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Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do@chevron.com America.
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Colorado is trying to silence free speech again. A state law forces businesses to use customers preferred pronouns even if they're biologically inaccurate. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian bookstore and a sports apparel company are challenging the law, but a court recently ruled against them. They appealed the ruling, and with ADF's help, they'll keep fighting another attempt by Colorado to skirt the First Amendment. Learn more about how you can support free speech by Texting Wire to 83848 or going to joinadf.com wire or who
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A
do we as representatives represent? We don't represent illegal aliens. We don't represent foreigners who want to come into the United States. We represent our people, which is that historical American people bound together both by our history, a shared history, and a shared culture and heritage, and by shared ideas that we adhere to. And whenever you bring in alien cultures that don't share that history with us and don't adhere to those ideas on both fronts, you're totally transforming American society.
- [01:33]
C
The man, the myth, the legend. Brandon Gill, member of the House of Representatives and many are saying face of the new generation of the Republican Party, joins us on the show today. Brandon, you have been probably the most requested guest to come back on the show after you joined us a couple of weeks ago. But I'm so happy that you're here, and thanks for taking the time.
- [01:51]
A
Yeah, thanks for having me.
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C
So you're telling me it's a pretty crazy week on Capitol Hill, as they always are right now, but you've had in particular some really viral moments over the last couple of weeks, and I would love to start with the one that arguably broke the Internet over the topic of abortion in a hearing just a couple of weeks ago. We'll make sure to put the footage in here if anybody hasn't seen it yet.
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A
You're an advocate for abortion, for abortion policy. What's your favorite type of abortion?
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D
I am an advocate for patients having access to the full realm of reproductive healthcare.
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A
But do you have a preferred method of abortion that you like?
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D
I do not.
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A
Let me read through a couple different methods and I want to get your take on how much you like these. The first type is called a suction abortion. This is when the cervix is dilated and a strong suction, 29 times the power of a household vacuum cleaner, tears the baby's body apart and sucks it through the hose into a container. Do you prefer that method?
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D
I stand by my former testimony.
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A
That sounds kind of gross, doesn't it? Sounds pretty gruesome. Do you agree? It does to me.
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D
I stand by how I answered your question fully and accurately.
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A
Okay, what about this one? This one is called dilation and curettage. After dilation of the cervix, a sharp looped knife is inserted into the uterus. The baby's body is is cut into pieces and extracted often by suction. Do you prefer that method?
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D
What I believe we are here to talk about today is the Face Act. We are not here to talk about.
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A
I'm asking you, you're a pro abortion advocate. I'm asking if you prefer the delation and curitage method.
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D
I am access to reproductive health care advocate.
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A
You don't want to talk about abortion itself. Why is that?
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D
I would prefer to talk about the reason that the committee called the hearing.
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A
Is it because it's uncomfortable to talk about?
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D
I would prefer.
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A
Should be uncomfortable.
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D
I would prefer if you would let me finish my statement to talk about the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances
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A
act, which is what that access gets. How about this one? It's called delation and evacuation. Forceps are inserted into the uterus, grabbing and twisting the baby's body to dismember him or her. If the head is too large, it must be crushed in order to remove it. Do you you prefer that method?
- [04:12]
D
I would prefer to talk about the reason the hearing was called and the basis of my expert testimony.
- [04:17]
A
It's uncomfortable to hear. This isn't is what led you to
- [04:22]
C
be inspired to do that?
- [04:24]
A
Yeah, I mean, we're obviously Danielle and I are very pro life and always have been, but abortion is one of those issues where the left and I think most people just expect the left to win on. And it's like, you know, we shouldn't talk about it very much because that's not a good political issue for us. Whenever the reality I think is more like if we're straightforward about it, if you get the left actually elucidate what they truly believe about abortion, it's pretty grotesque and off putting. And you know, we had a judiciary hearing. It was on the Face Act. So the Face act, as you know, is it's the legislation that was weaponized by the Biden administration to stop pro lifers from praying outside of abortion clinics.
- [05:04]
C
And to put people in prison.
- [05:05]
A
And to put people in prison. I mean, they were aggressive with it. So we were having this hearing on that. And, you know, the left brings in this. Democrats get to pick a witness. They bring in this, you know, huge abortion advocate. She's been in the space for 25 years. So I would think if you've been advocating for abortion for 25 years, you can tell me in a pretty straightforward way what you're advocating for. So I just thought, you know, there's a lot of different ways you can get abortion. There's many different ones and they're common, but whenever you learn what they actually are, they're pretty nasty. So I thought, you know, if you're going to advocate for abortion, why don't you just explain what your favorite method is? You know, if you ask other doctors about, you know, not an abortion, just, you know, a foot doctor or a heart surgeon or whatever, they'll tell you about their surgeries. They'll probably love to sit down and tell you for an hour about all the interesting things about it. You're going to advocate for abortion, then explain that to me. You know, do you prefer the method where you stick a knife into the woman and rip a baby limb from limb and then suck the body parts out with a vacuum cleaner? Do you prefer to burn the baby's skin off with a saline injection? I mean, these are like really dark, dark things that happen every day. That happen every day. I mean, this is what abortion is. And I just think that if the left is going to advocate for this, why don't you just explain it to us?
