'd be a liar if I didn't say that that had an impact on things. Now, I think what happens, Jenny Beth, is that when you have certain circumstances in your own life, it begins to make you sensitive to that challenge in the lives of others. And so it is not really a self-medicating thing that there's just a special sensitivity to it. So I think that's what happens. My wife and I taught one year olds in Sunday school for 22 years and before we had children, and I will just tell you that I'm just convinced that we do not focus enough. And I didn't know this is the direction that the conversation is going to take. But I just think that if we as conservatives more than any other mortal paradigm, what we teach and put into the hearts and minds of our children dictates really the architecture of the future. It's everything. And I worked very hard on what they call the scholarship tax credit here in Arizona. I worked for three years to get that passed, even though I worked for many years prior to that. But we finally got it done. The A CLU and the NEA sued me in the state Supreme Court here, and we won. Well
Jenny Beth Martin (00:11:38):
Wait before we go into, oh, please, being sued, what is that? What is the tax credit? The
Trent Franks (00:11:43):
Scholarship tax credit is the coolest thing in the world, and I want everybody that is a school choice advocate to listen to me on this because this is important. There have been all kinds of approaches to parental choice or parental empowerment. I call it an education because that's really what it is. Wealthy parents can send their kids anywhere they want right now, they don't need anybody at all. But the poorest parents don't have that option, first of all, because they're being taxed to a profound degree so that we can fund the government schools about half of a state's budget on the average, about half goes to education at some level in the state. And that's a heavy deal. That means that all the other functions of government have to share the other half. So that represents, and if you ask people what percentage of this goes education, what percentage of the state budget, they'll say 5%.
(00:12:33):
They always kind of roll their eyes in. We're not doing anything about education. We're not. Well, we are. The problem is that whenever you have a government run system, it doesn't run very efficiently. And of course people now all over the world are understanding that government is not doing a good job, but education is more of an indoctrination process. So true, so true. And I can't even begin to tell you how desperately dangerous and significant that issue is in my mind. I don't know. It's hard to talk about too many things. More importantly, because all of the other issues, whether it's national security, whatever it is, emanate from what is put into the hearts of our children. I mean one generation, they will be running the show. So we need to make sure that they know this thing that there is such a thing as called the truth.
(00:13:17):
But the scholarship tax credit is a unique approach because one of the things that was happening under the regular voucher programs, these are appropriated monies and that appropriation gives the appropriators or the government the opportunity to put with shekels come shackles. And the religious schools, about 85% or more of the private schools in this country are of a religious persuasion. And I'm all for that. I'm not for putting my thumb on the scale, I just want parents to have the option to send their kids where they want to because it will be one of two people who will decide what a children learns, either spiritually, academically, or philosophically. It'll be some bureaucrat who doesn't know the child's name and may have an antithetical perspective of their own that has nothing to do with the best interest of the child. Or it will be a parent who would soak the carpet in blood for their children.
(00:14:10):
I know I would. So that question that must remain in the parent's control. It's the only hope I think of a human family surviving intact. So with that in mind, what this does, rather than the money coming from the government coffers, it allows individuals on a voluntary basis to contribute to a scholarship fund for children to go to school of their parents' choice, and then the contributor gets a dollar for a dollar reduction in their taxes. Now, I know that sounds like a simple distinction, but it's everything because if you give money to your church, let's say right now, that reduces the amount of money going into the treasury, but you get a special tax treatment for it, and that's your money, that's private money. They don't say, oh, that's public money because that came out of your private, in your case, your purse or my case, a wallet maybe.
(00:15:05):
But the point is that it is not public money. This is private money. So as much as the left would love to and they try and we have to be careful get ahold of that, at least it's not coming out of government coffers. Well, this is in a sense a little bit the same way only instead of reducing the money going to the treasury, it also reduces the expenditures that treasury has to make. So it is a net positive, and that is, I wish everybody could understand that that is school choice oriented because what it does, public schooling, and I like to call it government schooling instead costs twice as much as private schooling on the average. On the average. And I want to emphasize that if you mix it all together, it's about half as much. And yet the private schools do a much better job of educating and the parents have some idea and some direction as to the philosophical persuasion.
(00:15:58):
But the bottom line is now, see, the left can't come in and tell those religious schools, well, you're going to have to take that star of David. You're going to have to take that cross down because after all, these are taxpayer dollars and we can't be fomenting religion. We don't need the government to foment everything. We just need, forgive me to get the hell out of the way and help us, let us do what we want to do, give us the rights not to. They don't need to support a perspective on religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. And that's what this T does. It allows the private sector to fund a system for children to have the opportunities to go where their parents want them to without putting tentacles on the private religious schools. And I think it's so important. And now that went to the US Supreme Court three different times, and I've tried to defend it for 26 years, but it was upheld in the Espinoza case here about two and a half years ago.
(00:17:01):
And the reason that's so important is because it also vitiated the blame amendments that were monstrous amendments. They were anti-Catholic. Now I'm a Baptist, so I'm just saying, but I hate anything that tells somebody how they have to worship or somehow attacks them for their faith perspective. And this did that. The Blaine amendments were, and somebody can look it up, I won't give the history on it, but it's an anti-Catholic effort that took place and ensconced itself in our state constitutions many years ago. And I think there are about 40 states that have blame amendments now. They're all kind of worthless because the Supreme Court has ruled that this program can do that without crossing swords with the blame amendment. And so in 20 states now, we've raised somewhere around seven and a half billion dollars. We've over 700,000 children to largely religious schools, and it's the largest school choice program in the nation.
