I am thrilled this evening live from El Paso, Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, great American patriot and important voice. I think as people join us, you still hold the record for the most votes ever for a Democrat in the state of Texas.
I think that might be right. Certainly it was true in twenty eighteen. The other distinction that I love from the campaign and all the people who worked on it was it was the first Democrat to win the five major metro areas and surrounding counties in Texas since LBJ
did it in sixty four. So there was a real resurgence in that campaign in not just Democratic party power, but in people who had checked out of politics for whatever reason, didn't feel like the institutions or the system or the parties were working for them, who came out, took a chance and got involved. And though we didn't beat Ted Cruz, and I'm forever sorry for that, I do think good things have continued to roll from that campaign in twenty eighteen, not necessarily for me, but just
for Texas and what is possible politically. And we may get into that in the conversation, but yeah, that was a great campaign.
JB. Pritsker, the governor of Illinois, gave a very important speech, I would argue the most effective response we have seen thus far from any elected Democrat anywhere in the country. He did it from the Illinois State Legislature in Springfield, Illinois that he talked about. The things that he talked about I think were of important and obvious consequence. But there is a line in Governor Pritzker's speech where he says, I am not rising because of my ambitions, but rather
because of my obligations. And what I want to say to everybody as people are getting on and we're now north of one thousand people with us and continuing to climb, so we get ready to start the conversation, is that you just heard better A. Rourke say that, Hey, I lost that race to Ted Cruz and I'm sorry for that. And let me just say there's no apology needed. What you have for me is the deepest respect and admiration.
And what I want everybody on this call to understand is the courage it takes to put your name on that ballot and to stand in that arena, particularly in a state where your opponent gets to run downhill with no backpack, and you have to run uphill with a heavy backpack. They get to do it on a nice paved track. You have to do it on a dirt,
rocky mountain laiden path. And so when we talk about the concept of being in the arena, the man and now women obviously face marred by blood and sweat and tears, but never with those timid souls. That's what we're talking about. And so I think that everybody certainly on this when we consider the state of the country right now. We're all going to be called to play a role to be citizens in the months ahead. And so what I want to ask you first up is how do you
assess the situation? Is what is happening here as we enter month two in the United States? How do you process what you see with your eyes? Do you see disconnects between what you see with your eyes and what is now being reported to you on mainstream channels. And let me just start there and just assess the situation and your reaction to it, and also your emotional reaction to it with regard to any sense of danger.
So over to you, since you invoked tr I want to lay something else out that he said, he talked about doing what you can with what you have where you are. And it's one of my most favorite sentiments ever uttered by an American leader and servant, because it
it reflects the power of people. It's not just the person in the position of the presidency, though he may claim to be a dictator or promise to be one, as he did before the election, or act like a tyrant, or act and behave so obsequiously with other tyrants like
Vladimir Putin. It's the people in a democracy that is comprised of people from around the world who found a home here in this country and contributed to and established the greatness of America, the single most important country on the face of the planet in the history of the world.
A force for good, a force for freedom. Imperfect as all things under the sun are, but the best thing going, if you ask me, and the best thing going because it is the government of, by and for the people, So Steve, the way I respond to this question is to encourage all of us to think about what each of us can do right now that there's real power in each of us individually and even more so collectively.