- [06:24]
C
This approach was hugely effective on social media in particular and especially on this topic. I think, because you're right, there is this assumption, especially here in Washington, Washington, D.C. and in the bubble of Republican politics as it's operated longer than our lifetime, certainly, that this is a losing issue. You shouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole because no one wants to remotely offend anybody and no one wants to talk about the controversial thing. So we'll just let the left control 100% of the conversation. And I think I've been frustrated as a young conservative and particularly being kind of outside the beltway, but also with one foot inside of it and seeing how the sausage is made. How many issues still operate like that in Washington and in Congress. It's not just abortion, it's same sex marriage, it's surrogacy, it's ivf, it's transgender, it's the transgender issue, it's mass Immigration. I think I've just been so blown away. The cowardice that I'm seeing from so many members of Congress and conservatives in Washington that have been given this mandate by largely young voters under 45 to say this is what we're looking for from our elected leadership and a refusal to actually go on offense for any of those issues. What's that like working in that every single day as a member of Congress?
- [07:34]
A
Well, I mean, I think that you framed it exactly right. All of these issues, they feel in Washington, it's like they're theoretical problems for us to deal with. It's in, you know, mass migration is an academic discussion, whereas for everybody outside of Washington, it's real life. It's their own communities that are being transformed. It's their kids, schools that are becoming less safe. It's their communities who are becoming less safe. Same thing with abortion. This is not a theoretical discussion about abstract rights and a woman and a baby. This is a baby being murdered in a really grotesque way. And I think that the American people, because they're the ones who are living with the policies that come out of Washington or with the legal framework that Washington creates, I think we ought to kind of bring them in in a very real way into the discussion. And you can do that. But I think being straightforward about what we're talking about, whether it's mass migration or transgenderism, that's a good one. Because not long ago, maybe five, eight years ago, I mean, even some people on the right didn't want to touch that issue. Oh, you're talking about transing a six year old. Well, that's the parents. Right. It's a theoretical discussion.
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C
Or even that no one was doing that. Like that might happen someday, but no one' doing that right now.
- [08:51]
A
Well, you're right. That was the first. It's not happening. This isn't a real issue then. It's only happening a little bit now. It's happening, but it's a good thing. But you're actually talking about chemically castrating a young child. I mean, that's a really dark and evil thing to do. And whenever you frame it that way in a straightforward. 80% of the country, 90% of the country is with conservatives. They realize that's wrong. But if you frame it in an abstract way of, you know, Washington shouldn't get involved in a doctor's office. Well, Washington's involved in doctor's office and all kinds of things. I mean, doctors cannot harm patients and they shouldn't be able to harm children either.
- [09:31]
C
Yeah, that line of questioning and just being that direct about it, I think is a you a new unique thing happening with this generation of politics where we used to have this assumption that politics was downstream from culture. In some ways, I still think that is true, actually. The conversations that you're having around the family dinner table and what food you're eating, whether you go to church on Sunday, what movie everyone's watching that just came out in theaters eventually does trickle down to impact the bills that you're discussing as a member of Congress. But I think now things have become so intertwined in the world of politics and culture that a Senate hearing or a House hearing going viral on social media then impacts culture as well. How are you seeing that culture start to shift on these more complicated issues?
- [10:13]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. The sort of typical framework is politics is downstream from culture. I think it really goes both ways, though. Culture in many ways is downstream of politics as well. You know, it kind of works. They work hand in hand. You know, whenever you have congressional hearings, you know, I think that the. Especially on something as controversial as abortion or on as immigration, you know, you can go in there and you can say, let's have an academic discussion with our witnesses or with the here or with Democrats or whatever. And there are times when maybe that's appropriate during a bill markup, especially on more bipartisan things. But our goal should be to win, and you win whenever you can, like straightforward, you know, whenever you can bring a witness in. And you know, we had a hearing last week with a lady in whose daughter was murdered by an illegal alien. Like, that's a story that we need to be able to tell. We can do that through congressional hearings. That's a mechanism for telling that story and for moving, you know, showing voters here's the real result of that policy. And I think we can be a lot more effective whenever we do that.