(00:18:00):
The one concern I have, and this may be my last because I don't mean to focus on this so much. One concern I have is that it catalyzed a lot of good movement in school choice and in parental empowerment, which I'm so for, but then we're going down and taking shortcuts at the legislature and say, well, let's just fund it publicly. Well, that's what the NEA has said privately that their strategy now is they've lost the battle every which way they've turned. But they say now what we want to do is to make sure that all school choice programs are publicly funded, not privately funded like this Frank's thing in Arizona because that took a lot of effort, but it's capable of scholarshipping every child in Arizona. If we all focus on that without endangering the philosophical persuasion of the private schools,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:18:47):
And if they come in and publicly fund it, then strings begin to be attached. And a Jewish school wouldn't be able to do the religious aspect of the schooling the way they want or a Christian school or even a Muslim school.
Trent Franks (00:19:03):
Exactly. It's a demonstrated political physics really. We've seen it too many times that whenever it's publicly funded, sooner or later, some left winger feels like he can come in and remake it in his own own image. And they often do, and it's a disaster. So we just need the government to step back and get out of the way and let us keep our own money and let us be able to fund the schooling for our children. And it works very well. And most of the time the wealthy people fund the poorest children. See, that's the thing. That's neat. It is sort of the opposite of where the left always comes from.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:19:43):
So you have a passion for children. I do. And you're very pro-life. I am. And you care about school choice. I do. What else are you interested in,
Trent Franks (00:19:53):
Focused on? Well, I had five priorities when I went into Congress, but I'll quickly tell you that if I had break it down to two things that we had the most impact on, it was children's issues and national security. I was chairman of the Missile Defense Caucus and chairman of the Electromagnetic Pulse caucus. I'm not an engineer, but I have an engineering background if you want to put it that way. I did all the engineering for our company over a period of about 30 plus years. And so physics and those kinds of things are fun to me, and we have a lot of lawyers in Congress, but very few that are STEM oriented. And so it seems like I got a lot of those responsibilities. And of course I've always gravitated to national security because I still believe even as a conservative that believes that we have to make the road straight for our children, that national security is the number one ultimate responsibility of the federal government.
(00:20:48):
If we don't have a secure environment, we can't have a productive environment if we don't have a secure environment. It doesn't matter whether our children have a school choice or not because they may not survive. So I just have to say to you, I think that those are the two things that I focused on the most. Now, what we did when I came into Congress the first time I laid out five priorities, we hung it up on the wall and I told my staff, okay, we're going to name one person that's ahead of each one of these things and we're going to focus on that. This environment is an environment of chaos, and we know that no matter what happens, we're going to have to deal with a lot of things that just come at us and we have to deal with them because the tyranny of the urgent.
(00:21:29):
But any moment where we have a free elective moment, we're going to focus on these priorities. Now, the top was protecting the innocent. That wasn't just the unborn, but that was just in general protecting the innocent. If you don't protect the innocent, if we don't have the courage to protect those who can't defend themselves, then I've got to tell you, Jenny, it's not worth it. We might as well just step away and forget it. The whole purpose of government is to be able to protect those who can't protect themselves. That's why we have a collective, and we don't just let it devolve into the Sumerian night where the survival of the fittest has prevailed over humanity. The second thing is to protect religious freedom. Now you say, well, that's just because you have a religious perspective of your own. I don't think so. It's because I've never tried to elevate in terms of law, one perspective over another.
(00:22:19):
Now I try to elevate my own perspective all the time in terms of ecclesiastical discussion or something like that. But the truth is that if you don't have religious freedom, you've lost the foundation of all of the freedoms. If someone, even a condemned man to death, we give them the access to a chaplain or whatever, even when they were going to strap 'em to a chair in the next little bit and take their life, which is a pretty basic right, the right to live because we understand that somehow that is at the core of who we are. I mean this whole thing called life is a miracle that beggars human imagination or description. And if we miss that part, then we miss the magic of being human. We miss the miracle of it all. So religious freedom is very, very important. Secondly, and it's protecting the constitutional foundations of the nation.
(00:23:10):
I had the wonderful privilege of being the chairman of the Constitution committee, and then I worked very, very hard, and I won't give away this show here a spoiler, but I worked very hard to make sure we had some people on the Supreme Court that actually had some respect for the Constitution and read it for what it said rather than what a left wing perspective might wish it would say. And I have to say, of all the things that I had opportunity to be similarly impactful on that would be it. And now that's paying some great dividends in profound areas, not just the pro-life area, but across the board. Then the fourth thing was this parental empowerment in education. I believe parents love their children more than they love any other earthly entity or I believe it's the top priority in all of their lives.
(00:23:57):
Now, I realize there are notable exceptions, but I just believe that at its core is the thing we love most. I know it is for me, I know that there's nothing I wouldn't do for my children, the same for me. So to me that is vital, and making sure parents have the right to inculcate this thing called truth into their hearts is so important because it affects the children's lives and it affects everything that happens. It affects all their peers. It affects the course of the sweep of history. So it is very important. And then the final thing was national security. Now I realized that's a broad area, and I focused primarily, I was on the nuclear committee. I was a senior member on the Strategic Nuclear Forces Committee, was going to be the chairman the following year of that committee because I had already spent my six years maximum as chairman of the Constitution committee.
