Well, im really excited to jump into this. This is a is an excellent book with a perspective that is is very unique. I love how youve built in a lot of personal side to this. Im a you know, sitting member of congress. I dont get to be the one interviewing a lot. Im really excited about this because because im gonna flip the script a little bit instead of being subject to lots of interviews. Well as long as you agree not to treat this like a congressional hearing then and im fine. Im using in your chair. No, im not looking for im not looking to score political points playing it is im actually just wanted to hear your perspective and a little bit behind what this book is about and the part i want to jump right into and the thing that impressed me. The most is you talk a lot about misinformation and youve been you were in latvia and 2017 a lot of what was going on, you know bleeding up to the current rest, but all of this was written before russia invaded ukraine, but the thing were dealing with right now a lot on the Armed Services committee where i sit. Is is misinformation going out and spewing all over the world from every angle, right . Whats going on communicating here . What russias you know, what ukraine sending to us like you hit on that . Its one of the key challenges that were going to face in the next you know phase of our of what we go on in the world like i love your perspective on that because you kind of nail that with with whats going on russia right . Now. Look i i appreciate that and for me, its good to get worse, right . Thats what scary the russians have spent the last three decades perfecting information operations, and so for them information, the Information Space is a domain just like air land the sea in space and so we we know what theyre going to do. They dont have the military capabilities. They used to have were finding that right now in ukraine and so they have to control the information domain right now were talking about are they pulling troops back from keith . No, theyre not. Okay like this you cant believe anything that they say i remember i think i want to say it was 2016 or 2017 when the russians were deep in syria. The russians put out a notice that they were leaving syria and you saw these planes leaving a Syrian Air Base and everybodys like, oh my god, the russians are leaving. No, they would just those planes were going back to russia and they were bringing new ones in and they just put that information out there in order to deceive their opponents. And so the difficulty that we have that were dealing in now versus like the 80s. Is that information can move so fast the Rand Corporation calls it truth decay where youre able to have, you know separating being able to separate fact from opinions, right . And then you have the systems that can move that information very quickly now, this isnt a new thing one of the things that talk about in the book. There was some british philosopher back in the 1400s was basically had a quote that a lie can travel faster than the truth. Are you talking about that for for a couple for a couple now my fear is when we get into if we have to if we ever get into a conflict with china. And chinas capabilities in the digital sphere specifically when it comes to deep fades. We have to assume, you know, one of the things that ive been lucky to do since ive been out of congress is work with some Great Technology companies, and ive seen a lot of companies that are kind of in stealth mode the ability. We have to assume the Chinese Government today. Has the ability to render deep fakes that are real. Yeah. So imagine what conflicts going to be like when you have that as a tool. Well, you put it you put it in an interesting framework. You took foreign political issue based and lucrative. You talked a little bit about the lucrative side because it it is and its in theres theres so much to be gained from clickbait and you know the way things get misconstrued between opinion in fact and how were communicating that but anything else we bring up again foreign political issue based and lucrative. I havent seen anywhere where the misinformation that were gonna that were going to be dealing with Going Forward be that our that are that well articulated and it playing out literally a month or so after your book. I mean as your book gets released this stuffs playing out right in front of our eyes you look i appreciate that and in one of the entities that ive always had have looked to was the eu disenfolab there. Theyve been following this in a methodical way way for a really long time. One of the things that i was able to do when i was in congress and serving on the Intel Committee was whenever i would travel somewhere i would always stop in the capitals of some of our friends. I would always try to stop and brussels and talk to eu partners and the Eu Disinformation Lab or disinfo lab is this technical title the work that theyre doing on this is is pretty fantastic the German Marshall Fund has a dashboard that tracks this kind of stuff. Theres a theres a theres a Great Company basin israel called siabra, they track fake accounts the amount of fake accounts that are out there are shocking right . And so so the ability to separate and understand this and what is the motivations right when when i was in the cia recruiting spies and still in secrets, you always start with what is that motivation of that individual potentially work with you and so we have to understand the motivation of many of these actors. And this issue is is i dont want to say easier. You just probably the right the right word when were looking at our foreign adversaries. But we have domestic entities that are involved in some of these same kinds of kinds of activities. We also need to make sure that our media and our press have standards when it comes to sharing information and just because they got a piece of information from one person somewhere in an administration doesnt necessarily make that fact right even plural of those types of anecdote doesnt make that data sure for sure that that was look i was lucky for my for my experiences in the agency and being an Intelligence Officer where the information is actually only one piece of the intelligence. Who did you get it from howd that person have access to it . And and so so this is broader than just people doing something on purpose. Its like are we are we, you know unwitted unwitting in involved in some of these kinds of activities. Were not looking at the cross the the cooperation veracity. Were not looking at all angles of it. We just we were just so quick to consume and quick to actually bring up a point another key theme of this book is that america we need we need to we need to our allies to love us and we need our enemies to fear us you just spout it off five or six really strong allies talk a little bit about that because thats a key piece of this then and you know in the lack of Global