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C
The goal is to win.
- [11:24]
A
The goal is to win.
- [11:25]
C
That's not a common sentiment I've learned in, in Congress especially, but in Washington. And you bring up immigration as one of these topics that you're often wrestling with. I don't know for a lot of Republicans in Congress that the goal is actually to win because this is a 9010 issue. Voters are deeply, deeply concerned that about the rollbacks on mass deportations, about certain pieces of legislation that have been introduced. You joined us a couple of weeks ago on the show to talk about the Digni Dodd act right after it was introduced. Tell us a little bit about that piece of legislation and other conversations that you're hearing from members of Congress.
- [11:59]
A
The Dignadon act in particular, is a mass amnesty bill that has a lot of Democrat support and a very, admittedly, very small amount of support from the Republican conference. The. The issue right now is that you only need a little. Few Republicans.
- [12:14]
C
And it was introduced by a Republican.
- [12:15]
A
And it was introduced by a Republican as well. You know, it's a bill that would provide amnesty to illegal aliens who came into the United States prior to Joe Biden. It would make it harder to deport illegal aliens who were here who came into the country under Joe Biden, and it would allow some illegal aliens who have already been deported to come back into the United States. On top of that, it massively increases legal immigration, work visas, and other forms of legal immigration that are taking American jobs and changing American communities. So by and large, it's an amnesty bill, but it's also just a mass migration bill, and we've had a lot of debates about it within the conference. Maria Salazar, who introduced it, she's a friend of mine. She's come into my office. We've talked for about an hour or so discussing the bill. We don't see eye to eye at all.
- [13:06]
C
What's her reasoning for introducing it?
- [13:09]
A
She has a mixture of. I think we're just ideologically not on the same page. I think she's much more pro mass migration than I am, and I think she would agree with that characterization.
- [13:20]
C
Do you think it's just a generational thing?
- [13:22]
A
It's a generational thing, but it's also just an ideological difference. Her reasoning is much more rooted in, I think, what she sees as the economic benefits of mass migration, that there's a need for these people to fill jobs. I would respond and say that there's a need for working class wages to rise as well. That is counter to that. I think she has a political view as well, which I very much disagree with. But I think she sees that if Republicans are gonna maintain the coalition that got us a majority in the House and the Senate and the presidency last cycle, which did include bringing a ton of Hispanics into the party, that if we're going to maintain that coalition, then we need to sort of soften on our immigration views. I disagree with that completely. I think that the. The coalition that won us the election cycle last. Last election was more of a working class coalition. It was, you know, Hispanics were a big portion of that. It was Hispanics in a more racially diverse group. It was also younger people. It was also certain subsets of, especially men and then some certain subsets of women who came into the party. And I think that the glue that held that coalition together was our immigration stance. And deportations were a core part of this. I mean, the Hispanic community, it's their wages, too, that are being suppressed by mass migration. It's their communities. I mean, they don't like the leftward tilt of the Democrat party, but it's their communities, too, that are made more dangerous by open borders. You know, if you, if you go back, you know, President Reagan did an amnesty bill, and Republicans after that got less of the Hispanic vote than they did before that. That has not historically been a way to bring Hispanics into the Republican Party. I think we bring them in by treating them just like anybody else.
- [15:17]
C
Back to it with Representative Gill in just a second. But first, a message from our friends at Shopify. If you guys have been thinking about starting your own business, I totally understand it is the biggest headache in the world. And when I was just starting my LL back in 2020, 2021 time, I remember thinking, is this even worth it because of all of the taxes you have to pay, all of the paperwork you have to file, trying to start a website, how do you even connect with people? And I am so glad that early on, I was connected to the amazing team behind Shopify, which is the commerce platform that is powering millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all E commerce right here in the United States, from the massive brands that you already know to people who are just starting out with an idea and a laptop. And what I love the most is that Shopify makes the complicated parts of having your own business feel really manageable. You can build a beautiful online store with ready to use templates that actually look professional, even if you're not a designer yourself. Plus incredible AI tools that help with things like product descriptions and page headlines, or even enhancing your product photography, which saves so much time when you're trying to do everything yourself. And if marketing at all feels intimidating to you, Shopify helps there too. They have easy to run email and social media campaigns so that you can actually reach the people who want to support your business. Plus, everything just lives in one place. Your inventory, your payments, your analytics returns, all of it. Which honestly matters a whole lot more than people realize when you're juggling a million moving pieces. And of course, we all know and love that iconic purple shop pay button. As a consumer, I love it because checkout for my favorite brands is