American Experiment Podcast
Why are so many Minnesota high school graduates unable to read or do math at grade level? Does Tim Walz actually think he's going to be the next president of the United States? And why does he keep swearing so much?
These are the kinds of hard-hitting questions we get into every week on the American Experiment Podcast, where we unpack the week's biggest stories, interview Minnesota's movers and shakers, and "stop the tape" on clips of our state's most ridiculous elected officials.
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American Experiment Podcast
Episode 121 - Ellison SCRAMBLES to Return Fraudsters Money
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Attorney General Keith Ellison is scrambling to return donations he received from fraudsters...
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Welcome back! This week on the American Experiment Podcast…
This week, we discuss whether Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison lied to Congress about his connection to the Feeding Our Future fraudsters, the snail-like pace of the Minnesota legislature this session (and is it a good or bad thing?), and the absurd highlights from last weekend’s “No Kings” rally. On the back half, we welcome to the show U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy from Montana — a former Navy SEAL, entrepreneur, Minnesota native, and our 2026 Annual Dinner Gala Speaker!
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00:00 - Welcome back!
00:38 - The "No Kings" day breakdown
03:15 - Ellison RETURNS donations made by fraudsters
07:55 - Sen. Hawley grills Keith Ellison
09:37 - Did Ellison lie to Congress?
11:36 - The stalemate at the Capitol
14:54 - Dems SHUT DOWN effort to lower tab fees
17:40 - Will anything get done in session?
19:05 - The "No Kings" Protest breakdown
20:25 - Lame-duck Governor yells into microphone
23:29 - Amy Klobuchar also makes an appearance...
25:30 - The CRAZIES came out too!
29:00 - One big takeaway from the rally...
31:39 - Senator Tim Sheehy joins the show!
37:15 - Sen. Sheehy on the DISASTROUS Biden Afghanistan pull out
40:49 - Thoughts on President Trump's military action in Iran
47:17 - Will there be a deal to fund ICE soon?
52:23 - Should we end the filibuster?
58:17 - Sen. Sheehy on Minnesota's chaos
01:03:05 - Come see Sen. Sheehy at American Experiment's Annual Dinner Gala!
01:03:47 - Hearing from you all!
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#minneapolis #governorwalz #walz #minnesota #legislature #capitol #mn #republicans #democrats #politics #gop #dfl #stpaul #culture #politics #fraud #corruption #committeemeeting #hearing #taxes
Welcome back to the American Experiment Podcast. Catherine, what do we have on the docket today? Well, first we're talking about Keith Ellison. He returned some donations from fraudsters and their friends. Then a legislative update. Did you know they've only passed three bills so far this session? Then finally, we're looking at the No Kings protesters and watching all the cringe back. On the back half, we're talking to Senator Tim Sheehee, who gives us a great insight into all of the crazy stuff going on right now at our nation's capital. Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_09If this is your first time joining us, welcome. Things are crazy here in Minnesota, and we try to give you a more sane perspective and take on things. I'm Grace Keating, of course, here with Catherine Johnson. Well, uh, what did you do this weekend, Grace? Did you attend any of the protests? Uh no, I'm really thrilled to say that the No Kings protests uh did not impact my life in any way. Not even I didn't see any signs. I didn't see any uh any uh overpass protests, any bridge protests. Normally I see those driving around. Uh I guess they were all kind of gathered into one central location that I didn't go by, and so uh I my weekend was uninterrupted.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, thank you for that, I guess, by the way, to the protesters. They closed some streets downtown and by St. Paul, like things that affect no one because no one goes there anyway unless they're protesting. So thank you to that. I mean, I think I spent a lot of time this weekend with my family, and I think that is one thing we see. This is kind of a theory I have about like why we see all of these, especially boomers out protesting on the left. It's like, why aren't you home with your families? Why aren't you hanging out with your grandchildren? I think they've been saddled with these millennial children who don't want to have kids because they're afraid of like climate change or whatever. And now these poor boomers have no grandkids. Because my grandparents spent all weekend celebrating our grandkids and their grandkids, my nieces and nephews, birthdays, and it was just so joyful. And then I turned on, you know, Twitter and I was like, oh my gosh, there are some really sad people out there. And so I wish all of those people the absolute best. And I also encourage millennials to have some freaking kids so that your grandparents have things to do on the weekend and don't have to march out in the streets in weird blow-up frog costumes.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I have an adjacent theory, which we can get into later. But after watching the footage from the protest this weekend, the No Kings rally, I get the sense that a lot of these people are it like you said, I mean, boomers, people who live through Woodstock and maybe the summer of love, and total yeah, and they kind of want to relive the glory days. And of course, you've got this media that is is is is fanning the flames of any liberals' concerns about the federal government's actions and ICE and Trump, and so they they see a chance to jump on uh this this trend of fear really and and get back into the protest mindset of the that they had in their in their 20s. So that that's my theory, is that they're really living the glory, glory days. That's true.
SPEAKER_08I think there's a sense of like belonging that comes with it too when they're like feel like they're part of a group, that they're fighting something, even if the group like doesn't make any sense and what they're fighting for isn't real and doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter, it's the fact that they're like, they have something to attach themselves to. Um I don't know. I feel like we're on something.
SPEAKER_09We will get into some of those clips from the rally uh later on in this episode. But first, there were some really interesting developments in the Keith Ellison saga that's unfolding here in Minnesota. That's of course our state attorney general. Um just in the last few, well, not in the last few days, and it's been uncovered in the last few days that he's returned some, I think it's twelve ten, twelve thousand five hundred dollars in campaign donations uh made by five men who were associated with the infamous, of course, feeding your future fraud scandal. Now, these donations are reflected in a report filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board by his campaign treasurer early last month for the period of calendar year 2025. And this is so important for a few reasons. Of course, Keith Ellison was at the Capitol just a few weeks ago testifying before Congress on the subject of his knowledge of what was happening with the feeding or future fraud scandal. And one of the issues that came up was some of these campaign donations that he's now returned.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, exactly. And so it's interesting, it's a little confusing because, you know, some of the donations are people that were in that meeting, but a there was a number of donations that were made just nine days after that infamous meeting where he told people um associated with Feeding Our Future that he would help them, quote, go fight these people, meaning fight for them because they thought they were being cut off from funding because of racism. And so he pledged their support. Nine days later, he did get a number of donations. And so the whole thing is like just very sketchy. And Keith Ellison has completely tried to deny everything, but here it is right here that he has returned now twelve thousand five hundred dollars of campaign donations. So it begs the question: well, why and when did you know what you know?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah, exactly. You've got Gandhi Youssef Mohammed, who made a again now returned$2,500 donation on December 20th, 2021. That's just over a week after Allison met in person with Gandhi's sister. See, again, it's all these weird family and friend connections. He met with his sister, Ikram Youssef Mohammed, and other figures, figures linked to the free food fraud scandal. Ellison returned that donation in May 2025, a little more than a month after an audio recording of that December 2021 meeting was made public by us and Bill Vaughn here at Center of the American Experiment. Ikram Mohammed was reportedly the individual who made the December 2021 recording that we released. Uh she was charged in the case in January 2024 as the 63rd defendant. Ikram pled guilty last week in the fraud and faces up to 10 years in federal prison for masterminding a$15 million free food fraud.
