← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
David Rutherford Show: Senator Greg Dolezal on Election Integrity & the Future of American Democracy
00:53:34
Loading summary
Transcript97 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:14]
B
What's up, team? Everybody, welcome to the show. Today we have an incredible guest, a man that has decided to take on the system at the highest level by running for Lieutenant governor of Georgia. He's been in the house there since 2018, 19, and really is the man that's leading the charge and waking Georgians up about election fraud. Mr. Greg Dolezar.
- [00:41]
A
David.
- [00:42]
B
Yeah. Welcome to the show, my friend. Yeah, thanks for coming on, man. When Tudor reached out to us and was saying you were interested in coming on and talking about this, Jordy and I were like, high five. And finally, a politician that's reaching out to us who wants to get involved in this. And we were. We were pretty. We're pretty excited to hear you, hear your thoughts on all this. All right, you know, obviously, we can jump right in. Your. Your speech on the floor, talking about Fanny Willis and. And how it started the day after Trump, you know, her coordinated coordination with the Biden White House and Jack Smith started the day after Trump announced he was running in 22. You know, that thing went viral all over the place. And for me, it was this overwhelming sense, like, oh, now actual people that are in seats of power are pushing back on the reality that the elections were fraudulent. And. But before we get into that, just tell us, how do you go from being tour manager, one of the biggest Christian artists, to growing up on a farm, you know, being involved, you know, with your church and really just seemingly having the ideal life and supporting your. Obviously, your true mission, which is to support Christ, you know, and then all of a sudden, now it's like, oh, I think I'm going to get into Georgia politics. Like, how does that happen, man?
- [02:02]
A
We were called to it. That's. That's the only thing I can tell you. It was a. It was a wild journey. You know, in my 20s and into my 30s, I did. I spent a decade on the road with Chris Tomlin, and it was the honor of a lifetime. And he. His career started, obviously, very minimally, just leading worship at churches. I kind of came in when he started doing his first tour, and then everything exploded in an amazing way. And so I had the opportunity to go around the world with Chr. Wow. We did, you know, 10 years of touring together, and I'm actually gonna go help them with this Good Friday event this year in Nashville, something he's done every year for a decade now. So I'm still like the old guy who they bring in on these big events when they want to, you Know, get stuff done, right?
- [02:42]
B
You're the og, right? Man, that's so, like, nobody understands the technicalities involved in being a tour manager and helping orchestrate those logistics, which in my opinion, you know, logistics in the military are the essence of how militaries function. Logistics and businesses, you know, but in particular, as it comes to entertainment, there's so much that go behind being able to bring a message out in a powerful way to the masses. And, man, just kudos, Anya, for getting behind that and what you learned. But, you know, give me one story from being on the road in those 10 years where you saw, vividly saw the work, what he was doing in the audience or in a group of people or a particular person that you're like, I know I'm supposed to be where God wants me, man.
- [03:30]
A
So hard to pick one moment. I would say that a couple of times that we went to Australia were really just powerful moments. We had followed these guys that were kind of pioneers in the worship space over there called Hillsong, and to kind of step into their stream of what they were doing and see what was happening over there was. Was amazing. But, you know, for me, going through America, Sao Paulo was. Was amazingly Brazilian people are amazing. And to see them worship was. Was just kind of next level. And then to go into some of the cultures where we. We kind of had to go in under the radar was, you know, was interesting as well, where, you know, Christianity, Christians are in minority, often persecuted people groups. And so that was, you know, that was something that was. That really crystallized for me how lucky I have it here in America. And something that just growing up to me, I took for granted and didn't, you know, ever kind of stop and is amazing. I get to go to church on Sunday and not realize even that even that is a luxury. And so it, you know, when we transitioned out, basically what happened, man, was my wife and I started having kids. We've got four kids. And Chris is like, I want you to do this for 10 more years. I've got 10 more years than me, will you do it for 10 more years? And ironically, this is 10 years for him past that point. But I'm just like, this is a young man's game. I'm in my 30s and I need to go home and, you know, raise my family. And so transitioned away from that and just began to pray and think about what would be next. And I own a software development company that my partners and I started 20 years ago. And so that was kind of growing this whole time as well, so we had a lot of moving pieces in life, but I had my state senator decided to run for governor, and we talked about it, we prayed about it. We got the race, and we just went out. I went out and knocked on 10,000 doors.
- [05:15]
B
Wow.
- [05:16]
A
In that community. And that's not like, pay the interns to go knock on doors.
- [05:19]
B
No, you got to do it. You got to do it.
- [05:21]
A
My knuckles hitting the door. And what's crazy, David, is like, to this day, eight, nine years later, people will still say, man, I remember that time you knocked on my door. And so for all of the guys looking to get a start in politics, to all the ladies that think this might be for them as well, you gotta. You gotta put shoe leather on the ground and go work it.
- [05:39]
B
Well, what's the. I mean, one of the most famous stories of all of that type of thing is, you know, Jack Kennedy going to the most, you know, depraved, you know, the impoverished areas of West Virginia, you know, all these different places which were entrenched in conservative Republican views, right? And he just preached his case to him like, hey, this is who I am. This is what I'm doing. And. And I think that translates. Always translates into victory, right? Because when you're face to face with somebody, you know, people's BS meter can be pinged pretty quick. And. And. And people that are. Are eking out a living every day trying to pay their bills, trying to take care of their kids and their family, when they look you in the face, they know whether or not you're. You're full of it or you're being genuine. So, man, kudos on you for getting out there and doing that. Did that. Did that reinforce the desire? Because obviously there might. There must have been some type of trepidation about wanting to be a politician. I mean, obviously, even. Even in. Even in localized, you know, state, congressional, it's still. There's still a pretty significant game being played, right, at all levels, both sides.
