Transcript of #666 - Sen. John Kennedy

Today's guest is a United States senator representing the great state of Louisiana. He currently resides in Saint Tammany Parish, which is, um, the place that I'm from. Uh, this is episode 666 of this podcast, but we stand with the Lord. He's got a book out called How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will. Uh, it's an honor to spend time with one of the most humorous senators in our history, Mr. John Kennedy. But man, it's awesome, dude. What an honor just to see you.

Honors, man.

And, uh, and yeah, thank you, man.

You're quite welcome.

Thank you, John, for representing our state.

And thank you.

Yeah, and I appreciate that. We've had a lot of good Louisianans on here. We've had Lainey Wilson on here.

Yep.

Mark Norman is a famous comedian. Dustin Poirier.

Yep.

Uh, our UFC legend. Uh, Kevin Gates, Boosie, um, who's a rapper out of Baton Rouge. Um, the Suicide Boys for sure, Scrim and Ruby. Um, and you. So it's an honor, man. What brings you over to Nashville? Actually, I know you went to Vanderbilt, right?

I did go to Vanderbilt. I'm— Bill Hagerty is one of Tennessee senators, and they're having a big function tonight. And he asked me to speak, and I said, sure, I'll come. I'll just fly in. And it just so happened we were doing your show, so it all worked out perfectly.

Oh, that's awesome, man.

Yeah. So I'll go wherever we're going, guys. I'll change into a suit and go over there and speak and, you know, cut up. Nashville's gotten so big, Theo.

Has it? Yeah. Has it changed? I mean, is it— it's turned into a real— I'll say this— a tourist destination. I feel like even more probably than it was when you were here.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, it's all Nashville. Even when I was here was a banking and insurance center.

Okay.

Now it's so much more. It's health care, it's tech. It's for a while Nashville was the fastest growing city for young people in the country. Now it's probably still in the top 10.

I think it's— yeah, it's still a good place to bum a can of Skoal off of somebody too.

You got it, man.

You know, that's never lost.

It's a very diverse city. Yeah. And it's, you know, Knoxville used to be the big city and Knoxville is still pretty big. But now Nashville is kind of where the action— it's always been. Country music.

Yeah.

A lot of good comedians came out of Nashville.

Yeah, that's a good point. People don't even think about that. Nate Bargatze's one. Yep. Oh, I know that you grew up near where Jerry Clower's from, and he's my favorite comedian.

Yep. I grew up in a little town called Zachary.

Yeah. Did you ever get to see Jerry?

I saw him on TV.

That's it.

Never met him.

Yeah. Yeah. He was like an idol of mine growing up.

Funny.

Oh, yeah, dude. He was one of the best. He still is. I just saw an auction actually where they're auctioning off his suit. That he wore, and I think I'm gonna get that. I don't know if I'll ever wear it, but I think I'm gonna get it.

Do you still do comedy shows?

Oh yeah, for sure. I just finished a tour and then I'm just taking a break right now, and it's been kind of an adjustment, you know, just adjusting to something new.

When did you know you were funny? When you were young? Did you know it when you were young?

I think, you know, I was over at LSU and I was sitting, I lived in a place called The Commons over there, and it's like an apartment complex over there. And it's just walls, really. In college, you just get walls. There's not, you know, they'll have faucets and walls. You don't get a lot when you get an apartment. And, uh, and I remember sitting out there one day with the neighbors and just, I was just cutting up. And, and this one guy, Kevin, he's, uh, he's like, man, you should be a comedian. And I don't know if I'd ever really thought about it. And then my buddy's daddy played, uh, played Jerry Clower for me when we go on drives. And I think, um, I just kind of put it together for me at some point, you know. And I wanted a job where I— you could— like, comedy was nice because you always got to get away. It was like, you got to perform here, you got to perform there. You get— you do a lot of quips, man. You have a lot of, uh, you have a huge sense of humor. Um, did you ever think about it or try it?

I just— I, I just try to be myself, Theo.

Yeah.

You know, I have this saying, I don't remember who first told me, but When I was growing up, somebody told me, said, Kennedy, always be yourself unless you suck. Yeah. And if you suck, there's nothing we can do to help you. And I've never forgotten that, you know?

Yeah, that's a good line, man.

And, and a lot of, a lot of folks in Washington think they need to pretend to be somebody else and be very erudite and sound like a senator. And that's okay for them, but it just doesn't work for me. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd find it too hard. I think, I don't know, I— I don't— it's hard for me to find something that's too fake. It just hurts me kind of or something.

Well, people— the American people can smell a phony, man.

Yeah.

They can smell a phony a mile away.

Yeah. But being off of comedy has been nice because I've had more time to watch. I've been watching some of the soccer. You been watching the World Cup?

Uh-huh. Little bit.

Yeah? Did Louisiana have a chance to get a game at all? Do you know?

No, I don't think we did. The competition there was so— it was so intense because they just felt like big money. And, and I don't know that we even bid. We might have put in a bid from New Orleans. Yeah, but it was expensive and you had to offer incentives. The World Cup's a big deal. You know, we're not— we're not big— that kind of football, we don't follow it much in America, but— in the rest of the world, it is the thing, man.

Oh yeah. It's been nice to see. I just actually, I went to a game down in Guadalajara the other night.

Uh-huh. Um, fun to watch, dude.

It was so cool, man.

Yeah.

And they treated us like so nice down there and just like, yeah, it was the first World Cup game that they'd ever had in Guadalajara that Mexico had played in. And man, I got to go with my friend Johnny and Samantha and it was just—

these guys are incredible athletes. Oh, unbelievable athletes.

It makes me feel so lazy even just sitting there in the stands. It's like they're running for so long. They're running for so long.

It's start, it's stop. Yeah, it's contact. It's a lot of contact.

They can eat whatever they want. That's what I think the whole time. I'm like, these bastards can go after this, they can eat whatever and they can eat whatever they want, probably forever. Like they've done enough exercise.

Yep.

Like they're kind of grandfathered in to have to have abs.

I think tennis is another sport that demands incredible endurance.

Tennis is for the rich, though, I think, John.

Well, I remember when I was in school in England, I went over and bought standing room only tickets at, at Wimbledon. And I watched— I got to watch Arthur Ashe on one of the outer courts. He was as close as you and me. And this guy was in such incredible— he wasn't muscular, you know, John McEnroe, if you met— I saw Jimmy Connors one time, wasn't muscular.

Yeah.

And they were from, from lower class backgrounds. They just started early.

Yeah, I'll get— look, any, any urban kid, I'm gonna put a racket in their hand. That is one— that's a sport they take over fast.

But it's discipline, man. It's just repetition every day. Every day. And you've got to be able to handle pressure.

Yeah, I don't think I'd be good at it.

You got to be able to handle the pressure. I don't know. You're playing people that are as good as you are, and it becomes a mental game.

Yeah, especially at that high level, man. I think that's what people don't realize about a lot of these sports, like these in like, when you get to a high level, it's a matter of inches. It's a little bit of a moment.

It's inches and it's mental.

If you even see these soccer games, you'll see the ball goes through and it's like, there's like an arm, a leg, a shoulder, a head, so many things that are just, I mean, half a millimeter away from it.

Yeah.

You know, every single shot. Yeah, I've enjoyed watching the World Cup. It's been good. It's been a nice time to have extra free time because that's going on. You live in Madisonville?

Yeah.

Nice.

Near Mandeville. Yeah, I live right on the line between Madisonville and Mandeville.

Okay.

Of course, it's grown a lot since you grew up there.

Oh, yeah. I go back a good bit.

It's— well, you know, I mean, it's just— you can't really tell the difference now between Mandeville, Madisonville, and Covington.

Yeah. Yeah. My stepdad goes over there to a coffee house over there by Friends, right there on the lake. And has—

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah.

It's in an old house. Yep. Beautiful.

What's it called?

Creole Cottage.

Yeah, something like that.

I can't think of that. I've had meetings there before.

Yeah, it's nice, man. I used to live right over a buddy of mine. His family let me live in their basement over there, which living in a basement in Louisiana, it's a—

it could— it's dangerous. It could flood.

Yeah, it could flood.

And you can find varmints in there.

Oh, definitely, man. You know, your hair's clean in the morning. I know that something will run up and eat everything out of it.

And snakes will crawl in there with you.

Oh, yeah.

My wife called me. I got me out of it.

Let's don't go from snakes to your wife.

Yeah, it's a good— you're right about that. But she called me the other day. I was in the middle of a hearing and it was— she was hysterical and she showed me a picture that there was this 6-foot rat snake in my— in my— on my deck. And I said, just leave him alone. Yeah, you want him, you know, don't hurt him. She'll call the neighbor and they'll kill him. I said, don't do that. Yeah, he's a rat snake. Even if you— even if you could pick him up, he might bite you, but it won't hurt.

Yeah. Now, if you're a rat—

if you're a rat, he'll eat you.

Yeah. You got a problem, man.

You know, he will eat you and spit out the bones.

But they always got something over there. I used to work over at Friends on the Lake. You know where that is?

Friends?

Well, yeah. So before they remodeled, it was just one story, right?

It's highfalutin now.

Oh, it's—

yeah, it's high-end now.

It's fancy.

But I liked it when I liked it the old way. There was another place called Coffee's Boiling Pot. Yeah, I used to— they've under new ownership and it's gotten a little more expensive. Yeah, but it's just grown so much.

Oh yeah. And Baddo's. I used to go Baddo's, get me a burger.

I still go. Baddo's is still there.

Give me a chocolate malt over there.

You got it.

Oh, so much sugar in my face. I couldn't blink my damn eyes for an hour. But, you know, but it was worth it, man. But I worked at Friends and I will tell you this.

They used to— You were a waiter?

Oh no, I was a busboy forever. Were you? Yeah, I was never promoted. That was my— yeah. And then I got to a point where I was like, I'm not being a waiter even if y'all want me to. You know, that was some of my energy. But it was a good time over there. And when they would cook duck, when the chef would cook duck, every now and then they had duck on the menu. And back in the busboy section where the ice machine was, they had these— they had some missing baseboards down there and these raccoons would come out of the wall. So one of the busboys would have to sit back there with a broomstick and just beat them back in it. Literally just beat them back into the wall where they were cooking.

Listen, we had—

they— raccoons love duck.

We had an outdoor cat for a while.

Oh, yeah.

Wild. But he— but I would, would bring cat food out there and it was always gone so quick. And finally, when I went out there one night and just kind of hid, a raccoon was coming out of the woods just snarfing that stuff, just pretending to be a cat. We've got raccoons. I back up towards— we've got raccoons, deer. I went out one night to take out the garbage, opened up the top, a possum, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They act like it's theirs.

Yeah, exactly. And now raccoons are kind of cute. Possums, huh? Yeah, those things.

You'll see a crossbreed of a catcoon every now and then. You'll see them, couple of them start cross-pollinating out there. If the, if the humidity gets high enough, you'll see some of them animals start mixing species.

As you well know, we've got everything. Oh yeah, we've got alligator. We've got more alligators than we've got people now.

Is that true?

Yeah. Oh yeah.

You're lying.

No, I'm not. It's just 25 years ago they were getting—

and watch and watch the Democrats try to get them to register to vote.

Yep. It wouldn't surprise me.

Wouldn't surprise me. Sorry to interrupt you, but I was going to forget that joke if I didn't say it. Yes, Louisiana has more alligators than people. Dear God, get the kids away from the river.

But tourists love them because they will— these boat tour guides go out and they feed them. And so when, when they see the, the, the boat, they come immediately and the tourists just eat it up. They think they're tame. They're not.

It's perversion to me, brother. I don't mess with the devil and I don't mess with his pets. That's one way I— that's how I operate. I don't mess with those types of things, that's for sure. But yeah, it's nice for you. It's nice to be here. Nice to just have a a taste of home in the building, man. You started working in politics.