SPEAKER_08That's so crazy. It's the same$15 million. Oh my gosh. I think sometimes you hear the$250 million number, at least for me, and I'm like, oh, there's so many people involved in that. And while there are, there is also massive amounts of money, which makes it all the crazier that they weren't able to catch these people for so long when it was like 15 million, 15 million. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_09It is it is insane to think, too, how long these cases take to fully develop. Because here we're sitting in, I mean, what now April of 2020, almost April of 2026. And we're talking about a woman who was doing this in in December 2021. She was charged in 2024. These cases take so long, and I hear frequently from people who say, you know, why isn't so-and-so behind bars? Why isn't this happening? Why isn't this happening? These cases take a really long time to build and uncover, and to it takes a long time to get people to face justice. Yeah, absolutely. It's that is the sad truth about our system. Moving through, uh, Gandhi was charged in the same federal indictment as Igram, along with five other defendants, all of whom have or will, says Bill Glauc at AmericanExperiment.org, plead guilty in the case. Gandhi alone remains to face a jury trial scheduled to begin next month at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Now, the other three donations that we're talking about here were also accepted by Ellison on December 20th, 2021, but they were not returned. This is the key part, they were not returned until December 31st, 2025, just a few months ago, which was the last possible day eligible for inclusion in the reporting period. Each man had also given$2,500 in 2021, which, listen closely here, is the maximum allowed contribution for an attorney general candidate. So it kind of sounds like small potatoes here. These are really small dollar amounts in the gram scheme of things. But it's the maximum allowed amount for this specific candidate position.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and that money is really valuable if you know anything about campaign finance. The money in your campaign account is really is worth more in a lot of ways than money from um a PAC or a third party because you can spend it. It goes farther with things like television advertisements, for example. They'll charge you lower rates. So it's interesting, and it might seem small, but it's really the max out amount. They maxed out to Keith Ellison, that's a valuable donation.
SPEAKER_09Worth noting too that none of those three have been accused of any wrongdoing, wrongdoing, but they're all in this circle. That's what's so interesting. It's all these people who are connected to each other, who know each other, their relatives, their friends, they're all in the circle that these fraudsters were operating in. So fast forward to February 12th, that's about a month and a half after these donations were returned. Keith Ellison was called to testify before the Senate's Homeland Security Committee. So as we said during the meeting, he was asked about these donations, these 12,500, by Senator Josh Hawley. Let's play the tape of that hearing. Just to remind us all of how everything went down.
SPEAKER_06Why'd you take their money? Why'd you take their money? I didn't. You took$10,000.
SPEAKER_05That's a false statement.
SPEAKER_06$10,000 nine days after the meeting. False statement. You took$10,000. Here's what happened. They went to your office. That's a few things. They solicited money from you. They solicited help from you. They came to your office. It was your official office. You met with them for 54 minutes. They asked you for help, you pledged it to them, and they talked repeatedly about money. In fact, it's all they talked about. Money, money, money, money. They said, We will put our dollars in the right place. We will support candidates that will fight to protect our interests. You replied, that's right. They said if you are securing your donor base and securing your power base, you can act the way you want. You replied, money is freedom. They said the amount of money circulating. I'm reading the transcript. The amount of money circulating in our community today is powerful. And we haven't realized it in a meaningful way. And you said, give me the specifics. And nine days later, you took$10,000 from people who were then indicted. It's in your reports. Why'd you do it?
SPEAKER_05Sir, this it was. Was it worth it? You know what? This is what I'm saying. Well, I think we can stop the tape there.
SPEAKER_08I that really covers it. I mean, this is such a powerful back and forth. The thing is, like, I think Keith Ellison here is getting away with kind of obscuring the truth by, you know, there are some things here that Josh Alley says that aren't quite accurate. He's really close, and the essence of what he's saying is correct. But things like we talked about, like the person who actually gave the donation in one of these instances was the brother of someone who was in the room. So, okay, he had this meeting and then um gets a donation from the brother. That's not really the same thing, right, as getting a donation from someone in the room. Uh Senator Holly also has one other fact wrong. It actually didn't take place at Keith uh Ellison's office this meeting. It took place at their offices. Um, so that was one other fact that was a little bit off. But I think the idea that Keith Ellison there denied, I think nine times, denied taking any kind of money, he did take money from people in this circle, from people who were involved and have these connections to the feeding our future fraud. And so he's trying to be a little obtuse by saying, no, no, no, not at all. But there is truth to this. There is truth in there. And if you want to get bogged down in the details, fine, but there's truth to the fact that he told those people in that meeting, let's go fight those guys, and then days later got an influx of donations. And his son, Jeremiah Ellison, who was serving on the Minneapolis City Council, also received an influx of donations on that same day from some of those individuals as well. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_09And at the end of the day, he did return these campaign donations. And you wouldn't return them unless you had reasonable suspicion that they were, you know, ill-gotten funds. Yeah, exactly. So I I I agree with your take. I think that he's basically being purposefully obtuse in the Senate hearing and kind of skirting the truth. In my opinion, I don't I don't think he was being fully honest there. So are there consequences for that? That's kind of the next question in this line of thinking. If he wasn't fully honest, if Ellison, we we can, you know, someone can show that he was holding back information that he had and saying that, you know, he didn't basically just didn't take any money from the Frausers, even though he now has returned those campaign donations. Are there consequences for that? We'll have to wait and see.
SPEAKER_08Exactly. I think that'll be very interesting to see if um they actually do go after him for some sort of perjury charge. I have no idea. Um, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_09Moving on a little closer to home, things have been um I I would say there's been a lot of, what do they say? Uh a lot of sound sound in the fury, a lot of a lot of a lot of sound, not a lot of things actually going on uh here at the Minnesota legislature, a lot of people yelling, nothing really getting done. Uh we totaled totaled up the number of bills passed, as you referenced, Catherine. Uh even with all of the fighting and the arguments and the protesting happening at the Capitol, only three bills have actually gotten passed so far this legislative session. Uh we've had over 1,300 bills introduced and uh two dozen press conferences, hundreds of committee meetings, 17 days of floor session, and still just those three bills. So they must have been pretty important bills, right? Well, what what were what what was so important that Minnesota's, you know, two parties were able to come together and find common ground on and get passed? Must be big. Right, yeah. Well, the first bill changed the date for testing hemp edibles from January 1, 2026, to May 31st, 2027. So I'm sure you were sure you were waiting on that one. I mean that's important. That's important. Yeah. Uh the second bill changed the word shall to must regarding vehicles stopping for school buses.
SPEAKER_08Now, there's like a lot of discourse around this like vehicle stop school bus stoppage situation. Surprisingly contentious. I refuse to engage personally, but there's a lot of discourse. Like I get like shall, must, like, okay. But the rules around school bus stopping are way too confusing. I just want to put that out there as my personal opinion. Like, I'm just always stopping no matter what if I see one, and I'm just like, when do I get to go again? You know, like I'll just stop for in an ordinary amount of time because I'm like, I don't know, when do I stop?
SPEAKER_09When do I go? I don't want to get in trouble. And if you do the wrong thing, there's like some pretty hefty signs and I think maybe even jail time associated with it. So yeah, you don't you don't want to get it wrong. Maybe we'll do a deep dive on school bus laws at some point in Minnesota. And of course, the third bill cancelled Caesar Chavez after the New York Times reported he was a serial sex offender. I think that was just in the last week or so. Uh Bill Walsh writes in his Capitol Watch that Chavez's history of collectivism, which bordered on Marxism, never really bothered Minnesota liberals. They were all, you know, they were fine with that. But the allegations of sexual abuse was it was a bridge too far. So uh the speed with which they passed a law repealing Caesar Chavez Day uh was breathtaking, he says, in his Capitol Watch report. Uh so those are the three bills. Uh I know, you know, they're they're hard at work over there. They're hard at work. I mean, I don't know.
