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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
Welcome to I HIP News. Today we have a guest who is a podcaster turned political candidate, which is exactly what we need. Let's welcome to IHIP News, Midas Touches, Fred Wellman. Fred, how are you?
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A
Oh, man. So good to see you guys. Good morning. Good to see you ladies again.
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B
It's so good to see you. And you have decided to throw your hat in the ring in Missouri, which I believe is Josh Holliday, state.
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A
That's correct, Josh. All right, Eric Schmidt, two of the greatest senators. We've got. Quite a crew. Yeah. I'm running against incumbent Ann Wagner, Republican. She's been in office 13 years, has held exactly zero town halls, but she has successfully. Yep. She successfully tripled her net worth. So she has that $26 million. So, yeah, it's interesting. We, you know, we just haven't had representation. She just doesn't talk to us at all. So we are. We jumped in the race.
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B
What. What is the response you're getting from people, let's say, both Democrats and Republican, to your candidacy?
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A
You know, it's been interesting. The energy in the Democratic side is everything. I mean, one of the things I say a lot is we have to take the energy of these no King protests. I'll give you an example. Our second no Kings protest here in my county, in my district, we had a thunderstorm. We had huge lightning storms. Right. And 7,000 people went out in the rain to protest Donald Trump. And what's happening. So again, right outside my opponent's office, ironically. So if we could take that energy. So there's this vast energy at the grassroots level for people who want to be led. People want to have voices. People want to be represented. So taking that and funneling into a campaign is my big goal. Interesting enough, I had conversations with Republicans. I was at a veterans barbecue last weekend, and a guy said to me, he goes, oh. He goes, what do you do? I said, well, I'm running for Congress. He goes, oh, Ann Wagner's got to go. She's terrible. She doesn't do anything for. I agree. He goes, I hope you're a Republican. I said, I am not. And he goes, well, you know, I can't vote for Democrats. So, look, tell me, let me tell you, put this way. When it comes down to me versus Aunt Wagner, you can go in that booth and just that one time, get rid of Aunt Wagner. And the good news about my job if I win is that I have to be rehired every two years. So if I suck, you can fire me in two years. I said, but the fact is, we all agree we're not being represented at all. And he goes, all right, Fred Wellman, I remember that name. And so I think there is a groundswell of understanding that the United States Congress has become a doormat instead of a Congress. Right. I mean, I always joke here, you know, Harry Truman's our son of the son of Missouri, and he always talked about how he had the do nothing Republican Congress. Right. If you remember the history of that, we've literally got the doormat Republican Congress. I mean, they are nothing but a place for Trump and his collaborators, his cronies, to wipe their feet onto doing whatever they want to do, from tearing down the East Wing to cutting off SNAP benefits, Congress is nowhere to be found. Hell, my opponent hasn't even posted on Facebook in a week. I mean, they can't be. Can't be a bar to pretend anymore. So it's incredibly frustrating. I think a lot of people are ready for change.
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B
You know, you just brought up something that's really important that I think we need to talk about. And you said when you were at this barbecue that he said, well, you're Republican, aren't you? Because there's no way I could vote for a Democrat. And this is something people on the coast don't understand. This is something that Ezra Klein, when he said we need to run pro life Democrats in red states, does not understand. They don't. They fundamentally don't understand how effective Republican propaganda with the assist from local churches have been in demonizing the Democratic Party. That at the end of the day, that decades long messaging helped Donald Trump win. Because even though he's a sinner, even though he is a piece of shit, even though he tweets crazy things, even though he a porn star, he has R next to his name. And that's better than the demonic Democrat. Which brings me to this problem that I think people, political strategists on the coast have with understanding red states. And when I see politicians like James Talarico or Andy Brashear win in these states, it's really, really important. And I'm curious about what your strategy will be, because I think it's important to tell these fine Christian people in Missouri, and we're from a very similar state demographically, Oklahoma.
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Yep.