(00:24:50):
So I really believe that we have to handle this whole nuclear arsenal dynamic very carefully, and I'll be glad to expand on that if you like. But the point is that I focused on national security across the board, but especially on our nuclear arms apparatus and an application, there's just a lot of very, very spooky components about that. We used to say one nuclear missile landing in your city can ruin your whole day, and it is a very significant issue that we need to focus on. But I also recognized at that time when I first went into Congress that jihadist terrorism was a very, very dangerous thing, and it still is, but we have You went
Jenny Beth Martin (00:25:34):
In right after nine 11,
Trent Franks (00:25:35):
Right after nine 11, right after nine 11. I was elected in 2002. So you know how close it was, and that might've had something to do with me running. We will never know. But I realized that people need to be aware of two things from a potential opponent, and that is their intent and their capacity and the intent is almost more important than the capacity because right now England has most of their nuclear throw weight is in their submarines. They have enough to do terrible damage to the United States, but do we worry about that or do we wake up at night, not even the slightest, because we know that they love us and we love them and that we're not going to hurt each other, but one of those missiles in the hands of an minaja or Haan nasra or some crazy terrorist makes us really justifiably be awake at night.
(00:26:36):
So the intent is very vital that we focus on that and we can't let an ideological evil flourish without at least standing up and approaching it in a direct way and pushing back. Now today it seems like woke is beginning to weaken our military across the board. And of course, China is a growing specter for 20 years. I've talked about how dangerous China is. I mean China is, they have 20 times the number of defense engineers that America does, and they steal almost all of our critical technology and then they build the next generation platform of it. And I won't get into spiral development, but I will say to you that that's a vital, vital thing that I just said. And that's why China is becoming because they have the ability to accelerate. Now again, they've got 1.2 billion people and they're running into a crisis on that front too that I won't get into where they're getting very top heavy.
(00:27:40):
They've killed a lot of their children, and so they don't have the replacement. But for a while now, for another two or three decades, they are going to be our real threat. I think it was Zain, and I'm paraphrasing him, he was still in the Gula and in Russia he said, says, together with the help of the West, we will see the fall of the Soviet Union. But after that, no mortal power on earth can ever stop China from world domination. Now, I hope he was wrong, and I want to make sure that we make him wrong, but China's a great danger. And so I would say to you, it's even an even greater danger than Jihad is to us now because thank God people like Donald Trump went in and wiped ISIS out completely. And there's still a danger there. But when we face an asymmetric threat, we can overcome them if we have the commitment, but we got to put aside all the silly little nonsense and say, no, you're not going to kill innocent people. You're not going to behead people just because you want to play soccer with their, I don't want to get too. But the point is that they get very dark and very evil, and there's almost no Hamas.
(00:28:56):
I have been stunned at some of the things that the left has come up with, but I will tell you to see some of our most prestigious universities, Harvard, places like that, having many of their students, not just a smattering, but many of their students out protesting on behalf of an organization like Hamas, is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. And obviously, and I was chairman of the Israel caucus in Congress, as you know. So I believe Israel is one of the most vital allies that we have. And this is a people. The Jews throughout history have faced such persecution and after the end of World War ii, they would've had every right to just give up, but instead they dried their eyes and they steal themselves, and they looked up again and they built Israel again. And now they are one of the most vital societies in all of the human race.
(00:29:57):
And we either stand by Israel or I believe that it will doom our own country. And I also believe that Israel does more for America than we do for them. And this idea where the White House equivocates all the time on Hamas is unbelievable. They say, well, they do it in the name of the innocent Palestinians. Well, I love the innocent Palestinians. I think all of us do. We don't want to see anybody hurt. I don't want to that. No, but no one hurts the innocent Palestinians more than Hamas. That's right. No one puts them in danger or has less commitment to them than Hamas. And no one has demonstrated more desire and willingness and even sacrificial willingness to protect the innocent Palestinians than the Israeli defense forces. And so I just find it so amazing that we would use, let Hamas uses innocent Palestinians as human shields, and yet we let our left wing here use them as human political shields to go after Israel. And I will tell you, Hamas needs to be obliterated and we need to do everything we can to support Israel to that end, make sure we try to protect our hostages, make sure we try to protect the innocent Palestinians, protect the innocent in general. But Hamas needs to be wiped off the face of the earth because if they aren't, it is bad news for humanity.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:31:13):
100%. I agree with you, and it ties to two other things that you said first in the beginning when you talked about how Biden always chooses to do the politically expedient, he's doing that right now every time he undermines Israel's right to defend itself and the mission at hand that Israel must accomplish, which is to obliterate Hamas. The other thing is that it isn't just China and Russia teaming up together. They definitely are. Iran is part of that, and both countries are helping Iran and Iran has funded Hamas in other terrorist organizations in the region who are now attacking Israel. And they think Israel is a little devil and America's a big devil, or whatever the exact phrase is. So they went to harm us as well. Of course they do. And it all ties together. And we have to be smart as Americans. We can't ignore history and we have to take care of America first. And I agree with everyone who says that. And part of the way we are going to take care of America first is to make sure that we are safe from those kind of attacks. To that
Trent Franks (00:32:30):
Is Jenny Beth Martin for president. No, I know you're way too smart to do something stupid like run for office, but I want you to know I couldn't more violently agree with you on every point,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:32:43):
And we have to address our national debt and the spending that is out of control and our border is what, those are things that help protect America first so that we can protect against those problems. Absolutely. And we have to stand by Israel. And if you care about the Palestinians, the innocent Palestinians, the best way to stand for them is for Israel. Wipe wiped out, succeed, and
Trent Franks (00:33:08):
Hama to be
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:09):
Wiped has of course too wiped out. Yes.