Let me give you an example. We are maybe a gas at the Republican members of Congress, so they're in the majority and the Senate, who are essentially absolutely abnegating their responsibility as a coequal branch of government. It could be a you know, congressionally chartered agency like us AID. I think it was created by Congress in nineteen ninety eight, maybe originally through an executive order by Jfk in his administration, But this belongs to Congress. You know. Musk and co
President dismantled that. And you don't hear a peep from them. The president illegally impounding congressionally authorized and appropriated funds. You
don't hear anything from them. Members of Congress who said the right thing three years ago when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, about the tens of thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers for that matter, who have been killed, the billions of dollars of damage, the threat that it poses not just to Ukraine, but a free and democratic Europe and by extension to the United States of America itself treaty bound to defend our NATO partners, who are only a country's
throw away from Ukraine, from the invading armies of Russia. They're saying nothing right now, as Trump tries to in real time rewrite history to call Zelenski the dictator, to blame Ukraine for starting the war, and then Democrats who seem in disarray and confused and not coherent and not compelling and not offering a clear strategic directive for all of us to follow and to take. If it were just up to them, I'd say, Okay, let's admit defeat. But I just want to remind everybody it is up
to each and every single one of us. And there's a way I think we can move these members of Congress in that coequal brunch branch, a way that we can give the lie to the idea that Trump is all powerful, that Musk, with all his wealth and influence and access, is bigger than any one of us can possibly defeat, and that is by calling those members of
Congress to account. You've seen these viral clips of the members of Congress who hold these town hall meetings thinking it's going to be an easy ride as they explain the triumph of the Musk Trump presidency, only to have their constituents get in their face. Veterans who served honorably in Afghanistan and Iraq came back with PTSD, were hired by the VA and so called provisional positions summarily fired by Doge and Elon Musk, who show up and say,
what the fuck? I've served this country, put my life on the line for you, then served again by trying to take care of these veterans. You, mister member of Congress, serve me and are accountable to all of us. What are you going to do about it? Those Republican members of Congress before those town halls, the only thing they felt like they had to fear was Donald Trump. When they show up to those town halls, they remember who put them in power in the first place, the people
they serve, and the accountability that comes with it. They fear those constituents because they care about their re election. By that same token, I want Democrats to show up in front of their constituents, and though they're afraid to in some cases because they say, look, I don't have all the answers, I'm in the minority. What do you
expect me to do? I think, armed with the stories and the emotional connection that they make with their constituents face to face, eyeball to eyeball in that room or auditorium that they gather in. I think that's going to buck them up. Give them the steel spine that they need right now, and reinforce the idea that they should not give an inch to Donald Trump. Do not let them, Do not let them use democratic votes in the House
of Representatives to pass bad budget deals. Do not let them use Senate democratic votes to confirm nominees who are absolutely incompetent and capable, and in some case traitorous to the interests of the United States of America, to our constitution and our democracy. So if you are so inclined and you're watching us right now, the number at the switchboard is two two two, two four, three, one six one.
I saw a tweet Steve from Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, who said that in the second week of the Trump administration, the switchboard was seeing all time high numbers come of calls coming through. I think we can melt that thing down if we keep up the pressure. And I've been a member of Congress, I serve for three terms. You wonder whether your calls make a difference, I will tell you from experience they do. We pay attention,
it gets our focus, and it changes our behavior. So we have power, Steve, and I do feel like folks who are frustrated and wondering where the leadership was going to come from are now finding that is within themselves and the power that they have in this democracy.
Terrific. Thank you very much again. That number two O two two two four, three one two six. I think three one two one will also get you to the Capitol switchboard and ask for your member of Congress or any member of Congress. Remember and the immortal words of cool hand Luke Paul Newman. Uh, what we're having here, mister Musk, is a failure to communicate. These people that are being treated like insects don't work for Elon Musk, they work for us. And I find it outrageous and
I and I find it offensive. And so let's talk about something you just said that I think is of the utmost importance, and it's this reality in our society that we are a bottom up society, not a top down society. There is no cockpit of United States in which Donald Trump sits with Elon and a couple of young men pushing buttons. This is a giant, decentralized country with one hundred thousand elected governments. They all have lawyers. Trump has the power in that he has the initiative,
but his poll numbers are cratering. And this will be the month of the cratering, and next month will be one of rising. As we move into the spring, I anticipate that we will see scores of tens of thousands of people on the streets, if not more. The right to dissent, the right to protest, is of the utmost important to appreciate, your constitutional rights not come from Donald Trump. They come from the American Constitution, which asserts they come from a higher power. Let me say before I ask
you this next question. Going back to Teddy Roosevelt, it could be argued that the twentieth century begins with a horse and carriage ride on the occasion of the assassination of William McKinley in Buffalo, New York, and the very young Vice President forty one years old, is riding through the night at full speed dangerously by horse and carriage.