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B
That you've been lied to. These Republican politicians have been lying to you for decades. Democrats are not the devil, and we are here to fight for the people that Jesus Christ himself said that he would stand for. I think the Democrats have to take the faith Whether you're a Christian or not, I'm not one. But in order to penetrate a deeply religious electorate, they have to use it because the Republicans have been using it for decades with impunity. And I think it has to be used to remind these Christian voters that Jesus Christ was a radical empath and fought for the marginalized. And so I'm curious about what your strategy will be in this, because I think this cycle we're going to have a lot of canaries in the coal mines. And if we were ever to switch some of these deeply read r seats to Ds, I think you cannot do it without bringing up faith. So what are your plans to tackle it?
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A
And so I'm pro choice. It's funny, that same conversation, the gentleman said, look, I'm pro life. I said, great. I was raised Catholic. I respect your opinion, but that's not the issue right now. The issue right now is that we're not being represented. We are not being. We can argue about the details, but the fact is we all agree that in Washington D.C. has left us behind. I'm a Missouri Democrat, so I like to say, as I'm a Missouri Democrat, Missouri Democrats are gonna work to get things done. You know, my representative has not been present. So one of the ways we're fighting that is like what you said, they haven't been exposed to Democrats. You know, look, the last, I had great opponents that ran previous to me. Democrats, all good people. I know all of them, like last six races. But none of them were able to mount a challenge that also enabled them to go out and meet the people. Our best chance was during COVID Unfortunately, we couldn't get out. So we are building a campaign focused on just being present, you know, being out amongst. Look, I am who I am. The challenge of me. You know, we joke about me being a podcaster, but I've been talking on camera for three and a half years. I've been on. I'm an OG Twitter guy, everything. We were laughing. We're trying to do my priorities and my, My policy. Well, they're all out there and we're embracing that to include my mistakes. Why? I lost everything because of 9 11. I lost it all again because the pandemic. And that's out there. It's public record. But what I do tell you is I'm a leader who's gonna lead for you. And I was asked in an interview from a local political reporter in St. Louis, he said, fred, if. If Josh Hawley comes to you with an idea and A good, it's a good idea. Will you, will you cross part lines? Like it's not about crossing party lines at that point. It's about being elected by the people of Missouri to represent the people of Missouri. And if Josh Hawley Blind Squirrel gets a nut or you know, what do you, you know, clock is right. Broken clocks right twice. I'll give you, I'll say this. Josh Hawley worked very hard on a bill to get radiation. We have a radiation issue. Probably won't know, but much of the work done for the Manhattan Project was done here in the St. Louis region. Okay. And that included dumping barrels of radioactive material in local creeks. And we've got kids getting sick. And Josh Harley did work very hard to pass a law to get remediation that radiation and payment those. I'm sorry, that's good work. Okay. But if it's good for the people of Missouri, that's why we're elected. And you can, we can make a very clear case that the people in Washington D.C. right now from the state do not represent us at all to include our own elected officials. Where the governor of Missouri said they wanted to redistrict the state because they wanted to get Missouri values. It's like, I'm sorry buddy, that Matt came from Washington D.C. so the way we're making our case is that I do talk about my upbringing as a Catholic. It's not something I do now, but I was raised, you know, something I quote, I was quoted in a piece the other day saying Matthew 20:25, you know, as you do unto my brothers, you do unto me. Right? The least of us should be represented. Cutting off food aid to 655,000 Missourians is not Christian. It's not decent. And I talk a lot about my value. It's interesting. I had. It's a funny story, guys, you'll appreciate this. I had a guy actually like threaten me who lives here. It was ugly. And I blocked him on all my social media. He actually connected me on LinkedIn and we discovered that we'd served in the 101st Airbor together. As you guys might remember, I'm a 22 year army vet for combat tours. This gentleman and I, who lives in the district by the way, or just outside the district. We served in the same unit, same time we started talking on LinkedIn. He goes, did you hang out the Black Horse Pub? And Clark's like, I do. That was my hangout. We probably hung out the same bar. So we decided to meet for a beer and my family Hated it. But I said, let's meet. And we had this is before I decided to run. And he said some two really fascinating things. He said, fred, the one thing about you, I've watched you for years and I disagree with almost everything you stand for. But the one thing I do respect about you is you've always stood for your values and you've never wavered from that. And I respect the fact that you will fight for your values and our values do cross. And I thought that was a really insightful thing. I stand for certain things, treat people with decency. Killing should be immoral. You know, it's like these are things. And by the way, representation is in the title. The title of the job I'm running for is Representative. And if you're not representing the people who elected you, why are you there? And unfortunately, my opponent represents the banks. He's the number one. The majority of her bills she's ever fielded have to do with banking, you know, and so they've gotten rid of the CFPB that was making help. You know, it's just thing after thing. And then on top of that, you see the challenges. Soybean farmers in my district are struggling now because decisions that Donald Trump has made, look, the first article, the Constitution is the Congress, they