Trent Franks (00:33:10):
No, I couldn't agree with you more. And you mentioned something about the national debt. I ran into a statistic the other day. I've been talking about that forever. And I suppose any conservative of consistent persuasion has, but Jenny Beth, we are now spending more on the interest on the debt than we are national secure.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:31):
And the amount of debt that each individual in America holds of the national debt is over a hundred thousand dollars. Over a hundred thousand dollars. It's unreal how much money,
Trent Franks (00:33:44):
Especially when some of 'em are toddlers. Yes,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:46):
Exactly.
Trent Franks (00:33:47):
Yeah. And will unfortunately be the ones that will bear the brunt of it in the long run Anyway, so no, I know. And I don't know, Congress I suppose, thinks they can repeal the laws of mathematics, but I will tell you, and I know that it's too long a debate to get in, but it's one that we have to as Republicans address. I've been concerned that there are two filibusters in the Congress and a lot of people think there's just one in the Senate, but there are two, one of them elongates or extends debate. And that's a kind of a traditional thing. And there's something good about being able to extend debate because that means the American people hopefully will be more understood. But there's one that prevents all debate and as the one, the motion to proceed to consider. And it took me four years in Congress to really understand how the left is using that.
(00:34:32):
But that's how they're killing us. That's how we get in these corners with shutting down government and everything. It just kills us. It creates an interneting war in the house, and it's not all their fault. People think, and I know that's a whole new subject, but people think that the house is always fighting, but it's because Democrats in the Senate, either when they're in the majority or when they're in the minority using the filibuster for the motion to proceed to consider in such an effective way. And if we don't deal with it, it's going to kill us. And I used to argue with them. Well, he's more, I dunno, colleague. Yeah, my colleague, yeah, my colleague, Mr. McConnell. We've had some harsh exchanges and I have to say that very directly and I wish him nothing but the best, but I am so sorry that he hasn't taken this more seriously and he didn't take it seriously.
(00:35:29):
And I said, well, the Democrats, when they get in charge, they will change this and then they'll proceed to wipe out the country if we don't do something necessary now to be able to introduce the American public to actual Republican principles and be able to do something to where there is the ability for the Senate to act, even if it acts in the worst moment, not completely correctly, there has to be something where we have full debate. And again, it takes too long to go into the minutia of it, but I said, the Democrats will change it. He said, no, they're not going to do that. They're not going to do that. Well, Jan Beth, they had 48 votes to do away with a filibuster the last time they were in control. And then on life they were going to have one of our senators here join them and they got to 49. If they'd had gotten to 50, it would've been all over for us and we would've ended up away. The Democrats would've done away with the filibuster, then they would've changed the voting laws. They would've changed everything. And we never probably would've been able to pull our country over the free fall over the bluff
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:34):
As we are recording this. And this episode may air in a few weeks. Sure. A few weeks from now. One of the things that I just saw happen yesterday in the Senate is that the Judiciary Committee did not have full debate. And Senator Durbin proceeded without debate and the Republican senators were all warning that you are about to set a precedent that will completely destroy the Senate Judiciary Committee. And it seems that the Democrats just either they didn't realize that they were crossing the Rubicon or they just didn't care.
Trent Franks (00:37:11):
Well, Jenny Beth, there's a lot of people that don't really trust the Democrat leadership in the Senate or the Democrat leadership in the party in general. I want you to know I'm not one of those people. I do trust the Democrats. I trust them to do the most insidious, dangerous thing that they can do. And one of our greatest failures in our Republican leadership is somehow thinking that they won't do the worst if they get the opportunity, but they will. And I know that sounds harsh and I wish it weren't true.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:37:41):
Well, they show us time after time, after time after time. They're willing to do that every time. Every time. There are Democrats right now standing with Hamas, the terrorists,
Trent Franks (00:37:50):
Right. And I know there's some good Democrats. And you know what? All Democrats under my voice, God forgive you if you don't change parties, you should change parties. Because if you look down through the history of the Democrat party, it's the party of slavery. It's the party of the terrible things in the sixties where there was segregation, segregation, and all of the blue laws. And I mean there was just a lot of ugliness. I mean, they are the party of the worst unfortunately become the party of abortion where they always try to say, well, we don't support it through nine months. They do. I've got 'em on tape. They've supported abortion all through all nine months of pregnancy, and the only sacrament they have left is abortion on demand through all months and nine months of pregnancy anymore. And so just that alone should really help us understand that they have really stepped away from what is humanity and what really comes down to it. So we should not trust them on these lesser issues that somehow they're going to find
Jenny Beth Martin (00:38:54):
What happened in the Senate in judiciary, what exactly
Trent Franks (00:38:57):
What people don't realize. You mentioned precedent. That word precedent is very important because the Senate only, I think they have less than 40 rules in the Senate, but they have hundreds of precedent rules. And that's how the Senate really operates is on precedent rules. And it's as scary, as scary as can be. And once that precedent is broken, that's how they do the nuclear option. Once that precedent's broken, you are 100% right. Durbin is either doing it deliberately, and I would never call a man unintelligent because I'm afraid he is. I'm afraid he's intelligent enough to be very dangerous. But the point is that yes, they're about to do away with that, but it seems like Republicans always use queensbury rules and we get our brains beat out because the lunatic left is willing to bring chairs into the ring and we're willing to try to stick to the rules in a situation like that.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:39:51):
Alright, so let's talk about a couple of things related to that because since you left Congress, there have been changes in the last three and a half years. And I think that people who might consider voting for you going to have some questions. I'm going to ask you a few of them. Sure. You said when you first ran for office, one of the most important things, and the number one thing was protecting the innocent. Right now across the country, there are innocent people who are being attacked by the weaponized government from the former president of the United States to electors in Michigan and in Georgia to, I would argue what happened in Arizona just this week, and again, we may not air this for a little bit of time, but the 2022 election down in Cochise County, some of the election board members did not certify in a timely manner, and now they have been indicted. And to that, I just say I don't understand that indictment at all. If you have an election board and you have human beings and they're supposed to vote their conscience, then there's a check and balance on the certification. And if you're taking away their conscience in it, then why do you have the board at all? And you just have a rubber stand be more,
Trent Franks (00:41:19):
Right?