The first member of the US Secret Service in history to be killed in the line of duty is killed on this midnight ride, and Teddy Roosevelt takes the oath of office Teddy Roosevelt because the first president to fly in an airplane, his son, Teddy Roosevelt Junior, will be the only general to land in the first wave on d Day. He will be the oldest man in the first wave, the only father to have a son who lands in the first wave, a recipient of the Medal
of Honor. So, this American century that lifts out of the ashes of the Second World War, civilization and these ideals of human dignity and freedom to the forefront and unleashes the greatest period of upward mobility and prosperity for billions of people around the globe, lifts them into freedom, not utopia, but progress. And it has been decided by Donald Trump that it is to be smashed. I have just got back from Berlin. I was a guest of
the CDU during the final rallies for Chancellor Mertz. The grief of German parliamentarians, of German leadership for what Donald Trump has done. The obliteration of our ideals and our ideas from an American president is shocking. But America's ideals don't belong to Trump. They belong to us. And we
have spread them around the world. And so what I want to ask you, in this moment, when an American president looks the American people in the eye and tells them it is the Russians who are the victims, what do we say to the American people who know that that's a lie? How do we arm them to talk to their neighbors and friends, Because it's no different than saying that Poland invaded Germany on September first, nineteen thirty nine.
Yeah, listen, this is why I read you, this is why I watch you, This is why I think you're such a great leader. Especially at this moment. You can bring in the long view and set the historical precedent for us and remind us what it is we are made of. We are the people who threw off tyranny to create this great experiment. We are the people who ended the institution of slavery at the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of young men from every part of the
United States. We are the people who, in June of forty four, landed on those beaches, Democrats, Republicans alike, every single one of them, knowing that not every single one of them would come back, and yet they were willing to die to defeat fascism abroad to save democracy at home. We are the people who had great cost and sacrifice, including the lives of far too many, made civil rights and voting rights possible, creating the first multi racial democracy
in American history. That is who we are. We are not Donald Trump. We are not this incredibly corrupt and cynical administration that seeks to turn its back completely on this history of struggle and sacrifice and service that has made us the greatest nation of all time. And certainly to your point, we cannot be that country that turns us back on the people of Ukraine, that turns us back on the people of Europe, and frankly that turns its back on the people of the United States of America.
Because you've been really eloquent on this point, and I think everyone needs to hear it. We're not supporting Ukraine because we care about the people of Ukraine. I mean we do, and I personally do. And they are my heroes for what they have done, including defying every single prediction and the longest odds that they were up against on the day that that invasion started almost three years ago.
To the day. I mean for that alone, I want to have their backs, but we are supporting Ukraine so that we don't have to have our allies in NATO fight the front lines in Poland, or in the Baltics or deeper into Western Europe. We're supporting Ukraine so that our sons and daughters are not fighting in those wars abroad, or fighting on those wars on our shores when that war comes home to us. Another analogy that you bring to mind for me is Munich in nineteen three eight.