- [06:55]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [06:57]
B
Did that, like, drive you more towards it or. Or what was the. What was the process that. That. What is it? It's the. You're looking for the enlightenment, right? The. The thing that kind of, like when you're. When you're. When you get born again, right? When you get saved, it's like, oh, now this is what I'm supposed to do. Did you have that each time, each door you knocked on.
- [07:20]
A
I will tell you that for me, as an introvert, getting out every single day and going. Knocking was. It was a spiritual discipline. Because but for just really having to kind of both talk myself into it and pray myself through it, it was not what I was comfortable doing. But the amazing thing was I would go home almost every day and there would have been one conversation that was just like, oh, that's why I'm doing this. I remember one in particular. I walk up this driveway and there's a lady standing in her driveway. I start talking to this older lady. I look over her shoulder and she's got a veteran's license plate on her car in her garage. And I said, oh, ma', am, are you a veteran? And she said, no, my husband is. Would you like to? I said, yeah, sure. Well, she brings me in the house and introduces me to her disabled and blind husband. And the house is pretty disheveled. There's kind of stuff everywhere. She's doing everything she can to take care of her husband and take care of herself. And I ended up sitting with that couple for about an hour and a half and having the most amazing conversation. And I remember I went home, I told my wife, I said, we're going to lose this election. She said, what do you mean? I said, the whole reason I was in this race was to have this conversation that I had today with this couple and just to be able to spend time with them because they were. They told me nobody had been inside their house for a couple of years. They didn't have family in the area. They were just lonely. And I get emotionally even thinking about it right now because it was this moment where I'm like, all right, this is why I'm doing it. And even though I went on to win, it's still why I'm doing it. Because those are the people that don't have the voice of the Capitol, right? So down here, man, there are lobbyists all over this place, there are special interests down here, there's back slapping politicians who kind of love the game and love the scene. And I really don't get involved in that because I just, I think about those people back home and it's like, that's my compelling why. You know, a lot of people point to their kids as their why. And there's a lot of that for me as well, certainly thinking about the next generation. But I also think about that older man, that veteran who fought and served his country and he's handed the baton off to my generation now. And the question becomes, what are we going to do about it?
- [09:24]
B
100%. So I imagine when you get in, there's a pretty steep learning curve for sure the first couple years. But for you, man, that learning curve seems like it was. Like it was. It was. It was interstellar. Right. Because you all of a sudden, immediately you're faced with the 2020 elections. I know a lot of the. The country, obviously, as a result of J6, right there was enough to. To drive that movement up into D.C. did you feel the sensation that something was off? Did you get an, you know, did you have that or where were you when it went down?
- [10:04]
A
So I was the first elected official in the state of Georgia to hold a press conference after the 2020 election. And a couple of my senator friends came with me, and we were a group and leadership told us not to go. We were instructed by our president pro tem that it was a bad idea to say anything about the election. And I'm a freshman at this time. This is my very first term. And they're like, all right, Dolezal, you go speak for us. So I did. And I walked up to the microphone and called for an audit of the election, called for a number of steps that should be taken with an eye towards even the January runoff election. That ultimately were the elections that installed Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. And at that point in time, man, the fire came. Leadership was angry. The lieutenant governor at the time walked into a meeting with all of us and chastised us. A number of my friends who that were in senior positions in the state senate were stripped of their committees, which is kind of the conduit of influence and power in any legislature. Right. So we were. We like to joke that one of the guys, actually, Bert Jones, went on to become lieutenant governor. And we joke now that when we'd walk down the hall, man, we would clear the. We'd clear the hallway because nobody wanted to be seen talking to us because they were afraid their bills were. My bills are going to get killed if I'm seen talking to, you know, Dolezal or Beach or. Or Jones, you know, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be screwed in the legislative process. And so we were. We were outcasts, but that was with the political class. But I've always kind of been an outcast with the political class. The very first GOP meeting that I went to after the 2020 election in my home county that I represent, the GOP meets in this little retail store. And usually there's 50 people that show up.
- [11:45]
B
Yep.
- [11:46]
A
They had to meet in the parking lot. And it's one of these two story retail Building kind of deals, and people had to go up to the balcony or hang off the balcony because about 500 people showed up that day.
- [11:56]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [11:56]
A
And it was the most energized I've seen. Our base people recognized that something was taken from them.
- [12:02]
B
Yeah.
- [12:02]
A
And they were angry, and they were looking for fighters. And so that really galvanized the things I would go on to do, which was to be one of the first four elected officials in the state to call for a special session of the General Assembly. Because, David, you've got to remember what was going on. This is Covid. And we were under an emergency order. And the emergency order, which the legislature. Legislature essentially ceds all of their power to the executive branch. In the executive branch, in the case of elections is Brad Raffensberger, our secretary of state. Well, he took that executive power and he invented election law. He put dropboxes everywhere. Dropboxes were nowhere envisioned in the statute in Georgia code. He sent 6.3 million absentee ballot request forms to every registered voter and put a first class stamp on it. And the first class stamp is significant because if you file a national change of address form. So if you move to Louisiana and you say, all right, post office, here's my national change of address form. Forward all of my first class mail to Louisiana. Well, we know that in Fulton county alone, 39,000 people had their mail forwarded to a different state or a different county. And Raffensperger sent all those people absentee ballot request forms, and tens of thousands of them voted. And in many cases, they voted illegally.