Jenny Beth Martin (00:41:20):
They should not have been indicted, absolutely not. But these are innocent people throughout the country, through the federal government and state governments and right here in Arizona who are being attacked. What do you want to do to stand for those people and how will you protect them?
Trent Franks (00:41:39):
Well, first of all, I want you to know that I am glad you brought the subject up because I think the weaponizing of government is one of the most dangerous things that we face internally as an internal issue in our government. And I think it could absolutely overrule everything else because once you get a certain way down the road, then once there's a control where there is no longer the people's control, and that's what that really is, what you said about people that are voted, we vote for people because we think they're going to make good decisions, but that presupposes that there's a decision process that they can make. And you said it very eloquently, and if they can't do that, then we might as well not vote for them. They should just be appointed. Somebody asked me what I read in an article the other day, said, what's the difference between a Democrat socialist and a communist?
(00:42:28):
Well, the Democrat socialist is we elect them and they take all our money and give us back what they think we should have. And the only difference between them and a communist as a communist is just self-appointed. So we have to be very sure who we elect. And the only way that I know of to fight this hellish evil of weaponizing government is to make sure that we ignore big media, that we ignore whatever's necessary to make sure we get people who will fight that issue. Because ultimately personnel is policy. And if we don't elect people who will fight that we're done, people say, well, Trent, you always talk about how we should be reasonable and we should be decent and polite to each other, even in debate. And yeah, I believe that. And they said, well, but does Donald Trump do that? No, Donald Trump doesn't speak a lot of diplomat.
(00:43:18):
I'm going to tell you he doesn't. But I'm telling you, when they raided Mayor Lago, it should make every American get behind the guy. Absolutely. Because if we don't, God knows what'll be left of America. And he may go on saying things sometimes that we wish he'd say a little differently, but I've defended it. I was one of his number one defenders in Congress and I supported Mike Huckabee. I'm being very open with you. When he was running, I didn't know Donald Trump. And I will tell you some of the things that he has said, I think, whoa. But let me tell you something, I have been a stalwart defender of him because I understand the big picture. And if we don't make sure that we get someone who has the courage to fight it, that may not be able to articulate it perfectly. But instead, our alternative is to get people elected that articulate it perfectly and all kindly, but they hate America.
(00:44:12):
And so he loves America, and we've got to make sure that we do what's necessary there to protect him and get it done. Now, I am so Republican that it's ridiculous. I am always going to support the Republican nominee, but I'm praying right now that the nominee is Donald Trump because I think has almost the mandate and the courage, and maybe again, maybe the mandate. A lot of people have the courage, but he has the mandate and the determination to put this thing back in a good direction. And policy wise, it's hard to argue with the guy on most things.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:44:47):
It truly is. And to the people who don't like his tweets, well, I take mean tweets any day to a world that is on the brink of World War.
Trent Franks (00:44:58):
Absolutely.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:44:58):
I'll take mean tweets any day to the actual weaponization of government and the imprisonment and the indictments of innocent people. And I hope that, I think one of the things you said just a moment ago, Democrats should leave the Democrat party. I think that there are right now across the country, I know because I've actually communicated with a few, they're strangers to me, but I've reached out to them privately through dms on Twitter. They're moving to the right and they're stepping away from the Democrat party. And I think that we have to make sure that we have the grace to allow them to do that. What the decisions that they made in the past are irrelevant right now. We are where we are in America and we have to fix the problems that are right here with us and are ahead of us. And the other thing is that I think that there are people across the country, especially suburban women, and I'm a suburban mom, so I am one of you who are like, well, Donald Trump had mean tweets. I don't know if I can really vote for him. Just tell your playgroups whatever you have to tell him. And when you go to vote, vote privately. Nobody knows how you're voting and vote for what's best for the country.
Trent Franks (00:46:21):
Absolutely. It's kind of interesting. People say, well, Democrats never change. Obviously they do. We've seen a lot of people change. And I guess I'm going to go ahead and put this in and your people can decide whether or not to leave it in or not. But was I was called on to be on CNN right after the Billy Bush tape.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:46:42):
Oh,
Trent Franks (00:46:42):
Yes. And I went on to defend Donald Trump, and he didn't have very many defenders in that moment. I'll tell you. He was in a situation and
Jenny Beth Martin (00:46:52):
Paul Ryan had uninvited him to an event and people were just abandoning him left and right. Three weeks, weeks before the election,
Trent Franks (00:46:59):
Serious situation. It was a month out from the election, about three weeks. And it was very serious. And I won't get into some of the esoteric inside things that happened, but it'll blow your mind. But I went on, and of course the CNN host just went after me. She said, how can you sit there and say you're for women and children? And I said, well, the reason I am because I believe that I have to choose between what he has called reprehensible words and what I call reprehensible policies of Hillary Clinton. And I absolutely would encourage people to continue to support him. It's vital for the country. And boy, they just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming. So I'll cut this short. Finally, they said, well, how can you do? I said, well, he's made a lot of changes, changes in his life since then. I said, that was a private conversation, and he's apologized for it, and he's made a lot of changes in his life. She said, oh yeah, she rolled her eyes. Oh yeah, what changes? And I said, well, he was a Democrat when he said that
Jenny Beth Martin (00:47:56):
Thate.