The parallels were absolutely chilling to me. That you have a leader, the pre eminent leader of a Western democracy, suing for peace with a tyrant who is trying to annex part of a neighboring country by force if necessary, and you concede everything to that tyrant without allowing In nineteen thirty eight it was Czechoslovakia, without allowing the party affected to even come to the table. Trump is worse than Nevil chamber I'd like to think Nevill Chamberlain actually
thought he was going to achieve peace. Trump is so goddamn cynical. He knows that is not the case, but he does it nonetheless. Sacrificing everything that you've just mentioned, everything that I just went through, all that history of American sacrifice, struggle, and service, and everything that will come forward that will be precipitated by this cowardly, cynical abnegation
of everything that this country stands for. So look, if you're at home wondering, because you may have read the propaganda from Trump, that you know, we're spending five hundred billion, which is not the amount of folks, but that's what Trump has said we've spent in Ukraine, that we're getting a lie to an ex comedian con man who's shaken down the United States of America, and we have nothing to gain for it. The number is much lower. It
is a pittance. It is a fraction of the price we would pay if we had to support our NATO allies on the front lines of a war with Russia's Putin. It is infintesimally small against the sacrifice of American soldiers and service members who would have to fight in a hot war against the Russian Federation if we were to have to, as we are pretty bound to do, come to the aid of our allies, who will most certainly be attacked if Putin is allowed to roll over Ukraine.
So this is the bargain of the century, on top of the moral imperative to do the right thing as the world's leading light and the best last hope for mankind in Lincoln's words, So I mean, you say it far better than I can.
You always not at all.
That's what we have to remember at this time. It's what makes us so goddamn proud to be Americans. Let's not lose it on this petty want to be tyrant who's trying to make a deal with the real tyrant in Russia.
Right now, I want to take this now into the direction of tactical and what democratic leaders should do. We have now almost three thousand people with us. We have a lot of people that are frustrated with the Democratic Party's response and by the Democratic Party's response. Let's be specific about that, meaning the response of congressional leaders. And so let's talk about a tough decision where we're blending
in history tonight. The beginning of World War Two, Winston Church had a very very difficult decision to make when the Nazis conquered France, and the decision was now that the Nazis occupied France and that there was a vshi French government that controlled the second largest navy in the world. What should be done about it? Now, Winston Churchill had an audience of one in mind, which was the American president.
But what he did is not something that's talked much about in the open between friends and partners and allies. But Winston Churchill sank the French fleet, and he killed thousands of French soldiers. And the reason he did that, more than any other reason, was to say, we'll do
anything to win. So in this moment, there's a question for Democrats, and I'm gonna lay out hypothetical analogy of all three thousand of us were crashed together on a proverbial airplane in the Alaskan wilderness, and we walked out of that airplane all alive. We would be upset and disoriented and pissed off and scared, but we'd have to do something. And the very first thing we'd have to
do is light a fire. Now, for Democrats, right now, it seems to me strategically there's an overwhelming national security imperative. I mean talking about defending government of buying for the people, and that imperative is one Elon Musk stops immediately whatever it is that he is doing. Two he discloses everything that he has done immediately and without delay to the United States Congress. And number three that everything regarding empowerment
of federal monies returns to regular order immediately. When that happens, we'll be happy to discuss anything you'd like to talk about. With regard to votes, you may need to fund the government. So this is everybody, three thousand people. Now, this is very important to understand, and this is hard to get your head around. Donald Trump needs the government funded to kill it. The leverage the Democrats have is to allow it to be shut down to keep it from being killed,
preserving it in a coma. But that means the stalemate of a government shutdown will impact people and they will suffer. But that suffering has been imposed on them not by the people who are imposing on Donald Trump a red line, but by the man who knows no red line. So we already have passed the line of no return. With regard to are we going to suffer and endure calls from this? We are. The question is how do you
make it stop? How do you make it stop? And I see no other way and no other immediate point of leverage before a Democratic House victory than right now is to make Donald Trump stop. And this guy who wrote the Art of the Deal, and the only thing you ever need to know about him is what's in that book says forty years ago is preferred method of communication and a negotiation is to walk into a room, put a finger in your chest, and tell you to go fuck yourself. So this isn't a secret. He's been
doing it for fifty years. And I just am I right about this? Am I wrong about this? What is the leverage place for Democrats who are not powerless in this situation. Senators have the ability to block nominations and put holds on them. Democrats have the ability to strangle the money. How do you see this?