- [13:29]
B
And the key. For all the audience who's listening right now, you have to realize that Georgia was won by 11,000 votes. Like, that's the kicker, right? It was in the smallest margin in the country by far. I mean, it was unbelievable. So I can only imagine you're witnessing all this. When did it become solidified in your mind that you. You saw whatever conclusive evidence. I mean, I know Garland Favorito immediately started doing the research we had him on right after the FBI raid on the. The. Where. The warehouse where all the ballots were still or were seized. And we, you know, you. He. His timeline is really clear. What point did you see a piece of evidence that really gave you the conviction?
- [14:26]
A
When I signed my own absentee ballot request form with a signature that no way, shape, or form matched my actual signature. So, in other words, I tested the system and I got my ballot. That's when I knew that the signature match was not happening. Because in my county, my County's a red county. My county runs elections well. So I'm like, if this is happening in my County, Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, you know, these other larger metro counties certainly have to be a disaster. And so then I had friends who had their kids sign their absentee ballot request form, and next thing you know, the ballot comes in. I had people botch their signatures in multiple counties. Cherokee, Gwinnett. They all tested the system. And David, in every single case, all of us got our ballots back. And that was in the runoff election. And that's when I knew that the system was broken. And that's when we. We had already called for the special session by that point in time, but that's when we really doubled down on trying to get it. Trying to get it done.
- [15:26]
B
Awesome. Thank you for describing that, because I think that's the real kicker for a lot of people that they're going through that process now. Right? Because, you know, the. I think starting with COVID the ability to manipulate information and the flow of information was at an all time high. We saw that with the Twitter files. We saw it. I mean, I got locked out of social media, you know, and. And I wasn't even political back then, man. I didn't. I was a motivational guy. And, you know, and I got shut down because I had, you know, during the BLM riots, I'm trying to be like, everybody calm down, man. Let's just. Let's see what the facts are, then we can argue the facts. And for me, it was, you know, the 2019 FBI statistics saying that only what it was like 19 or 20 some odd unarmed black men had been shot by white police officers, right? And. And. And I put that on Facebook, and it turned into a 5,000-comment argument, you know, and I'm like, what the hell's going on? And you could just see the coordination of the information and how it attacked people who brought those questions up in any case. And we saw it, I think, most egregiously with the January 6th and what took place when you have, you know, grandmas who, you know, were waved into the capel and, you know, never went outside the, you know, the ropes and the rotunda, and they're doing hard time and solitary confinement, you know, with the 1800 people they rounded up. I was like, all right, that's the deal. And now they're painting us as domestic terrorists. And I was like, okay, this is bigger than anything I've ever seen. And, man, I work for the CIA, so I've seen some Crazy, right? So the, the reality is now, you know, so when what, what happened next? Did you start working with any outside experts? When. Because I've, I've seen you, you know, you, you've had one bill passed and that was Senate Bill 189. Maybe you could tell us the story of, of how the coordination effort to get, to start, to get towards legislation. And then just let's go into some of the bills you've put forward because, man, these are significant and they really mimic what I think we're trying to get done at a federal level as well too, which is really cool.
- [17:40]
A
So.
- [17:41]
B
Yeah, maybe if you could give that narrative for us.
- [17:43]
A
Yeah, I mean, I can't really accurately describe or it's impossible for me to even overstate the amount of pressure that we were under in Georgia after the 2020 election. And I had the same conversation with my constituents basically from 8 o' clock in the morning till 6 o' clock at night for days and days and days and weeks on end. And so I went back that next session with a very, very clear mandate in my mind. And that mandate was unlike any mandate I have had since I've been elected. And that was to fix the election system. And so we passed a number of omnibus bills out of the Senate and some of them were more comprehensive than even what ultimately passed, which was Senate Bill 202, the very first bill that we voted on, frankly did what we should have done and we should have had the backbone to push it all the way through to the finish line, which was to get rid of no excuse absentee voting. And because the mail in voting, and ultimately the, I should say we voted to get rid of all of the mail in voting. And the no excuse absentee voting is a separate piece, but the mail in voting is where the bulk of your fraud happens. It's a lot harder to commit election fraud if you have to walk into a polling place and show your id. It's possible, but it's certainly, it limits your, your attack vectors for sure, of what you can, the system can handle. So we passed that bill to this, to the House, never got out of the House, but we ultimately passed Senate Bill 202, which, which is what Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams called Jim Crow 2.0.
- [19:14]
B
I remember that. And it was unbelievable. Meanwhile, this is the same person in terms of Stacy saying that her last election was completely fraudulent. And it's just, it's, it's mind boggling to see the narratives. Right.
- [19:28]
A
Well, they always claim, Jasmine Crockett this Week claimed in the election.
- [19:32]
B
I'm waiting for, for Dan Crenshaw to say the same thing too, you know. So anyways, go ahead.