SPEAKER_08On one hand, this is a good thing, right? Like, I I don't like to see them, you know, getting a lot done, obviously, at the Capitol. I'm a I'm a conservative. I'd prefer they just, you know, not do less, as they say, you know, as the kids smoke over. Do less. But, you know, um it seems like you would think that there would be a little bit more that has actually been produced when we have had all of this like byplay uh going on, you know, on this podcast. We talk about things every week that are happening, and yet nothing is really getting past the finish line.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I agree. It's in it's I'm grateful that we don't have a 2023, you know, off-the-cliff session again where we have one party just passing, passing, passing everything through. That was probably one of the most damaging legislative sessions that you and I are ever will ever see in our lifetimes. Um at the same time, it's frustrating to feel that as conservatives, we're so close to getting good legislation passed, even repealing some of the bad things that were passed in the last few years. Like we're so close, we're one vote away, we're two votes away, and we just can't get anything across the finish line because of the makeup in the legislature right now. You saw uh we had a bill to reverse the DFL's car tab hike that again they passed in 2023, um, which is is so funny. That completely failed on a party line vote in the, I think it was a House committee that it failed in. Um both parties have their own talking points this year. Of course, the DFL has ICE and Trump, and you know, Republicans have fraud. Both parties are really hitting the affordability and cost of living crisis hard though. And this is a bill that actually would have helped with that. It doesn't just it doesn't just claim to help with affordability, it actually would. Uh, by walking back the insane height that they passed in 2023, and of course, it died. It died on party line votes, Republicans voted yes, DFL voted no. And it's worth reminding everyone how bad this bill is. Because I think that it or this law, it's not a bill, it's a law they passed it in 23. I think it kind of flew under the radar at the time for a lot of people because there was so much happening. You really I mean you couldn't keep up with everything they were passing. The new formula that is now law in Minnesota means the average driver paid, this is from CBS News,$178 in registration taxes this year. It's a 20% increase. The 2023 bill didn't just change the state's overall formula for calculating licensed tab fees, it also changed the way it calculates the depreciation of your vehicle. The state calculates that your new car loses 5% of its value a year, so 10% over two years. The Kelly Blue Book estimates that over two years the average new car loses 30% of its value. So you're paying so much more on your fees than your car is worth. Yeah. It's really, it's really uh slimy, I would say, a slimy way for government to get more of your tax dollars.
SPEAKER_08And I always have like these super high fees because I lease a new car. I have a Kia, okay? I don't have like anything great, but I have a Kia and it's new-ish, and I lease it because like I don't know how to deal with cars. It's just like the only thing I can manage, okay? And and then my dad, my tabs are so high, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm paying like, you know, m less than this in my monthly payment than is my tab fee. You know, so my monthly payment, not all that big because it's a Kia. Uh, but my tabs are super expensive because it's a new car, right? So it's just it's very frustrating, I think, for everyone. And it's funny how this is now like a Democrat thing where they're like pro high tab fees, because this was, you know, Jesse Ventura's big issue back in the day was well, that's like all I know about him. Like this was his issue, right? Was uh lower registration costs on cars. So I don't know, it's funny that they've they've kind of flipped on that. I mean, now they just want as much money as possible, I guess.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, while all at the same time saying that, you know, oh, we need we need to lower cost of living for people, we need better affordability for people. Yeah, but they're not serious. They are absolutely not. And it was so gross the argument that they gave for why they struck this bill down. You have Brad Tabke, who's the co-chair of this committee, Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, who said if you vote yes for this bill, you're cutting teachers' pay and you're cutting home health care pay. That is such BS. I think we were funding those things just fine before you passed the the car tab hike in 2023, Brad.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then and the way that they all, you know, they're not getting a lot done, but they're using the session to message for the election. I think that's another key takeaway here is that they are still doing all of their they're appearing to do all this work when in reality what they're doing is trying to set up their messaging for the election, introducing bills like the Democrats will about ICE agents and things that will no longer really have an impact in the near future, um, but are based on trying to keep people remembering what just happened because they think that will be good messaging for them um in the midterms. So again, a frustrating just playing politics um from both sides at the legislature and not really accomplishing much for actual Minnesotans.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. And and hopefully, again, some some things might get done. There's hope for the nuclear, the lifting the new ban on uh new nuclear in Minnesota. We hear there might be some hope to actually get that across the finish line here. They did a bill to like do a study.
SPEAKER_08I mean, these people, come on. You don't need another study. What is another study gonna do on nuclear? We have all the data we need.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08But they just can't. This is government for you, man.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah. Uh there's also been movement uh on the bill to create an office of inspector general, which of course has crazy bipartisan support in Minnesota, and it died in the House last year, uh, again, along party lines, basically. But it's it's inching its way through the House. It keeps inching its way through committee after committee. So, yeah, we'll see where that goes. It's hugely popular, so I think it'd be unwise for the DFL to keep blocking that this year, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_08Well, should we get to the kind of the story of the weekend? Although again, it didn't really impact my life. The No Kings protest. Yeah. Um, apparently a hundred thousand-ish plus Minnesotans. Can I just say this a hundred thousand number? They've been using that number since before the rally started. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, we're expecting a hundred thousand. Well, and then the pr and then the the rally organizers kept saying 200,000 after it was over. And then the state patrol came out and was like, no, no, no, we only counted 100,000. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_08Okay, whatever. Like Bill Glaund kept tweeting things like, Do you think it'll hit 10 million, 20 million, 50 million? I'm like, literally, that was it. All the local media was on it. Uh 100,000 plus Minnesotans gathered at the state capitol Saturday for the country's flagship, No Kings protest against authoritarianism. Kings, Ice. It was kinda pretty vague. Yeah, and there's some funny interviews of people who were there that, you know, oh, why are you here today? Everyone has a different answer, you know, and it's they're all pretty off the wall. There was a lot of like song and dance, um, musical performances. Bruce Springsteen, of course, performed. Whoever that is, by the way. Like, I'm sorry, I do not know. Or Bill was listing some other people that were there. Never heard of them. He's like, they're in their 80s. Which goes back to my theory that this is people reliving the glory days of Woodstock. Exactly. You are obviously correct. So we'll get into some of those more fun highlights, but first, maybe we should start with the more serious programming. Our own governor, Tim Walls, spoke at this uh at this rally here in Minnesota at the Capitol. Let's play. I picked out, I think, the best part of his speech. Um, let's play it. He's got the flannel, thank God. Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_04And I will add a special, a special thank you and a special acknowledgement that we will never leave the side of our Somali Minnesotans. Here's our pledge to you. Our Somali Minnesotans, your great-grandchildren will still be here when the Orange Commune is in the Disney history. You will be here. They call it radicals. I I see that I see that the president said it's a bunch of radicals. You can probably radicalized. Radicalized by competition, radical woman is by defense, radical is my duplication, radical is my democracy, and radical woman is to do all we can to oppose authoritarianism. So for those of you watching at home, welcome to the North Star Stein. Welcome to the land of hope and dreams.
SPEAKER_09That poor man, his voice was so hoarse. He knew there was a microphone, right? He didn't have to be screaming like that.
SPEAKER_08No, he was just really feeling it. I mean, it's crazy. I think radicalized by due process. Might be my favorite line from that. Like, oh my gosh, when have the Democrats ever been the party of due process? My gosh. Radicalized by compassion was a highlight for me as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that of course, that's their number one message is that they are the nice, compassionate ones, and that the right are the evil, anti-immigrant ones. That was like a huge theme theme of this, you know. Yeah. Um, there was like a big sign behind it that said immigrants are our neighbors, I think, maybe. And that was definitely a major theme was trying to s have this idea that like people on the right are anti-immigrant.