I know you were taping now.

Yeah. Is that okay?

Yeah, fine. I just didn't know.

Oh, yes, sir. Sorry. Yes, sir. We are. Senator John Kennedy, thank you. And you're not related to Bobby Kennedy or any of those Kennedys, right?

Well, if I am, I'm the poor side of the family. Okay? I don't think I am. Yeah. My dad was from Oklahoma and my mom was from central Louisiana.

How did they meet? How'd your parents meet?

Well, my dad, Phil, was from a Depression family.

Mm-hmm.

8 brothers and sisters.

Wow.

He left home. Hard for me to believe today, but when he was 14, to go to another town that had a high school, he lived with relatives. He worked as a janitor at night to pay his way. He went to the University of Oklahoma.

Who just won the Natty Championship.

That's right.

Let's go.

He worked his way through school, got a degree in petroleum engineering, came to Louisiana to work in the oil fields and met my mom. And he, he went away for 4 years. He was in World War II. But I— my dad was my hero.

Was he?

Yeah, he really was.

What was his name?

Preston Kennedy.

Preston Kennedy.

Well, I named my son after my dad. Used to tell me, Theo, he would say, son, when I was growing up, I have 3 brothers. He'd say, son, you'll never understand love till you have a child. And I'd say, ah, come on, Dad, you know. He'd say, no, it's not like the love of a spouse or a sibling or a girlfriend. And until you have children, you don't know that. And but he was right. I named my son after Preston, and he's a good kid. There was a time growing up when I figured my son was either going to go into concert promotion or a minimum security prison. I wasn't sure which, but, but he, he, he, he, he's a, he's a good kid.

There's a picture of him right there, huh?

Yep.

Oh, that's awesome.

That's my late dad.

There you go. Preston and the other Preston, huh?

Yep.

Amen.

Yep. That's a great picture. I've got that somewhere. That was my younger days. This is when my dad was still alive.

Oh, bless him, man.

We were— he was— we were raised in Zachary. Oh, yeah. About 3,000 people.

Mm-hmm. And that's close to Liberty.

It's sort of close to Liberty. It's close. Liberty's about 40 miles away. It's close to Baton Rouge.

Okay. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I know where it is now.

Now, when I grew up, Zachary's big now. It's like 15, 20,000. There were like 3,000 people.

Oh, yeah.

And it was really a small town. And I like that people say, what's a small town like? And I tell them the truth. It's everybody knows your business. Everybody knows whose check is good and whose husband isn't. Everybody knows you're bad. But I would go back. Some people hated high school. I loved it.

Yeah.

Happiest day.

Oh, high school?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, 'cause I don't think people, you don't realize at that age that you will never be in a place where you're kind of as protected, like in an incubator, and have all of everyone you know will be around. Every day they show up, even though they're tired or whatever and they're miserable and they didn't do their homework or whatever. And they all like the same girl, it doesn't matter. Everybody you know will show up. And that never happens again.

Nope. It— I had 100 people in my graduating class. We were the Bucking— that's B— Bucking Broncos. Okay. And I cared about two things. I cared about my studies because of my parents, but I cared more about basketball and I cared about cheerleaders. And I wasn't worth a damn at either one, but I had a lot of fun trying. And You don't. But I talk to people all the time. They all— I didn't like high school, man. I'd go back in a second.

Oh, God. Well, they busted some guy. They had some guy had a growth deficiency and he— or just the Lord didn't really let him grow up. He was just a Simon Birch of a man, you know? And, and they busted him. He was like 31 and he went back to middle school or something. And he was— they caught him on like 2 weeks into school.

One of the school—

one of the teachers saw him cashing a check over the weekend at a bank. And they busted him. This is a few years ago in Indiana. They caught a guy, but— and people were like, that's messed up. I said, look, I don't blame the guy.

Well, you grew up in Mandeville and Covington. It was probably small then. Oh man, it's big now.

But Covington was perfect, man. I remember we'd get paddled by the principal. Oh yeah, Bill Brady. Bill Brady was our principal, and he's the best. I saw him a couple years ago at, um, at a buddy's funeral.

But you can't do that anymore. But I, I— we had it.

Did y'all have like a milk delivery person and stuff like that? Nuh-uh.

I, I remember—

that's crazy, bro.

I'll never I had a civics class and my basketball coach was my teacher. And there was this one guy— I won't use his name because he's a friend of mine, but he was a great football player and he was having trouble with the exam. So he said, Kennedy, help me with this exam. We're sitting next to each other and I'll never forget. Well, okay, you know, I— he'd point to an answer. It was multiple choice. I go, huh? Point to another. I go, huh? And the coach called me, caught me. Oh, come here. And you just, you bend over and he hits you with that paddle with holes in it. And you don't want to, you don't want to cry. It hurts like hell.

We don't want to make any noise. He's just, yeah, like any noise you make is not good.

Then you're uncool.

Yeah.

Now you don't do that anymore, but it worked for me. Next time, next time my friend got in trouble, he said, will you help me?

I said no, no.

I think, you know, yeah, I've learned my lesson.

Yeah, I learned my lesson the hard way, man. Here we go, right here it said, uh, Perrysburg Police arrested a Labrador— arrested Labrador Sierra on Monday. That's a man. Um, a 24-year-old suspect was enrolled in high school allegedly posing as a teenage boy for more than a year and a half. Really? That's pretty wild. Attending Perrysburg High School between January 11th, 2024 and May 14th, 2025. Shout out to that young fella trying to get an education.

Good for him, I guess.

Yeah, I guess. We don't know.

We don't know. We don't know why he went back.

We don't know why he went back.

Now, if he went back to finish up a couple of courses, yeah, if that's one thing. But you just might want to delve in the background.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You might want to do a little recon on that fella. And also, I will notice in that photo, I think he was in a prison outfit. So Yeah. So maybe more to the story. You started as treasurer in Louisiana.

Yeah, I— my first job—

political career. Sorry.

Yep. My first job, I worked for a governor, a reform governor named Buddy Romer. Oh, did you really work for Buddy? And then Buddy got beat and I had left him to run for attorney general. I lost, came in third. My next job was another reform governor named Mike Foster. I had become friends with him and he won and he asked me to come run basically the tax department. And I did that for a while. And then I ran for treasurer and I was treasurer for 17 years before I came to the Senate. Wow. Enjoyed it. Learned a lot about finance, a lot about bond issues, underwriting. I managed all the state money. It was about $4 billion then. That's not a lot of money to a lot of people, but for Louisiana, it's a lot.

Yeah, it's a chunk.

I enjoyed it. Yeah, I like being a senator, but I enjoyed being state treasurer.

What does a treasurer do? So just so we know, so we're clear on it.

Well, when you're in the state treasurer, just as you'd expect, you're in charge of the state's money. States borrow money to build roads or to build prisons or build schools. And you issue bonds and you hire investment bankers, usually out of New York, not always, and bond lawyers. I was in charge of that. You have to be very careful. The rules, the security rules, you have to disclose everything. We had idle cash.

Oh, not that. Ain't good in Louisiana. No, no, that goes missing quick.

But cash comes in and goes out quickly. But I was in charge of investing it in short-term instruments, sometimes just a day or two.

Okay.

But when you really— when you've got a cash flow that's in the billions of dollars, just investing it overnight, you can pick up a lot of money if you do it repeatedly. We had a lot of trust funds. I invested— I invested those. I spent a lot of time working with the legislature. On ideas about how to make government more efficient, save money. I was in charge of the state's unclaimed property program.

Were you really? Yeah.

Yeah, dude.

I think you all sent me a thing one time. I think I had $200 on something. Yeah. Thank you.

Yep. We—

Thank you, dude.

When a business has your money and can't find you, they can't keep it. They've got to turn it over to the state. And I was in charge of—

Unless it's the federal government, they're allowed to just keep it.

The federal government's different.

Yeah, they allowed to keep everything.

I was in charge of getting the money back to people.

Okay.

And the most money I ever gave back to a, to a lady. Yeah, man, it was great. She was a retired schoolteacher in New Orleans. It was from her late husband. It's a long story, but she didn't know about the money. They were invested in stocks and they grew and grew and grew. I gave her a check for $1,026,000. Yeah, man, it was cool.

And did you walk over there and do it?

You know, I called her. And told her how we got it. She didn't have any children. And she said, well, I want to come to Baton Rouge and get it. And so that's where my office was. So she came in and she cried, talked about her late husband. I gave her the money. She said, I'm going to use it to help people. I don't have any children. But when I walked her outside to escort her out, she had like 10 nieces and nephews there just waiting. And I knew that money was going to get spent.

Get that check, boy. Oh, when that check comes in Louisiana, when that check comes, man, it's getting spent.

But I'm glad we got some of your money.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Thank you, man. I needed it at the time too, you know? So I appreciate that. When you got a job and then Senator, how long you been working as a senator for?

10 years.

Okay.

It's some of the most interesting people I've ever been around.

Yeah.

Right now it's not pretty to watch.

Yeah.

Right now, Congress kind of looks like a breech birth, you know?

What do you mean by that?

Well, a three-wheel stock shopping cart. We're not getting along.

Yeah.

It's hard to reach consensus. We'll get through it. But as we get closer to the midterm elections, there it just gets more and more and more political. I think we're going to have another shutdown. I sit on the Appropriations Committee and we're trying to put together a budget, but we're not getting any cooperation.

What is the Appropriations Committee? What does that mean?

That means I'm in charge of— not just me, but others. I'm in charge of, of drafting the federal government's budget. And my part of it is what's called energy and water development. I'm in charge of the nuclear program. I'm in charge— well, my committee, subcommittee is—

okay.

I'm in charge of the Department of Energy. I'm in charge of the Army Corps of Engineers. And we put together the budget. But I've You've got to get 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate. So I've got to work with my Democratic colleagues, and that sometimes is easy, sometimes it's not. The closer we— Senator Schumer, I think, is going to shut— he's going to refuse to let us do a budget. I think he's going to shut down government.

That guy seems like a crook.

Well, look, I mean, let me—

And maybe that's unfair to say.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You're fair.

It's America.

You can believe what you want. I don't hate anybody. I don't. And when I say my prayers, one of the things I ask God for, don't let me hate. And it's easy to start hating and watch it. And I refuse to hate. And that's one of the many things I ask God for. And I know Chuck well. We went to China together, met with President Xi. We don't agree on much. And Chuck's entitled to his opinion. But as I tell him all the time, you know, he's— he's— how can I explain it? He's— he's very animated. Yeah. He's like a 5-year-old in a Batman costume. You know, you just want to tell him, chill out.

Yeah.

But he hates President Trump. Does not like President Trump. He thinks by creating chaos, it'll help his side in the midterm elections, and I fully expect him to withhold the budget, the votes on the budget, and shut down government. And that would be— I hope I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I apologize to him.

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Yep, I think he's leaving the Republican Party.

Longtime conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said on a podcast that there's no chance I would support the Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections. Um, not going to support the Democratic Party. Carlson was quick to add, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Um, Carlson supported Trump in 2024. Uh, Did he say why? Uh, they're making decisions on the basis of other criteria. What's the— what's best for this company? What's best for Israel? Oh, that's right. He said he felt like it was becoming an Israel-first party and not America-first. Um, that's a big person to not, uh, have support from, you know, because he's been a big supporter of the Republican Party for a while. I've been a consistent defender, he says, for 35 years of the Republican Party. I mean, very consistent defender, but there's no defending this, he said. So no, I'm out. What do you— what's your response to that?