so fast and so Easy. But for business owners, that also means fewer abandoned carts and more actual sales. You guys can start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Head to shopify.com Isabelle to sign up for your $1 per month trial today. You guys have been calling me old a lot lately. The geriatric Gen Z or because I'm born in the 1990s. I know I'm basically a Tyrannosaurus rex, but can I just say, I've officially become the person, the old person, let's face it, who cares very deeply about what's going on in my home and what I wear at home. Like there's a difference between clothes that you throw on and clothes that you put on to actually feel comfortable, to feel rested, to feel put together at the same time. Especially when life is busy and you're working from home, you're traveling, you're running errands, answering the door, recording episodes. All of it. And recently I have been living in Cozy Earth, especially their new bamboo jogger sets that are genuinely the kind of thing that you put on once and you immediately into the hype. They are lightweight, they're breathable, they're insanely soft and somehow still flattering and structured enough that you don't feel sloppy wearing them all day. Especially as our Secretary of Transportation Duffy insists we're not allowed to wear pajamas or sweatpants or leggings on the airplane anymore. I'm living in these things. Let me tell you what I appreciate the most about Cozy Earth at Large with all of their products though, is that everything feels intentional. The fit, the fabric, the quality. It doesn't feel like fast fashion or trendy loungewear. It just falls apart after a couple of washes. It actually gets better and softer over time. And they stand behind their products too, which I love, by offering a 30 day return policy so that you can genuinely try it for yourself risk free, plus a lifetime warranty, which tells you a lot about the quality. This spring you can upgrade your own life and give yourself the kind of comfort that lives with you all day, not just the moment that you get home. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code Isabelle for an exclusive 20% off. That's code Isabel for 20% off. And if they ask you for a post purchase survey, make sure you mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Yeah, this idea of like softening your language or changing your approach imminently to pander to whatever group just jumped on the bandwagon of your political campaign Just seems really shallow to me. And honestly copying the playbook of the left, which is why so many populations are sprinting away from the Democrat party and towards the Republican party. Because ultimately it doesn't matter what your skin color is or what your genitalia is. It matters your capacity to independently make up your own mind on some of these things. And I just find the idea of the bigotry of low expectations and pandering to a particular population group not the direction the conservative movement should be going in. And yet there are many, mostly older here in Washington who seem to be doing that. You just brought up this idea of the need for working class wages to rise. And I think this is a huge important generational conversation happening in Washington where young people are universally feeling the thumb of big government and the thumb of big corrupt business that's in bed with the big government keeping us squashed in our society today and preventing our American dream from being built. People feel like they can't buy a house, they can't bring children into the world. People feel like they can't even get a job after they graduate from college. You know, I don't find it a coincidence at all that there are about 10 million unemployed gen zers in America today. And the Dignity Dodd act introduced by Representative Salazar creates a pathway to mass amnesty for about 10 million illegal immigrants today. So you can look at this apples to apples and say one is an opportunity for the economic thriving of the American people. And these young people who are desperate for a political change and already gravitating towards conservative principles. Or you can just sell them out to pander to what you think is a political convenience to you.
- [20:06]
A
Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, and also, by the way, remember that Hispanics went in shifted to the Republican party. We almost got a majority of the Hispanic vote last cycle once we started talking about mass deportations. Like the one time that we became pretty hard line on illegal immigration, that's whenever they shifted into the Republican party. And that's one thing we've got to keep in mind and not forget. But you are right, there is sort of a bigotry of low expectations and it ends up getting into pandering to different racial groups. You see that? You know, the left does it all the time. You see it on the Save America Act. You know, if Republicans pass this bill, black people are not gonna be able to vote.
- [20:47]
C
Or married women, that's my other favorite, married women, because they changed their name, will be disenfranchised from voting.
- [20:53]
A
Like what that's insane. And I think that we can be straightforward about that. And, you know, I think that black people can get. Can register to vote if we require IDs just as well as white people can. I mean, that's a. It's pretty simple. And I think most people would agree with that.
- [21:13]
C
Yeah. Although now that's a very severe statement of racism in American politics and culture today. I hesitate to go down this rabbit hole too much because that'll take us way sidetracked. But it's funny, people are making fun of it. This double standard with voter ID as it pertains to the Spencer Pratt election happening in LA right now. All over my social media, I'm seeing conservatives joke about how they're going to fly from Florida or Texas or Idaho or Arkansas to go vote in LA because it's racist, if you ask me to see my id.
