Transcript 0:01 I plead the fifth? You can't plead the fifth on a squirrel tank. Well, on a possum you can plead the first. Yeah. 0:09 But only if you haven't already pled the fifth, and he's already pled the fifth Which negates all of your rights to plead the first. You're in a heck of a pickle here, Smith. But can I plead double comfort everything? 0:21 Oh, uh, can he plead insanity? Squash, squid, squirrel. Hmm. I'm sorry, Smitty. You can't plead the fifth. 0:36 [laughs] We could have saved the three bears a lot of time. Just right mattresses built by mattress nerds with a lifetime comfort commitment. We build them by hand and deliver with love. 0:49 Juno Sleep Systems in Sioux Falls and online at junosleep.com. 0:55 If you want to understand what's really happening in South Dakota, start with the Dakota Scout, South Dakota's leading journal of politics and culture, locally owned and printed in Sioux Falls. 1:07 Founded in 2022 by veteran reporters Jonathan Ellis and Joe Sneve, the Scout brings more than 40 years of combined experience and a reputation for relentless, fair-minded reporting. 1:19 From Sioux Falls City Hall to the state capital in Pierre, the Dakota Scout delivers breaking news, investigative reporting, and serious political coverage without the spin. 1:30 Its Lewis and Clark inspired logo reflects its mission, charting new territory in a new era of South Dakota journalism. 1:38 Subscribe today for full access to stories delivered straight to your inbox, plus The Scouting Lounge podcast. $7 a month at thedakotascout.com. The Dakota Scout. Stay informed. 1:54 Come on along, head for the mountains of Busch Beer. Head for the mountains. It's cold and it's smooth, and it's waiting for you. Come on, head for the mountains of Busch Beer. 2:10 Head for the mountains of Busch. Head for the mountains of Busch. Like beer. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2022. Anheuser-Busch, Busch, and Busch Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. 2:23 Beale Distributing, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 2:25 [upbeat rock music] Welcome to The Scouting Lounge, a podcast of the Dakota Scout Newspaper based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 2:48 My name's Jonathan Ellis. That was my co-host Joe Sneve opening a Beale Distributed product. Hello. Hello. I'm a regular in Aberdeen now. Welcome back. I think you've been up there, what- Like-... 3:01 five times in the last year? My first time ever was May 2025, beginning of the month, and then I've been there four or five times since. Well, then you've heard our guests. 3:12 I don't think I'll be coming back for a little while though. [laughs] Ian Fury, congratulations. Thank you all. Uh, you're coming in, uh, after managing the victorious GOP nomination. 3:26 Did you sleep on a Juno Sleep System mattress? I have no idea what kind of mattresses they have at, at the hotel. You were so smashed last night. [laughs] It didn't matter. [laughs] I slept very well last night. 3:37 Congratulations, Ian. Thank you. Uh, you earned that Beale Distributed product there. The, uh... Well, how are you feeling? Are you hungover today? Does a beer help? 3:48 Uh, I mean, I'm moving a little slower today, but it's, it's nice to be able to relax for once, you know? Yeah. It's been... 3:54 I mean, I took a leave of absence from the state back Monday, right after session, so like second week of March. Yeah. And, um- Um, so that-... 4:04 that, that leave of absence got two months longer, and now I'm gonna be back on the s- payroll on Monday, but I'm gonna- So when do you go-... 4:09 take things slow from now to then When do you go back off the state payroll then? Because you have another election. I, yeah. Yeah. I, I'm not ready to, to say. Is that gonna be you? I'm not ready to say. 4:20 Come on, you gotta give us- I, I really, I really honestly don't know the answer to that question. [laughs] Okay. So what's today like? What's the governor doing? The, uh, governor's actually heading down to... 4:30 No rest, no rest for the wicked. He's heading down to Oklahoma for the National Governors Association, and they're kinda having like a, like a first family shindig, so- His, he's just came off a win, that's... 4:41 He's swinging low. Yeah. He's gonna be... He's, he, he, he's gonna be, uh, the, the man of the, of the hour- Yeah... when he gets there. Yep. Big, uh, applause. That's quick. Never had an election that quick. 4:53 I, I haven't either. Like, Minnehaha County got done early even. [laughs] Yeah, I know. By like 9:30 they were done. Yeah. Uh, apparently I have fans. I have a fan club with me. Brayden was- Oh, yeah, yeah. 5:05 We gotta introduce our whole crowd. I got, I got, I got Brayden Beaner and Corbin Bistrom were my East and West River field directors respectively. 5:14 Callie is, uh, Corbin's lady, is here with us, and then I also got John Kotilinek, who's on a vacation day today, but he's the governor's, uh, deputy general counsel. He's the puppet master. 5:26 Like, the, every single move, nobody's... He's ne- his name's never been in the paper, but he pulled all the s- John, John pulls it all off behind the scenes. [laughs] Yeah. Well, but, but- Hey, well welcome, guys... 5:36 but Brayden- It's nice to, to... It's, uh, it's good to have new faces in the- Brayden was the one reading results off to me last night, and the two counties that I kept saying, "Where the hell are the results?" 5:46 were Minnehaha and Hughes. Yeah. And at that point it was probably like, what, 8:25. Yeah. And I, I, I was just impatient 'cause 5:54 the whole campaign I was more nervous than anyone, more skeptical about the good data we were seeing than anyone. I was always looking for, for the ghost, whatever- Flaws in it... 6:04 whatever was lurking in the shadows And so- The Fauci of the data... even at, right [laughs] You can't, you can't take the Fifth on, on this podcast, by the way. 6:13 Even, even after the, uh, even after the race was called, I was still nervous about what's Minnehaha gonna say, you know? So- Yeah, well, 'cause I guess that's a huge part of the electorate, but 6:25 you guys can glean from the... I mean, I was in Toby Dodan's war room when this was all coming in, right? They knew within like, they knew within five minutes, you know? 6:36 For some of the rural counties based upon their model. We, yeah, they're extrapolating and- Well, and Brown were polled right away. Yeah. A sizable chunk of their votes, um, and it was, you know, 75/25. Yeah. 6:48 Yeah, well, congratulations. Someone's gotta lose. I think, I think losing could end up sort of helping Toby Dodan in the long run, but we don't have to talk about that. The, what hap- like what was the game changer? 