SPEAKER_09It's really strange. Which is so tired. It's been put to bed so many times. That's what they were saying during the last presidential election. They were saying Trump's gonna lose the Hispanic vote, he's gonna lose the black vote, lose the immigrant vote, uh, because Republicans and the GOP hate immigrants. And the, I mean, the results of that election speak for themselves. Republicans are anti-illegal immigrants, and I think everyone knows that. And so when you get the these huge rallies in the left, and of course our governor coming out and saying, the right is anti-immigrant, immigrants make our country great. Yeah. It's like, yeah, no, no shit. You know, we know. Yeah. But it's just the ill illegal immigrants and the and the immigrants who are stealing our tax dollars that we really have a problem with, you know. Right.
SPEAKER_08Exactly. And wanting to have some um another look at our immigration system does not make you anti-immigrant. It makes you practical about moving forward, maybe we should have a better immigration system. You know, the system quite sucks, actually.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, having a nuanced immigration policy or a nuanced opinion on our immigration policy does not make you anti-the immigrant living next door to you. Exactly. Not at all.
SPEAKER_08Okay, let's go to Amy Klobotar, of course, now running for governor herself. She appeared, she did not speak at the rally, but she did post a video on social media, and she's wearing one of those um uh loon hats with the loon that like kind of looks like it's like fighting or whatever.
SPEAKER_09She looks like she's rating Tim Walls' wardrobe, the flannel and the flannel hat, and yeah, like rising loon or something.
SPEAKER_08I don't I don't know. Too much. Go ahead, Isaac.
SPEAKER_00I'm here in St. Paul at the biggest rally we have ever seen in Minnesota. We have been at the center of America's heartbreak, but today we are at the center of America's courage and hope. Stretch it out in front of the entire Capitol Mall. And that's because we are here to say there are no kings in America. The only king is the law. And what matters here is that we are going to stand up and we stand together, Democrats, independents, and Republicans to say that our liberties matter.
SPEAKER_09Again, like the DFL and Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walls being the party of like liberties is so unserious. You have these people, hundreds of thousands, a hundred thousand gathering on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol to freely protest in a free country where there are no political repercussions or or societal repercussions for doing so. You don't have a king. You don't live in an authoritarian society. And it it's so it's such we say this all it's such an insult to the people who do live in authoritarian societies and countries around the world, who do live under dictatorships. Because you don't. The reality is you don't. And you do have a constitution that protects your rights and your right to assemble. And and yeah, it really, it really bugs me.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, they can't they can't come to the conclusion that like they just can't realize or accept that the majority of people in this country voted for our president. You know, that's the key here is he's not a king because the majority of people voted for this agenda and voted for this president, and they just refuse to understand that. And I love here how she says Democrats, Republicans, and independents are coming together as if they've created some like coalition of people on all sides. No, this is the left wing and their left-wing base. It always has been, it has never been anything different. The th what you're seeing in the streets right now is they're the same people that come out for all these protests. It's good for them. They're welcome to go protest. But this is not a new coalition of people they've put together because everyone is worried about authoritarianism. No, these are just your classic left-wingers that go out and protest whatever people on the right are doing. It's also like the least grassroots movement ever, if we want to get into that too. Like it's highly funded by George Soros. This is an indivision indivisible project, is the group that um runs these No Kings protests. They get a huge portion of their money from the Open Society Foundation, which is um funded by George Soros. So look, it's it's that's whatever, okay. He's allowed to do that, but this is not some we the people sort of movement. This is big money on the left bringing out their base to protest because they don't like what's going on in the White House.
SPEAKER_09So that's a little sliver, a little taste of the politicians who were speaking at the No Kings rally. But what about the people who attended?
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Um I there was this one guy we had that was interviewed on the street, and I think he was actually sporting what you may call orange face. Why don't we why don't we hear from him why he was there?
SPEAKER_07Would you like JD Vance to be the president then?
SPEAKER_01We would not. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would not. Okay.
SPEAKER_07Who would you like to be the president? Um Kamala Harris right now, but she didn't win, but um Did I point out something that we say no kings and no authoritarianism? But Kamala Harris, no one voted for her.
SPEAKER_01Um yes, they did. Half the country voted for her, so less than voted.
SPEAKER_07No one was voted for her to be the nominee.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they did.
SPEAKER_07Isn't that what like authoritarian?
SPEAKER_01You're going down the wrong road right now with me. I wouldn't go any further.
SPEAKER_07What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01I'm not gonna talk anymore. That's what it means.
SPEAKER_07I just think it's ironic that no one voted for her to be the nominee. They just selected her like a king gets selected, right?
SPEAKER_01Keep it to yourself, okay? Hi, have a good day.
SPEAKER_07Well, see ya.
SPEAKER_01End of conversation again.
SPEAKER_08He seems like he might need some sort of psychiatric intervention, but I assume there were more normal people there, right? Do you? I don't. Let's see. Let's see. What else what else did we have here? Go ahead with this one.
SPEAKER_09Uh am I missing something here? What's the frog? What are the frogs referencing? Is that a reference I'm not getting? Is it if there's like a frog eating?
SPEAKER_08I think it's just they're just sticking it to Donald Trump, clearly. Wow. Is that what you got out of that? I mean, what in the world? Like, I'm sorry. I have no idea. I I they seem to be having a joyful time anyway, so I guess good for them. But there was so like the the musical aspect of this really cracked me up. There was like choirs performing all all over the country, uh, you know, singing their nice songs. There Bruce Springsteen, who is someone I've never heard of but apparently exists, and then some other lady uh really did a horrible, horrible job at the Minneapolis. And I look, I'm I'm no singer, but I don't get up there and try and sing. Um yeah, the musical element was tough.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I think my biggest takeaway from this whole weekend, the whole rally, was I was I was just shocked by the lack of substance there was in whether you're hearing from the politicians themselves, the activists, the event organizers who are speaking to the crowd, or whether you're talking to the, you know, man of the street style interviews, you're hearing from the people who are attending the rally. No one really knew why they were there specifically. No one could point to a specific policy or or or something the administration was doing. I I expected to hear more maybe on Iran. Um but really though the it just you just kept hearing authoritarianism, you kept hearing kings, but they were there for different reasons. It was so um so artificial. And and I think that it speaks to what you were saying, Catherine, about how people especially I mean, you know, the radical liberals, the base here in Minnesota, when they get the marching orders that there's gonna be a rally, they show up, whether or not they necessarily know why. And that was the sense I got coming away from this.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, absolutely. Me too. I thought the exact same thing. And the the man on the street sort of interviews definitely showed that. I mean, people were all over the place. And and so that, I mean, I think we just have to see it. I don't know if they accomplished anything. Um, they definitely made headlines. I saw it in the local news if you read that kind of thing, but otherwise I'm not sure anything really will come out of this other than um that publicity.
SPEAKER_09Aaron Powell Now, if you are listening and you want to be part of a moment, a rally that is not vague, that could have actual real implications, good implications for Minnesotans' lives, you need to come to the Capitol with us on Tuesday, April 14th. We are having a huge rally there for education freedom, excellence, choice to try to take our state back really through the school system because the schools are failing. We need to give families more options, more ways to customize their kids' education. And that starts with school choice. It does. And this is these these bills that are moving through the legislature right now are gonna be heard on that day on April 14th, and we need to show up at the Capitol, make sure that Governor Walls and the legislature knows that Minnesotans want this. Minnesotans are ready to have a real say in their kids' education, and uh we're ready for education freedom. So it's gonna be from noon to one on April 14th. And uh again, you know, they had no kings. I think this is our chance to get out there and show uh that we're ready to take our state back.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, absolutely. For something real and tangible. Our students in Minnesota deserve better than the education they're getting right now in our public school system. And so let's go actually fight for those students and um let's try and bring change, not just slogans uh with our with our rally.