Well, I know Tucker. He is very, very smart. He's very articulate. He has fallen out with President Trump and with those of us in the Senate who support Israel. He primarily fell out with President Trump over the conflict in Iran. Now, I've been very supportive of the president on the conflict in Iran. I don't want America to be the world's policeman, but I don't want Xi Jinping in China or the ayatollah in Iran or Vladimir Putin in Russia to be the world's policeman either. And these are hard men. They understand one thing, Theo. Strength. If, if, if, if you, if you turn the other cheek to these people, they'll just stab you in the neck.

Now, what proof of that is there?

You just look at their actions. Iran is the world's foremost exporter of terrorism. Putin, who now, of course, runs Russia, wants to dominate Eastern and Central Europe. Which is President Trump has gotten Europe to start spending more money on defense, but we've always had to defend them. I can tell you what President Xi— I've met with President Xi. He is very clear. He thinks that China is ascending. He thinks America's in decline. He thinks while they're building ships and nuclear weapons, He thinks all we do in America is sit around and debate whether a man can breastfeed. And he is— he and Putin and the Ayatollah in Iran are working together. And China's goal is to dominate the Indo-Pacific, to be free to roam in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. He wants to dominate the Arctic. He wants to dominate space.

But has he shown those things like—

Oh, yes. Okay, absolutely. I mean, China is supporting Iran right now. China is supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine. There's no question. China buys all of Putin's oil. We sanctioned a lot of their oil when Putin invaded Ukraine, so he can't sell it because oil is traded in dollars. He sells to China. Look, I don't, I don't hate anybody. And the Chinese people, to the extent that the Communist Party in China will let you interact with them, are lovely people. But they, they are determined. They hate America. And, and deep down, the Iranians are worse. But deep down, they want to kill us and hurt us the entire time we're dying now. That's my point of view. Tucker will have a different point of view. Yeah, he thinks, and he thinks that we're too close to Israel.

I think a lot of people, these from, from people that I see all the time, that's the number one thing that people say. They think we're too close to a country that's, that's, that's created a genocide against Palestine and then is like in conflict with these other people around them that it seems like they're just like kind of the bullies of the area. You know, it's like It feels like they're the terrorist organization. That's what it seems like to a lot of people.

A lot of people believe that. I'll give you another point of view. The real problem in the Middle East since forever, since God was a baby, the real problem in the Middle East is Iran. And Iran wants to dominate it. And Iran funds Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel is surrounded by people that want to kill them. They— Syria is different today, but Syria— Hezbollah was in control of Lebanon. Hamas, an arm of Iran, was in control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas attacked Israel, and the Israelis fight back. And they took over the Gaza Strip. And yes, a lot of Palestinians got hurt.

Not got hurt, I mean got killed.

Got killed and hurt. But Hamas would hold the Gazans hostage. They would put them out front.

But how do we even know that? They killed 220-something.

Because we've seen it.

But they killed 220-something journalists that went there to document what was going on.

There's no question there would be civilian deaths.

They wouldn't let journalists in to even document what was happening.

There have been civilian deaths, but it is primarily the fault. I'm not saying Israel is blameless. Look, war is ugly.

Yeah, but is this war?

But it is war.

You think it's war?

It is war.

They just had an article yesterday that came out from the UN. If you could find that, it was about They'd done like a deep dive on the killing of children, right? And some of the massacring and really massacring of children. Israel continues to commit genocide atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children. UN independent commission finds even after the October 2020 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection Let me see what else here. Here are some findings of the commission. Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since October 7th, 2023. Let me see. Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons. This is all part of, let me see, United Nations.

Well, first, I wouldn't believe it if it came from the UN.

Oh, really? Do you feel like they're not liable?

They're not.

They're not. Sorry. Reliable.

They're not objective.

Okay.

They're not objective. Well, number two, it's number two. And I know children got killed and it breaks your heart. Hamas kills children, too. So does Hezbollah. So does Iran. Do you think— do you think the Ayatollah doesn't care about the Iranian people? The Persians are some of the most talented people in history.

Mm-hmm.

When they disagree with the Ayatollah, They hang them. They just hang them. And I think— I don't speak for Mr. Carlson, but he says it's not our business. And I guess to some extent he's right. But I'll tell you what is our business is letting them get a nuclear weapon. Because if they get a nuclear weapon, these people are like Charlie Manson. They're crazy. I mean, there's— really crazy is rare. These people, though, are with the Iranian leadership. It's commonplace. If they get a nuclear weapon, they will use it, not just on Israel, but on Europe and on us. And even if they don't, once they get a nuclear weapon, you will have other countries— Japan, South Korea, other countries— Saudi Arabia— get nuclear weapons as well. And the more people that have nuclear weapons, more likely you are to have war. Yeah, but Tucker would probably have another point of view. But I really like Tucker. I think he's really smart.

Oh yeah, I think Tucker's a neat guy. I mean, from what I know about him, he seems like— I believe that he's earnest, like, in his search, you know. I believe that he— I don't know. Yeah, my interactions with them have always been good. You know, it's just that when they kill the reporters who are trying to get honest information, they're killing reporters. You know, they had an American—

I don't think it was intentional, but—

They had one that they shot directly in the face, and then at her funeral, they attacked the people who were carrying her. Can you find her name? We just talked about her last night. Sorry to go in all this.

No, it's okay.

But at her funeral, they attacked— they even attacked the people who were giving her funeral. Shireen Abu Akleh was a prominent Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for 25 years for Al Jazeera before she was killed by Israeli forces while wearing a blue press vest and covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

Obviously, that's terrible.

Yeah.

But here's what you have to understand about the world. And I don't know why this is. If I make it to heaven, I'm going to ask God. But there's some people out there in the world. They're not sick. They're not mixed up. It's not that their mama and daddy didn't love them enough. They just got black hearts.

Yeah.

And some of them run countries. North Korea, Russia, China.

But what are those countries actively doing right now? Like Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government is actively, well, a lot of people believe, and I believe a lot of voters believe that they're actively committing, have committed a genocide in Palestine, and then they've gone into Beirut to Lebanon, to Iran. You don't believe they are?

I don't believe that. I believe that Hamas dominate, which is an arm of Iran. Hamas dominated Gaza. Hamas attacked Israel. Hamas was hiding behind the Palestinian civilians.

All of them. All of them.

All of them. You— if you didn't obey, if the Palestinian civilians didn't obey Hamas, they would kill them. Okay.

Okay.

Hamas was in complete control. Israel attacked. When Israel attacked Hamas, Many civilians got killed and it was regrettable. But what are you going to do? Iran was hiding, physically hiding behind them. While that happened, Hezbollah from Lebanon, funded by Iran, attacked Israel. And all Israel has done is fought back.

Yeah.

Now, I'm not saying that, that, that in the fog of war there haven't been innocent people killed. They had— there have been. Yeah. And it's terrible. But it's not like Israel is, is the bad guy and Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran are the good guys because they're not. And these weakness invites the wolves. I wish it weren't like that. I wish it weren't. I wish you could sit down and, and reason with them. But it's, it's like talking to Charlie Manson. He was stone cold crazy. Yeah. And these people believe if you don't accept their religion, their form of Islam, then you should die. And they think they're on a mission from God. Now, look, I think that Islam is— if you want to be—

you think that's true? And you would know. I mean, I don't have a—

I think a little—

I have experience.

Islam, Hindu. You can— your religion is your business. In America, we have freedom of religion. But if, if my religion told me that I had to kill a bunch of other human beings to advance my religion's cause, I— if Christianity taught that, I couldn't be a Christian.

Yeah. Yeah, that would be heartbreaking. Yeah.

But they really believe that. And that's—

and how do we know that?

Because they've done it. They've— what they've done, what they did in October— was it October 7th? They raided, they raped, they cut off Israeli people's heads, they kidnapped them. What they've done to American troops in Lebanon. It's widely known. Look, look at what they did. They started shooting at the Saudis and the UAE. That's not the good people of Iran. That's their leadership, their religious zealots.

And didn't we get— didn't we— didn't we take their ayatollah out?

We took the first one out. They've replaced him with his son, but he's— he's in hiding.

Dang, bro. And that's nepotism. Yeah. I mean, we got to call that what it is.

Well, nobody wants— nobody really wants to.

Nobody wants the job.

Nobody wants the job, man. Our military is the greatest military in all of human history.

Amen to that, dude.

It's just extraordinary.

We're so lucky, man. I mean, we're just lucky to be in a place where we can at least, like, think and try and explore ideas. And try and learn. And even if we don't know stuff, we can try our best. But wasn't there some evidence that Hamas was funded by Israel though? It was backchanneled through Qatar or something. Can you look that up?

Qatar has funneled money to Hamas before.

They're a middleman.

Nah, I'll be shocked. I'm a United States Senator.

But money from Israel through—

No, I don't believe that. Yeah, I just don't believe that. I know there's stories, but I just don't believe that because I've been to Israel, I've talked to the Israeli people. They don't want to be at war.

But then why are they at war with everyone then? It feels like—

well, they're at war with Hezbollah to the north because Hezbollah keeps shooting missiles at them and digging tunnels. And they're terrorists. And they're at war with Hamas. Because Hamas attacked them. Yeah. And, and until they took out their missiles, kept shooting missiles. And they're at war with Iran because Iran is behind all of it. And I wish we didn't have to do any of this, honest to God. I've talked to President Trump about it. He didn't— he doesn't want to be in conflict with Iran, but we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. You— we cannot. These people are stone cold crazy.

Yeah, I guess it's tough to say. I think when you see like videos and stuff online, it makes you just see like, um, I don't know, it just makes your heart hurt. Like, um, there was a, uh, there was a report the other day in that UN report that there was like a 14-year-old kid who they got— who they shot, and then they just stood around and watched him bleed to death. And when his mother tried to to come to him, they just would shoot at her. And then these soldiers just stood around and watched him bleed to death. And it's just kind of heartbreaking.

I know, it all breaks your heart. And that's why you don't want to have to go to war. But put yourself in the president's shoes. Our intelligence, here's what our intelligence showed, and I've seen it. It's classified, but I've seen it. But I can give you a general outline. Our intelligence showed that Iran was building up its missile capacity, both ballistic and cruise, and they were going to compile so many missiles and drones that they were going to turn to America and Israel and say, "We're restarting our nuclear weapons program." And if you try to stop us, we're going to destroy the rest of the Middle East. And by the way, our missiles can now reach London and Paris, Paris and, and Germany.

And you saw reports.

I've seen the intelligence.

Okay.

And President Trump was faced, well, do I let them continue? He had already bombed their nuclear— some of their nuclear facilities. But he was faced with the decision, do I let them get to the point where they have so many missiles and drones, ballistic and cruise, that they could destroy the Middle East, that they could hit London, that they might even be able to hit the United States? Or do I go in to stop them? And he did.

Right.

And we haven't destroyed all of their missiles. But if you go to Iran today, their whole swaths of Iran, they look like something out of Mad Max 4. I mean, we destroyed the public sector, the private— big portions of the private sector didn't want to do it. It'll take them 20 years to recover. I mean, our military, I'm not going to bubble wrap it. They went in and our military ate them and spit out the bones.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and, and they are not right now a nuclear threat, but they still have the centrifuges to make, to take their fissile material and make it, make a warhead.

Yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know that you had seen the intel on that.

We have, we have a a basement, an underground room in the Senate. This, we call it the SCIF. It's completely secure. You leave all your electronics outside. And I've been briefed all of a sudden by Rubio, by Secretary Hadseth, by Secretary Rubio, the Joint Chiefs, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

And do you trust those guys?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. John Ratcliffe from the CIA. I trust every single one of them.