Trent Franks (00:47:56):
Now that nearly got me summarily killed on the air. But the point is it shows you, and I use that as sort of a comical, but it shows you that yes, people do make changes in their lives. Donald Trump, his appointments to the Supreme Court is vital to the result of Roe versus Wade resting in hell next to the Dred Scott decision. And a lot of other things, I don't even know where to begin. People, they count on me to say something on the life issue because that's kind of what brought me into Congress. But sometimes you almost have to be focused in order to get really anything of consequence done. And I will say to you that they can give Donald Trump all the hard time they want to. And I know sometimes I think, oh, buddy, say that differently please, because we got to get you elected. But let me tell you, when it comes right down to where the rubber meets the road, we've got to have someone that will fight and that will fight for America, not for his or own political perspective. And Donald Trump has sacrificed an awful lot to continue to fight for this country. And I'm going to stay with him the best way I know how. And that's to not try to make him sound like he's the most eloquent, gentle speaker in the history of the political, but to point out that he is the fighter that we need.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:49:22):
Well, I don't think that it is gentle or kind. I do not think it is gentle or kind to sit quietly and take away freedom.
Trent Franks (00:49:33):
It's the opposite. It
Jenny Beth Martin (00:49:34):
Is evil. It's pure evil. Absolutely. And you can be rough around the edges and protect freedom and stand for what is right. And people may think, wow, that's not very polite. Well, there's a huge difference between being impolite and being evil.
Trent Franks (00:49:50):
Well, it's fine to be polite and charismatic and glib and all of those things, but if a person proposes to lead you down the pathway to hell, kindness and glib and charisma, charisma only gets you there
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:04):
Quicker. Even Jesus overthrew the tables and the temple. You have to, and I actually don't even know that that is impolite at that point. It is standing up for, it's called for. It is called
Trent Franks (00:50:16):
For. I couldn't agree with you more.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:17):
And I have met Donald Trump and he has always been polite and gracious, and I didn't endorse him initially in 2016, but I did not abandon him either. When that tape came out, we stood by him and pulled an all niner that weekend making sure we were getting that was so
Trent Franks (00:50:36):
Close. People will never know how close the hinge of history almost turned the other direction.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:40):
And he's polite, he's gracious, and people who have said things like, oh, he was only running for office for himself or for whatever. You may have thought that in 2016, but after everything he has been through in the last three and a half years, anyone who thinks that right now watching what's happening to him in New York with the case to utter, utterly destroy his business, the reading of his home, the potential jail time across the entire country, and yet he continues to stand for what is right. And if he had just quit running, if he had just said he was going away into the sunset, they'd left him alone and they would've left him alone. They would've
Trent Franks (00:51:20):
Said, listen, for God's sake, let's get away with this guy fights. Let's leave him alone. Let's just hope he goes to sleep.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:51:24):
He is willing to sacrifice all of that for America.
Trent Franks (00:51:28):
And that is the definition of true statesmanship. It is being willing to fight for your country, even if it is of great sacrifice to yourself. And I don't want to try to sound like I'm emulating that, but I want you to know that if I were just wanting to do what I wanted to do, selfishly Jenny Beth, and I don't even expect the listeners to believe that, but it has the advantage of being the truth. If I wanted to do what just I wanted to do personally and selfishly, I'd never run for office again. But I really love this country enough that I believe that I have to try. And if I don't win, I'm willing to leave it all on the battlefield. And if that is the case and if the people decide that they want somebody different, God bless 'em, I'll be there wishing them the best no matter what happens. But I cannot. I cannot in this moment of great danger and great opportunity, great moment to turn it around. I cannot step back and not do my best.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:52:30):
And I think that it is important for people who have the talents and the gifts and think that they can serve to step up and offer themselves to do so. Trent, let me ask you two more quick questions that will be on people's minds as they're making decisions to vote, the election issues in the country, especially here in Arizona. How do you intend to make sure that you protect the vote and your voters votes when they go to vote for you and for all the other offices they're voting for?
Trent Franks (00:53:07):
Well, no, that is a huge, huge question. First of all, let me say to you, I want to make it very clear, do I believe the Democrats cheated in the last presidential election? Absolutely, yes. Don't misunderstand me. I absolutely believe they did. Now, I have a lot of different reasons for believing that. I believe that there was a lot of a lesser scrutiny on signature process. There's a lot of processes are different, but I will tell you now, this is my perspective, and I believe this to be true. I think that where they really, really did their worst was on this ballot trafficking because I believe that they were, it was, let give you one statistic. Joe Biden got 75% of the absentee ballot in Pennsylvania, 75%. Donald Trump won on election day. He on the vote on election day. He did essentially about what we usually do on the traditional absentee ballot.
(00:54:06):
He got slaughtered on this new approach to mail-in balloting. He just got just annihilated on that. And that should be something we should scrutinize. I'll give you an example. Even in the midterm, they outlawed ballot harvesting and if really ballot trafficking is what it really is, they outlawed that in Florida and we did great in Florida. But where they don't, we get our clock cleaned and we have got to, until we can fix that, we have got to take a page. When I said they cheat, sometimes the Democrats cheat almost quasi legally, but they have the chutzpah and no hesitation. And we do and have got to fight in this case within the bounds of integrity, within the bounds of the law. But we have to fight to win, and we have to use the whole court because they certainly do. And if we're shy about it, we will get killed again.