- [19:40]
A
Yeah, so we, we pass a number of provisions. So for example, I told you that I was signing my signature to get my absentee ballot. You no longer do that in Georgia. You have to provide photo identification. So we moved the needle significantly on some, some key election security measures. But I, on the floor of the Senate tomorrow, actually to move us to a handmark paper ballot voting system. And this is the fourth bill of that kind that I have co sponsored. And this is the first one that I've drafted myself. And this one that I've drafted myself along with Garland had input on this bill. And a number of people that have really dug into the details of this have helped me put this together. But when I say I wrote it myself, what I mean is I'm the, the top, the number one sponsor. Right. And so I've got that bill out of committee. It will go to the floor of the Senate tomorrow. And then hopeful, get us off of the Dominion voting machines by the November election. Because we actually, we passed a bill, you mentioned Senate Bill 189. We passed it two years ago, which essentially says that we're no longer going to vote by QR code. Right. So right now, what happens for those of your listeners that are not in Georgia, we go to a touchscreen. We, we vote our ballot. We get a printed ballot that then gets scanned. But what gets scanned is a QR code, not the actual optical characters that are, that are visible on the ballot. Right. So if I vote for Donald Trump and it says Donald Trump at the bottom, the machine doesn't scan the bottom, it scans this QR code.
- [21:09]
B
That's right.
- [21:09]
A
Well, in 2022, CISA, which is the Cyber Intelligence Security Administration Division, which is, which sits under the Department of Homeland Security at the federal level, they identified nine known vulnerabilities in Dominion Software version 5.5A. Right. And they spell out what all nine of these V are, some of which will allow the flipping of votes in the QR code.
- [21:35]
B
That's right.
- [21:37]
A
That. Now not only is that vulnerability there, but David, think about this. Now that vulnerability is numbered on the Internet for every bad actor to have access to.
- [21:47]
B
That's right.
- [21:48]
A
And we're still using the same software version. The very first recommendation that CISA gives in that report is to contact Dominion Voting Systems about a patch or a software update. And we're running 5.5 A. They had released 5.5 C 5.5 D, 5.17. They're now on 5.20, and George is using 5.5 A.
- [22:12]
B
And the reason why, I've been told that they keep, you know, they're at this insanely so that all of the data specialists. I interviewed this guy from Colorado who was just off the chart. He was a former military analyst, you know, like in the numbers type of guy, a logistics guy. And he was saying, you know, that they're in this race to just keep updating the operating system so that the people who are monitoring they can continue to cover their tracks, you know, as fast as they can. Like, you know, it's like one of those adaptive encryption systems that as soon as the hit hits it, it adapts and, and fixes that hole. Right. And those are probes into the, the, the, the, the feasibility of it being hacked or uploaded or outsourced or whatever. You know, that amendment that. That's, that's incredible. What is the response? What is the. Where are you getting pushback on the attacks? Not the. Yeah, you could call them attacks on the voting. The electronic voting systems. I think everybody gets. The ballots were a derivative of COVID Right. And so people are going to be forced to go back to the ballots. I think people are going to hold on with tooth and nail for the hand ballots till they die. That's the, the Hill they're going to die on. But it's certainly the, the unbelievably unrestrained absentee and then the drop boxes, that's an easy one. But the, the other stuff is the election stuff. And, and that's the place where I see politicians on both sides really kind of, you know, toe in the line. Because when you look at the cases brought against what Fox, that they settled 740 billion. You look at Giuliani's, you look at Mike Lindell, it's like, man, they had, they had Mark Elias in the crew, man. They had the, the funding to go after people in ways that even if they didn't win, they were gonna, they were gonna decapitate them financially.
- [24:10]
A
Yeah. I mean, one other thing that I did here in the State Senate was I formed the Senate Special Committee on Investigations by Resolution. So after Willis indicted President Trump and the 18 others, everybody's like, what do we do? What do we do? And, and kind of the prevailing wisdom down here as well, just let it work its way through the court system. I'm like, that's not good enough for me.
- [24:30]
B
What?
- [24:30]
A
That's not good enough for me. So I began to work with our lawyers down here and just kind of investigate what could be done. And the Georgia Constitution actually gives the same authority to investigate the affairs of the state to the legislature as it does the attorney general.
- [24:45]
B
Oh, wow.
- [24:46]
A
And our attorney general was not doing anything. And so I wrote a resolution that said, we're going to form a committee. We're going to give it subpoena power, we're going to give it the ability to swear witnesses in under oath, which at our state level is not something that we ever do. And we did. And we fought Fani Willis in court for a year and a half, finally got her to come appear. She appeared on December 17th of last year. And what we discovered in that hearing was shocking. We discovered the coordination with the Jan6 committee, we discovered the coordination with the White House, but she, of course, doesn't remember anything. And Nathan Wade, who was her paramour, who was conducting all of the work for her in his congressional testimony, he also said, yeah, I know I billed for conversations with the Jan6 committee, but I don't remember who I met with or on the eight hour meeting. I have no idea who was there and I don't know what we talked about. I know the same day that Jack Smith was appointed by the White House, that I was on a phone call with the White House for eight hours, but I have no idea who I was on the phone with and I don't know what we talked about. That's the same day, by the way, that Michael Colangelo left as the number three guy at doj.
- [25:52]
B
That's right.
- [25:53]
A
And went down there and went to New York to help Alvin Bragg.
- [25:55]
B
So that, that was the, that was the piece for me that really was like, oh, this is all coordinated. When.
- [26:02]
A
I mean, who's leaving as the number three guy at DOJ to go? Nobody. City DA's office, nobody.
- [26:08]
B
Unless you've got your marching orders with. I mean, and I, and I genuinely believe that they've been building this lawfare program, you know, as far back as you can think, really. I probably the 0809, the Obama administration. And that's when you, you know, the Norm Eismans and the Mark Eliases came in and you know, a lot of the Clinton support groups that really started to craft how they were going to do this back then. So did you, as as now, you're, you're gaining steam. Where did you see the attack start coming from at you?