I think you're totally correct, and almost under any other scenario, I probably disagree with you, but I think you're right because this is and perhaps this word gets used too often, but this is existential. This is, as you say, Steve, and I could not agree more strongly. This is about the life and death of this great Republic, of the American democracy, of our constitution, of rule by law of you know, it's not about the power that men have. It's about the power of our laws, all of us
being treated equally under them. We're really about to lose. To invoke the same line from Lincoln again, the last best hope of Earth. That was really the last existential crisis for American democracy. Can government, you know, of men? Can it? Can it survive on this planet? Because I mean, let's remember, in the whole of human history, this is
a really rare fucking thing. You know, for the for the most part, in almost every civilization, at every time, it is tyrants, it is kings and queens, it is it is emperors, it is dictators. It is very rarely the people who are able to govern themselves. I happen to be reading right now, and I'll keep this brief. A military history of the Peloponnesian War. You know, I believe it starts around four thirty one. I believe it
ends around four h three BC. And you have this this alliance of democracies led by Athens, and you have an alliance of tyrannies led by Sparta, and the question is really in doubt for the duration of the war, and extraordinary brutal things happen across the entire you know, Greek islands and Greek mainland over the course of this. But the question that is being called throughout that war
is whether you can have self government? And I feel, you know, and then it and then it's extinguished essentially because you spoiler alert the Athenians, the democracies. They lose that war, and by and large it is gone until it re emerges on the North American continent in full force in the form that we see here today, as in peril as it may be, it still exists, nonetheless, and that's fucking amazing. But I've often wondered, because I'm
a student of history. I love ancient history, I love Greek history, how is it that it arose at that time? And how is it that it was lost for not years or centuries, but millennia? And how can that focus our attention right now on how precious and rare this thing is that we have. And so my big wind up to answer your question, I was in Congress, as I mentioned, for three terms, and there were times where
Democrats were tempted to shut down the government. I remember there was an omnibus spending bill and it was Steve It's complete dog shit. It had all these things in it I didn't support. I was running against Ted Cruz at the time. I knew that he would light me up for it. I knew that he had an easy not vote on it, because he could give a shit about governing and about the people's lives that he would affect.
But I knew because I ran on restoring funding to the VA, making sure that veterans could see a behavioral health care specialist, reducing the long wait times that we were seeing, I knew that if we shut down the government, I was going to screw over every single veteran who had put his or her life on the line of this country. And I could not be part of it. You know, damn the politics of this. I just had to do the right thing. So I've never been a
fan of shutdowns, always voted against him. But listen, you are one hundred percent correct when the other side of this argument is that we might very well lose this constitutional republic if we don't starve this want to be tyrant of the resources he needs to kill it once
and for all. Then I think the choice is pretty damn clear, and I think it's a perfect time just to remind everybody that those representatives up there, if we were to administer truth storem to them, the thing that they care about more than anything else is their reelection. If they fear you, their constituent, their voter, more than they fear Donald Trump or the politics of the moment,
they're going to respond to that. And I promise you call them and it's two two two two four, three one two one, or I think Steve said three one two six. One of those numbers is going to work. Maybe both three one.
Two one is the right number, three one two one.
So if you tell them you Steve said it better than I could. But you want them to vote no on anything that Trump and the Republican majority want. They have a one vote majority in the House. Let's go see if they can keep that fractious majority together. And in the Senate. Again, as Steve said, it's no on any nominee at any level. Do not allow him the power that he wants to render all of us powerless in our own democracy. And again, it's not just for
us those of us alive today. It's in honor to those who never came home from the beaches on Normandy, who fought for our freedom in the first place. Who ended the institution of slaver slavery? And it's for every generation that follows us. Imagine the kids one hundred years from now reading about this time like I'm reading about the Peloponnesian War and saying, who were these fuckers in twenty twenty five, who had the power at their disposal, who had the world in their hands and let it
slip through their fingers. We cannot be those people. We cannot be found wanting at this moment of truth. We absolutely must come through and see. You've got kids. I've got kids. Their judgment is my conscience. That's what weighs on me more than anything else. I need to be able to tell them not just that I tried and did my best, but that I tried, I did my best, and we overcame this threat and were able to save
the Republic. I mean, it sounds grandiose, and it would be at any other time, but it's the fucking truth.