SPEAKER_09You can get all the details on AmericanExperiment.org slash events. Now we're gonna kick things over to our conversation with U.S. Senator Tim Sheehe, who is also our speaker at the spring annual dinner gala. Stay tuned. American Experiment is supported by thousands of individuals like you. To join the movement, go to www.americanexperiment.org and click the yellow donate button. From all of us here, thank you. We are so excited to be joined now by U.S. Senator from Mentana, Tim Sheehe, who has had such an incredible career and is now serving, of course, in the U.S. Senate. But most excitingly for us, you will be our featured speaker at our upcoming annual dinner gala. Welcome to the show, Senator. We are so happy to have you with us.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. And I noticed you almost said Minnesota there when you said what state I was from.
SPEAKER_09A little bit of a Freudian slip since you are also a native Minnesotan.
SPEAKER_03Yes, as I'd like to tell people, you know, I I'm the only uh Republican Minnesotan serving in the U.S. Senate. So uh it's an honor to be there. But thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, absolutely. We'd love to hear a little bit more about what brought you into this role. You grew up in Minnesota, and then you had a super impressive um career. You were a Navy SEAL and went into even founding some of your own companies. Would you mind giving us a little bit of your own personal backstory and let us know how you ended up in Congress?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so it wasn't ever a plan, certainly didn't intend to enter elected politics at any point, but um, you know, I I was a very motivated young kid and I always had a plan of where I was gonna be in five years, and knew exactly where I was gonna be. And it's funny I tell people and they say, Man, you know, you're the youngest Republican senator, you know, you must have had this all mapped out from the time you were a kid, and I said, you know what, if you'd asked me when I was 16, 21, 26, 30, 35, where I was gonna be in five years, I would have given you a very specific answer and I would have been wrong every single time. Uh, and not just a little bit wrong, like massively wrong, completely wrong. Um, but yes, I did grow up uh up in the uh Anoka, Arden Hills, Shoreview area. My neighbor growing up was um uh a Navy pilot, a Korean warrior Navy pilot, a guy named Steve Tebow, uh was his son who taught me how to fly. His name was Harry Tebow. And the Tebow family were just great people uh that I was able to learn from growing up. And my parents were were uh my dad uh grew up working in construction, got into real estate, my mom was a homemaker, and my older brother Matt uh, you know, we we had a we had a great little family and and grew up uh you know uh out on the lake like everyone in Minnesota does. And uh, you know, never really uh imagined political uh office would be in the future, but I wanted to go into the military since as early as I can remember, uh, since I was a little kid running around the woods in the backyard. And I lived up against the fence of, I don't know if you're familiar with the old Arden Hills um manufacturing plant for ammunition up there. And, you know, up in Arden Hills, they have the big military base that for many decades made a lot of our machine gun bullets. It's shut down, I think, post-Vietnam. I don't know exactly when, but my whole life it's been abandoned. So, you know, as a kid, I used to always, you know, sneak in there and run around the old abandoned buildings. And, you know, I thought that was the coolest thing ever was just all that old uh military stuff. So I knew I was gonna do that um eventually at one point, and and obviously in high school, as I'm sure uh you young ladies remember, and 9-11 was the definitive moment of our childhood, really. You know, obviously our grandparents talked about Pearl Harbor, our parents talked about the JFK assassination. You know, for our generations, you know, 9-11 was kind of that before and after moment. You know, your life is kind of divided into before 9-11 and after 9-11. And for me, uh, I was in high school at the time, and and um, you know, I knew I was gonna go in the military, but that definitely changed the complexion of my desire to serve. It went from just wanting to be in the military because I thought it was cool. You know, all children of the 80s, all boys in the 80s wanted to be Maverick and Top Gun. Um, realizing, hey, this isn't just flying jets around and having fun and playing volleyball. Uh, like we're at war now, our nation's been attacked, and and our nation needs its sons and daughters to step up and serve. So it kind of changed my focus around service from it's just something that I wanted to do, just something I felt like I was really called to do and felt passionate that it was an obligation that as someone who was so privileged to grow up in this amazing country that in a time of need, it was an obligation for me uh to join up and serve. So I went into the Naval Academy right out of high school. And um, while I was at the academy, I met my wife, Carmen. She was also uh a midshipman at the academy. So uh we ended up commissioning into the military around the same time. She went into the Marine Corps as a Marine Corps officer, I went into the Navy as a SEAL team leader, as you mentioned, and uh was honored to lead SEALs all over the world, um, did several deployments Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, elsewhere. And um it was just an honor to lead some of the best Americans that that have ever lived uh on some of the most dangerous operations and and defend our country. And although I intended to spend more time in the military, I ended up getting wounded and injured in the line of duty. So um ended up getting discharged and had to kind of figure out what I was gonna do in life. And like I mentioned earlier, I never thought I'd be the CEO of a company, but I had an idea around some of uh our technology we use. So I started a family of companies. And, you know, long story short, an all-veteran founding team along with uh was some great mentors. We started two guys in a barn and created about 500 jobs over the course of about a decade and about a billion dollars in enterprise value and aviation, aerospace, military technology, agriculture, and uh loved business. It was a lot of fun. And then, of course, we saw the terrible disasters that happened in the Biden administration from the Afghan withdrawal to the border invasion and everything else, and realized that uh uh we were in a tough spot and uh our country was was on the verge of of really uh irreversible damage. So I was asked to consider running for office, and I did, and uh here we are.
SPEAKER_09As someone who saw combat in Afghanistan, what was that like watch for you watching the the, like you said, disastrous pullout there a few years ago? I mean, you've got this this long record of service in the military, and of course now public service. I mean, it's really quite impressive you've been awarded a bronze star for valor for heroism in combat, Purple Heart Medal, joint service commendation medal with valor. I could go on and on. What was that like for you watching that unfold?
SPEAKER_03Uh it was really visceral. It was a cockle of emotions I'd never felt before, truly. And, you know, in my company, we had a lot of veterans, uh, way higher than the average uh percentage, you know, about 40% of our employees were veterans at that time. And my wife, of course, combat veteran of Afghanistan, and all my best friends. You know, you you guys understand how the military works. You become friends quickly, you stay close the rest of your lives. And watching that happen for me was was quite literally a turning point. I had never been politically active really before that. You know, I think I had like a$200 donation to Mitt Rami in 2012. Like I just, I wasn't a super active political guy. Um, but that disaster, um, I mean, I remember being on the phone. I was flying one of my companies, we were an aero firefighting company. So I was flying water bombers in um California at the time, Chico, California. And I was between water bombing missions. So we were back at base refueling, and I remember being on the phone, and this went on for days during the you know disastrous with retreat here, and talking to friends of mine in theater, interpreters, commandos, Afghans I'd worked with, and being on the phone with them is they're just trying to get their children out alive before the Taliban you know starts to literally cut their heads off because anybody who worked with us was on the kill list. And anybody who cooperated with the Americans was on the kill list. So it was really a sense of betrayal that we felt, many of us did. We formed a whole veterans network to get people out. Um, and you know, we were focused on getting people out that we had personally worked with, that we knew that, you know, we weren't trying to bring in thousands of random unvetted terrorists like we've seen entered. We were trying to say, hey, this guy served with me on dozens of missions. I know this guy. He was on our side and he's been left behind. So it was a visceral uh reaction to see that. Of course, once our 13 service members were killed at Abbey Gate, you know, that just ratcheted that up. And in the wake of that is when I started to get involved politically. That's when I started to lean into politics. Really as a donor, I'd sold one of my businesses, so I became a large donor to the cause and was speaking at a number of events, supporting other candidates, really trying to spread the message that listen, this act alone uh was terrible. But the the message that this act of weakness and feebleness sends to the world uh is far more serious than I think people understand. And of course, that proved to be right. Whether it was the invasion of Ukraine, attacks on October 7th, China upping their pressure on us, the Iranian proxy group all over the world getting emboldened like the Red Sea attacks. So I saw that as a turning point, couple that with the disastrous policies we saw across the rest of the Biden administration from our border invasion, which was causing a huge increase in crime around the whole country and even places like Montana, which folks would typically not associate with border crime, absolutely saw a huge spike in violent crime as a direct result of the cartels injecting fentanyl and cartel activity into our state. So that got me involved. Um in and that event is what really got me off top dead center. You know, I'd always been a conservative guy, but I just was not an active political person. And and boy, that got me off the sideline and got me involved, and now here we are.