Leadership from the us and you fear for that in the next phase of this look its its its worrisome, right . So, why did i write this . I wrote this book because i want to make sure this century stays the american century. And then put it in 250 years previous 250. We need to be thinking about the next 250. So even beyond century what 100 100 and we can but theres a question mark about whether we stay that way in in lets look at lets look at the events in ukraine right now. When you look at the global when you look at a globe. And see the number of countries that are not participating. In the financial sanctions against russia. Its pretty staggering. Its like most of latin america most of africa most of the middle east are not participating and so you got to ask yourself. Why now . I have an idea. Let me hear it. No, but it look but the why is not only are there afraid of russia . Theyre actually afraid of china for china the belton road in in for me look some people have criticized President Biden about how he framed his speech in poland about democracies versus autocracies. I think that was appropriate and and that is where things are devolving into and so the only way we the United States is going to be able to compete is if we have a bigger posse. Then the Chinese Government and i make it clear in the book. We are we talk about new cold war with russia . Yes. Were actually in a conflict with russia right now. But the the the relationship that is going to define the rest of this century is the us the relation between the us and china. I actually think both of us can exist the same time as long as were competing and cooperately were gonna cooperate were gonna compete were frenemies. Or economically integrated more than i mean. Yeah, what what did we put restrictions on other than energy and the banking . What is american shellfish vodka some diamonds like that was all there was imagine were in that kind of conflict with china. Our economic integration is so vastly different, but it does it presents an opportunity for us to you know, you know have a shared interest to avoid this type of conflict. Well, hopefully a better deterrent to this repeating with with taiwan as as russia has done and theyre currently doing to ukraine for sure because one of the russians have to lose nothing. Yeah, the chinese have a lot to lose. We have a lot to lose in that potential conflict. So how do we prevent that from happening . Make sure your friends, you know, its in the book make sure your friends. Love you and and that starts with working with them. Why have we not seen some high level delegations going throughout latin america. The western hemisphere should be with us 100 when it comes to when it comes to russia if theyre not with us when they come to russia. Its gonna be even more difficult when when this conflict and we have still do something tough against the Chinese Government. Ive you know when i was in Congress Since ive been out of Congress Talking with very Senior Leaders throughout the middle east and their government that always say will dont make us choose. And theyre saying dont make a shoes between the United States and china and theyre saying in that way but by implying youre not gonna like our answer and so these are issues that we have to deal with now the Biggest Issue driving in a relationships in the in the middle east right now is is iran and how we handle that issue and so so all of these things are connected and the world works better. When america is showing leadership in this International Order that we created following the end of the Second World War america is at its best when we are helping people, you know, we become an exceptional nation not because what weve taken but because of what we have given and that is where we need to be focused the deficiency when youre sitting there across from another ally and theyre telling you you might not like my answer needs to be a huge wakeup call that were not leading out enough and were not providing that that leadership across across the globe when i was running my own campaign, you know, im in my first term of congress when i was running my own campaign. It was the start of the pandemic. And i went back to the same exact thing. We have to build an International Coalition if we want to ever find a way to hold china to account. Were not going to be able to do things. You know, legally or i cant supine to them to come talkative, you know congressional hearing, right, right, but as a global is a global entity we have to be able to build that Strong International community to be able to demand and we want answers. We need to know whether so this this affected all of us and what do what are we going to do about it . You know so many things are happening, you know, imagine my first 15 months in Congress Everything thats happened from january and afghanistan and then ukraine and inflation crazy Energy Prices all that kind of stuff like my constituents have been through turmoil, and ive been you know, navigating all this the point i make is were not in the right spot right now. You talk about getting off the x. Its the concept that i understand. Id love to hear you kind of expound on it a little bit more about what america can do to get off the x. Were not in the right spot right now and in a lot of areas, were doing something were still doing some of the good were still the Global Leader and numerous ways. The dollar is still the currency reserve status, but those are those are under threat for that next century. What do we need to do to get off the x your point . The fact that saudi arabia is even thinking about, you know, selling energy to china and theyre in maybe right like thats thats a scary thing and we need to be we need to be concerned about this and get off the x. Thats the second lesson. You learn on day one at the farm the super secret ca training facility. The first lesson is lock your car door second. Lesson is get out the x the x is the location where somethings going down and the last place we want to be where its going down is where its going down. Right and were at a moment where 72 of americans think the countrys on. Track this is not just this the sentiment has not just existed under this administration. This has sentiment has existed and grown over the last couple of administrations. And so the country feels like we got to do Something Different. Yes. We are the most powerful nation that have has ever existed on this country. Capitalism has uplifted people out of you know to achieve heights that were previously unimaginable and but we have to make sure that this continues and whats getting in the way is the inability to get big things done because of political gridlock within within washington dc and now its and that is metastasizing to state capitals and City Councils and such and so for us but for me this this notion that america has become exceptional when we play a role and we leave and the world