(00:55:00):
So I will tell you now, and I think every time when there's a question about the machines, here's what we should do. We should, because in Arizona, we sequester by precinct all of our optical ballots. And whenever there's a question about the machine, what we should do is we should demand an audit of maybe four or five precincts. It won't take long that are random that we choose, and they can be there. And we count that out by hand, and then we compare it with what the machine said. If the machine's wrong, we have got proof that the machine's wrong. But if it's not, then we can focus on the other things that are causing the real problem. And I just believe that we probably should have focused on that more that we should have done an actual test more effectively than that because when the ballots all of a sudden showed up in the middle of the night, what people didn't realize is that most of those were those mail-in ballots that had already been pre-stuff in a sense, and I could, it's take a lot more time if I did it, but I will tell you, the Democrats had almost 30 days in Pennsylvania to go door to door and they used a walking list of people who never voted before, but who got ballots, and that gave them two advantages.
(00:56:14):
One, they've talked to the guy and he says, well, some guy, I never vote. They come to the door and he says, I never vote. I live in my parents' basement and I play the drums. And they said, well, you got to vote. He said, well, I don't want to vote. And he said, well, don't you have your absentee ballot? I mean your mail-in ballot? And he said, yeah, they mail it to everybody. I guess I got one, and I'm just giving you a general example. They said, well, get your ballot. Let's make sure you vote well, who you want to vote for? Well, who should I vote for? Well, you should vote for Joe Biden. Oh, okay. And we'll take your ballot and make sure it gets to the right place. The next guy they go to and he says, I play the flute and live in my parents' attic. He says, but I'm voting for Donald Trump. They said, well, okay. There's two things they have. Then they can lose that ballot if they want to. And there's no computational anomaly because he's never voted before. Or they can turn the ballot in, but they can say, let's make sure this guy never votes again. We'll just ignore him in the future. They have a tremendous database built up now, and they really win at it to win. And unfortunately we want to win the debate and they want to win the election. And we've got to do both.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:57:19):
We do have to do both. I understand what you said about auditing. I think that there are major problems with the way that the audits are conducted of the machines right now. I used to program computers in Arizona, though even if they audited at the end of the midterm, the problem may not be that the ballot that was printed, it may match the total. The problem they wound up having is that it wasn't getting, they weren't getting scanned to begin with and the lines backed up. The printers were not printing properly. Yeah. And people left and
Trent Franks (00:58:02):
Went home. And I don't mean to leave that out. You're a hundred percent right. There was a dozen D different factors, not the least of which was these government voter turnout programs or the big social media that did all these things. No, we got rolled on a dozen different places. But anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you, please.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:58:21):
Yeah, well, I just think that we have to be paying attention to every aspect of the computer systems. Absolutely, absolutely. And they need to be tested thoroughly. Absolutely. And they're not being tested thoroughly. They're being tested, but the test is set up to test just a small portion. I think every printer needs to be tested, and every ballot computation needs to be printed on every single printer to make sure that it's printed properly in the machine is reading that computation correctly.
Trent Franks (00:58:51):
I totally agree, but I also think that you do need to do it afterwards.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:58:54):
Once
Trent Franks (00:58:56):
The machine says what the ballot numbers are, what they Absolutely. We hand count that same precinct that the machines discounted. And no matter what they do in their programming, if those two disagree, we have got proof that there's a problem. But we've got to find, because there's just so many different possibilities, and I think we have to be careful not to overlook something where we have ironclad proof because I think they've used that. The bad guys have used that to indict people that literally were doing what they believed was truly right and good for this country. And it takes us back, I know to revisit that subject, but I'll tell you, Jenny Beth, if we weaponize the law, there's really only a few kinds of government. One is kings and queens, the government where it's a rule of man or rule of individuals or there's the rule of law. And the rule of law is so vital for equality to prevail. And when they can take the law and weaponize that and turn it really back into the rule of man, then we have lost thousands of years of ground and we have to make sure that we don't let them do that.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:00:06):
Absolutely. Okay. The very last question for you, abortion and the pro-life, abortion versus life is showing up on ballots across the country and the left and the abortion side is winning. They're winning. So I know that you're very pro-life. What would your arguments be to voters right now? So they would one vote for you and two vote for any ballot initiatives and maybe on the ballot here in Arizona that might Yeah,
Trent Franks (01:00:36):
No, and there's going to be one. So boy, that's a nice softball question and I really appreciate it. No, I'm just kidding.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:00:46):
No,
Trent Franks (01:00:47):
I'm glad. I want to address this. First of all, what you may not know is back in 1993, I led an effort here to put a ballot initiative on the ballot here on the life issue. And we wrote the thing in a way that we were using Richard Wirthlin, who was Ronald Reagan's old pollster. And we found that how you ask the question is vital. Now I'm talking about then not now, because it's important to make the distinction if you ask the question, well, don't you think abortion is a private decision that a woman should make in consultation with her doctor and her clergy and her family without coercing interference from the government? See, even to a conservative that sounds like, well, that's kind of hard to say no to. But then if you say, don't you think an innocent child that we should protect them from abortion and that if we don't protect the most innocent among us, that we might lose the courage to protect any kind of liberty for anyone.