- [21:41]
A
Right. And that's, you know, that's, you know, an interesting point of being able to just fly in. It's the same way birth tourism works, by the way. I mean, the 14th Amendment was obviously designed for the, the children of slaves. It wasn't designed for a world where you can hop on a plane from China, the other side of the globe, and in 24 hours hop into the United States, have a kid, and that kid become an American citizen. That was not the purpose of the 14th amendment ever. And it was never interpreted that way
- [22:09]
C
until fairly recently you brought up the Save America Act. I think there's a lot of growing frustration with young conservative voters right now across the country, largely on this piece of legislation. But it's used as a hallmark example for your elected officials selling you out or playing political games or holding certain things hostage to get something else done. What does the inside politics of that look like on Capitol Hill that the average young American just doesn't have access to see?
- [22:35]
A
Yeah, well, I can tell you on the House side, every Republican supports, that I'm aware of supports the Save America Act. We passed it out of the House two or three times. It's the Senate where this gets hung up. And here's where I think that the disconnect is. I'm not in the Senate, of course, so this is my interpretation, but there's a disconnect between what happens in the procedural goods of the filibuster and the way the Senate has historically operated in recent memory, and the substantive goods that the American people are asking for. In other words, the American people, at the end of the day, don't really care that much about the filibuster about the Senate as an institution. They just want good policy to come out of it. And I think that what has happened is you've got a large group of people who are putting those procedural goods ahead of the substantive goods and are saying that the filibuster is so important because it protects Republicans from bad legislation, which there have been times, whenever it does, without a doubt. And despite that, we're willing, because of that, we're willing to basically throw away so much of the Trump agenda that we could be doing right now that is crucially important because we think that that procedure is important. That's just something most Americans, myself included, don't agree with. I think that the purpose of those procedural protections are to allow us to make the country better.
- [24:02]
C
How much of that on the Senate side do you think has to do with this idea of feckless conservatism of so called Republicans or even so called conservatives who say on the campaign trail that they want to defund Planned Parenthood, that they want voter id, that they want term limits in Congress, that they want to abolish the Department of Education, and yet here we are and we're what, how many months into the Trump administration that was clearly handed to the federal government across all branches of government on a silver platter as a mandate, and nothing is really chugging along.
- [24:33]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's a couple things. It's the Senate not wanting to take what they would consider maybe difficult votes, which I think Save America is a pretty easy vote. But there are other things maybe that
- [24:43]
C
would help you on the campaign trail,
- [24:44]
A
by the way, beneficial to you.
- [24:45]
C
Ridiculous.
- [24:46]
A
But I think a lot of times they just don't want to be on record supporting or opposing some policy that the president wants. And the filibuster is a good procedural block to hide behind. The other portion of that is if you used a talking filibuster, which I think is the best method for the Senate to pursue right now, especially with Save America, that would require senators to hang around the Senate floor for a long time because that would mean virtually unlimited debate on the Save America Act. And during the course of that debate, senators can put forward amendments to that bill. And it's an open amendment process is kind of how it works. The senators have to be there to vote down Democrat amendments. Theoretically, you could have open debate and a Democrat senator puts forward an amendment that would kind of negate the meaning of the Save America Act. Republicans have to be there to vote
- [25:40]
C
no for it and not on vacation
- [25:41]
A
at Disney and not on vacation, you gotta actually do your job. And I think some of them are worried they're gonna put up amendments that are tough votes for us to take.
- [25:48]
C
Well, interesting.
- [25:49]
A
That's your job as a congressman or a senator. Your job is to take tough votes when it's needed. And if that's what it takes to get good legislation through, we ought to be doing it. But you gotta have the willingness to fight for it. And the. Not just the willingness, but the work ethic.
- [26:08]
C
Yeah. You've been one of the only members of Congress that I've seen. I think I can count on one hand how many have addressed another pretty tough subject, and that's the growing rise of the influence of Islam in our society today. I know you've spoken a lot about this this week, but there was a very viral moment from another House hearing of a young man from Texas talking about how he was not allowed to have the Bible at a public school, but a Quran was allowed to be read at public school. Tell us a little bit about that.
- [26:33]
A
So this was a student at a high school in Texas, sort of around the DFW area, who tried to form a Republican group, was initially denied. He eventually was able to get the school to allow this Republican group, but the school had been hostile to forming Christian groups, forming conservative groups. There was no Bible in the library. And yet all of a sudden one day, and apparently this has happened in the past, they were promoting Islam, Sharia law. There was a Quran in the library. They were handing out little leaflets that said something along the lines of like, what is Sharia? Or kind of explaining what Sharia is. This isn't a public Texas high school. I mean, this is outrageous. And we heard about that, thought that was insane, so brought them before the committee to testify and tell this story to the American people. And this is another example where I think there's a difference between sort of the abstract debate in Washington and then the real world consequences of that. And whenever you show the American people the public square is not as neutral as you might think, they're pretty off put. Very few Americans want Qurans in our public schools, especially if that means excluding the Bible. They certainly don't want public school administrators teaching their children that Sharia law or Islam is a great thing for America.