Amen. Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't— yeah, I'm not in the space, so it's like, you know, it's from our perspective just as a regular person, you just see all of this stuff and it's so— it seems like so one way. It seems like you were saying, like, you feel like the truth comes through and you know what it is, right? Like we were saying in the beginning or whatever, like what we see and what we see and perceive is Okay, this is real, or this is earnest or whatever. It's like that's the way that a lot of it seems. Well, let me get this note real quick before you go, and sorry to interrupt you. That's okay. This is here. In a controversial deal, Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu supported Qatar's payments to Hamas for many years in hope that it would turn Hamas into an effective counterweight to the Palestinian Authority and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. So maybe there was some funding, but it wasn't clear on what it was for.

Well, if they gave aid, I don't— there's a footnote there. I don't know the authority for that.

Yeah, I'm not sure either.

If they gave aid through Qatar to try to help the people of Gaza so they wouldn't join up with Hamas, that's a different thing from them supporting Hamas.

Yeah. And what did you look up there? Just, I'm going to look it up one more time. Can you put Israel supported, did Israel support Hamas? Can you just put that question? Let me see. Israel did not directly create Hamas, but from the late 1970s through the 1990s, the Israeli government provided COVID support and funding to the Islamist movement that preceded it. This strategy was used to counterbalance secular Palestinian nationalist groups like the Palestine. So they may have inadvertently supported it by trying to support something else, I guess.

Hamas is a spinoff of the Palestine— Palestinian— PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization. But once Hamas spun off, they got all their financial support from Iran, almost 90% of it.

Got it.

And without Iran providing the money, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah could exist, and they are terrorists.

Understood. Did Iran fund Hamas? Let's look that up then. And thanks for discussing it with me.

Sure.

Yes, Iran is—

It's an important subject.

Yes, Iran has funded, armed, and trained Hamas for decades. Tehran considers the group a key part of its Axis of Resistance and provides tens of millions of dollars annually to support its military and operational capabilities.

And look, I'm not saying Israel is perfect. I'm not saying that. Okay. None of us is perfect. But look at it this way.

Yeah.

There are certain areas you, you, you could walk down. If you walk down at 2:00 in the morning in Nashville, let's say there are people there that would hurt you.

Yeah.

Now, I don't know why. Like I say, if I make it to heaven, I'm going to ask why people, you know, want to hurt other people. But they do. And that's the situation that Israel's in. Yeah, I'll give you an example, a more concrete example. My wife hates guns.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. I respect that. But I own guns. Now, do I believe— do I hate everybody else? No, I believe love is the answer, but I own a handgun just in case.

Amen.

Because I know there are people out there and if they try to hurt me or my family, I'm going to— I'm going to— I'm going to defend myself and my family. Yeah. And that's— I wish the world weren't like that, but it is. Yeah. And some— there's some very powerful countries that they hate America. They just hate us. They do. And you can't reach them through diplomacy. Doesn't mean you shouldn't talk to them. But with, with a guy I've looked at, look President Xi in the eye. Okay. I've met this guy with, with hard men like President Xi or the Ayatollah or Putin in Russia. Weakness invites the wolves and trying to get too close to them It's like hand-feeding a shark. Wish it weren't like that. Wish it weren't. I think President Trump has understood that. President Trump and I have our differences. We have two different styles. Yeah. Okay. President Trump exists loudly. I told him one time, he said, Kennedy, how you like my tweets? I said, Mr. President, tweeting a little bit less would not cause brain cancer. He said, what, you don't like my tweets? I said, no, I didn't say that.

I said, I like a steak every now and then. I just don't like to eat 8 of them one time. And I said, you're the president of the United States and you— you— he had— he— he just has no filter. He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought.

Mm.

But he's the president and I'm not. And, and that makes a lot of people mad. I've known him for 10 years. I've got his cell phone there in my briefcase. If I called my— his cell number, if I called him, he called me right back. I don't go hang around the White House, but we deal with each other straight up and we agree. When we agree, we agree. When we disagree, we disagree. Amen. And you've had him on your show. You've met him.

Yeah. He's a busy guy.

He's a— He's— he exists loudly. He's aggressively unpredictable.

He's a busy guy, man.

He's a busy guy.

Yeah. That's one thing I just remember from my interaction with him was that he's a busy guy.

He's not as cool as Jeff Bridges, but— but he's pretty cool. You know who you need to have? My two favorite actors. Not my— well, two of my favorite actors, Jeff Bridges and Denzel Washington.

Oh, man.

Denzel Washington came to see me. Me one time.

Really?

It was, it was so cool. He was lobbying because I'm on the Appropriations Committee for boys and money for the Boys and Girls Club. And this guy is what cool looks like, man. He sat in my office and we talked about movies.

Dang, look at him.

And oh man, he was, he was, he had just made the movie.

You almost have the same hair, kind of different colors a little.

Look, he is so cool. I told you, he said, He didn't like to talk about his movies, but I said, I think your best movie is Malcolm X. And he, he just made a movie, The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Magnificent Seven. And he was telling me, showed me pictures.

That's a Western, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He said, Kennedy, I'm from inner city Philadelphia. I had to get on a horse and he showed me. But anyway, he's just—

Dude, that's awesome.

I like Jeff Bridges a lot too.

Yeah, that would be amazing to get to have him. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I can't even believe some of the people you get to talk to and stuff like that and some of the people that you get to learn from, you know. Um, y'all ever think about how something gets its start? Like Mountain Dew. I always just thought that it appeared one day just sitting in a cooler, just glistening, you know, just like a beverage stork just brought it in from the great beverage beyond. But no, it's actually— it's straight out of Tennessee. A real place, real people, two brothers working tirelessly to nail that citrus kick we all love today. Appalachian roots, baby. It's bold, it's loud, it's got that "I'll figure it out myself" attitude. That attitude is still in it today. Still bold, still unmistakable, still Dew. It's an American original that's been tasting great since '48. Yep, 1948. That's a while now, huh? And they're even putting it on the can as a tribute to the nearly 80 years of Tennessee roots and unapologetic American taste. American Dew Limited Edition. This is a hometown story in a can. Next time you grab a Dew, just know it's, it's more than just a drink.

It's an American original. Mountain Dew, tasting great since '48. Hmm, I need to tell you that if your business communications are basically a, a burner phone and a prayer, you know, I'm talking about missed calls, uh, texts that nobody answered, customers following up for the third and fourth time, well, well then obviously things are a mess. And at some point you just, you hit that wall and you're like, all right, I'm done with this, let's fuckin' quo. Today's episode is brought to you by quo, Q-U-O, the business communication system built so you never miss a call. Let's fuckin' quo. Your entire team can handle calls and texts from one shared number, so no more missed messages or dropped conversations, or somebody's handing it off to this person and they're not receiving it. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone sees the full thread, replies are faster, and customers actually feel taken care of. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/theo. That's quo.com/theo. Let's fucking Quo! Do you think that America will support a, uh, like a pro-Israel candidate, like in the next election?

Like, Trump has been pretty pro-Israel overall. Do you think that will affect how they vote in the next election?

Yeah, it's going to be a big issue. My Democratic friends, not all of them, but the wing of the— what I call the loon wing of the Democratic Party that's in control, they hate Israel and they support— they say they support the Palestinians.

Well, they hate the government, not the people, right? No, we're not talking about the government.

I don't want to believe they hate the people.

Okay.

Yeah, but they hate the government. That's fair. That's a good point. They hate the government.

Yeah. And that points across the board in this conversation.

That's a fair point. But they support Hamas. I mean, I'm sorry, they just do. That's why I call them the loon wing of the party. And that will be a big issue within the Democratic primaries. But there are a lot of Republicans that think we're too close to Israel.

Well, I mean, it's just that's what's so interesting about Tucker's one. Well, Tucker's saying that because Tucker has one of the top 10, um, podcasts and platforms in America.

Yeah.

So for that, for him to be, for that to be his direction and that to be how he feels, and he really believes that. Yeah. And I'm sure a lot of people feel exactly like he do, like he does, you know. So that's why I'm wondering, do you think like an Israel-first politician could win, could win, could lose.

Look, this is a big, wide open, diverse country.

Yeah.

For both Republicans and Democrats.

Yeah.

And, you know, in our, in our country, you can believe what you want and say what you think. And, and we support this dialectic of ideas where ideas compete.

Yeah. That has to have it.

Yep. And that's why God made elections. But I want people to— and my people in Louisiana, but people in America to know where I stand.

Yeah.

And I have a lot of admiration for Israel. They're tough. They're tough as a boot. They fight back against people that try to kill them.

Yeah.

Now, do I want a better life for the Palestinians? Absolutely. And I remember under President Clinton, He offered the Palestinians a deal to give them their own country, a big chunk of the West Bank, give them Gaza. They would have their own country. They said no. Their leadership said no.

Let's just bring that up just so I know that that's the Camp David Summit.

Yeah. Yeah.

President Bill Clinton's primary effort to help Palestine get its own country culminated in the Clinton parameters of December 2000. This was an ambitious proposal for a two-state solution that followed the failed Camp David Summit.

Um, and the political leadership of Palestine, uh, said no.

Offered Palestine control over 94 to 95% of the West Bank along with the equivalent of an additional 1 to 3% of land via territorial swaps. Um, and what happened? Oh, this was the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords were next.

Okay.

They were after Camp David.

Ultimately, a final deal was never solidified. The Clinton proposals and subsequent Taba Summit negotiations brought the sides closer than ever before. Both sides voiced reservations and the deal collapsed at the end of Clinton's term.

Yasser Arafat— Arafat was in charge of the PLO. He was the leader of the Palestinians. I think if you'd put it to a vote of the Palestinian people, they would have said— they would have taken it.

Who decided no? That's my— that's how I'm trying to get to that.

Arafat turned it down.

Okay.

And he was head of the PLO, the political organization for all of the Palestinians. But I've always believed if Arafat had put it to a vote of the Palestinian people, they would've accepted it. But Bill Clinton came that close.

Well, it says here the Israeli response of Israeli cabinet conditionally accepted the parameters, but issued a 20-page letter outlining reservations regarding security.

Israel you're talking about?

And borders, yeah.

Israel would've taken it. I'm telling you.

I'm just saying that this is what this says. And then the Palestinian response, the Palestinian Liberation Organization accepted the framework, but also with heavy reservations. So why did it not go through? That's all I'm trying to figure out.

Because Arafat backed out. And you ought to have President Clinton on your show. I'm sure he'd love to talk about it. It's one of his I've heard him speak before and say one of his biggest disappointments.

Really?

Because he thought he had it.

While Chairman Yasser Arafat gave qualified agreement to the parameters in January 2001, the extensive reservations submitted by both sides prevented the parameters from materializing into a formal peace treaty. So I'm not saying you're wrong, but this says both sides.

I would encourage you to talk to Bill Clinton.

Yeah, I mean, it would be awesome. Have you ever met him before?

Yeah. President Clinton?

Yeah.

Oh, he would know who I am, but I met him a couple of times.

I bet he would know. Have you ever been to Fayetteville?

Have I ever been to Fayetteville? No, not here. I might have, but it's been a long time.

It's one of my favorite— I didn't realize it was such a great college town.

I wanted to see— I've been to LBJ's library in Texas. I'd like to go see Bill Clinton's library. I mean, President Clinton and I don't agree on some things, but Like I say, I don't hate anybody, man. Yeah, I don't. I mean, I don't. I wish President Biden well, you know. I was one of the few Republicans that got to spend some time with him, and we just disagreed.

Yeah, well, I mean, I think he disagreed with—

you ought to ask President Biden to come on your show. He'd probably do it.

Do you think he's— no, nobody thought that he was Well, he's aged.

He aged.

He aged. He was aged in office. Why didn't nobody come out and say, "Hey, this guy's not doing well"?

Well, they should have. His staff should have.

Or his wife should have. Somebody should have come to the aid of him as a human being.