have the power of terrorists, not Donald Trump. So we go on and on. We could pull that thread. But I tell you guys, in the end I'm running because my own family is the perfect storm for this, for this moment, right? My oldest son in law is a National Guardsman in Virginia who was actually at the United the Right rally and now is in danger of being called to an American city. My oldest son works in a corporate job, can't get out of his starter home that he got during the pandemic because he just simply can't afford it. Because we all know the gap between median income and median house costs is the highest it's been in history. My youngest daughter owns a small business that has worst summer in five years, all because of tariffs. She imports products to make soap, bath and body products. And then my youngest son who now works in health care of all things, A year ago he was a bartender in a very popular local restaurant in his town. They didn't give health insurance. He went to the ACA to get health insurance. He qualified for Medicaid. And so I'm watching on TV last spring as our representatives in Washington say there's these 27 year old men laying around on their couches playing video games, getting free health Care. And I'm looking my son working his ass off at a business that doesn't even offer healthcare. And he's being smeared by the people who are supposed to represent him and they're calling him names because he needed help. I'm tired of that. We should all be tired of that. And then back to your question. None of that's Christian. None of that's about helping the poor. None of that's about helping the least of us. We're talking about the following. A man who washed the feet of others. We're talking about the man who hung out with prostitutes, okay? And now today we're talking about celebrating the loss of food for people in our needy disability, disabled, elderly. So I come back to Missouri every time. Time here in Missouri, we recognize that we can do better, that we should be represented. And a Missouri Democrat needs to go up there and actually do what's right for Missourians and not necessarily for anybody else.
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B
Pun's last question. Okay, I, I know you are a veteran. You're very vocal about being a veteran and supporting veterans and going across your district and at large. What is the response that you were getting regarding how the current Department of Defense, AKA the Department of War, what is their response to how it's being handled now with the NDAs going into American cities? What is their response over.
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A
Just horrified. I was at a. They had a. There's a standing protest outside my opponent's office every weekend. I went out there. There was about three veterans out there. And every one of them is horrified by the idea that we're ordering our troops to just murder people in the open ocean. There's no question any of our minds who have served, anybody who's served in combat knows that rules of engagement aren't this thing. They're like, they're handcuffs, okay? No, they're keep us from committing war crimes, okay? And what's being done right now are war crimes. We are ordering our troops to murder people. Okay? And there's no question about that. But I also tell people that the fact is I do also want my service member friends and all to hold their powder, to really order legal shit. I think we're at that point. What we're being ordered to do in the ocean is illegal. There is no war powers at all in this situation. There's no national merger. None of that applies. Trump and Hag said they're spinning their wheels, trying to come up with a legal justification for outright murder. And there's no question in my mind. I had a. I had A former the Deputy Judge Advocate General of the United States Air Force was on my show on Friday and he just flat out said, Fred, these, these are murders. And so we are in a very dangerous place. And we're asking our service members to do very dangerous things. And I gotta tell you guys, the way the law works, those guys pulling the trigger will be responsible for those murders. And Pete Hegseth is gonna walk, okay? So we have to stand up for them. So I be a voice for those and say, this is murder. You're ordering our truth to murder people. And that's unright. And then we go on top of the many just outrageous things Hagseth has done from the Christian nationalism, forcing service members to go to his prayer, prayer meetings during the duty day, from firing anybody who crosses them to his weird paranoia. Like I said, an NDA. We have top secret clearances. The guy flying a Predator has a top secret SEI clearance, okay? He doesn't need an NDA unless you're doing something illegal, you know. And it all goes back to that first week when Pete Hexith came in. Everybody talked about how he fired the Air Force chief of staff and others. But the real key, you guys, he fired all the Air Force's top legal people, the jags, and has not replaced them with permanent patients. You only fire the lawyers when you want to do illegal. And so as I talk to people in the district, the veterans especially care and look, you know, I. I served four combat tours. I was an aviator. I. I led Apaches in a Desert Storm. We did a lot of killing, okay? I'm just. It is what it is. Anybody I met in my 22 years in the army and then my 15 years since I retired who relished killing, who celebrated killing, who eagerly frothed over the idea of killing others, and I'm talking anybody enemies otherwise was never right in the head. So when I see people like Pete Hegseth or Lindsey Graham or anyone else on TV saying, yeah, we're killing the right people. If you take pleasure in the murder of any other human being other than approaching it like it's your duty and something you do to protect your country, you're not right. Okay? So when I look at Pete Hegseth, I see an immoral, broken person leading our troops in very dangerous places who is clearly not a good person, you know, and he could pretend all he wants about his Christianity and his. His Bible church, but the end, when you eagerly and relishly murder other human beings for, for any reason, you're not right in the head. I'm sorry. You know my friends.