- [28:00]
C
Yeah, you said something along the lines this week that Islam is a culture that we have deliberately imported into our country. And if we allow it to continue being deliberately hostile towards the foundation of Western civilization, it will destroy the United States just as much as it's destroying Europe. How do you think that will happen?
- [28:19]
A
Well, Islam historically has been a sort of an imperialistic religion. I mean, that's just the reality of its history. And right now, you know, think of it this way. We didn't have to deal with Islamic terrorist attacks in the US 50 years ago. So why are we dealing with this now? Why is there sort of an upsurge in anti Semitism and pro Islamic sentiment and terrorist attacks in the US and it's because we've imported these people into our country. That's just a reality. And really in just the past couple decades, that's why we're dealing with this. And that policy to bring large scale Islamic immigration into American communities is something that Washington did. I mean, we allowed this to happen as a result of our immigration policy. So if we allow that to continue, I don't think that we should. And the Trump administration has been great on this front. On immigration broadly, you are going to see more communities like what you see in the DFW area, where Islam as a political movement gains far more viability. And it starts at the local level, where you'll see large Islamic immigration into certain communities, certain towns. They'll start to donate to local mayors and local city officials. That'll give them the ability to get mosques and Islamic schools zoned properly so they can build them. It goes from there. You start to build the sort of the physical infrastructure needed for an Islamic movement. And we're already getting there. I mean, you see the results in Europe, where you've got no go zones in certain parts of Paris and London, and the results have been catastrophic for the people of Paris and London. And I think we could either ignore that at our own peril, or we can see what's happening other places and stop it.
- [30:12]
C
I am so grateful for people like Representative Brandon Gill because honestly, I cannot stand most of Congress these days. You guys know, not shy about it. I don't know how these people sleep at night, but Brandon Gill sleeps well at night because he is a man of integrity. And I sleep really well at night because I sleep on a Helix mattress. Cheesy, I know, but hear me out. My family finally made the switch away from the cheap, ridiculous Amazon ordered mattress that I've had since college about eight months ago, when we finally upgraded to a Helix mattress. And as a mom who doesn't get a whole lot of sleep every single night, if you know, you know, kudos to the designer bags under my eyes, finally making the purchase that has impacted my family more than anything else this last year has game changer. My husband swears we will never go back to another mattress brand as we've swapped our daughter out of a crib and into a floor bed. She sleeps on a Helix mattress and it has helped me to wake up every single day feeling actually rested, ready to tackle the day and to fight the cultural battles that we're facing every day. And you guys can make that huge change in your life as well. Helix makes it super super easy for you to find the right mattress for you with a very simple sleep quiz so that you can get matched to the right mattress. They have a 120 night sleep trial so that even if you hate it, you can still send it back and they'll ship it right to your front door to make sure that you never have to wor a mattress all the way through town again. Go check it out@helix sleep.com Isabelle for 27 off site wide, that's helixsleep.com Isabel and if they ask, make sure you enter our show name the Isabelle Brown show after checkout so that they know we sent you. You guys know I am constantly talking about purpose here on all of my content. Building a life that actually means something, not just chasing a title or checking a box because culture tells you that you have to. And honestly, that's one of the reasons that I love Grand Canyon University so so much. GCU is one of those places that really understands that education should prepare you for real life. Not just theoretically, but practically, spiritually and professionally too. They are private, nonprofit Christian university based in Phoenix, Arizona, and what stands out to me the most is that they haven't just accepted the idea that higher education has to stay outdated or disconnected from the real world. Instead, they've built programs around actual career readiness, practical skills, and helping students step confidently into whatever they are called to do. And I also really respect, and you should too, that they have worked so hard to keep education affordable. GCU has kept tuition at the exact same same rate on its traditional campus for the past 17 years, which is pretty incredible in today's world. They've also awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarships to students pursuing their education and their future. But more than anything, I love that their foundation is rooted in Christian truth, encouraging students to lead with integrity, serve others well, and make a real impact in their communities. Whether you're thinking about college for the very first time, looking to continue your education, or just exploring what's next for your future, it's definitely worth checking out. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University Private Christian Affordable nonprofit. Head to gcu.edu to lear more. It's interesting to me that this has become a larger political and cultural conversation about the identity of our country. Because growing up, I think we all assumed the question, what is an American? Had a really diverse range of answers. Right? It was singing this land is your land at your elementary school Thanksgiving picnic and all of that. And I think we have a hard time, we're struggling as a generation with answering that question. What is an American? How would you answer?