- [26:42]
A
From within. Within my own party. I mean, so either even in the embryonic stages, it was the, you know, the leadership of the Senate, led by the lieutenant governor who now is running for governor in Georgia as a Democrat.
- [26:57]
B
You can't make this up.
- [26:58]
A
Right. It's crazy. So they, they were the ones that dropped the hammer on us initially, but then we just kind of, the real work just kind of died the slow death of delay. Right. So we'd move some bills, it would die maybe in the Senate, maybe it would die in the House. And this is an issue that frankly, a lot of people are afraid of in some capacity. But there's a lot of elected officials down here who quite honestly think that the people that have questions about the 2020 election, or they call them, they call them, quote, the crazies.
- [27:28]
B
Right, the crazies. That's right.
- [27:30]
A
And so you'll hear, well, the crazies think this and the crazies think that. And you know, I think that there obviously are varying degrees of things that I think did and did not happen, happen. But what I do know is that the system is fundamentally flawed. When you've got, when you've got software that can be identified by Homeland Security as being vulnerable and then it's going to take you months to update the software according to your own Secretary of State, that's not a system you should be using. It's just you should move yourself off of that system and go analog. If, if digital is inherently susceptible to, to attack, which it is, then you move to an analog system. And so that's what we're looking to do with the bill that I've got. And frankly, what we've been trying to do for a couple years and just haven't been able to get it all the way across the finish line yet.
- [28:16]
B
Okay, well, you know, and obviously you're, you're, you're, you're, you're. This is not just a regional or even state fight because the people that are fighting against you are well funded from external groups. We are, we know now the breakdown of all the different NGOs, where they've been getting money and how they're going after these election systems. And I think, you know, if you really get into, you know, some of what Mike Benz, the research he's done online and where we see how USAID funded, what is it, all the different programs to enhance democracy overseas and all these different places where we went and started influencing elections and convinced them and actually paid for them to have electronic voting machines and, you know, and, and really started to architect the, to enhance the architecture of this type of, of, of game. Now being happening in the United States. You know, I it like that's a powerful thing. So why would you ever want to now move up in the rankings? Why would you ever want to take the bigger fight? Right. Obviously, you know, I, before you answer that question, did you ever have a one on one with Kemp or Raffensperger?
- [29:38]
A
Not a one on one with Raffensperger, but Bert Jones and I, the Lieutenant Governor and a couple members of leadership as we were pushing to update from 5 5a when these vulnerabilities essentially were exposed, we not only had one on one meetings with the Secretary, but we actually had meetings with Dominion themselves. And we were so in my real life, this state senator thing's a part time deal. I'm in the software development business and I've owned a technology company with my partners for 20 plus years. And when we talked to the Dominion team about their lack of white hat testing and we talked to them about their testing procedures and protocols, it was shocking. Like it was shocking. We don't write mission critical software per se, but we write video presentation software that's used to run displays at the NFL draft and the Olympics in United States Congress. And so we've got to get it right. And so I know the QA team and the amount of testing that our team does and when I compared that to the answers that I got when I was asking questions of Dominion, it was pretty shocking. And you know, we're Dominion's largest customer here in Georgia. We're the only state that uses them statewide.
- [30:51]
B
Statewide.
- [30:51]
A
And when they released version 517 of the software, their testing process, process was so inadequate that they realized that the no wink pull pads, which is the check in pad that we use that gives you the card that you put in the Domini machine, wasn't compatible with the newest software. I'm like, guys, how in world does that happen? Like in what testing environment are you not testing compatibility for your largest customer, your only statewide customer you like? That's the one you got to make happy. And so I think that some of this just falls to straight incompetence, you know, more so perhaps than even nefarious actors. Some of this stuff is just a low bar that was set. But yes, we met with the Secretary. He and I are, are somewhat at odds publicly because I continue to ask questions, even this year in the appropriations hearings. I asked questions about his preparation for the 2026 election because he's under a legal mandate to not use the QR code. And I said, what are your plans? How are we going to vote in November. And the answer was, there is no plan and we don't know what's going to happen. I'm like, sir, it's January. Like, we got to get this rolled out. And so I think probably the days of the one on one meetings are over. He's actually running for governor here in the state of Georgia.
- [32:11]
B
I know.
- [32:13]
A
So. But yes, I have had one on one meetings.
- [32:15]
B
Okay, all right, so then the next question then becomes, all right, why would you ever want to move up in the ranks and. And take the fight at a higher level?
- [32:25]
A
Now, I have a core conviction that we're in a fight flight to save the west, so thank you. I was thinking about running for the seat for a while, but ultimately made my decision to do it on September 10th. And when I watched Charlie Kirk get assassinated, essentially live on Twitter, I went home and told my. Our two oldest kids, who were 11 and 13, about what they would see, talk to them, and then talk to my wife. And the conviction for me was that that day was an unveiling moment. And it revealed to me that the fight is not left versus dark any. I'm sorry, left versus right anymore. The fight is now light versus dark. And of course, in the days preceding Charlie's death, we began to hear, you know, all of the left kind of put out, you know, supposedly the most controversial things that he had said. And in context, I have yet to hear him say anything I disagree with. And so the fact that someone would put a bullet through his vocal cords because of what he said, knowing that, it's exactly what I believe, I'm like, man, I've got to double down on being bold. And I knew the guys that are running for lieutenant governor because they're all friends of mine and none of them are bad human beings. But I'm not convinced they're going to be as bold as we need to be to save America. And I've served with them, and they're not bad guys. And some of them are conservative. But it's not just being conservative because I went through 2020 with every one of them in the Senate. All the guys in the Senate were in the Senate at the time, and not one of them stood with us and called for a special session, and not one of them stood with us at the press conference. And so it's not always a question of ideological worldview and what do you believe? And oftentimes more so the question is, will you have the guts to stand up when it really matters? Are you going to run 50 political calculations in your head before you make a decision and decide, well, the safer thing to do is to kind of hide under my desk and I'll come back up when the smoke clears. And so, given where Georgia is, and David, if you think about this, Georgia is ground zero for the fight to save America. Control of the United States Senate this year probably comes through Georgia 100%.