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B
Right.
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A
And that's the thing. Look, I. My friends, some of the people I have, I know who have the worst ptsd. I mean, and is it good stuff happened to them? One of my best friends has lifelong PTSD because he killed somebody in a scuffle at a checkpoint and had to. Had to kill this guy. Justifiable killing. He was an enemy. But the idea of taking another human's life has affected him for the rest of his life. That's how it should be if you're raised right. Right. So I question those who are celebrating the killing of others.
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B
Yeah. And Lindsey Graham, I mean, this is just number one. Everybody knows Lindsey Graham is the biggest closet homosexual in Washington, D.C. period. And so he weaponizes faith against people he fed during the day to people he fetishizes at night. And this Republican Party weapon, which is what a lot of people in rural Oklahoma and rural Missouri, that's the only form of culture that they have. It's their only social place where they go. And they've used that and they. They very diabolically Christian signal to say, hey, I'm on your team, so you can vote for me. And then they do the exact opposite of what their Sunday school teacher is preaching that the savior of that faith recommended they do. And so I just think it's something that Democrats cannot shy away from. We need to talk about these lying Christians that are weaponizing the faith of really good folk in these red states and call it what it is. And that's why I'm so glad you're running. Fred Wellman. I can't wait. The next time we have you on, I want to call you Congressman. Well, and we'll manifest it. But thank you so much for joining IHIP News. As the race heats up, you know, you can always stop here and we'll just. We'll just browbeat the. Out of your opponent for you. We'd love.
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A
I look forward to it. We're on the. We're on path. It's been. I mean, I'll just let you know, our first month's been spectacular. We've been in it since October 1st. We got a cold start. We've. We've probably announced it today. We already broke $250,000, which puts us in the top of the campaigns in the country. We had an incredible food drive on Friday. We raised 4,368 pounds of food in two hours for our local food pantry partner with about 13 other candidates and campaigns so we're trying to show people in our district what it likes to have, what it's like to have leaders who step up in the crunch and do it quickly. We did it in four days and that's what we're trying to do. And look, if you want to find out more, I'd be remiss if I don't say it's wellman4mo.com it's w e L L M A N f o r mo.com and look, I, I could use the support. I'm not going to lie. And, and here's the thing I got to say before I go. This is a winnable race. This is not one of those jousting with windmill races. I, I'm not wanting to move the needle. My, my opponent is in polls showing her underwater against a Democrat. We know we just had Gallup say it's a D plus nine or eight year. We have seen never seen a more vulnerable candidate. We just need somebody who could bring together the district, bring together our support, win St. Louis County. So this is not one of those as you're throwing your money away onto a losing candidate. We are anything but that. This is a, this is a campaign that will win. We've got DCCC support coming in for this one. It's, this is a fight. So any support I can get, I appreciate. Wellman4mo.com thank you ladies. I appreciate your time as always.
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B
Fred Wellman. Get out there and F him up and get in that ass and win this for us. All right, we'll see you later. Bye.
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A
Thanks. Bye now.