is interconnected when my man George Washington gave his his farewell address and said watch out about entanglement with other countries, the world was very different back then and so so now were so interconnected. But we have to we elected officials people in an administrations have to continue to make the case. Why these things matter . We had to make the case. Why does taiwan matter to the the couple that owns that coffee shop in in the midwest, right . Why does the person thats selling, you know skiing attire . Why should they care . Why should my brother who says shout out to the most beautiful Congressional Districts. However, we have parked cities. No basin some of the best ski resorts. Thank you for that. No, of course, of course, you know my brother. My brother says cable. Why does he know and we have to make these cases and sometimes right . Those of us that that are involved in these things have failed to articulate why this stuff matters right . And so it starts with that and and what ive learned its the same in your additions the same in the old district. I represented people care about putting food on their table or roof over their head and taking care of the people that they that making sure the people they love are healthy happy way for retirement. 100 right and so what all of these things are interconnected and were better off you get your retirements going to be better when america is the one im leading this this global this global of International Order that we created after World War Two the issues that were going to to have to deal with super complicated biotech the technology exists today to program dna the way you program a computer. The technology is soon to exist. Where we have agi artificial general intelligence. This is where an algorithm. Is going to be smarter than any human on a particular thing. Right the quantum computing up to this point. Weve always been the people programming those. That transition happens. Youre youre right. Were moving into a realm that it was was made about movies from terminator days. So ive actually been going back rewatching old Science Fiction rewatch and reread that i didnt get a lot of them have predicted some of these things right . And so these there are some legitimate debates about the role of technology in society. We should be having those conversations up here in washington dc. And and so so this is why this is this is important and i tried to i try to articulate some of these things at the topics that we should be talking about in order to make sure and and i framed in you know, my degrees in Computer Science the first job i ever had was in college was working in a computer lab and when the computers werent working, what did i do . I rebooted the sucker right its not changing the software. Its getting the software back to its original form. Yeah, and i think thats thats what we thats what we need to do. Let me pull it back a little bit from the the tech discussion, but you talk about how the contempt we have in our political world and now the gridlock that we face. Ive seen it for 15 months now majority of bills still get passed on suspension, but we dont tackle the big things. We dont tackle the big things because you know with a four seat with four seat majority and the margin these small i was thinking this could be this could be the case, but right now politically democrats have the white house and senate that moved everything to a very very progressive push that i you know, firmly you can firmly look at a lot of bad outcomes inflation Energy Prices like that, but things that Congress Needs to be addressing and fixing i just jotted down a few immigration debt and deficit Health Care Like were not tackling that were not being able to fix it that to me is what like are some of our most nearterm issues are that we dont figure out a way to come come together and not quit worrying about, you know, the political ramifications are always looking through this stuff from a political lens. We are legislators. We are lawmakers and we need to be focused on this through a policy perspective, but we all were forced in this situation you talk a lot of about this in the book, you know, you know peasing face peasing this kind of stuff just you know, because you have reelection always coming up over two years like weve got to dress these things and our gridlock and its making it very difficult. But so concentration of power in the hands of the few is always a bad thing and this trend in washington started probably two two almost three decades ago when decisions started being made in by leadership. 20 30 years ago. The appropriations bill was written by the appropriations chair in the Ranking Member. Decisions along the nda was the side by the chair of the house arm services and in that Ranking Member now a lot of these things originate and start with the speaker the majority leader within those within those offices and thats where and and when you had the diffusion of decisionmaking down to to leaders of the committees and subconnect shares, they worked with their committees. And so they did they worked more with people on the other side than the old folks and thats why when we think of any major piece of legislation over the last 50 years those were always done in the divided in a divided congress and a different in a different white house last time we balance the budget. When was it was late 90s, yeah 1997. We democratic president and republican house. Yeah, and you said two to three decades ago. Its about two to three decades ago that we actually did something and the you know, just the whats going on over the last few decades. Thats made it so we cant address these issues look and and it goes back it starts with primaries. In 2018 the last nonpresident ial election, the average contested primary was 54,000 people. 54,000 people. Thats crazy, right . That means 27,5001 people a decide. Who that who that person that member of congress is going to be and that happened in 92 seats and 92 of the house seats are decided in a primary. Yeah. So 2 of the population. Oh look though. I loved up to those numbers after this year. Yeah. Its been a search. So so 2020 right in 2020. The number was close to about 60,000 that was happening in in a primary. And so so that means alexa officials are speaking to the extremes of the party. Not the middle where the majority of the country is. Thats why you have 72 of americans see the countries on the wrong track, but the you know, so the answer thats why i have almost a single digit Approval Rating of congress but each individual rep is our own districts has a little bit more popularity or gets elected and things like that for sure. So the structure right the system is is designed poorly. Now, how do you fix it get more people voting in primary . Yeah. I was in i forget what year it was, but im on a panel on at south by southwest. This is the then down in austin, texas Music