SPEAKER_08Well, we're certainly glad you did. So fast forward to today, um, when we look at President Trump's approach to foreign policy is certainly much different than President Biden's, thank God. And look at what's happening right now. Our military action in Iran. Do you like what you're seeing from the president? Have you been supportive of what's going on right now?
SPEAKER_03I've been very supportive. Uh, in fact, I've been one of the vocal voices encouraging him to do this in the first place. Uh, listen, he crafts his own policy, but at the end of the day, uh, he does take input. And despite what a lot of people say, uh, one of the best things about this president is he does take input. He reaches out to people uh engages what they think is the right thing to do. And I've had uh a great pleasure of having a good relationship with him. And in this particular area, from Midnight Hammer last year through this operation, you know, I've been a vocal proponent of us addressing this threat. This has been a 47-year threat to America. They've been a visceral savage adversary of ours. They fueled the proxy groups all over the world from the Shia militias to Hezbollah to Hamas, the Houthi rebels, uh to drug cartels in South America, and their foreign policy is death to America. They literally want to kill you, me, and our entire families and destroy our way of life. They want a global caliphate that subjugates every Western value to the will of Allah in their eyes. And uh, it's a militant destructive ideology. And you don't have to, you don't have to speculate. You just watch what they actually do, watch the savagery of October 7th, watch what they do to their prisoners, watch their rhetoric, watch what they do to their own citizens, murdering them in the streets, beating women to death, hanging people from cranes. And when I see our media, New York Times, Washington Post, defending this regime, defending their actions as if this is self-determination, as if they have a right to do this, and criticizing our government for this righteous act, it's it's really disgusting. I have no problem with debate. We're a constitutional republic, we're a democratically elected body. We should be asking each other tough questions. I got no problem with folks voicing concern over going uh into open conflict with any other country. That's our job as legislators. It's our obligation as Americans to speak up. But there's a fine line between asking questions and advocating for a terrorist enemy of our country. And that's exactly what a lot uh of the other side is doing right now. It's really disgusting and shameful, and it's a betrayal of our troops overseas uh who've been getting killed by these Iranians for decades. So thus far, we've seen a fantastic operation. We're 28 days in now. Uh 28 days, you know. So folks are saying this is a you know forever conflict. We're four weeks into this. And by the way, Iran's been attacking us for 47 years. And the first president ever, seven presidencies have gone by as Iran has murdered our troops while they slept in 1983, Cobar Towers, USS Cole, our embassy in Iran, the Achilles Laurel, terrorist attacks all over the world. The only time we ever responded directly and militarily was in 2020 when President Trump took out Kasim Solomon, the mastermind behind these attacks, Midnight Hammer in this. So Trump is the first president to ever hit back at Iran. Every other president of both parties has basically sat there and taken and said, you know what? We're gonna find them. We're gonna put sanctions on them. I mean, that's equivalent of a Of in your home neighborhood, you know, we have a serial killer walking around raping families, killing them, burning them alive in their own home. And the city's response is we're gonna send him a$50 fine. And the logic is, well, we don't want to be mean to this serial killer because he might be even meaner to us. So let's just send him a fine. And they keep finding him for 40 years. And eventually they say, you know what? He's finding us too much. We're gonna pay him money. We're gonna try to pay him to stop being mean to us, which is exactly what Obama and Biden did. We're gonna give him cash. We're gonna give him 50 grand. Say, hey, dude.
SPEAKER_08Pallets of cash, right?
SPEAKER_03Yes, exactly. Pallets of cash. And and and lo and behold, that serial kid doesn't take that cash and become a peaceful person. He takes that cash and he buys more bullets and knives and and guns. So it was time to take this threat out. All of our Gulf State allies wanted this to happen. They're glad it's happening. If you saw the ambassador on TV today saying, finish the job, don't stop. So this is the right thing. It's a righteous act. It's right for America. And there's something else that I'll say that hasn't been said enough. This isn't just about Iran. Iran is a proxy state, just like Venezuela was, for foreign nations that want to supplant us as the world power. They're a proxy state for China. They're a proxy state for Russia. Russia loved having the Venezuelan regime, as did China. They laundered all the oil money they needed to dodge global sanctions. China loves a sanctioned Iran because that means they can only sell their oil for cents on a dollar to China. That's how they get such cheap energy. China loves having Iran constantly causing wars in the Middle East. So that ties up our force structure. 11 aircraft carriers we have, about three are deployable at any one time, and usually two to three of them are in an area the size of the Great Lakes because they're in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Eastern Med. It's like having three of our nuclear, uh, three of our 11 aircraft carriers steaming in circles in Lake Superior. That's what we've been doing for 30 years. China likes that. It allows them to have their ghost fleet push all over Southeast Asia and, frankly, all over the Pacific Ocean unfettered. So China has loved the status quo of a destabilizing Iran. It's been bad for America and good for them. So finishing off this fight is the right answer. It's going to be good for the region. It's going to be good for the world, and it's going to allow us to shift our focus where it needs to be, which is on competing with China.
SPEAKER_09There have been some rumblings coming out of the White House lately that we might be getting close to a peace deal with Iran. Have you heard anything like that?
SPEAKER_03Well, listen, I mean, uh obviously none of us want open conflict with any country, especially those of us who've gone to war and lost friends. We don't want to be in a war with anybody. Um, so if there is a genuine off-ramp to peace here, I would think anybody of right mind would take it. But the truth is, what this regime has shown us is they can't be negotiated with. Whatever deal they make, uh, they're gonna ridnig on it. And and their viewpoint is they must say or do anything to stay in power. So um I don't think we're gonna see any deal short of every member of this regime surrendering and leaving the country and and surrendering all power because we know that if this regime is kept in place, um that there's never really gonna be true peace with them. But you know, we'll see what concessions are willing to be made. Um, we have operated a fantastic campaign here. Secretary Heggseth, another Minnesota Minnesotan, I might add, and uh General Kane are doing a great job architecting this. We're in close, close touch with them, and of course our men and women uniform are crushing.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'd love to move into another um issue, I'm sure that's very pressing as a senator. We were talking before this. Wow, we got so lucky. We're talking to a United States Senator right now with all of this going on. I mean, it's really amazing. So thank you for your time, Senator. But I just saw that if Congress doesn't act by Saturday night, the DHS funding lapse will become the longest shutdown of any federal agency in U.S. history. We have a senator. Do you have any insider updates? Are we getting closer to another deal, a deal at home, to fund DHS?