- [33:23]
A
Yeah, I mean, I would say that the American people. There's a debate in the conservative movement right now. Is America an idea or is it sort of a blood and soil people who've been here? And I think the answer is somewhere kind of in between. In other words, there are certain ideas that we all sort of adhere to the American constitutional system, the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. But those ideas didn't come in a vacuum. Those ideas were rooted in a really Anglo Saxon cultural milieu that developed over the course of 1000 years coming out of Great Britain that was transplanted into the United States. In other words, we're an American people unified by certain ideas, but also by a certain culture that undergirds those ideas. And that culture is rooted in historical experience, historical British common law coming to the US America's constitutional system. And whenever you bring in alien cultures that don't share that history with us and don't adhere to those ideas on both fronts, you're totally transforming American society. But I think that is what it means to be an American, and that's something that we should seek to preserve. The other question is not just what does it mean to be an American, but who do we as representatives represent? Do we represent those Americans or do we represent foreigners? And you see this as, I think, at the crux of the immigration debate. We don't represent illegal aliens. We don't represent foreigners who want to come into the United States. We represent our people, which is that historical American people bound together both by our history, a shared history, and a shared culture and heritage, and by shared ideas that we adhere to.
- [35:11]
C
I love that. You know, you've ruffled a lot of feathers in Congress since you've been elected. And one of the main reasons, I think, has been a little unexpected, it's that you are coming from a completely different perspective and vantage point as a young father and with your beautiful young family traversing the skies of America, back and forth between Texas and Washington, D.C. but I love that about you and Danielle's story that you Always have your beautiful children around and you're constantly posting about the importance of reviving the American family. But there's not a lot of young families in Congress.
- [35:41]
A
No, there's not.
- [35:41]
C
I get asked to run for Congress about every five minutes from Colorado, where I am from. No, thank you is always my answer to that. I think I'm just better served somewhere else. And God has clearly planted me where I'm supposed to be. But I talk about this with other members of Congress quite often who have babies, the few of you that are there. And there's a lot of complaints on the inside about how difficult it can be with a young family. What do you think that we can be doing better in Washington to create that culture so that more gen zers and young millennials will run for office with their families?
- [36:09]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's difficult, practically speaking, just because you're living in two different, different places. I mean, Danielle and the kids travel back and forth From Texas to D.C. luckily, our kids are young and we'll, you know, probably homeschool for, for quite some time, so we're able to do that. But it is, I mean, it does add quite a bit of strain. I mean, what we decided was we didn't want, you know, Danielle to always be. If, if she and the kids stayed in Texas while I'm in D.C. then I don't get to see. I don't get to put them to bed at night whenever I'm here. And we didn't want to do that. We certainly didn't want to move the whole family to Washington because we really want. Our roots are in Texas. That's where we want to be. So they go back and forth. So there's a lot of practical challenges to that, I imagine, that make life a lot more interesting right now. But we do need particularly young people with young families who I think have a more tangible stake in America's future. I mean, it sounds almost trite or overused, but I mean, the whole reason that we're here is to, as conservatives, is to conserve the America that our parents and grandparents got to experience so that Marigold and Winston can have the same opportunities and the same stable social system that we got to have.
- [37:26]
C
I love that. Riley Moore told me a few weeks ago that it is still a rule inside of Congress, even though it's not the law. It is still a rule inside of Congress from the Nancy Pelosi era that all members have to take Obamacare because if we're gonna force other people to do it, we have to do it too, as a sort of public image concept. And he said that's one of the main obstacles as well to bringing on young families, because Obamacare is just that terrible and it's very difficult to provide that type of healthcare for your family. Similarly, Congresswoman Kat Kamek told me just a few days ago that she had to fight tooth and nail to get the very first and only baby changing table installed in a bathroom on Capitol Hill. No one had ever thought of that before. And there are no nursing moms rooms anymore. Do you think that there's just a disconnect from the largely older, aging, elderly population running our country in Congress and the practical needs that young families actually need every day?
- [38:19]
A
Yeah, there's certainly a disconnect. And you see it in areas like that. I think you see it broadly in, in the way that older generations view the United States, too. I like to think of it as like the America that my parents, and really my grandparents especially grew up in doesn't really exist anymore. We don't really have a coherent culture in the United States anymore. We've had for most of my life a government that's gone off the rails pretty aggressively in economic policy and foreign policy in immigration especially minus the Trump administration. I mean, for most of my life we've had open borders, effectively, other than when President Trump has been in office. And whenever that's the America that you live in and you're trying to raise kids in that you have a little bit different perspective on things.
- [39:17]
C
Yeah. The tangible reality of having to put your babies to sleep at night, where to send them to school, what food they're eating.