FestivalMusic Festival tv festival now, its a lot of technology and im on the stage with i think four other youtube stars. I dont know who any of them were but all four of them that im guarantee. They did all four of them combined. Probably had a billion followers on youtube and at the time i think i had like 60 right . I was like why am i on the stage . One of the people there was the digital director for the rock Dwayne Johnson . Okay, and the movie moana was about to come out. And she says she goes if moana fails at the box office are we going to criticize moviegoers and shame on you moviegoers . Were not going to movies or you get to say it was a crummy movie now moana. Ive seen moana. Its an excellent move. Excellent movie, right and i think was very successful as a box office success. Yeah, and of course if that would have happened we would have said it was a crummy movie and then her was only in politics. Do we blame the person that is supposed to be making the the purchasing decision right . Go into the ballot box versus the product and and i agree that i think we a lot of people are not appealing. We just went through an election in texas three Million People voted in the in the primaries, march 1st out of 30 million. Thats a terrible number that apathy and i would say part of it is we are not inspiring those kinds of people that that are not coming out to vote because ole miss is a title is the one the chapters in the book. We you know, too many leaders interested in fearmongering rather than inspiring right and i think if we if we switch that thats going to help us its hard systems are designed that on about that in your book though too and about your own personal leadership. So i mentioned us leadership on the global scale, but individually, what are some of the things you take from your background your personal story that drive your your ideas on leadership. Look, i think it goes back to i was bullied as a kid. My heads literally been this size since i was four years old we have evidence, you know, my mom pulled out a little, you know picture and that is so i married an ax murderer didnt help that movie. Yeah. I didnt it didnt and look i had a mess that had messed up teeth that a speech impediment until until i was in high school. So i got bullied a lot. Wore size 13 shoe and i was in fifth grade, right and and so so for me that experience taught me listen, it doesnt matter what other people think about you. Its just what youre what your loved ones do right . And so that gave me a thick skin my parents. My dad always taught me to have a pma a positive mental attitude, right . My dads back my moms wife my parents moved to south, texas in 1971 after meeting in california, and they live in the house. They live in now because it was the only place that somebody would sell to an interracial couple, right which is which is crazy. Its crazy. And so so the those are kind of the experiences that drive me and ive learned to be honest be honest to do the right thing. Tell people what youre doing and why youre doing it one of the benefits of having represent a truly 50 50 district. Was that no matter what i did. Have to dish it was upset with me. Yep. But as long as i went and told people what i was doing and why i was doing it. They appreciated they knew they didnt have to agree with me and when folks push me on this i would say do you agree with your spouse a hundred percent of the time do you agree with your best friend 100 of the time and of course the answers always know so its like why are you expect to agree with your elected official 100 of the time and so those things is what kind of what drove me when i when i was up here and in lessons that ive used, you know, most of my life i that advice we spoke before i joined congress with someone had connected us similar, you know shared background things like that. And i love that conversation and i i had to use that and i dont think youve shared that with me. I dont think we got into that in depth of conversation. But thats one of the my biggest points that ive learned about this. Im i get a yes or no vote. You know because you dont nobodys supposed to make that present vote you get made fun of for making the pee on that little dial there yet. Yes or no vote like theres a lot of context that goes into this type of stuff and someones always going to be angry. I remember very conservative district you need time right and and ive made boats that didnt necessarily go just, you know down the majority of the party line and ive had to show up that next day. And tell people the context as to why and dig into the details of it the constitutionality of it and you know. It earns trust over time, but its the harder way to do it. It is flat out a lot more difficult and its something that im proud of that ive that ive been able to do and then i go back and then you share that context with them. They get it and i always leave my town halls with look. As youve seen some of you call me too conservative some of you call me too moderate all within about 10 minutes of each other like im trying to provide context so you can you know understand what Decision Making im going through. Thats what i want you to know is one of my as one of my constituents and i say look youre not gonna to agree with every single decision. But i encourage you to find an area that we do agree and lets build a relationship from there and i try trying to do that here even with my colleagues. Yeah, but your articulating what your values are and they know that right . And so and and for me its one of the things about your audio on your video have to match the things you say have to matter everything you do. And so when you do that people are going to respond they again they may not agree with you, but they appreciate you. Oh and by the way, and youre showing up youre not afraid of your constituents and so when you go there and you articulate stuff people be like, okay and the fact that they know that theyre gonna hear your perspective goes goes goes a long way and i always remember, you know, we we get all these, you know letters about some particular thing hr 2727. Youre like, whats hr 2727 and and you have to be like, how do i feel about this . Right and always what do i believe and i remember one that was fascinating it was about whether you should be illegal to eat cats or dogs. And im sitting there like its critical years in korea. So i have an opinion on this sure, but im just like eating cats or dogs is strange for sure, but should it be illegal right and so its like what principal are you basing off now what we found out was it was already illegal to eat cats and dogs last time a dog was eating in the United States was like in 1982 or something with super super weird story, but even i i use that as an example of you got to find what your value is and then and then and then make decisions based on that and and sometimes i talk to kids i try to talk as