(01:01:42):
If there's a life here involved, we have to protect that innocent life. Now you get, and so we ask that question, we ask both those questions. We got a 33% swing. And I said at the time, I wrote a paper at the time, I said, if we don't be the ones to write the ballot initiatives, we will lose every time. And that's what we've done. We've let the other side write these ballot initiatives, even the ones that we write sometimes we might still lose, but it'll be narrow, it'll be close, and we will have then help people understand it. Remember this, and this is people always get upset at pro-lifers when they talk about the slavery issue. But remember, there was a decision by the Supreme Court that said a slave named Dred Scott was not a person, that they were chattel and that they could not be protected under the Constitution.
(01:02:30):
And that almost destroyed the Supreme Court in the long run. But it also resulted in us shooting each other to doll rags on the Civil War battlefield because we had state's rights. We had exactly right what we have now. And the argument was simple. The one group said, Hey, we have a right to own slaves. If you have some moral dilemma with owning slaves, we suggest that you not own them, but you should not impose your morality on those of us who do or interfere with our right to choose. It sounds like yesterday's newspaper. But the truth is the slave was a human being. That's the truth. And that's the only question today about abortion and it's hard, but if there's no innocent human life involved, then I have wasted my life in trying to protect them. But if there is, then when I lay my head down on the pillow in the nursing home, I'll be okay because I know that we tried to do what we could for those who couldn't defend themselves.
(01:03:29):
Sometimes we're going to lose that debate, we're going to lose that argument. But we have to remember that the Republican Party was started in the heart of people who believed that the slave was a human being and deserved to be protected even though the Supreme Court and about two thirds of the American people at the time said, no, they're just property. They're not equal to us. And that commitment sustained the Republican Party in the crucible of a horrible civil war, and it allowed us to come to be one of the dominant parties in America, and thus one of the greatest influences in the world because we stayed true to this ideal that all of us are created and that's what makes us equal. And if we step away from that, even in times when it's hard for us to win, we make a mistake. Now I am of the opinion that we need to be very, very strategic in how we do that.
(01:04:24):
Because if we don't win, we can't protect anybody. That's right. You understand what I'm saying? That's right. And I have had a lot of private consultations with some very big groups out there because I've been so long in this effort, and I'm not going to articulate it here if you don't mind. No, that's for strategic reasons. But I believe we have to be on the offense and we have to make sure that we make this the question. And that is, is there a human life involved? Is there an innocent child's life to be interrupted or not? If there isn't, then it's an appendectomy. It is not an issue. And I would be the first to say a woman has every right to proceed, but if there is a human life involved, then we have to recognize that there are two human lives here. There's the life of the mother and the life of the child, and we have to love them both do everything that we can to be there for both of them and not leave either one of them out.
(01:05:19):
And I'm convinced that this country has the scientific and the technological capability to make sure that we not only just have to protect the unborn, but we can make abortion completely unnecessary. There's a way to do that, but as long as we're taking the life of maybe every fourth child, we will never be at peace as a nation with that. It will never, ever work because if we don't have the courage to protect these, the most helpless of human beings to ever come to earth, then we'll never have the courage to protect any kind of liberty for anyone. There has to be a way to say, Hey, we can all live together. We don't have to sacrifice the innocent in order to further the cause of freedom. There's nothing liberating about taking the lives of our children.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:06:11):
No, there absolutely is not. Yeah. Okay. Very last question. Who's your favorite founding father?
Trent Franks (01:06:19):
My favorite founding father? Oh, I have to say it was probably Daniel Webster. He said something. He said So many things. I'll tell you two Daniel Webster quotes. Okay, first of all, I was chairman of the Constitution committee and he was too. Wow. And so it just makes me feel good that I got to sit in the same, at least Chair os sensible chair that he did that wasn't the same actual chair, but he said, hold on my friends to the constitution and to the republic for which it stands for miracles do not cluster. And what has happened once in 6,000 years may never happen again. So hold on to the American Constitution for if the American Constitution should fall, there will be anarchy throughout the world.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:07:12):
Wow.
Trent Franks (01:07:14):
That's heavy stuff. And then he also said something, we talked about school choice, and I hope I can get this right. I'm having a couple issues. First, my memory's not as good as it used to be. And secondly, Jenny Beth, my memory's not as good as it used to be,
(01:07:27):
But he was talking about school choice, about education, about what we teach children. He says, if we work on marble, it will perish. If we work on brass, time will efface it. If we rear up temples, they will crumble into dust. But if we work upon immortal minds and imbue them with principles, with the just fear of God and the love for our fellow men, we engrave on those, we engrave on those tablets something that will brighten and brighten to all eternity. That's heavy if you ask me, because that means the truth and the miracle that we put in there in the hearts of our children. That's the hope of the human family a hundred years or a thousand years from now. And I don't know how long God's going to let this all continue. I don't know, but my book says, occupy until he comes and we got to do the best we can, and I hope we do.
(01:08:26):
And Ronald Reagan said it this way, he said, you and I have a rendezvous of destiny. We can preserve this, the last best hope of mankind on earth for our children, or we can sentence 'em to take that very last step into a thousand years of darkness. If we do fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us that we justified our brief moment here. We did. All that could be done. To me, that's the message that I think will still resonate in the hearts of Americans. I still think that America's a noble nation. I still think we have a lot more to do.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:09:01):
We absolutely do. Thank you for stepping up and doing all that you can and your children and grandchildren will know that you've done all you can for America. And I hope that the listeners of this show and the voters across America do the same thing.
Trent Franks (01:09:16):
Thank you, Jenny Beth and I say right back at you, my lady.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:09:21):
Thank you very much. This was Trent Franks, and I am Jenny Beth Martin with the Jenny Beth Show.
Narrator (01:09:26):
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 (01:09:46):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for whichever platform you're listening on. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow, and I'd really appreciate it. Thank you so much.