Well, clearly in hindsight, his staff, they were trying to hide it from the American people. And at the end, it was so bad. Being president's tough. Biden, bless his heart, he couldn't finish a sentence without taking a nap.

Yeah.

I mean, he never—

everybody knew that, though. It made us— I feel like it made us look like a joke to, like, the world in a way. Did you feel like that?

Yes. But I knew what was going on, and everybody on Capitol Hill knew what was going on.

What did you think was going on?

I thought—

who was running the show?

I think that he had 4 or 5 aides who were making all of the decisions. I've always believed that these aides had their allegiance. I'm not going to say they were in bad faith. They had allegiance to President Biden, but they also had contacts with President Obama. And I think they were making most of the major decisions.

How many aides does the president have?

Oh, God. In the White House, hundreds. If you include the old executive office building, probably 500 or 600. I've never counted them.

That many aides for the president?

But there are 4. There are always 4 or 5 people that tend to— that a president, whatever president, tends to rely on. And at the end, they— President Biden's aides did a very good job of secluding him and hiding it from the American people. They were lying to the American people.

But then—

and when President Biden did that debate. Yeah. They couldn't hide him. And it was— it was— I was in Wyoming, I remember, for some— something. I don't remember, but I watched on TV and I was— this is a rare phenomenon. I was speechless.

And so was he.

I mean, that's a good one, man. You're right. It was terrible. It was— it was embarrassing.

Yeah, it was embarrassing, man. That's what it was. You know what? You know what upset me the most about that was I feel like to me it showed people this is how we think of our senior citizens, that we would put them in a space like this and let them be taken advantage of. Like to me it got to that point where it was like, what's it called when you take advantage of someone because of their age or whatever? Is it, I wonder if it, I'm not sure if there's a word or term about it.

Elder abuse.

Yes. That's what it seemed like. And it seemed like it, 'cause like in a lot of countries they, they respect their elders so much. They bring 'em back into the home. There's that sort of thing. And it just seemed like that's what— it seemed to me like that was the view that people got of us. And that made me sick.

Like, well, people, the people around President Biden had a lot of power. You know, power— what did Henry Kissinger say? Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Yeah.

I mean, people—

that's true—

people that were around President Biden, it was in their financial interest, it was in their emotional interest to maintain the power that was derivative from the president.

Yeah.

And they kept him propped up.

And what were they using? Do you think they were using anything to keep him up? I mean, you think— you almost think Hunter might have slipped him something, you know?

No, I don't think that. I think—

I'm just joking.

I know you are.

I think that Hunter— hopefully Hunter knows I'm just joking. I actually talked to him the other day.

Did you?

Yeah.

How's he doing?

We had a nice conversation. He was doing great.

He's been clean for a long time.

Yeah, man. His story's kind of fascinating. I'm just intrigued by it, right? I would love to maybe get to talk to him sometime.

He had a really bad addiction.

Yeah.

That was clear.

Oh, dude. Yeah. Most of us have been there. Yeah.

Well, it's— that's one of the— another thing I'm going to ask the good Lord if I make it to heaven is, you know, why is there addiction?

Yeah.

Because people— it's just horrible when something controls your soul. I don't need to tell you, you've been through it.

Yeah, it ruins a lot of families. It ruins— what it ruins is the people around you. That's the worst part.

And there are a lot of people who aren't strong enough to beat it. Yeah, it's, it's, it's just— it's— I have so much respect for people who beat a bad addiction, whether it's alcohol or drugs or, or OCD, or it just takes enormous willpower and a lot of people don't have it.

It takes commitment too. I mean, to go to a meeting 5 days a week, you know, to go do— to go drive across town to go someplace 5 days a week. You know, the people that do it, there should be a special day for those people that are, that are battling it, you know, and that are doing a good job. They really should. There's been kind of some more socialist candidates, right?

Yep.

Which I think is a term, a safe term to use.

There's been some Democratic socialists.

There's been like some more socialist candidates that have popped up and have garnered a lot of support.

Yep.

Do you think that the Republican Party, like, is there a response to that that the Republican Party should kind of have, or that the Republican Party like has to that sort of happening? Like, what is kind of the Republican Party's response to that or counteraction to that, if there is one?

Well, uh, Senator Bernie Sanders—

You thought it was a good question?

Oh yeah, it's a good question.

Thanks, dude.

Um, Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Mayor Momdani, and mayor of New York, um, Mr. Graham Plattner, who's running for, for, uh, Senate in Maine— they are socialists. They believe in, in a government-run economy. They believe that— my words, not theirs— you should send all your money and all of your freedom to them, and they can make decisions for you. I don't believe that. Yeah, I believe in free enterprise. I think free enterprise has done more to lift people out of poverty than all the social programs put together. They believe in defunding the police. They were behind all of that. They believe that cops are a bigger problem than criminals. They believe in defunding ICE. They believe that— I know some of them that they think all white people are racist. I know some of them that they think Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head are all racist. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dude, to say Mr. Potato Head is racist, bring him up. He's mixed.

I mean, I don't believe—

I mean, he's at least— he's half Russet.

I don't think the—

dude, hold on.

Well, yeah, there's Mr. Potato Head.

Bro, and look, first of all, look at the second Mr. Potato Head. Look at Mr. Potato Head. I just remember when I—

Show the first Mr. Potato Head.

Okay, bring out your first one.

That was the one they got mad at. No, there was another one.

Bro, what are you talking about? Steve Harvey played him too.

Look at the one in the middle on the second row.

He gets all the roles.

They got mad. They said the creators of Mr. Potato Head were racist.

Oh, come on, bro.

Now, I don't—

look, I didn't know you— that's what you meant. I thought you meant the potato itself, man. The potato definitely—

potato head.

Oh, the potato definitely, uh, he's from Jackson. Um, but yeah, I don't think he's racist at all. The creators of it—

I don't think Dr. Seuss was racist.

No, he wasn't racist. I don't think so at all, dude. The Cat in the Hat I remember. That's a Black guy.

But my point is, most—

Horton hears a who? Can you tell that's not racist at all?

America—

It should be Horton hears a what? Or I think— I don't know. Never mind. Go on. America what?

America's not perfect, but we're good. And we caught the disease of slavery, but we beat it back.

Yeah. And there's a lot of speculation about how slavery started and where it started and what exactly happened. And I do think that over time there's definitely this constant— like, there's definitely a ploy, it seems like, by the media sometimes that tries to remind— like, it's like tries to keep people locked into like a victim mentality sometimes.

That's true.

Um, and that's— it's okay to be a victim sometimes, but if all you are is a victim, I think it's tough to move forward sometimes. It is. Um, for any of us, uh, regarding anything. Um, yeah, what do you think are some of the pitfalls of long terms of like socialism that maybe people don't see that have happened in the past? If you have an example.

I think— I do not believe that the people in the Democratic Socialist Party that I just named, some of them I know, Senator Sanders is a friend of mine, I believe deep down they think they're smarter and more virtuous than the American people and that they can make decisions for the country and the country will be better off. And I respectfully disagree with them. Yeah, I trust the American people. This is the greatest country in all of human history. The whole world knows it. Everybody wants to come here. When's the last time you heard of somebody trying to sneak into China? People want to come here.

That's a good point.

And it's because We believe in free enterprise. We believe that our future can be better than our present or past. We believe in free will and responsibility. You know, most Americans, they don't read Aristotle every day because they're busy earning a living, but they're plenty smart. Yeah, they don't need a soul-crushing federal government to run their lives. And, and, and free enterprise works. Socialism— name one country where it worked. It doesn't work in Cuba. It didn't work in Argentina. It didn't work in the former Soviet Union.

Yeah, that's what I think sometimes. If, if we do get to that place of it where if it were to grow that much, that— could it work? Is it different? Would something be different this time? I don't know. You know, it's interesting to think about, you know, if it ever was really tried earnestly. It's hard to know. I'm not— I'm not saying I'm not voting in—

It was tried earnestly in Cuba.

Yeah.

And we see how that turned out.

Yeah.

It was tried earnestly under Perón.

But do you think that Castro was like— in the end, he kind of became corrupted, right?

He was very corrupt. They've always been corrupt.

But do you think in the beginning he was like— he tried to play himself as earnest?

Probably. I don't know. Right. I think he was— I think he believed in the socialist philosophy.

Right. But in the end, it just became about him.

And yeah. Yeah. And Senator Bernie Sanders, I think he's been on your show. Yeah, I love Bernie. I love Bernie.

He comes in, he's got his bag. We like, we've set him a little thing. He's like, I just want a couple of cookies on a plate. Like, he's like Santa.

Took me a long time to get to know Bernie because he's— I thought he just didn't like me because he can be kind of gruff, but he's kind of gruffly. And I remember one day I got him to smile. I was walking over to the Capitol with another senator to vote, and Bernie passed me by and he didn't speak. And I leaned over and said, Bernie, he said, what? I said, pay your taxes, man. We need the money. And he got a little smile. But he's a great guy. But he is genuinely a socialist. And he honestly believes that if you made money, in business that you had, you did it by taking advantage of somebody or you stole it. And that's not been my experience. I know many successful businesswomen and businessmen that have created a lot of jobs. They earn the money honestly. When you started out, nobody gave it to you.

Mm-mm.

You did it through hard work. You took risks. If you had failed, nobody— the government wasn't going to be there to bail you out.

Yeah.

And, and that most of the businesses in America are small businesses. And these are people that sometimes they mortgage their home to take a risk and they work hard and they create jobs. And I think that's American. That's why we're the greatest country in all of human history.

I mean, do you think—

not everybody agrees with that.

Me. Well, I mean, it's okay. I think what I do think is, and I thought about this, is I live here, you know, I want to support this place and believe in this place as much as I can, right? Like, yeah. And I think most of my life there's been like this feeling of like, America, we're doing something good, like we're forward-thinking, we care about the people and stuff like that. And then I feel like in the last few years things have devolved some. Like, I think people's faith in the political system has waned. I think we're not sure, like, it doesn't—

that's true.

I think it's—

we don't—

it's like, it's hard to feel like— it doesn't feel like it's even Republicans versus Democrats anymore. It feels like it's like— I don't know if it's good versus evil or what it is, but it's like, it almost seems like, um, like, like Bernie Sanders came on here the second time and it felt like he was on here pleading at us, but it's like we voted for politicians. Like, you go up the hill and plead, you know what I'm saying? Like, we're the— it just seems like now, like, sometimes politicians are coming, like, on, or on platforms, like, pleading to the people. It's like, um, I don't know, it just feels like, uh, it feels like something's not working and it's just too much hate and it starts to feel scary. What do you, what do you think that is? And do you think, like, You know, it feels like we used to have a purpose as a group, that it was America, and it was like we were gonna— something was gonna happen, and that the country was gonna be better for your children than it was for you. There used to be that feeling, and I think it was probably that feeling whenever you were growing up and stuff like that.

You can't hate, man.

And it was when I was growing up. What do you think has changed? And what do you think is like— like, how do we get— how do you get the American people to believe again? And, um, in a political system that sometimes feels like it's not solving a lot for them?

I think part of it is— not all of it, but part of it— the social media. People can go on anonymously and say things on social media that they would never say to your face or another person's face. It's just too easy. I think— I think the federal government, as our country has gotten big, bigger, and the world is more complicated. The federal government has gotten bigger, too big, and it has interfered in people's lives too much. You know, about 90% of my personal philosophy is I don't want to— I don't want to hurt anybody unless I have to defend myself. Don't take people's stuff. I mean, if my, if my son— what I would tell my son growing up, don't hurt other people unless you have to defend yourself. Don't take other people's stuff. And the third one for me is leave me alone. Yeah, I don't need government to run my life. I think, I think, but I think a big part of it is social media. It's just It is— I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's a cesspool. It's got bad. And the other thing you've seen, you've seen a breakdown in America of the family unit.