many high schools and middle schools i can. And i was at the kids being a person of character takes practice. Just like being playing a sport or music and instruments or being a scientist or a doctor. Im being a person character takes practice and the the when youre able to make good decisions and do the right things when the stakes are low. It makes a lot easier to do the right thing when the stakes are hot, right and and unfortunately, i think theres too many people that sometimes get to positions of power that have never had to make tough decisions when the consequences doing that were doing the right thing meant the consequences were negative. And its hard for some people to understand that but but it happens and so when you have zero experience and making that then when that when the consequences are high, youre probably going to make a bad decision because you dont have that experience. Well, youre making this interview easy good because ive interviewed anybody before. I would not have known that. Yeah. Yeah, right. I hope meet the press is watching and im gonna get recruited out of this gig. You talk about taking conservative principles to unreached communities. It is something i have been trying in my you know, even though im a strong concerned i represent like park city. Yeah, where you go to park city. Its the one the one county that i lost, you know, because it tends to be more liberal more. Yeah, and i will still show up their new town halls and you get into some really interesting bates. Most of it ends up being around climate change, but you talk a lot about taking that conservative message to unreach communities. How have you continued to do that . How did you do that when you were in office and why is it so important . So so i represented 29 counties two time zones 820 miles of the border it took 10 and a half hours to drive across my district at 80 miles an hour, which was the speed limit in most of the day. Im not yeah. I know it wasnt the speed limit all very little. Yeah the hard way respect Law Enforcement across forward never make their job harder exactly and the founder of the district didnt cell phone service, right . And so so the dynamics when i first ran or when i won my first election was that if every republican voted for me, i would still lose so i had to appeal to independence and democrats and i took a title representative seriously. I represented everybody people that voted for me the people that didnt vote for me and the people that didnt vote and so so i took each one of those constituencies as serious as anyone of them and so part of it was showing up and in a lot of these communities they know its hard to get to those places one of my favorite towns is is in loving is loving is in the loving county. Okay, the entire county has 90 people in it. Its really hard to get to. Yeah, and and i went about six seven times and i met 75 people and the county judge one times like i was like judge i was like man, ive met 75 theres still like 15. I havent met and hes like, well, they dont want to be mad, right . Thats a check see the metamor. Yeah, but but so so part of it was to understand those parts of the district. I was a black republican representing a 71 latino district. People were like no we thought i had a chance and i would but i would go to these communities. I had never seen an elected official. So this is the benefit right when you show up most the times other people have never shown up so you get an opportunity. So id be in el paso, texas far west texas of wilming latina overwhelmingly democrat. Im knock on peoples door and theyre like, why are you here . I said well cuz you know, i want to represent you and i want to hear what your issues are and theyre like no ones ever done that before. And guess what you learn and heres what i learned. Whether im in, you know, el paso. Or im in the neighborhood with the San Antonio Spurs live right same issues. And like i would say the exact same thing. My my remarks didnt change depending on where i went. The questions didnt change from depending on where i went. And and thats what doing that early on made me realize that these are the these issues are you know, we agree on 80 way more units us than the right person. Ive said that 100 times. And so for me now, its like you got to go and talk about this show talking about education in texas the School Choice issue. Theres a theres been a longitudinal study over 20 years that shows that the achievement gap between black and brown kids has decreased when they go to a Charter School in, texas. Thats amazing. Yeah, its amazing. Why are we not talking more about that stuff, right and when you take that message and look im a proud product of Public Schools. I think Public Schools should be able to have the same ability to be flexible. The way Charter Schools cant but these are where some of the debates are and if you take that positive message to people they they appreciate it. Some you know that actually just illustrates the point that you know, youre elected by maybe a four he had 800,000 people in your Congressional District in you know, you tend to most these districts you tend to you know elected in the in the primary or to the nature, but you have to be willing to rise above that and go out and serve. I found you know constituent service to be really awesome opportunity that people if you just communicate with people and feel just be out there and be present. Then theres this, you know tampering down of the rhetoric and theyre like, okay. I get it and yeah, we do we do kind of agree on this particular thing and i think you can take all the major issues like i said from immigration to debt and deficit all those things that are really plaguing our country right now do it. I not to get political here. But thats the way that we have petition is not getting political. Weve done a pretty good. I think we have done a really good job. Yeah, i could i get actually watch this interview. Is thats what i think the American People want to see right now. There is this theres i would categorize it maybe as a movable middle. Kind of saw it maybe in the virginia. Governors race. Theyre like, okay so decisions made in washington have really affected my life. Right and i work on the Natural Resources committee as well. So we talk a lot about energy policy. Its energy and climate and conservation we go through all that type of work. And theres an opportunity right now. I think for the Republican Party to really hit this this this this this group of people that are like, okay, i was frustrated at this but goodness now, this is really affected my life and if you see this amount of Government Spending take place and it suppresses our workforce with existing supply chain issues. I dont blame everything with inflation on President Bidens administration and we were going to have a supply chain issue as we kind of ramped back up out of the pandemic. But but injecting