- [34:41]
B
It does.
- [34:42]
A
The 2028 presidential election comes through Georgia a hundred percent. And so for me, we've got to have leaders that put. Put free market principles, capitalism, love of country, founding, small government principles on display. And I believe that when we do that, we can win elections in this state by wide margins, because the other side is crazy. And we may not be perfect, but we're not crazy. You know, we don't want to have men competing against our daughters and sharing locker rooms with them in sports. We don't want to. You know, the big controversy here in the state legislature last year was we passed a bill to ban taxpayer funded transgender surgery for prisoners. And the Democrats walked out of the House chamber in protest over that vote. It's the only pro. It's the only vote they protested. Only thing they got up and walked out over, and it was taxpayer funded transgender surgeries for people who were locked up in prison. And so this is not, you know, this is not even Jimmy Carter's Democrat party anymore. No, this is unrecognized.
- [35:53]
B
This is. This is unrecognized. Well, it's. It's not. If you know history, right? If you, if you know history, it's. It's obvious what it is, right? And whether you want to call it Marxism or American socialism or whatever, whatever it is, it is what it is. Right? That it is what it is. All right. Okay. So. So is there 10,000 doors in your future in this election cycle?
- [36:18]
A
Different animal, man. This game is I've got to raise money and we've got to be on television. It's a messaging campaign and not a shoe leather campaign. So I actually stayed in the Senate, which puts me at a disadvantage because I can't raise money while we're in session. One of the guys that's running that was in the Senate decided to drop out so that he could campaign full time and raise money. But, you know, I looked at the work that was still left to be done. I'm like, I can't leave. And so this session alone, you know, the paper ballot bill is my bill. I've got a bill to ban Sharia law that we hopefully will get done. Passed a bill to really regulate what we're doing on data centers because Georgia gives $1.5 billion in crony capitalist tax carve outs to data centers every year. And so there's a number of things that I, that I really wanted to work on and continue to help. Lead on. So no 10,000 doors but man, I'm putting a lot of miles on the truck. Tell you that it's been.
- [37:11]
B
Yeah, I'm, I'm sure. All right, before we get into the next aspect of this madness right here, I just really want to talk about how blessed we are to be sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee. I've been a Black Rifle fan and supporter since the beginning, since Evan came up with the idea years and years and years ago. We drink it at home today. I just want to tell you about their new cold brew Just Black that came out. This is really an amazing. It's, it's, it's for those who really love a bold flavor without compromise. Right. And it's made from premium coffee beans and steeped cold for a smoother, naturally rich taste. This is ready to drink can that delivers a crisp, refreshing finish with every single sip. Now you can find Black Rifle all over the place from Bass Pro shops to pop up stores that, that sell black rifle tactical stores. You can get it at Walmart or just go online, which I recommend you do the most. Just go to black riflecoffee.com either sign up for your subscription or order that single case and get your cold brew soon. You know, if you like cold brew in a can, man on the go, this is the cold brew for you again. That's Black Rifles cold brew just black@blackrifflecoffee.com Hoo ya. Love you guys. Let's just talk a little bit about the Sharia law thing because it's, it's really in the news and there's, you know, there's. Whether you're in Michigan or you're in Minnesota or you're in Texas, like people, the whole Sharia law thing in Texas is getting unbelievably. I mean there's like a new moss that pops up and I'm not saying that all Muslims are, are going to move, but they're, if they're Muslim. There's a component within Islam that guides you towards Sharia law. It's a, it's a, it's a what? It's a Quranic requirement, right. If that if you really want to be pure, you're going to live under those contexts. But as we've seen and I've seen vividly. It's the most harshest way for those that can't. What fight off the intensity of that reality, that, that biblical nature, that eye for an eye or that. That oppression that exists within it, you know, they're the ones who suffer. I'll never forget my first, my first combat deployment, deployment over to Afghanistan. We're sitting there and we're on this setup for an ambush, and all of a sudden these nomads come walking right through our ambush with these, you know, it was bizarre. It's like camels. It's like I was back in if like in the 1400s. It was weird, it was surreal. And there was, you know, four males and like probably 15 females. And then all the little kids is down to like a 4 year old was walking, right? No one's on the camels. And I remember you could tell, I mean, it was middle of summer, 115 degrees out, and their kids, the kids and the young girls who are completely covered in burkas are walking. And the Met, they would start to fall behind. The men would come up and just whip the out out of them with a giant switch. Just beat them, right? And like, hurry up, not like pick them up and carry them like we would, but they were just whipping on them. And then I, I watched several women in burkas in, in downtown Cobble and other places that I, I worked over the years just be brutalized in, in public. And I was like, who, what? Where does this come from? And again, plenty of Christian men have been, have been abusive to their families, right? Plenty of Jews are abusive, right? Whatever. But like, this is a dogma that, you know, intensifies that kind of rigidity that I think orchestrates a totalitarian mindset. So what was the provocation for you to want to fight that battle too?