SPEAKER_03All I gotta say is this is an embarrassment for the country. It's an embarrassment for me personally being here. I think our side is incredibly frustrated. Um listen, at the end of the day, uh, partisanship aside, there are certain things that that shouldn't have to be subject to partisan games. Um our federal employees, especially those who keep us safe, people like our Border Patrol agents who are not being paid right now, or TSA agents who are not being paid right now, Homeland Security Investigations, HSI, whose literal specific job is to protect us from terrorism. These people aren't getting paid. Coast Guard, we have people who aren't getting paid. And this, remember, this is the second shutdown in six months. Chuck Schumer shut us down last fall as well. The whole government at that point, or the vast majority of it. Now we're DHS only. But still, this is an embarrassment. And it's being caused specifically by Schumer and the Democrats for one reason and one reason alone. They know that when we have unified government, Republican Senate, Republican House, Republican White House, conservative majority in the Supreme Court, they know that anything that happens on this administration's watch gets blamed on Republicans. This is an intentional, engineered shutdown, the second one in two months, because they want to make the country fail right now. They want inflation up, they want expensive gas. They want long lines, they want dysfunction because it reflects badly on us. It does. The average American doesn't research center procedure. They don't follow John Thune and Chuck Schumer's every tweet. They're busy with their lives. So all they know is you know what? Lines are long, unions are going on strike, people aren't getting paid. Must be Trump's fault. And of course, the media is always ready and willing to help them push that narrative. This is a disgrace to our country and it's an embarrassment. Uh, we can play partisan games up here on the hill all day long. Um, but right now, Democrat senators are getting paid to show up to work every day. They're getting paid$175,000 to show up to work. Yesterday in the Commerce Committee, the Commerce Science Transportation Committee oversees FAA, NASA, Coast Guard were responsible for the legislation and funding around those agencies. The Democrats boycotted the hearing yesterday. It didn't show up. Didn't show up. And in that hearing, we were supposed to confirm some nominations, some promotions of the Coast Guard, pass some important legislation around the security of our nation. They just didn't show up because they wanted to protest this shutdown. They're the ones causing the shutdown. I mean, you feel like you're taking crazy pills sometime around here. It's like, what the hell? You are calling what are you protesting? You're causing it. It's like we've ever seen blazing saddles when the sheriff comes out with a gun to his own head, like, ah, stop or I'll shoot. It's like, what are you talking about? Like, you caused the shutdown, and now you're protesting your own shutdown. We have voted repeatedly to open up the government. Now they want a deal. They say they want concessions from the administration, from Senate Republicans on how we're going to reform DHS so that we don't have more mistakes like we had in Minneapolis. The administration has literally agreed to all their demands, said, Great, okay, fine. We don't like all this, body cameras, all this stuff, but we'll do it. We'll do it because we believe we should be paying our employees who are working every day. We've agreed to those demands. Oh, then they change them again. Then we agree to those demands. They change them again, agree to those demands, we've changed it again. So at this point, as of this morning, we've essentially said, guys, this is it. First of all, we've given you everything you've asked for and you've moved the goalpost about five times now. There's nothing more to give. There's not other than ending all deportations and making illegal immigration legal again, like under the Biden years, there's nothing more we can give. And essentially, I believe that's where they want this to go. They have two desired end states here. Number one is they want the government shut down because it makes Republicans look bad and they want to crash the country for the midterms. And number two, as I think is now quite obvious, they want illegal immigration unfettered. They want massive amounts of illegal immigrants into this country that they will then ply with massive benefits so that they vote for them. It's that simple. And people call it like a conspiracy theory. It's like, I don't know how it's a conspiracy theory, but it's exactly what was going on for four years under Biden. Then as we're trying to solve that problem that the vast majority of Americans want solved, they're trying to create it again. So I hope we're getting closer to a deal. Um, but like I said, we've been close to a deal repeatedly over the last week, and they've backed off every time. So uh this is a Democrat problem, 100%. I have to commend the admin. They've been extremely uh constructive. As you know, sometimes, you know, Trump is not always constructive. He's like, screw these guys, blow it up. I'm not talking to them. He him and his team have been very constructive here. And and so have so have the Senate Republican side. So um my hope is is uh Schumer and his colleagues come to their senses and realize that um politics is a game that we gotta play, but we shouldn't be playing it with the livelihoods of our workers and we shouldn't be playing it with the safety of our country.
SPEAKER_08Well, I do sense your frustration, Senator Shee. I have the same frustration that every, I think every American is right there with you. I saw then earlier today um your colleague, Senator Ron Johnson, he came out and said, in light of the dysfunction that you've just explained to us, I'm not sure how things could get much worse by ending the filibuster, which is one thing that the president has advocated for as well. What's your opinion on that as being maybe the only way forward?
SPEAKER_03Well, listen, I if I had any confidence we could do it, we wouldn't. I mean, I don't have, I've only been in this body a year. I don't have some amazing connection to the filibuster that has this amazing constitutional rule. It's not in the constitution. Uh it, you know, as you know, the Senate has evolved over the years uh in various ways. You know, senators weren't even directly elected by the people, they were appointed by the state legislature. That that was changed by the 17th Amendment in 1913. Of course, then this the filibuster was created after that at 67 votes. And so point being, we don't need to go through every iteration. This isn't enshrined in the Constitution. The filibuster is a good thing. It it was created with the best of intent. I think it's produced a lot of good legislation over the years. But when one party chooses to use it as nothing but an obstruction tool to crash our own country, um, it's unacceptable. So uh I completely agree with Ron at this point, opening our government, securing our borders, protecting securing our borders. Let's not forget, our border patrol agents who secure our borders right now are not getting paid. I don't blame them for walking off the job if they have to go get another employment. Twice in six months now they're not getting paid. And of course, that's after four years of being demonized by the Democrats through the Biden administration, being brought in accused of terrible, terrible things. So um, you know, I think there's broad support for ending it in the conference. Unfortunately, there's also broad support for keeping it in the conference. So unfortunately, I don't think it's a realistic thing anytime soon. Um, I would certainly support it at this point, but uh it doesn't look like we have the numbers for it. So um we're gonna have to try to solve this without it. Now, there are paths to fix this without that. There's paths the administration could take with declaring some emergencies around certain uh agencies. There's also paths we can take through reconciliation to try to fund certain aspects uh of the government. So uh until we have the votes to blow the filibuster, uh we'll have to find other ways around this to get it done.
SPEAKER_08What about the talking filibuster? Have you talked, have you thought about that at all? Do you think that's a viable option?
SPEAKER_03You know, look, listen, uh obviously that's been floated recently. Uh it's one of those plans that I'll say briefs really well on paper. Um, but when you start doing the math with it, um what if we did the talking filibuster, which I don't think anyone has any philosophical problem with doing that, we're not changing any rules, we're simply following the rules as they exist. As you've seen in the past year and a half, Chuck Schumer will do absolutely everything in his power as a Senate minority leader to shut things down. Look at our nominee process. This is the most obstruction we've ever seen ever in the history of America by a huge margin of nominees, presidential nominees. Typically, there's about 1,200 presidential nominees. Usually the top 20, 30, they go through the full hearing process, they get committee hearings, they get committee votes, floor votes, they go through cloture, they go through the whole exhaustive process for the, you know, the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, you know, the top 20, 30 posts. And then it kind of winnows down to, all right, we're going to talk to the next 30 or 40. We'll do quick interviews, and then we're going to throw the rest into a big package and we're going to vote them all in at once because we don't have time to do this. If all we did was nominations, no Senate would do anything. And it's never once happened in the history of our country that every single nominee has been forced to go through the entire process, which is the right of the minority to do. Well, Chuck Schumer has done that this Senate. The most percentage ever that was voted through on a voice vote as a package was about 70% of nominees. That was under Trump's first term. So about 70%. I'm sorry, that was under Biden's term, about 70% of the nominees were voted through as a single package so they could get to work and run the country. They've fought every single one, 1,200 nominees. So where I'm going with that is it's very clear Schumer will do everything he can to slow everything down that we do. So if we go down the path of a talking filibuster, which I have no problem doing philosophically, but practically speaking, if we started the talking filibuster today and every single senator had their speeches, and Chuck Schumer did every procedural hurdle he could do to slow us down by forcing opening and closing executive session, by forcing debate, by forcing votes, by forcing amendment votes, privilege resolutions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That would quite literally drag through the midterms elections. The Senate would be closed for business because the whole point of the talking filibuster is we control the floor and we don't stop talking until we pass a bill. They're not going to quit. There's no incentive for them to quit because we're the ones that get blamed. Now we would be the ones shutting down the government while we're talking about it. The Save Act is absolutely we got to do it. Voter ID, no question. In fact, today, just a couple hours ago, we put a bill on the floor to require voter ID nationwide. Require it? Guess what? No surprise the Democrats voted against it as they always do. So this is an important issue that we need to attack. And it would be worth, as you said, any of the filibuster to get it done. Unfortunately, the talking filibuster would mean we get nothing done until the election. No nominees, no judges, no judicial appointments, and no legislation of any kind. It would grind the country to a halt until the midterms. And not only do I think that's bad policy, I think it's very bad politics. I think we get crushed in the midterms because of it, and Schum would use every opportunity. So, you know, we have to remember that there's always, you know, uh equal opposite reaction. Sometimes plans sound really good on paper. Oh, it'll be great. We'll do the X, Y, and Z. Well, we got to bake in what the enemy's gonna do too. And they are gonna go after us in every way possible to slow this down. So um I think it's more complicated than some have led us to believe. Um, so ultimately we'll we'll we'll try to reopen the uh DHS here shortly. I think we have a deal that's on the table that might be accepted, and hopefully after that, we can get to the SAVE Act.