two trillion dollars of nonoffset spending that was masqueraded as a covid bill like those types of things go directly into the equation of inflation, and theres only one way. Theres only one thing you get out of that when you depression workforce you load your monitor supply you get inflation, right . And unfortunately the the theres only one way out of it too and thats to raise Interest Rates and slowly down and thats gonna hurt people too. So its just people are recognizing that theres a theres a movable middle and so i love how much youre talking about going out to unreached communities. And for the Republican Party need to be to look more like america. No for sure and you mentioned you mentioned governor youngkin. A 10 swing from a year prior. Yeah. Well, it wasnt a youngkin in the race though. Its hard to really make thats a better the president. So biden and trump. Would that have been a bigger if youngkin was running in 2020 would there have been a ten . Thats im i have a poster by traits they get i get excited about that stuff, but they did they went democrat in their last statewide election by 10 points and they swung hugely toward junkin. Yeah, thats a trend right in and i and a testament to young Kids Campaign and how they reached out and made sure the things that were matter. I think the american vote is a sophisticated voter. Yeah, and they do Something Different they look. I think theres a lot of conversations about or were going to do this or this right . No, lets make an ant lets make an end and issue and one of the issues youve mentioned is immigration. This one drives me crazy. Because republican primary voters and democratic primary voters want to see a solution and that solution they agree on like 80 and and there is a bill this this is probably one of the things that i was most frustrated by in my time in congress the usa act that would have addressed Border Security with extreme line Legal Immigration, you know, whats happening on the board of right now is an absolute crisis in the worst has ever been were not using our intelligence to dismantle these Human Trafficking organizations and networks that are happening the difference between a humans uglier and a terrorist. Its a terrorism has do something once. A human smuggler and a Drug Trafficking organization has to have infrastructure that can replicate activity, which means that something you can dismantle and so were not doing enough on that piece, but if you if you if you streamline Legal Immigration it takes off someone that pressure. You also in every Industry Needs workers. And it might be Seasonal Workers in utah or agricultural landscape or agriculture our h2a hdb requests that alleviates pressure on the border as well. I will say your predator the your successor individual in your seat. Now one of the most sound voices, im sure he cares a lot of what you had done one of the most sound voices on immigration to actually look at it as a holistic approach because we do we agree about the outcome we agree about what we want to get to and this is the process on how we can get it and everybodys you know, kind of scared to vote one way or the other if it looks too much like this because then this and then when weve got to solve this i remind people the dream act when it was first brought up. It was it failed. Because of six Democratic Senators when president obama was in office. And the usa act was prevented from coming in the floor by republican leadership, but now democratically leadership is preventing to bring that forward and ultimately its because leadership on both sides of the party would rather use this issue political football as a political football 100 right . And so so these are some of the real solutions. Oh and by the way what people forget folks want you to go back to the audition and be like i did this right like i fixed this problem like this is this is what you know, i did for this community. Thats a way bigger motivation than being like i prevented those jerks on the other side from from doing this x y or c. And and its just its wild for me is like some people say hey, will your views are a little, you know a little too sweet right like youre a little too youre a little too optimistic. Well, im optimistic because the people that are out there and i talk to are the ones that are like, hey, this is what we need this what we want. Thats the opportunity. We always we always want to look at the last election or fight the last war not the next war and and theres opportunities abound and we got to get through this because the the challenges were having to address. Im gonna be crazy. Im not doing my first interview without bringing up march madness you talk a little bit about coachesky. Yeah, and in an analogy there and you related even to afghanistan any thoughts on that. I thought that was fasting and of course timely i mean what kind i had i actually had kansas in nova playing each other. Okay, so im in the game. So i have kansas winning my bracket with my buddies back home. So im still in the game, but i didnt see the duke unc side playing out and what an awesome time for that to take place for sure. Look at these young kids for their their fabled coach, right . You know, theyre good. Theyre put they got a little extra in the tank. You know, my my brother is super disappointed because hes a texas tech red raider so its been around but them my bracket had houston going all the way so i was so my minds messed up but but the analogy i use is coach k talks about how if you try to hit somebody with your fists, you know, and your fingers are open. Youre gonna break your hand, but when you close that when you all five fingers are close together, you can pack a powerful punch right and think of this chris rocks lucky there was yeah. I know exactly were moving on. Were not going there exactly and so the stress of teamwork, right . Yeah is is important. And and you know another another good another good coach that i used to play in the in the the member lobbyists basketball game i play in that and and we had we had a guest coach a coach calipari. All right. I mean people telling me about that. Yeah, and and it was great. I we were behind because the members, you know, we hadnt practiced together much and and our endurance was pretty terrible and we were getting we got real close. We got with him two points, and he called the he called he called a timeout and theres all these grown men right sitting around and coach. He looked. Each of us in the eye. And we all come down and he goes breathe just breathe right and were like, yeah, were gonna breathe right . And so sometimes when we when we settle down right and we can we can look to sports as some examples on how to solve many of our problems Work Together be common cool and we can get a lot of accomplish. That is is. Is thats a great, you know, thats a great sentiment in communicating that because with you know, what coach k has