You have. And you've also seen to each his own, but you've seen a breakdown. We've become a less religious country.

Yeah.

Now, you know, there's freedom of religion. You don't have to believe in God.

But it helps.

It helps, man. And I believe in God.

Yeah, I do too.

I have doubts when, when I pray, I ask for faith. I have enormous doubts. And anybody that says they're absolutely certain, you know, it's just— that's why God called it faith. But I think it's a combination of things. And I don't know why people hate so much.

Do you think that we're still a Christian nation?

Um, yes, but less so.

Uh, do you think we would support a Christian leader for president, like a true, like a true Christian person that ran for president?

Yeah.

When was the last really Christian person that we had run for president? The last, like, or last person that seemed that was very— that was truly religious?

Well, probably in my lifetime, the most devout president we had was Jimmy Carter.

Yeah.

Uh, he He lived his faith. Now, he only served one term, and I didn't agree with some of his social policies, but I think he lived his faith.

People like Jimmy Carter, huh?

And, and, and I will say this, when he left the presidency, President Carter didn't go get rich. He didn't sit on a bunch of boards.

He went into service, didn't he?

He just helped people. And he established the peace, the Carter Center for Peace.

Is that in Georgia?

Yeah, in Atlanta. He was very active in Habitat for Humanity, and I really respected that. Jimmy Carter did not, was never wealthy.

In 1982, he and his wife Rosalynn established the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Through this non-governmental organization, he monitored over 100 elections in developing democracies, mediated international conflicts, and championed human rights worldwide. He must have a big heart.

He did have a big heart.

He, uh, his wife died not long ago, is that right?

Or his wife, Miss Rosalind, died before he did.

Oh, okay.

But not much before.

Um, I, I saw you talk actually about, uh, like Facebook and Meta recently about how their algorithm, right, this is a really awesome point that you bring up, and you do such a good job of this. And thank you so much for just being somebody who like shows up with good points, dude. You show up with some like great stuff to say, and it's, um, it gives me faith. You give me faith like in possibility of things being better, right? So thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for saying that.

Thank you very much.

Not everybody agrees with you, but I—

and that's fine.

I do work in my job. I have to. I have to. I probably spend 30 hours a week reading at least.

Dang.

And to do it right. I like it.

Yeah.

Complaining.

Have you read this yet?

I have read that.

It's my book, How to Test. Great, dude. Sorry, I haven't even read the title yet. How to Test Negative for Stupid.

I'll sign a copy for you.

Please do, man.

It's— I wrote it myself. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done, writing a book. Yeah.

How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will. Yes. Thank you so much. We'll be happy to keep that. We'll put it up on our shelf for a couple of months.

But I spend— some of my colleagues are brilliant. They can— they're just, you know, a guy like Marco Rubio, for example, Ted Cruz, Gene Sheehan, Peter Welch. I'm not going to name all my colleagues in the Senate.

Pull up Pete, man. I never even seen Peter Welch.

He's from Vermont.

Pull him up.

These people are brilliant.

There he is. But I have to hang on.

I have to work at it.

Oh, Peter looks like a— he looks studious, though.

He's a smart guy, but he can probably spot me 50 IQ points. But he's not going to outwork me. I mean, I work harder than an ugly stripper, man. That's how I was raised. I've always been able to outwork people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey dude, that's awesome.

I might get in trouble for saying that though.

Hey, no problems here. My god cousin, uh, is a stripper. So he was—

God bless him.

But I, I saw you talk about Meta and how that there's an Algorithm Act that's out there about how that— and I've talked about this before on this show, that's why this made me— this really like, that's really rung true with me. It was like Yeah. Why isn't the— because the algorithm will lead you down a staircase of deviancy, anger, and can even lead people into conflict. It can lead you, it can take you from feeling neutral, looking at something on your phone to feeling angry and going out into public and acting on that anger or on that belief.

Yep.

And there's no repercussions from it.

Yep.

There's— from Facebook or Meta or social media, Instagram, TikTok, there's no repercussions.

When, when Facebook— I'll use Facebook as an example. When it first started, we passed a law that said if somebody goes on Facebook and writes a post and they defame somebody, that's between the person who posted it and the person they defamed, that you can't hold Facebook Facebook liable for posting. Fair enough. But now Facebook has gotten so big that they control what you see and they gather this data about you and they want you to stay on Facebook a long time to look at the ads because they make a lot of money selling those ads.

Right. They got to keep you on there.

And so they they send you stuff, they find out what your hot buttons are through algorithms, and they keep showing it to you and showing it to you and showing it to you. And all of a sudden, and some people can, can separate the wheat from the chaff and say, well, they're manipulating me. But other people, they just get angrier and angrier and angrier.

And what do they expect? You're just going to get so pissed off you're going to buy an air air fryer or something.

I mean, they make— they make their money.

That's their strategy.

I don't mean Facebook's not—

you're gonna get so pissed off you're gonna buy a dog collar.

Facebook is— if you ask me the one reason that— yeah, for the demise of newspapers, it's social media.

Because I know I miss the newspaper.

Oh well, yeah, but the world's changed and you can hit a kid off of of advertising.

Yeah, the Algorithm Accountability Act is proposed, and this has been proposed for a while. I think this was proposed— I think we've been debating it for a long time, originally for like 5 years ago. I think this first came into light. The Algorithmic Accountability Act is a proposed U.S. bill aimed at requiring companies to examine and disclose how automated systems and algorithms affect people, especially in high-stakes decisions like housing, credit, education, and employment. And this is Perplexity here as our search engine. Um, supporters say the bill would give regulators and the public a clear way to see when algorithmic systems are causing harm. I agree, there should be something on the device that goes off and says, now you're falling into an algorithm, you know.

Well, it's—

do you think they manipulate— yeah, they manipulate it. Do you think something like this will come to light soon? Like, we've got to be getting there. I mean, uh, you know, I mean, you have algorithms leading people into extremely strong beliefs. Yep. You know, like some people say that the shooter at the— was it the Charlie Kirk shooter— was radicalized by things that he had seen on social media.

I don't doubt it.

Or that a lot of these shooters are, you know.

Facebook just— I think it was Facebook— just lost a big lawsuit. Yeah. Filed on behalf of a deceased minor. That I think— I don't remember the details, but it was basically that the algorithms drove the young lady into suicide and a jury awarded them money.

Here we go. Campaigners welcome Meta and YouTube's defeat in landmark social media addiction trial. That's it, man.

Who you got pulling this stuff up?

Some white guy. It's a DEI guy.

You just— they— you need a pay raise. You're awesome. Thank you, Senator. Tell Theo, at least he ought to buy you a car.

Hey, dang, what? He's—

I'll be your agent, man. You can pull the stuff up. That's it. That's the case.

That's the case. Uh, jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harm the 20-year-old's mental health. The woman known as Kaylee was awarded $6 million in damages, a result likely to have implications for hundreds of similar cases now winding their way through US courts. Amen. Praise God. Good for her. What happened? Do they have the exact, uh, thing that happened? Uh, the young lady didn't pass away. Uh, K— it says right here, Kaylee started using YouTube at about 6 years old and Instagram at about 9, with no effective age-based blocking from the platforms. By age 10, she was experiencing anxiety and depression, conditions that were formally diagnosed later by a therapist. She became intensely preoccupied with her appearance, using Instagram filters that altered her face— smaller nose, larger eyes— and has since been diagnosed with body dysmorphia, a disorder involving obsessive worry about perceived flaws in appearance. Her lawyers argued that Instagram's design features, such as infinite scroll and growth strategies focused on the young users, contributed to an addictive pattern of use that harmed her mental health.

Huh.

The jury awarded Kaylee $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages.

Huh.

Okay.

I know the stuff's addictive.

Oh yeah, it is. Well, I noticed myself, you start getting into beliefs, it starts leading you down certain holes of certain beliefs, and then you got on your phone just to check a text and next thing you know you get off with a belief.

Well, it's all— it's all our kids know. Our kids So many of our kids have become smartphone zombies. You know, they just— it's always this. And look, they're— they're— they're— they're—

What did we do, though, John? Do you remember what we did?

I didn't have social media.

But I know. But what did— because nowadays, if you imagine, it's kind of crazy to imagine.

I know.

If you imagine some guy just sitting around.

I read.

Like this, not doing— but imagine somebody just waiting for something somewhere. Were they just sitting with their hands in their laps?

I played ball. In my spare time, I played ball. I did my homework. We'd go to movies. I read a lot.

But outside of some of that, say you just were sitting somewhere, I guess you would just sit there and think or just because now they had magazines.

I don't know.

Yeah, that's true. We had magazines.

Or you actually talk— believe it or not, talk to people.

Even if you didn't like them, you'd talk to them then. You just talk to people.

Yep.

Even if you didn't even like them.

Yep. Now when you when you're around a lot of young people, they really are smartphone zombies. They're just like this all the time.

People are hooked.

And it has impact. I'm not saying all social media is bad. It has many good purposes, but it has been abused.

It's abuse and it's addiction. It's an addiction crisis.

It's very addictive.

And it's— and they've been able to make it more and more addictive and they know it. Um, is there lobbyists for this type of thing in the government too that are lobbying for these social media platforms?

Absolutely. These guys are— these guys are strong as horseradish.

Why don't more lobbyists get called out by politicians?

Why don't more—

I—

well, I don't meet with many lobbyists, but in some states, some, they have an influence. I'm not going to kill you.

I mean, I'm sure they're the ones keeping this act, like the Algorithm Act or whatever, of course, the ones keeping those things like at bay.

That's not the only ones, but of course they are. And I don't want to just pick on Facebook, but organizations like Google, Facebook, they employ thousands of people. They have huge PACs. If you're from their state and you're a senator and Google comes to you and says, I employ 10,000 people, and if you pass this bill, I'm going to have to lay off half of them. Plus, they do have very powerful lobbyists and, and they're just very powerful.

So that's an instance where an elected official has to make a choice there.

That's like—

that's a good example of an instance, right? And that's something real that could happen. It's like, hey, we have 10,000— we employ 10,000 people in your state. If you pass this, then 5,000 of them are going to lose jobs.

And they're normal. They know how to use their power. I mean, if you ask me what's— who's more powerful, the state of Tennessee or Google, I'd say Google. And the state of Tennessee is powerful. A lot of people, wonderful universities, beautiful natural resources. But these— the 4 or 5 or 6 social media companies are very powerful. And that's why we have— we're— we have to be very careful. I support it, but we have to be very careful with artificial intelligence and AI.

Well, the Pope did. The Pope just came and spoke out against it. And that's kind of scary to think.

And AI is— it's— this was— this was developed in America. It's just another example of American brilliance and ingenuity and innovation, but it's so powerful. It, it, it, it can make our lives better if it doesn't kill us all first. But if you develop a machine that can, can know everything and then can start thinking for itself and through its agents, can take actions could shut down your entire infrastructure.

But that's where I lose— that's where I start to lose— I get, but like, what actions? Like, so do you— like, like, my laptop's not gonna like come in and like, you know, attack me while I'm sleeping, you know what I'm saying? So it's not like that, right?

No.

So what actions? Because I hear people say these— this, this thing, right, what you're saying— what actions are we talking about?

Well, you can— I mean, I'm no expert, but You can create agents now, right? Use AI.

Yeah, we just had Jeff Bridges just had— he has a friend on ChatGPT or whatever, and he talks to him all the time named Gary.

You can— what the hell? You can do that. You can have an AI assistant. Yeah. And give them almost unfettered authority to book you a plane ticket or rent you a car or remind you to have your oil changed or, you know, buy some Fig Newtons at the grocery store.

Yeah, they're pretty— they're not bad.

And they're— I love Fig Newtons.

They're okay.