At this moment, I want to I want to ask you. I want to ask you one more question if I could, which which is which is this? And I want to bring it back on onto this history plane, which we which we've woven all the way through and on the continuum. So there is this moment in history that is a before and after that is a hinge that changes everything in its aftermath. And that's in UH November day when the ship Arabella sails into was now the Provincetown harbor.
And aboard this are the pilgrims UH and the religious seekers and UH the adventurers UH, people that were coming to the new continent UH looking for riches, UH, looking for adventure. And so the ship is battered, but before anybody gets off of it in this new world right, they make an agreement between them, and that agreement ends the feudal age, the Mayflower Compact, and it commits everybody to a concept of the common good that they appreciate.
They can't survive without this. And this is a deeply linked beginning to this concept that's deeply American, of our reaching for the city on the hill, trying to find that city on the hill, to get to that mountaintop that king, that king talks about. So all of these federal employees are being treated like insects by the world's richest man who has been and elected to no office, confirmed to no office pointed to, no office that has
been created by any congressional act. And he makes decrees in pronouncements that assaults their human dignity, that assault a fundamental concept that I was raised with, which was that everybody who works hard and plays by the rules, whether they be the sanitation worker or the cop, the fireman, the steel worker, the teacher, the astronaut, the billionaire inventor that in this great republic, they all have a role, but everybody gets treated with respect and dignity, and that
there's a fundamental relationship between your dignity in your work and your pursuit of happiness, which is elemental to the construction of the country. And so the abuse and the cheering of the abuse, and the escalations of the dehumanizations are deeply worrying to me. I know they are to you, but just at a humanist level, How should people think about this moment where must is really foreshadowing? You want to talk about what the AI future is like? Everybody,
this is what it's like in every company. It's brutalist. You're expendable, You're a pond, you're a serf, You're a fucking insect. And so the application of this that old I think it was Reverend Nebor, and I'm sure pronouncing
correctly right. First they come for the government workers, and next they come for you and secticized, reduced to nothing, And we will have a king, and the king will have his lords, and the lords will have their deals, and the serf shall never complain and always be kept divided by the algorithm and enslaved by the chains of the stoked divisions that are purposeful, deliberate, strategic for the greatest act of taking in human history.
There's almost nothing that I can add to what you said, because I agree with it so strongly, and it was put so powerfully and so eloquently. That is exactly what's happening. And I keep, I keep, you know you and I've talked a lot about history and invoked so many great moments in history and so many things that make me so proud to be an American and really fuel the fight that I feel right now, like, Hey, we are made of stronger stuff. This is who we are as Americans.