done in his careers is really neat and you have to sort of build that that structure and again, i want to just go back to this. This next century like ive showed ive laid out some of my you know big things that we need to be addressing. But you know. I serve on Armed Services intelligence background ive served myself in Southeast Asia and lived over there. Lets talk just like zero in a little bit more on the china side. Sure. I personally think our debt in china or two of our our most our biggest challenges. And so we talked a little bit about this but the belt and Road Initiative and you he explained it better than than i really seen it in text before. Just how concerning that is the debt that these countries are getting into to china. Exactly what china wants to have happened . They dont care if they have to spend a little bit more on an Infrastructure Project in africa or latin america. Theyre going to be able to use that. For their un security vote sure. Thats a scary scary thing. I love your perspective on that look, so it starts talked about motivations. What is the motivation of the Chinese Government and xi jinping . Its very simple. As a surpass a United States of america as a global superpower. This is not my opinion. This is not me laying in my bed thinking at night. What is gonna happen . This is not collecting intelligence when i was in the cia about what the Chinese Government is doing. This is what the Chinese Government has said said about themselves in english. So so start with that and how are they going to surpass us . Theyre going to surpass us by being the Global Leader in a number of advanced technologies 5g ai quantum. Im a hypersonics biotech, you know, its space right . Theres about 14 industries. 5g weve been talking a lot people talk a lot about does 5g matter . Its going to be awesome. To download season 3 of ted lasso in two seconds on my phone. Yeah, okay, but the route the reality of 5g when you have your phone and you do something on your phone and it goes into the cloud and then response comes back that that time it takes for that process to happen is latency. 5g is going to allow us for that that trip to take place in one nanosecond. Our thoughts are in seven nanoseconds . So we are going to have the entire power of the internet. In our hands in real time. What is that going to allow us to do right and so when china and huawei specifically there they a Chinese Technology company you bring it up because i could i would have taken us theirs too owns 30 of the worlds infrastructure when it comes to 5g so that means anything thats traveling over that infrastructure. They can influence. I dont care how great you think your encryption is. The ability that that process has to travel over an infrastructure owned by an adversary. They can do a whole lot of stuff with it. They can they can stop it. They can try to get into it. They can turn it back. They can change it. Right and so so this is why and it starts with 5g because Artificial Intelligence in order to have Real Intelligence and to have ai at the edge right at the end in your phone in your device. You have to have that 5g infrastructure to make that happen. Thats why these two things are connected Vladimir Putin said whoever matches ai is gonna master the world. He said said that back in 2014. I think its the only thing he and i agree on right and so so this is the methodical approach that the Chinese Government is taking we talk about privacy in the United States a lot. Europe theres a transatlantic beef on privacy. But guess what . You know who doesnt care about civil liberties. It rhymes with the Chinese Governments, right . They are the and so you do not want these new technologies being driven and decided by the authoritarian government who doesnt care about civil liberties. These are the with the delivery mechanism in hallway what the delivery mechanism and okay why so tiktok i dont care. If you do a silly dance. And share it. Okay, i dont. However all of the data tagging your friends tagging locations User Behavior all of that stuff. That is why tiktok was a National Security issue because all of that can go in the government the Chinese Government can use it and they can use all that information to train their algorithms. Whoever has the most data is going to be whoever has the most data and has the most Computing Power is going to be able to make these algorithms do something. So imagine a scenario in which an algorithm can know absolutely everything youve ever done digitally about you. And then direct ads or influence you based on that information. Look, i i use timely information that you that theyre identifying when youre making a decision about something and theyre able to directly influence you. I cant say i dont really care if its a Grocery Store might even help me might even help me like oh what product actually do it. Do i care about but if im gonna be making a political decision and im gonna go vote and im you know, im getting the ballot. They know its coming three weeks before and they go and they communicate it. Its scary. Its scary. Right . And so so look, we should embrace these things right technology is going to also allow us to do things like look. Were already seeing Energy Companies using Artificial Intelligence to improve the amount of hydrocarbons. They get out of the ground. Theyre using less water. Theyre using less land right were seeing agriculture to be able to you know, bruce bruce crops outputs. Thats what thats why like its amazing. Were able to detect more right now. You can look at your iris and detect the number of of cancers well in advance of any kind of technology that we have now, which means people are going to live longer lives. So theres a great upside. I always we need to take advantage of before it takes advantage of us. And so this is the landscape in which were going to compete with the government of china and i want are 401ks. To be based off of investments in American Companies not chinese companies. I want our kids growing up to in our grandkids growing up to get jobs with Great American or european or western company our allies our countries of our allies a democratic countries. Thats what i want to happen. Look i dont get me wrong. I watch a foreign film every once in a while. I watch the that what was the show on netflix that was in korean, you know, i watched that with yeah with the subtitles why im fine with that i speak korean. So yeah, i dont want every movie. Being in mandarin with english subtitles, right . These are is that this is what is ants is that state . And and what is the Chinese Government realizing, you know, we just got out of the olympics right or a couple months ago and there was all that focus on that young woman from california who decided to to compete with the chinese. Im not going to debate the decision of a young 18 year old woman, but whats even more fascinating is why did xi jinpin put the hardcore