- [41:08]
A
Yeah, I mean, we see what's happening in Dearborn, we see what's happening in Minneapolis, we see what's happening in Plano, Texas. And to me, this is just another one of those preventative measures to ensure that we put up protections in, in Georgia law that we need to have in place. It's like when I passed the Riley Gaines act, right? I wrote the Riley Gaines act to keep men out of women's sports in locker rooms. And every Democrat's like, well, is this really that big of a problem? Like, well, yeah, Riley Gaines swam against Leah Thomas at Georgia Tech, and that's where the whole thing happened. But setting that aside, I want to ensure it doesn't happen. To my daughters. Right. My oldest daughter's 13, my youngest daughter's 7. Who knows what the world's going to look like in 12 years when our youngest is in college?
- [41:45]
B
So two years.
- [41:46]
A
Yeah, yeah. Right. And so there. It's a similar. It's similar thinking, though, right? We. We recognize, we. The Islamic tribunal that's been set up outside of Dallas, Texas, where they essentially create a parallel court system that sits outside of the United States court system, and its Constitution recognizes the superiority of Sharia. And they make these legal decisions, these binding decisions via arbitration that adhere to Sharia. And so that, in my mind, is a camel nose under the tent. And so you've got to ensure that you put these protections in place. That all that the bill does, it doesn't even mention mentioned Sharia law. It just says that we're going to use American laws in Georgia courts. And if you do have a tribunal system, you cannot enact any tribunal decision that violates someone's constitutional rights. Because to your point, you do see some of these that perhaps do violate the rights of women or, you know, are abusive to children in some cases. And so that's what we're looking to do at, man. Kick up the hornet's nest.
- [42:44]
B
Oh, dude, you. Now you've got. You've got two fronts coming at you as well, too. I mean. I mean, holy cow, do you have fear? I mean, obviously you. You commented about Charlie's assassination, and for. I mean, for me, that was like this humongous weight. You know, my best friend is Sean Ryan and the Sean Ryan show. And like, like, you see this, and I'm like, man, everybody's. It's open season now. You know, not to use. That was a horrible thing to say about Charlie in terms of. But that's what it was. He was haunted and he was assassinated, like you said, shot in the throat in front of the world to shut him up, to quiet the message that was beginning to resonate across millions and millions of young people, older people. I mean, I remember first time seeing him, you know, during Trump's first term, and I was like, holy cow, this kid's sharp.
- [43:37]
A
Yeah.
- [43:37]
B
Like, it just blown away by him. So I. I mean, I've been following him for a long time, but, you know, you got to realize, like, the game is changing. And the radicalization of the left, the radicalization of. Of Islam, the radicalization of. Of. Of transgender shooters. Right. That's a real thing. So are you. Are you afraid? You afraid for your family? How are you addressing that?
- [44:03]
A
I definitely. So when we got some threats. When I first went after Fannie Willis, we got some threats. Just this week, while I was in committee passing my pa, people were calling with threats to my office here. And then of course, you know, obviously with, with the Sharia ban, we've gotten a couple, a few of those as well. I'm personally not afraid. I'm content that when my day comes, it's going to be in God's sovereignty. I certainly, though, am afraid for my kids. But I'll tell you a quick story. So I, I left Christmas with my family early this year to go down to Texas to help produce Passion Conference, which is this large collegiate gathering of Christian college students that I've been helping with for 20 plus years now.
- [44:43]
B
Wow, that's awesome.
- [44:45]
A
Asked my son. I've only, I've got one son of our four kids. And she said, his name is Lincoln. She said, lincoln, how do you feel about your dad running for lieutenant governor? And he said, mostly good. And she said, well, what do you mean mostly good? And he's like, well, I'm worried he might get shot. And she's like, what do you mean? And he said, well, look at what happened to the President and Charlie Kirk. Yeah, so that, that hit me, man, when she, when she told me that that landed pretty hard, that, that. Because he's never told me that, but when he shared that with her, that landed pretty hard. And I've had a conversation with him, obviously, since then, but yeah, man, I mean, I recognize that that's, it's a, it's a, it's an unlikely outcome for me because I certainly don't have the profile that, that Charlie did. But even my very first year in the State Senate, I was on the committee that passed the Heartbeat bill out and ultimately sent that bill to the floor very first year, right. I'm wet behind the ears, know where the bathrooms are, are.
- [45:38]
B
And, and you jump on the heaviest topic there is for the left, right?
- [45:43]
A
And the, and the threats were coming in and, and I, you know, there was only, there was a three, two committee, small committee. I, you know, all of us that voted for it passed the decide, you know, the deciding vote and committee, and we walked out in the hallway. We don't have security, we don't have a staff. I've got a half of an administrative aide that we share with one other senator here. And, and so it's not, you know, know, we're walking everywhere by ourselves, right? And so the hallways are crowded and they, people start chanting, shame, shame. And they start Throwing stuff. And that was one of those moments where I'm like, okay, I need to get out of here. I need to keep moving and kind of push through. But. But, yeah, it certainly is a possibility. Try not to dwell on it. But it's. It's sad knowing that my kids think about it.