We do not accept this stuff. We fight back against it with everything that we have, peacefully, democratically, but ultimately victoriously. That's that's what we're made of this other side. The richest man in the world, the guy who describes himself as a king, who promised us he would be a dictator on day one, who you know, thousand scrapes before
tyrants across the globe. They want us to feel like their rise and accumulation of power and dominance over the rest of us, as you described, is all but inevitable. Who am I to rise up against the richest, most powerful man in the world. Who am I to go up against the inevitable Donald Trump who was resurrected from political ignomy after January sixth, who survived, you know, an assassin's bullet, Who was you know, ordained by God to come and save this country and make America great again
and lay vengeance to his enemies? I mean the shit there invoking, Let's admit it, it's pretty powerful stuff. It can be really persuasive. And if your side is in disarray, with its tail between its legs, acting defeated, if you know your most public you know, you know advocates are Chuck Schumer and no offense, But you know it can't be Chuck Schumer. If no one's guiding the response to this,
the resistance, the revolution, the peaceful revolution. You know, yeah, I can see how people can give in and be tempted to give up and to fall into despair. And that's got to be the explanation, in part for why other democracies and republics in human history have fallen. I've read some of what you've written on this about you know, you look at Germany from the nineteen twenties and the
nineteen thirties. I mean, it has something to do with the magnetism and the charisma and the power of Hitler and the movement that he led, but also had to do a lot with the weakness of that democracy and the weakness of the leaders who were up against Hitler at that moment. I mean, this is our moment right now. We will be judged the same way that we judge those who had the chance back in nineteen thirty two to do the right thing, and for whatever political or
practical or personal excuse they gave, they just didn't. They just didn't. And we just can't be that because the future that you just described, I do believe is more likely than not if we are unsuccessful in fighting back. And so for folks, who are you taking notes at home. I think Steve said it best. I think reach out to that member of Congress right now, hold them accountable. I'd urge you to also ask them, demand from them that they hold a town hall, that they meet you
face to face, that they actually do their job. If we believe in democracy, it's more than voting in elections. It's a day in, day out working with our elected representatives to make them better. And as somebody who held a town hall every single month I was in Congress, man, it made me better. I went into those town halls with a pit of fear in my stomach because I was going to face my constituents. They're going to say, hey, Bets, so why did you vote for that thing? Where are
you on this thing? You promised us you were going to do. Hey, somebody hasn't returned my call in your office. Goddamn. That would focus my attention, and I was reminded of who it was I served. I urge you to do that. And to Steve's point, every House member who's a Democrat, do not help the Republicans fund this government, because, as he said, Donald Trump will use that funding to kill
government of by and for the people. You call every Senator and you urge them to vote no on any nomination, doesn't matter how big or how small, how qualified, how unqualified. I mean, honestly, most of them are so unqualified on
merit alone, they should be denied. And then it is not too early, in fact, it's approaching too late to get ready for twenty twenty six if we are going to be able to regain power, and sometimes Steve, I feel like Democrats care more about being right than being in power, while all that MAGA Republicans care about is power and nothing else. If we can focus single mindedly on power, as we should at this moment of truth,
then getting organized for twenty twenty six happens. Now. It is recruiting candidates, it's raising your hand to run, it's joining organizations that are registring voters, saying in touch with them, turning them out. I mean, there may be a response like we saw in twenty eighteen. There may not. Let's not take any chances. Let's put in the work right
now to get that done. And let me just end by saying this or last thing for me on this, I just want to say thank you to you for showing the political courage as a former Republican at a time where it was not easy for you to say what you said, And maybe it was easy for you personally, but I think for most Americans that would not have been an easy thing, and most people working in politics.
It was just the very rare display of courage that we needed, and for waking so many people up to the challenge and the danger and the threat that we face at this moment, and giving people hope. Lastly, giving people hope. You know, with that, I think all things are possible, and I feel Listen, I'm neither you nor I sugarcoated anything. I think we spoke in the starkest
terms about what's on the line right now. But I want to tell you, despite or because of all that, I am as optimistic and as hopeful as I've ever been because I know we're Americans. I know we do great things. I know that we come together anything as possible. You have brought us together on this call tonight, the thousands of people who've joined us, and I know you'll continue to do it. It's just an honor to be in this fight with you, and thank you for having me on.