They're good. They're pretty— they're awesome.

Sometimes they're great.

Fig Newtons are better than sex. Not really. Well, not really. Not really. I take it back. But I like Fig Newtons.

I mean, look, I've had some bad sex.

I understand. I'm not going to comment on that, Theo. All right.

And I've had some bad Fig Newtons too.

Yeah. What if they're not warm?

I don't like them when they're real warm.

I don't like them either. I can tell you what else.

If they've been sitting in the sun, I don't like them.

I'll tell you what else I grew up on is Vienna sausage, man. Oh, yeah, brother. Vienna sausage.

Oh, you know, makes my neck hurt.

I'd go fishing, take Vienna sausage.

One for the fish, one for you.

Absolutely. In fact, if you run out of worms or crickets, you can— if you can get the Vienna sausage to stay on the hook. I've caught many a brim and a catfish get with, with Vienna sausage.

Oh, you can catch a girl in Avondale with a couple of them too. I know that, bro.

That never worked for me, man. That never worked for me.

That was a good reference though, wasn't it?

That was damn good.

Thank you.

That was good. I can tell you're a Louisiana boy.

You know, I— you know what, I think, um, you know, Louisiana's had a tough time, and you know this, Louisiana has had a tough time over the years, like, uh, with like a lot of economic growth, right? We've struggled some. Um, we've had a tough time with a lot of job stability and job growth, right?

We were very oil and gas dependent, right?

We are 100%, right? And so, and so, and some of that's adjusted over the years, right? For sure.

We're less so, but it's still important.

But one thing that we do have is we have good people, we have resilient people, and those, and we have good storytelling. And some people say, well, that's not, there's not a lot of financial like incentive in that. And that's fine. But we, but there's a lot of like pride in that, though.

Well, you know, I've lived in 5 states and a foreign country, and I've never met people like the people in Louisiana.

Yeah.

You know, they're, they're, they're, they're God-fearing. They're hardworking. They're fun-loving. They're authentic.

Oh, yeah.

And I tell my, my, I tell my, my Senator Cruz a lot. He's from Texas. I tell him, he'll start talking about Texas and I'll say, Cruz, look, Texas is a great state. You get all this wonderful publicity. God bless you. You deserve it. I love Texas. But Texas is 5.5 times bigger than Louisiana. But we're 10.5 times more interesting than you are.

Yeah.

Louisiana is an interesting state.

I read somewhere that 100% interesting people. The best man, the best storytellers ever.

We're good at oil and gas and petrochemical and education and agriculture and aquaculture.

Oh, we'll even eat fish that have been in a damn oil spill.

We'll eat anything that won't eat us first. Yeah. We eat things that you— that most people would call an exterminator far to get out of their backyard.

Just bring your fork, baby.

That's it. But, but Bring it forward. It's home and I love it. It's never dull.

No, it's not. I read somewhere that it's the most native state where people that are born there die there. Did you ever hear that?

That's true. We have— we have— I don't— I forget the percentage. We have a lot of people that are born in Louisiana and they never leave.

Yeah, that's pretty special about something.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? That's because that's interesting.

Yeah.

It's so good right there. You know, some people don't get out their chair.

People in Louisiana, they have fun.

Yeah.

And they enjoy life. Now, it doesn't mean they don't work hard. And but we became very dependent on oil and gas. And when that— a lot of that changed. Most of it, of course, moves— has moved offshore. But when you're dependent on a natural resource, oil and gas, coal, yeah, iron ore, whatever, commodities, you have boom and bust cycles. And when times are good, they're really good, man. But when times are bad, they're tough.

Yeah.

Now, Louisiana is much more diversified today. And so things are— things are better.

Yeah.

But we're still working. You know, if you want a good time, if you want to get good food— a guy told me a joke the other day. He said, He said, Kennedy, what's the difference between a zoo in Louisiana and a zoo in every other state? I said, what? He said, if you go to the zoo in every other state, each animal has its cage and at the bottom is the name of the animal. He, he said, if you go to a zoo in Louisiana, each animal has its cage and at the bottom is the name and underneath the name is the recipe. Yeah, I love that.

Dude, that's perfect, man. That's so true, man. Yeah, Louisiana consistently ranks as the state with the highest percentage of native-born residents who never leave. Amen. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, slightly more than 77% of Louisiana's residents were born in the state. Because the population is so sticky and transplants are rare, this largely, largely translates to most of its people being born there and spending their entire lives—

that's where you got your start.

Oh, spending their entire lives right there.

Then you went to LA and you got famous, and then you came to that But you got your start at it. I've been reading about you.

On the Chifunkta over there.

That's right.

You know how the Chifunkta got its name?

No.

This is modern. Oh, finally.

I didn't know that.

I got one for you then, John. The Chifunkta got its name because a long time ago they had like a Native American tribe and they went there and they threw a big rock into the water and the sound it made was chifunk.

Really?

Yeah.

You serious?

Chifunk. And it's kind of how a rock when you The talent, kind of how it goes in. So yeah, that's it.

I go fishing on what you're talking about. Oh yeah, but that's where you got your start, you know. You grad— you— where'd you go, UNO? You went to LSU for a while.

Went to LSU for a while, graduated from UNO. How do you think Lane's going to do over there at LSU? Let's put a— put it out there. What do you think? And I wore my Ragin' Cajuns today. I wore this for you today.

Um, Lane is— how can I put it— he's a brilliant strategic— strategy, whatever the word I'm looking for. He's a good strategist. Yeah, he's brilliant. He knows how to recruit. He's got a great football mind. Mm-hmm. Sometimes he talks too much, you know?

Oh, yeah. Look, Lane, look, Lane's fans is Lane.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Lane's one of the smartest people on the planet. Just ask Lane and he'll feel it. But, but he's He's, he's— I think he's going to be a good coach. But I'll tell you this.

Love you, Coach.

Love you, Coach. We paid him a lot of money. Now he's got to go win.

Now, that's a good point, bro.

I'm not saying he wasn't worth it, but he's making a boatload of money, a bucketful of money.

Oh, he's making a part of it. He's making like 4% of our GDP.

And so our— he's making like 4% of our GDP. He's got to win now. He's just got to win. But he did a great job at Ole Miss. He's been—

oh, yeah, he did.

I, you know, I thought Nick Saban— this is probably here in Louisiana— I thought Nick Saban was a great coach. I hated to lose him when he was at LSU.

Yeah, I think everybody thought that. Yeah.

Well, a lot of people got mad at him for leaving. He went to the Dolphins, I think.

Yeah.

And then he went to Alabama. And a lot of my people in Louisiana, our people got mad at him and I kept my mouth shut. But I'd say, look, because he went to Alabama, I said at the time, Alabama offered him like $5 million or something. I said, you're telling me that you would have turned down $5 million?

Oh shit, we were just—

so the people of Louisiana wouldn't get mad at you?

We were still trying to pay him in beignets.

Yeah, exactly. But he, uh, uh, I'm— he, he, he liked— I think he liked Louisiana.

Yeah. Oh yeah, look, I know that he's happy there. He's having a good time, man. Lane's a good— look, Lane loves to have a good time. I'm hopeful for him for sure, you know, and this is where he's at in his journey. So it's like you got to hope somebody— hope the best for somebody.

I don't know, but he's into hot yoga. Oh, yeah.

I've been to a class with him.

Have you?

Yeah, I went to a class with him at frickin—

What's hot yoga like?

I mean, it depends on who all is in there.

Yeah, I don't want to go there, Theo. Yeah, I mean, I got to run for reelection.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think your wife would be happy you went there. But look, I went there, right there. Lane Kiffin right there. Hot yoga.

There you go.

And I wear a towel like that because I was raised by a single mother. You see that?

Look at you guys.

We was leaking in there, cut.

Now yoga is good for you.

Oh man, it's really good.

It'll give you a good workout.

Oh definitely, man. Make me feel like a 94-year-old. Um, the SAVE Act, right? Let's talk about the SAVE Act. Okay, so that's a big thing that's happening right now, right? That's, that's like kind of trying to pass it. You guys are trying to pass it. Can you explain to me what it is really quick? Can you explain to our listeners what it is?

It basically says that in order to vote in a federal election, you have to prove you are who you say you are. You've got to have valid ID. And to register to vote, you have to prove that you're in our country legally as a citizen. Only American citizens can vote. Now, there's some other provisions, but those are the two main provisions. Probably 80% of Americans support it. We can't get a single Democratic vote. Here's— I'm not speaking for President Trump, but here's the way I think you fix our elections and give people confidence in our elections. Number one, you have to be able to prove you are who you say you are to vote.

Mm-hmm.

And number two, that just what the president says and what we say in the SAVE Act— I'm a co-sponsor of it. But number two, we need to go back to an election day, not an election month.

I agree.

We need to know who won that night.

Yeah.

Frankly, I don't care how you vote. It's up to the states. But the votes have to be counted that night.

Why did that change so much? It used to be— didn't it used to be we knew that night?

Yeah, we always did. Well, because some states changed their laws. In California, they don't know now for 2 weeks.

They still don't know.

And they still don't know. I'm not sure. Because you can vote by mail, and what matters is if it's postmarked. And sometimes the mail's slow and it takes 10 days, 2 weeks. If you're going to vote by mail— now, President Trump, Trump hates voting by mail, but some states love it. But if you're going to vote by mail, the, the mail ballots have to be in far enough in advance for them to be counted and announced on election night. I think it makes sense because if you go past election night, whether you are a Democrat, whether it's a Democrat or Republican, who, who loses, they're going to think the election was rigged, right?

For sure. And so now they're saying if you mail it on the day of, it can still be counted. Got it.

Yeah, we have, we have a month-long election.

What are some of the side effects of this that— what are some of the things that, that this also brings in that are, uh, that people don't see? I know there was some issue with, um, or what did I read, something about, oh, you have to have two forms of identification.

No, the Democrats say— well, I mean, this is my point of view. They may have another point of view. The Democrats say it's a way of suppressing the vote, right, to require you to have ID. I don't know anybody doesn't have ID.

I agree. I think if you don't have identification, I don't think you should be able to.

I mean, most people have a driver's license, but there are other forms of identification. Identification that, that, that would be acceptable. And if you, if you don't have a driver's license and you don't have any identification, the chances are you're in our country illegally.

Got it. And they say that— is it, is it that they say they're going to— you can't register online anymore? Would that be part of it, too?

If you, if you have ID, I don't have a problem registering online. If you have proof, right. That it is you.

Yeah.

And I'm no technological whiz, but, but they're there. I give credit cards online and they can authenticate that it's me. Right. I don't— I don't mind using technology, but to register to vote, you have to prove that you are who you say you are. You can only register once and you have to prove that you're an American citizen.

Yeah.

I don't think that's unreasonable. I brought it up.

I agree. Everybody's kind of— everybody thinks that there's some fraud happening with voting. It feels very unreliable.

Well, that's because sometimes it takes— when they have mail ballots, for example, it takes a month to get them all counted.

Yeah.

And the loser is always going to be suspicious.

Yeah.

But on the SAVE Act—

so are the people.

Of course. And the people are not going to have confidence. But on the SAVE Act, I tried to amend it into our— in our— to our reconciliation bill. I couldn't get a single Democratic vote.

What are the— what do the Democrats want in the bill?

They just don't want it at all. They don't want it at all. They think that it will suppress votes. Got it. And not all of my Democratic colleagues, but many of my Democratic colleagues, whether they will admit it or not, they want illegal immigrants to be able to vote. And no, they're not American citizens. If I go to Nicaragua, wonderful country.

My father's from there.

Is he? Yeah. Well, if I go to Nicaragua, wonderful country.

You can't vote there.