press to get her to do that . He understood. The value of having this young californian, you know make the choice could have been on the us could have the us across her ski gear absolutely said she was she was wearing the so the fact that theyre seeing that soft power the fact that theyre using the belt and Road Initiative to to when you look at the map. Of all the countries that they have a belt and Road Initiative. It is staggering how much money theyre putting and we have debates here in the United States about how 1 of our budget is too much when it comes to form aid right . So this is this this is where things are going and it really does jeopard jeopardize our standing in the world at jeopardizes are retirements. It jeopardizes everything and and those are what some of the conversation i think we should be having and what they can use they can lay this out. Hey athletes. Youre going to become you have. How many in china now how many how many people live in china now . Theres two billion. Yeah. Im here you have immediate access. To billions of people that youre going to be a star in a sensation. I her decision has her decision. But like thats a lure for people to be like thats immediate success and you know you dont become a you know you popular during the olympics but you dont become a National Sensation off of one Olympic Event or if you know and i i im a big fan of the olympics where i represent park city of course were hoping to have him back soon and we need to you know that soft power so let me move it away from the soft power and just hit on one thing that im in the of right now and i know that our dods in the middle of it and we used to design these contracts. We have just a few minutes left, but we used to design these contracts. Company would take it on perform a really important innovative feat for our department of defense then four or five years later. Were declassifying enough of this and it ends up being very very applicable commercial use those days are slipping away and its way too expensive and too timely to develop the capabilities that our department of defense needs. Weve got to embrace our commercial technology our Small Businesses our cyber world. Thats where the work and the innovative work is being done and it needs to inject into our dod and were figuring out how to go about making this transition brother. Dont dont start with me because i love talking procurement right because because right now the government needs by not build right the fact that is so hard to get Innovative Technologies introduce into the government is is plaguing our ability to compete an authoritarian government like china can get some place first right because they can move all factors of production in one direction, but but i will always take entrepreneurship in an ingenuity and freedom over authoritarianism. But yes, we have and part of the problem. Is the way procurement works in the government the person purchasing the good or service is different from the person using the good or service, right . And that disconnect is what creates some of that problem now moving some of that that power and authority to those individuals that are ultimately use it youll see speed, you know, the cia usually adopt stuff probably earlier than most folks in the government part of that is a commitment to the mission and to help people downrange. And so so yeah, look the only way were gonna to solve this. Have an allies right having a bigger posse and making sure that the public and the private sector are working together against dealing with these these issues an industry. Ive spent a lot of time in the last over the last years space. Yeah, the number of commercial companies in space is mindboggling like if you would have asked me back in 2015 when i first came into congress, would there be more Space Companies and you can name i would say absolutely not no way but i know of a company thats good. Thats gonna be building the first structure on the moon. Right probably within two years like its just its its wild and so the Science Fiction is really becoming science reality and the only way were continuing to keep up. Is if is if public and private sector actually we figure out a way to Work Together and introduce novel in technology into the government. Its that the space piece. With the lack of treaties and the one one satellite that they blow up. Did you hear the trepidation in the the people on the International Space station . Theyre like we have to go on a spacewalk. This might be hitting us like you could hear their absolutely it is its an its a frontier without sounding trekkie. It gets a its a its a concern that we dont have the order figured out on how were going to go manage this and the amount of you know, they are now designing every launch based on space junk and how theyre gonna navigate and miss that and thats only gonna perpetuating if we dont get control over. Oh, thats a whole number dia did a report. I want to say two years ago and talked about how space is contested. Its no longer this. Were all Holding Hands singing kumbaya right when you when you create a satellite. That has a claw on it. Right that clause im gonna be used for one thing and thats when it gets close to Something Else is going to cut it. Hit it. Knock it out. Right, right. And and so and and what we sometimes forget is how important space is to us here on earth our communications how we navigate the understanding the weather all of that stuff is important. And so these are some of the conversations that are super complex, but we got to be able to find answers to well youre gonna sign my book again american reboot one of the with the book when i love about just final comment. Is you have so much personal introspection on you know, what drives you to do your next thing like any final thoughts on on your your history your upbringing . You know, how all that plays into your motivation to to go out and stay involved. Sometimes when you leave Congress People are like, oh no like i think youre doing youre doing a lot of things. I appreciate that and and for me, ive been lucky. Ive been lucky to serve my country and a number of different ways and im lucky, you know, i have more opportunities and my father had and i hope for my nieces and my nephews to have more opportunities and i had and it starts with as my dad always told me. Im have a pma positive mental attitude, but also to make sure you model the behavior you want to see happen. If you know, its really if if you dont like social media and you think its toxic. Well, are you being toxic on social media . Right. Are you encouraging the people that are doing the things you want to see right and so model the behavior that you want to see when we do that. I think this place will be a little bit better. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yes. This is the fourth day of an amazing display of. Writers and thought leaders and today wi