SPEAKER_09Now, before we run out of time with you today, I did want to get your thoughts. As someone who grew up in Minnesota and left as an outsider looking in today, what do you make of what's become of this state? I mean, we've had this embarrassing fraud scandal blow up. We had all of the ICE mess, the protests, and the two citizens killed. What do you make of someone who grew up here and and is is looking back on your native state?
SPEAKER_03Well, it's um it's sad, first of all. I mean, folks who say what happened to Minnesota, obviously, as you well know, and as many of us know, you know, I have to remind people we're the only state that didn't vote for Ronald Reagan in '84. So, you know, Minnesota's liberal roots haven't just sprouted up here in the last few years. Now, of course, Walter Monde was on the ticket, so uh there were there was uh there was a home home roots there. But, you know, um uh Montana's, I'm sorry, Minnesota's, you know, socialist roots and and uh and that collectivist mindset of our Scandinavian farmer settlers goes back a long way. And I think um, you know, the the Democrats of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, um, which I'll I'll add and remind you, Montana was a heavily Democrat state for about a century. Montana just became Republican in the last decade. Uh, we had two Democrat senators for almost a century. And right now, our whole delegation is Republican for the first time ever since statehood. So we we had that same Scandinavian settler roots in Montana that kind of had that collectivist mindset and led to uh a long period of Democrat domination. Minnesota has that too. Unfortunately, you know, as the tree split, the Montana Democrat history was the type of people who were pro-gun, pro-choice, pro-law and order, God-fearing Democrat. You know, like you don't really have those anymore. You know, like if you're those first four things, you're voting Republican. Um, Montana still had those relatively recently. And largely that was because the union vote. You know, we had a huge mining industry and a railroad in Montana, so real heavy labor connection. So kind of that blue dog Democrat, the blue-collar guys I just described that were, you know, now pretty firmly Republican. Obviously, Montana uh took that branch of the tree, Minnesota took the other branch of the tree, which is going this like crazy woe Hamas transgender branch of the party, where it's like they literally like illegal immigrants better than citizens. They think, you know, Hamas terrorists are better than police officers in our own troops. They think that the regime of the Ayatollah is a justified, self-determined government that's legitimate. Um, and you know, they they would rather give benefits to illegal immigrants than veterans, um, which is exactly what you know the Biden administration is doing. So um it's really sad to see how it's gone. It's sad to see uh like I have no problem with political differences with anybody, you know. Um I grew up in Minnesota, where obviously a red guy and a blue state. But when those differences start tacking into you're gonna release murders on onto our streets, you're gonna have someone who's been arrested 73 times, you're gonna put them back on the street out of a sense of compassion, even though we know for a fact, an unequivocal fact, that person is gonna violate again and again and again and terrorize our communities. Um, so it's incredibly frustrating to watch. Obviously, the fraud is just uh I don't think I wasn't surprised growing up. I was a volunteer firefighter and we do volunteer shifts down in in St. Paul. And, you know, it it was never a surprise when we started hearing the massive structural fraud going on in the smaller community. I think for any of us who had to respond down there to medical calls or anything, you're like, yeah, of course. I mean, it was pretty obvious what was happening here. These people aren't working. They're not going to their jobs every day, they're not paying into the system. And now we find not where they just passively, uh passively taking from the system, they were actively undermining and defrauding the system, which is incredibly frustrating for someone like me. You know, I've been to Africa, been to the Middle East. We bring these refugees in with a sense of uh compassion and generosity. Americans are more generous than any other country in the world to bring these people in and say, listen, you know, you are fleeing hardship. We want to bring you here and give you another chance. And for them to come into our home and literally steal from us and defraud us and laugh about it while they're doing it is just disgusting and embarrassing. And the fact that it's now clear the government of the state of Minnesota knew this was happening the entire time and intentionally swept it under the rug is a disgrace. And and anybody who says the government didn't know what was going on, uh, you know, they're lying through their teeth. I mean, part of some of my businesses was contracting with the government, like aero firefighting. And I mean, to get$10,000 paid out from the government, you had to fill out so much paperwork, you had to get audited, you had to have, you know, reams of paper out the ass, you had to have spreadsheets and ledgers just to get paid anything. It was crazy. You're like, guys, I'm I'm spending more on money on the paperwork to get this money than you're paying me. And I mean, they go through every line item. So don't tell me that$19 billion walked out the door and nobody knew what was going on. They knew they were a part of it, and it's unacceptable. And I hope that people end up behind bars.
SPEAKER_08Well, thank you so much for your time, Senator Sheehe. Hopefully you will come back to Minnesota and bring with some good um conservative vibes with you and maybe change things around here. We also heard that you actually have attended American Experiment Annual Dinners in the past as a high schooler. So we are so excited to have you back this time as a keynote speaker. Thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER_03It'll be exciting. I only went to one, I think, and it was uh George H. W. Bush. So it was fun to see that as a I think I'm a freshman or something in high school. I went to one. It was a high school group went to watch it. So it's pretty cool to see him there. But I'll look forward to seeing you guys in a few weeks. And uh let's get Montana back on the on the track track, I should say Montana is on the right track. Let's get Minnesota back on the right track.
SPEAKER_09Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thanks, ladies. See ya.
SPEAKER_09Thank you so much to making it all the way to the end of this week's episode of the American Experiment Podcast. If you do want to get tickets for our spring annual dinner gala with U.S. Senator Tim Sheehe, you can go to AmericanExperiment.org slash events.
SPEAKER_08Uh, thank you guys so much for your feedback. We love reading your comments, unless your name's Daniel and you're calling me screechy, which is true, by the way. Or no, no, no. Shribble? Um both true. It's okay, I understand. Even so, leave us comments. We appreciate the feedback. Share it with your friends and like and subscribe and give us five stars while you're at it, if you wouldn't mind.
SPEAKER_09And then to the point of sound quality, we are gonna be launching a new, a new studio, a new set very quickly in the next few weeks here, which will include some soundboard upgrades so we can continue to improve the show and give you guys the highest quality content that we are capable of here.
SPEAKER_08True, I'm gonna make no promises on like the tone of my voice, though. I mean, I've been shrilled and I'm shrill forever. I mean, what can I say? I don't know, nothing. I'll do my best. I'll do my best for you, Dale. For you.
SPEAKER_09Stay tuned, stay safe out there, and we will see you next week.