But I can't. I'm not. And I say, I want to vote. They go, no, Kennedy, you know, it'd be like, look, you're not from here, but—

Yeah, I look, I agree 100%, man. If you're not— if you're not a citizen, then you can't vote. And there— I don't even understand how that's— how it's up for debate in anybody's head or mind that wants things to be organized in this country. I do not understand.

Well, there are many people that believe, and it's what is behind a lot of it, and it's not all of them, right? Okay. But there are many people believe— so I know there are many Democrats that believe that we ought to let anybody into our country Ignore immigration laws, and they see it as a way of getting new votes.

Well, I mean, we had a lot of Border Patrol hierarchy on, within the past 4 years, and there was a lot of that. There was a lot of people just coming in, moving in Democratic states, people escaping jurisdiction. Just running away, just running off into the country and not being, not being followed. We've seen a lot of that over the years.

A lot of my colleagues think, and they're entitled to their point of view, they think that vetting people at the border is racist. I don't.

I don't at all either.

I don't. And here's the way I read— I don't remember where I read this, but the American people, most of them, see our southern border like their front door. Most Americans lock their front door at night. They don't lock their front door at night because they hate everybody on the outside and they're racist. Yeah, they lock their front door at night because they love the people on the inside and they want to know who's coming in and out of their house.

Amen.

And that's the way it is with the border. We let more people in legally.

Yeah.

To become Americans through legal immigration every year than anybody else in the world. Wow. But legal immigration is legal. Illegal immigration is illegal. And the problem is that the people that, that were advising President Biden convinced him. He let in between 8 million and 15 million people. It was like The Price is Right. Come on down. Yeah, we have no idea who they are. Some of them, I'm sure, were decent people. But there were a lot of rapists. There were a lot of murderers. There were a lot of drug dealers, pedophiles. We don't know where they are.

Yeah.

And you can't run. No country in the world, no country in the world doesn't respect its borders and have immigration laws.

Yeah. How many people get into China? How many people are allowed into China each year? I wonder, like, how many people get into there?

They're very strict. Yeah, they're very strict.

How many people do they think illegally get into China every year?

Who—

you can look that up.

The only people I know that want to try to sneak in from China to China are from North Korea. Yeah, because North Korea is so bad they want to get out. Yeah, China does. China is— they are very monolithic in their culture. They don't like minority groups. The Uyghurs, for example. They don't want any— they don't like Muslims. Yeah, they, they like the Han Chinese and they want to— it's run by a small group of men that are here. They want— they're head of the Communist Party. It's totalitarian, it's authoritarian. And if you get— they spy on you, cameras everywhere. They, they censor your social media. And if you get out of line, they will kill you and hurt you the entire time you're you're dying.

Shit, I'm just trying to get some orange chicken.

I'm just telling you, man, it's— and the, the people in China, I, I've been there. Yeah, they're nice people. You've been there a nice time, uh, but, but yeah, but there's no freedom.

No, but they're— yeah, they're specific. Um, before you go, you just mentioned, uh, you were talking, you, you mentioned like a surveillance state, right? And, and it feels like sometimes in America that we're getting to that, like with a lot of flock cameras and a lot of these data centers, like To me, the data centers, it feels like they're just going to hold all the information from all this recording that's going to go on in this surveillance state. Is that what you feel like is happening?

Well, in order to have AI, artificial intelligence, and AI is here, we've got to properly regulate it, but it's here. You've got to have data centers. You've got to. I'm okay with data centers. As long as they pay their way, pay for their own electricity, pay for their own water, and the community accepts them. If you want to build a data center in a community, the community should have a say.

I agree.

It shouldn't be forced upon people.

They're forcing one here in Nashville right now.

And I don't have— I know they are down downtown.

Yeah.

And, and the data centers shouldn't go when they're not wanted. I don't have a problem putting them on, on our military bases, but they've got to pay their own way. Yeah, they've got to pay their own. And they can't cause people's electricity bills to go up and their water bills to go up. And they have to be properly regulated.

What's your biggest fear with AI? Because I'll tell you mine really fast. Mine is that say it starts to— you start to have this thing, right? Like where, like, even Jeff Bridges was communicating with an AI. He's got a buddy named Gary that he's talking to, and even the Gary even knows who his wife and family is and everything.

Spooky, man.

Spooky, right? Um, but it was cool, it was neat. But still, it's like, what if we start to have this thing that everybody puts their information into? Because also, AIs can— your information is not— is legally then also owned by them then. So if, if if somebody ever was able to go subpoena information from an AI, they could use it against you in court. Or this— it's not— once you put it in, I believe most of these AIs, I think anyway, that it is still— it belongs to them as well.

That's right. And it shouldn't, right? And it should be your information. I agree. Your data.

I agree 100%. So it's crazy. We're also just feeding our actual lives and things that we think and care about and questions into this information place. But my fear is that over time, people start looking to this, to these AI, like, to these AIs as their God in a way, because they're going to go to them like, I need help with this, what do I do, I, I don't know how to feel about this. And the thing that they used to take to an actual God, they're now going to take to this, like, supercomputer. And so that's why I feel like sometimes the race is so very perceptive, that the race is so big, because somebody's— they're trying to create the next God. That's what they're trying to do.

And I have talked to people that have brains a lot bigger than mine that say within 5 years, not only will AI and these chat boxes know everything, but they will become independent and can think on their own. And the next step is be able— being able to, to act on their own.

Mm-hmm.

Let's take electricity. The grid here in Nashville, it's all based on computers.

Oh, yeah.

If, if AI can hack into the grid in Nashville on its own or at the instructions of somebody else, they could shut down this whole city. Yeah, they could cause shutdown there, cause 25 planes to crash at once.

Yeah. What if they said all the Teslas right now drive off into the Cumberland River? Do it.

And that's why I don't want to get in the way of innovation.

I do. We got enough.

Well, no, we're— no, this AI stuff can really— it can be a blessing, but it can be a curse if it's not properly regulated.

But we don't have hardly any regulations in place right now.

We don't have any.

We don't have— think about that. We don't have any. There's a potential new electronic god about to show up.

There is, and it's scary.

And we have no— regulations in place.

It's scary. We don't have enough parking and we're trying to put together some. But you don't want to ratchet down so hard to interfere with the regulation. I mean, to interfere with innovation.

I don't care if you do, but—

well, but it can make our lives better. Our lives are—

we're doing fine.

I know, but let me give you an example. It can A CT scan or X-ray looking for cancer.

Yeah.

A human has to read those things. Sometimes they miss a cancer.

Yeah.

With AI, you run it through AI, they never miss.

That's a good point.

They never miss. Doctors, you go to a doctor with a disease, it— doctor's diagnosis is based on their judgment. They can put it into AI, boom, hit it every time.

Yeah. And he might— doctor might be doing who knows what.

That can make our lives better.

He might be eating a sandwich or doing anything.

But it can also— it can also kill us all. Suppose AI—

Damn, that's a big trade-off.

No, listen, John, that's a big trade-off. It is a trade-off.

But if two people don't have— two people have cancer that don't, and otherwise we all die.

But suppose AI gets to the point where it's so powerful and it can think for itself and it decides to break it, break the nuclear code. And set off nuclear missiles, nuclear ballistic missiles with a warhead to hit China. Yeah. Without any way to stop them.

Could— do you think any country would ever use a ballistic— use like a nuclear weapon and blame it on AI?

I think Iran would.

You think anybody else would?

No, because even though Vladimir Putin, which has the largest nuclear stockpile in the world, even though he is an evil man with blood under his fingernails, he's rational. He's, he's not stupid. He's, he's not crazy. Yeah, he's shrewd. And he knows the only reason that he does not try to take out America today— he has a bigger stockpile than us. But we've got a pretty big stockpile and we would retaliate and it would be the end of Russia. It'd be the end of America. It would be the end of the world.

How do we get— how do we get to such an ungodly place, you think?

Many people— people are imperfect and too many people have more zeal than wisdom.

Too many people have more— what?

More zeal than wisdom. Ambition, desire for power, desire for money. There's good in everybody. I believe that. But there's potential evil in everybody. Yeah, we all struggle with it every day.

Oh, yeah, for sure. I'm not saying I'm not— I'm not above—

I'm not, you know, I—

there's a lot of— there's a lot of evil.

When I pray, I ask for forgiveness and I don't try to catalog my sins because I don't even know all of them.

Yeah.

Pride.

Oh, yeah. Sloth. Envy.

Yeah.

Perverting. Being a pervert or whatever. Not a big time one, but just part of it.

Envy is a big one. I mean, with social media, you see somebody driving a, you know, a Mercedes and you go, I do. I deserve a Mercedes.

Yeah.

Why should they have one and not me? Well, most of the time it's because they work their rear ends off and they earned it.

Yeah.

But, but, you know, people are imperfect.

Yeah.

But, but if we appeal to our better nature and try to stop having our lives run by our repetitive desires, like a thirst for money or power, if we try to treat everybody else with some dignity and respect, that's the answer to me. I mean, I don't mean to sound like naive because there's some evil people in the world.

Yeah.

And I mean it. Weakness invites wolves. They— you turn the other cheek with some of these people, they'll stab you right in the neck, man.

Oh, yeah.

But not everybody's like that. And I think that's why deep down, I think Americans, even though we stay angry with each other a lot, our country was founded on respect for everybody's humanity.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. I believe that we have a moral compass.

We are all created equal. We believe that. We believe in equal opportunity. We believe in free will. But with free will goes responsibility, and all power from government is derived by the people, not the other way around. Somebody— some, some of my colleagues want government to run everything. And you, if you have to go to government, get permission. That's not America, man. I don't want any part of that.

Anything else you want to share before you go, John, or anything specific you want to talk about?

Fun, man. I'm just glad to see a Louisiana boy and a UNO graduate become famous.

Yeah, thanks, man. Yeah, yeah, I've been— yeah, I've been— I've been lucky. I work hard, but I've been lucky. And yeah, I don't know, but I'm grateful that people pay attention. I'm grateful to get to spend time with guys like you, to be honest, man. It's been so cool.

It's like I'm really jealous that you met Jeff Bridges, man.

Yeah, dude, me too. When I met him. Yeah, jealous. And I met him.

He's like the prime minister of cool. Yeah. And Denzel Washington. If you get Denzel Washington on your show, man, he is— he is like just a really nice guy.

Oh, if I get him on, then you got to— your wife's got to make me some egg salad. I'm gonna come over there.

She'll make you some egg salad. That'll— that'll make you— make you stand on one leg and yodel. Oh, she makes some good salad.

Does she?

Yeah. Oh, she's a good cook. She likes to cook.

Oh, that's nice, dude. Yeah, I'm going to get me a good wife one of these days. Abita Roasting Company. Is that what it's called?

Yep.

Yep.

That's an old Creole cottage with a sugar kettle in the front.

Oh, yeah.

And I've been there many times.

Right there. When I'm home and you're home, I want to go over there.

We'll go there together.

That'd be cool.

I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

Yeah.

All right. And we can go over to friends and have an adult beverage.

Yeah. And look, and you can write it off. It'll be a stay. It'll be a It'll be a deduction, won't it? No, we'll pay for— I'll pay for it.

You don't get accused of nothing. I'll treat you. But okay, I'm paid okay by the United States Senate.

Okay, so it'd be just a personal expense.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Okay.

That's fair, man. I'd love that.

We'll swap lies and tell stories and you can tell me what Hollywood's like in Los Angeles. Oh, yeah. All those fake people out there, all those beautiful people.

And you try— and you trade me stories from just the swamp waters over there at Washington, DC.

That's right. Yeah, that's right.

That's a deal. John Kennedy, Senator John Kennedy, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, man.

It's been fun.

Thanks for having me.

Amen. You're the prime minister of cool yourself.

Oh, thank you, bro. I appreciate you.

Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.

I can feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take a little