Well, thank you, Beto. I have one last story if I could that, I want to share with everybody a couple of things. Administratively. I saw that during this that Ron Fournier, the legendary Associated Press Washington Bureau chief, is on. I urge all of you to follow Ron Fournier. I saw Stephen besch Loss is on. Urge all of you to follow Stephen besch Loss on substack At, someone that I read on a daily basis and that I get a lot out of. And there's some there's some great
voices out there. I want to share a story about Elon with everybody. I had an experience last March when I went to Auschwitz. I had been there for the first time in two thousand and five. I was part of a delegation led by Vice President Cheney when I was in the White House, and on that trip were Holocaust survivors. Tom Lantos, a member of Congress and his wife, but also Eli Vizl was on that was on that trip,
and it was a very powerful experience. And I returned this March and I went around the place with the chief guide named Paul Siwiki, who was a Polish journalist who left his job to be really the chief guide teacher, curator. There will be a time in Paul's life where when he is an old man, when he passes away, that it will be said that he probably knew and was one of the last living human beings to know as many Holocaust survivors as he has known from his position.
So he is somebody who does incredibly important work in the world who will never be a billionaire. So there's something true about Auschwitz is that you can't ever really say that you experienced Auschwitz, or that you've been to Auschwitz once or twice or three times. Really, even the survivors can't say they've been to Auschwitz because nobody survived the walk down the steps, into the showers and then
into the ovens. There are no pictures from side, but there are pictures taken from inside the ovens outside on the lines, and you can see the ruins there. And go to this corner of the camp and Paul says to me, some people say that even a bird won't fly over Witz. And he points out in the distance and he says, there's a stork taking off, and it was from the ponds where the ashes of a million human beings were dumped. So it's not true that birds don't fly at Auschwitz. The storks take off from the
pools that hold a million ashes. And so really the story of the Holocaust is a story about what comes next and next and next and next, until the unleashing of the industrialized killing, this hyperrational murder. And so in this quiet corner of Auschwitz, he points to these concrete structures and he says to me, do you know what those buildings are? And I said to him, it's a
wastewater treatment building. He says, very good. He goes, you know, Auschwitz got opened to a late start, the killing, the operation Reinhart camps, the original death camps from the Wansea conference where the Holocaust is planned. He said, yes, the SS had difficulty getting the permits to open the camp. Did you know that the SS needed to have a fire permit for the barracks And I didn't, and he said,
and they could not get the wastewater treatment permit. So when the architects of Auschwitz came to the German bureaucracy with a plan for a prison in the middle of the woods of conquered Poland for one hundred thousand people, the German bureaucrat didn't ask a question about what the prison is for. His question was, well, where will you dump the wastewater? And the SS said in the river, and the German bureaucrat said, no, good, nine five million
Germans down water, down river. And so it took two attempts for the SSS to get the permit to open Auschwitz. And Paul takes out his piece of paper and he says, ay, he says, here's the permit. That's what open Auschwitz. A stamp from a water bureaucrat dealing with the architect on the planes for a prison for one hundred thousand that killed a million. And so the man who interrogated out off heikman in Israeli police captain he is a German Jew who sat across room for hundreds of hours and
never talked about it. Twenty years after, the fast has asked the question, what is your takeaway from the experience? Did you have one? And he goes, yeah, because I have. My takeaway is democracy is what keeps you safe. That all around us are Aikmans, but they are latent into democracy, harmless, but in a dictatorship of the left or the right, they turned deadly. In an instant, and so what I want to say to everybody on this tonight. The leader
of the Democratic Senate is not Chuck Schumer. He has a title. It's Chris Murphy. Follow Chris Murphy. Call Chris Murphy's office and say what can I do? Follow the leaders, not the titles. Better A. Rourke is a leader. Follow him. I'm ready hear more from Better of Rourk in the months and years ahead. Is time a national crisis because it's the believers in the idealists who are going to lead us out of this mess. And Better of Rourk is a great idealist, a great leader in this country.
It's been a real pleasure to be with you tonight, Beto Congressman. Thank you in a four thousand of you, patriotic Americans who could be doing anything right now, including wollowing in despair, chose instead to be with us on a screen participating in twenty first century civics. Remember this, my friends, you are a defiant people. You are Americans. Do not give into this, do not relent in your criticism.
Pushback audios. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning, and I invite you to join subscribe on our substack on our YouTube channel, follow us, Welcome to the community.