- [46:26]
B
Well, I. I just think, you know, that the people I know that are out there trying to bring that. That light to expose the dark who are facing the fire, man, they all say the same thing, that my faith in Christ is what's going to protect me, regardless of any physical damage or hurt that I can experience. You know, in my. As long as I can articulate at least that conviction to my children, then if I do die. Right, they'll know I died for somebody, something. Right. And. And that lesson, in and of itself, although tragic in all, in its totality, right. It really. It inspires not only your family, but your friends, everybody who's watching you on tv. I mean, you're. You're. You're ripping into fanny on that. That House floor. That went viral, man. I was like, it's all fired up for you. So. Okay, so for. Well, and two things. Last thing. What do you want to tell Georgia voters? Like, what is. You know, and I know that's impossible to encapsulate in a few minutes, but obviously, what do you want to tell them about you? And then what do you want to tell them about what you're going to do for them?
- [47:41]
A
Yeah, I mean, about me, I would just say, look, I'm a fighter. I'm America first, Georgia first. Have the record to prove it. Every objective scorecard says that I'm the most conservative guy running this race. The cool thing is all of us have a voting record, and it doesn't matter what you say on a campaign trail. What matters is what you do when the rubber meets the road. And how do you vote? And for me, the last eight years, consistently, I've been the guy that's been leading on the hard issues and the one who's not been afraid to stand up. As far as what I will do for them, I will fight for them. You know, we didn't know when we elected Brian Kemp In 2018, we did not know that he was going to have to reopen the state during Congress and that he was going to put an executive order in place that said that my kids could opt out of a mask mandate. You don't run on that platform, but you vote for the most conservative person that you believe that can be elected. So that when the stuff comes their way, that's going to be difficult. Like Covid, you hope they apply the principles that they ran on. But ultimately, you know, in terms of specific policy, it's really simple for me. I think that we need to cause the next generation to fall in love with the American dream again.
- [48:45]
B
Yes, yes, yes.
- [48:47]
A
Absent that, you will have, you'll basically have. Zoram Amdani is a better looking Bernie Sanders that smiles when he talks. Right.
- [48:58]
B
And not as slimy as Newsome.
- [49:01]
A
It's crazy Uncle Bernie. That looks good and sounds good.
- [49:04]
B
Yeah.
- [49:04]
A
And what's happening is the next generation feels like they're being left behind and the middle class is disappearing before our very eyes.
- [49:11]
B
Yeah.
- [49:11]
A
And so people are like, like, well, this isn't working for me. I can't afford to buy a house until I'm 41 years old in America. Maybe I'll try this whole rent control thing. And so we have to restore the American dream. We have to expand the middle class again. I passed a bill out of committee earlier this week, David, to ban hedge funds and private equity groups from buying thousands of homes in Georgia and turning us into a nation of renters. Blackstone is using foreign investment money to come into Atlanta and other investment firms. And these investment firms are buying 30% of the resale homes in metro Atlanta.
- [49:50]
B
Three years ago I saw a piece of data, sorry to cut you off, that said in The Atlanta area, 80% of the single family homes were owned by three different companies. Is, is, is, is it somewhere near that? What are the numbers? Actual numbers?
- [50:07]
A
So it's, it's 30% of the total resale homes investor. And it could be that 80% of the 30 are consolidated to invitation homes and the few big players.
- [50:19]
B
Got it, Got it.
- [50:21]
A
It's my opinion and my firm belief that, that the sovereign, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and the Chinese fully recognize that they will light, they will never win a war with America. But if they can create civil unrest, but by purging the middle class and essentially stoking the winds and the flames of class warfare, that you can essentially conquer America without ever firing a shot. And if you look at the last hundred years in this country, the entire wealth creation mechanism for the middle class, My parents are the perfect example of this. My mom was a public school teacher. My dad was a paper salesman. Mom stopped working when she got pregnant with me. And we, we got by on dad's salesman salary, which. We lived a comfortable middle class lifestyle, nothing extravagant. You know, we bought, you know, we bought Used cars. We went out to eat less than one time a month and, but we were, we were content and frankly we didn't have the Internet, so we didn't know what we didn't have. Right. But they built their wealth through building equity in their home, which they bought when they got married in their early 30s. So they signed a 30 year mortgage at 32 years old and they were able to pay it off. And now they're living a retirement life that in part is, recognizes the equity they built by paying off their home. Well, if you're buying your first house when you're 41 years old and that's when you're signing your 30 year mortgage, you're not retiring at 65 at all. Yeah. So you're cooked. Right. And so when I was growing up in the 80s, half of men in America were married and owned a home by the time they were 30 years old. Today that's 12%. And so you look at the downstream societal implications of that. Obviously Elon Musk would tell us we're having far too few children and that's an existential threat that he believes is facing the west as well. But in terms of what it does socially and economically on the economic side, it's very, very frightening as well.
- [52:24]
B
I tell you what. But Greg, you're, man, you speak truth to, to your words because of those deeds, because of those 10,000 doors, man, I, I just commend you, thank you so much for coming on and, and sharing your story. Where can people go to follow you, follow your, your journey and support you and how can they pitch in to support you in this mission of yours?
- [52:49]
A
Greg? Do is all.com and Dolezol 4G A on X D O L E Z A L F O R G A that's where we're exposing all this, this election stuff, David, on almost a weekly basis is, is on the X feeds. That's a great way, that's a great place to follow me.
- [53:07]
B
Outstanding. Well Greg, here's the deal. Once you get closer, want to come back on, I'd love to have you on and tell us more about the fight you're engaged in, what you've learned so far because I think in the next six months we're going to see see a tsunami of new information coming out about all this election fraud, in particular in Georgia. So thank you so much, sir. God bless you.
- [53:27]
A
My pleasure.