- [39:23]
A
Yeah. I mean, where to send them to school is a big one. I mean, whenever my grandparents were in school, for instance. Your grandparents you didn't have to deal with. You may have had more liberal teachers than you are, but you didn't have teachers who are telling your kids they were born in the wrong body, that there should be men going into the women's restroom or that they were furries or whatever weird stuff the left is pushing on any given day. Or by the way, the. That America is fundamentally evil or white people are fundamentally evil, or Christianity is an evil religion and an evil worldview. I mean, those things that was not common, to say the least, in 50 years ago, but it is now. I mean, that is life for parents. That's the norm in many places.
- [40:06]
C
I mean, I've heard stories from Utah of litter boxes in classrooms and from Alabama about all of the institutional racism. I mean, it is Wild to hear these stories from public schools.
- [40:15]
A
And you laugh because it's crazy. But it's not.
- [40:18]
C
But it's not, is it? If it's normal, maybe it's not crazy anymore. And I think that's the scary part of why people are so overwhelmed with how far our culture has gone off the rails and why you provide such a shining light to people. Because you're dumbing down all of the insanity when you ask these very direct questions, when you create these beautiful conversations that cut through all of the noise and you simplify back down to the basics. Who are we? What do we believe in? And what are we fighting for in our future? I know you're very busy this week on Capitol Hill, so I got one last question for you. You are heading up a task force to continue uncovering all of the fraud that we've spent a lot of time talking about over the past few weeks in American culture and politics alike. What are you discovering already and what can we expect to come out of it?
- [40:59]
A
Yeah, so this is the Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuse. It's on the oversight committee, which I, which I sit on. And we have a broad mandate to go after a lot of different things from government agencies that are going rogue, to NGOs that are laundering our tax dollars to left wing causes, to, to businesses or universities that are still engaging in DEI or anti white discrimination or anything in between. So we began this task force by launching two investigations. One is into the Ohio Medicaid scandal where we believe there's probably about a billion dollars a year. It could be more, but we would think probably about a billion dollars a year that's being laundered into the home health sector where there's no verification any of these services are being provided. Oftentimes it's a family member doing it. And there's all these shell LLCs that are, that have been created to facilitate Medicaid payments that in my opinion, shouldn't even be going out. So that's the first thing we're doing and we'll have some hearings on that in the near future. The second thing that we started, and we're just getting started, we've got a lot more to do, is an investigation into birth tourism. So we've sent out letters requesting documents and information both on the Medicaid side and into four different different birth tourism companies. One of them, by the way, the name of the business is called have My Baby in Miami. I mean, it's insane. You couldn't even make that up. And these are businesses that are operating, facilitating short term immigration of people into the United States for the purpose of having a child here on our soil so that they can be American citizens. Now you can have a big debate about birthright tour or birth, birthright citizenship, which that's one issue. Right now you're just looking at immigration fraud because you're not supposed to be able to do that. So we're launching investigations into those companies as well. And we've got a lot more to do.
- [42:54]
C
Oh, I can't wait. And this mandate sounds very exciting and very needed because the more we peek behind the curtain, the more I think we've realized how much the government and really bad actors have taken advantage of our systems for far too long to say stop helping Americans when they really need help and they need the assistance from the government and instead are lining the pockets of some pretty crazy people out there. So thank you for your work on that. I can't wait to see what it continues to uncover. Any last message of encouragement for young people who are feeling a little disillusioned with the levers of government and are looking for a reason to continue staying passionate going into the midterm elections?
- [43:29]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think I would just always remind people, you know, the four years that we suffered under Biden when Democrats were in power and were flooding the country with illegals, whenever woke was ascendant. All that can come back if Democrats take power again. I mean, we like to say woke is dead, but woke is not dead. That is something at the core of left wing ideology. They're not backing away from that. They may be a lot more silent, but they're not backing away from that. And we've got a few good people in Congress who are willing to fight for it, fight against wokeness, who are willing to fight against mass migration. But we've got to be able to continue doing that work through after the midterms too. So it's really important that Republicans are able to keep control of the House. And if we are, I think we'll see a lot of these investigations, for instance, continue into the next two years.
- [44:17]
C
Hugely important. Congressman Brandon Gill, thank you so much for your time for your voice in Washington. And to leave you with this, I have to show you my favorite tweets of Brandon Gill over the past few weeks. I don't know if you know this, but but there is a whole corner of the Internet who thinks that you are indeed Superman. The side by side of you and Clark Kent always does get me so I'm wondering if there's a T shirt or a uniform poking out underneath that suit right there of the Superman emblem. And my personal favorite tweet of all time. This may be the most presidential phenotype I've ever seen. So hopefully we'll see you in the Oval Office office someday soon. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [45:01]
A
Thanks for having me.