7:00 I got a lot of phone calls yesterday. Everybody seemed to think it was gonna end about where it did, maybe not as bad. Like, what was it, 40 points? Yeah, I, I mean, I was- Is this true?... 7:09 I was taking predictions, you know, from people who were reliably, you know, I was reading 58/42, 60/40, you know, kind of in that though, and, and it was obviously much bigger than that, so- I had the most- They were headed- I had the most pessimistic prediction in our war room, and I was off by more than 10 points. 7:26 Wow. Uh, there was nobody who predicted us getting that high. Well, what does, what do you make of that? A few things. A lot of Democrats switched, huh? We- Just kidding. 7:38 [laughs] Well, the, the, the fact of the matter is the, the polls weren't measuring those folks, and those folks overwhelmingly probably did vote for the governor, but I was glad to see that the margin was way bigger than, than that number. 7:50 Um, you know, in the past we've celebrated things like Reagan Democrats and Trump Democrats. They think about Trump's winning coalition in 2024. 8:02 There were a whole bunch of young Black men who voted for him, people who had historically been Democrats, and we, we celebrated that. Right. I, I think it's gonna be very telling 8:12 in the next few months whether there's a reversion of party registration, and I don't think there will be. 8:18 Um, I think a lot of it was people who, who had conservative values but were kinda coming home to the party they actually should be in. 8:26 My mother-in-law, four years ago, uh, she wasn't my mother-in-law yet, but we were, we were heading in that direction, and she had been a lifelong registered Democrat but had always voted Republican, and she changed her registration to vote for Noem in the primary. 8:39 You know? That's just 'cause people would... It's really not that important what your party is if you're voting, unless you wanna vote in the primaries, I suppose. If- Right? 8:49 If, if you're- If you're not a card carrier... if you're not heavily involved- Yeah... right? But I, I think a lot of folks, 8:56 I'm not gonna say that all of them are, are here to stay, but I think more than people are expecting are here to stay. Well, and I don't think it was as, as big a number as we're letting... 9:05 I mean, I'd, I'd broke down the numbers by the time that the filing dead- and I think it was like 2,800 fewer Democrats from the June, from June 2nd, from right before that June 2nd primary. 9:16 So it's not like a, there's this huge wave of Democratic people who changed. You know, there were some, but it wasn't a huge wave of people who did that, you know, who changed Democrat, from Democrats. 9:25 Um, but there were- Some of them were new registrations... there were, some of them were, yeah. I think actually, i- the plurality were new registrations. Will that make- Yeah... it harder to, like, poll accurately? 9:35 Like let's say they don't all switch back. We're, maybe it's not a big enough number that switched, but let's say it was. That could screw stuff up, right? As far as polling, 'cause- Yeah. 9:44 A, a lot of our pollsters will poll your voter file, and they'll look at how many Republican primaries have you voted in the last eight years. Yeah. You know? 9:53 So if they, if they did switch, now they're showing up as o- one of four voters, and they switch back, it could, I mean, maybe- Yeah... could make some noise there, but- Like sort of half-hearted Republicans. 10:03 I mean- My-... the word RINOs really sort of clarified itself... my point, though, is I don't think, I don't think those folks were captured in the polling at all- Yeah... 10:11 because, because that kind of data was being polled, and these weren't previous Republican voters. Yeah, they wouldn't know. Um- Reaches out to them... 10:17 we always felt that higher turnout was better for us, and I remember sitting here with Matt Hurley, you know, just as the runoff was kind of starting, and I think I told you guys that nationwide, historically, 10:31 um, turnout in a runoff is 40 to 50% what it is in a primary. And it wasn't as high as it was in the primaries, but it was a lot higher than I bargained for. 10:40 We, we always thought that higher turnout was very favorable, favorable to us, 'cause we knew that we had the overwhelming majority of Dusty's supporters and a strong majority of John Hansen's as well. 10:52 Um- Did the Sioux Falls runoff drive some of that probably? Not really, actually. Because, uh, the early vote totals in Minnehaha County were not, they were actually below the statewide average. Hmm. 11:06 I w- I was, I was surprised by that, but they were. The, the counties that voted the heaviest early were Brown, Hughes, and Davison, so Aberdeen, Pierre, and, and Mitchell. Hughes was the, your best county. 11:17 That was a blowout. I mean- Yeah... well, that was all a blowout, but I mean, that was a real blowout [laughs]. Yeah. Well- That was like a Soviet election- And we, we- You know? 11:23 Like we were, we're like, "The, the, the other's how many we want," like- There's only, there's only one name on the ballot. And it's, it's really- Yeah... 11:28 funny, 'cause when, when we were sitting here, Matt kind of gave me, gave me shit for, uh, emphasizing our door-to-door program, but we knocked every door in Pierre. 11:37 We, we made sure we were gonna get a good voter turnout in Pierre and- Everybody wanted to know who Dusty was helping behind the scenes. I know it was you guys got some wind in your sails from him. 11:48 Can you talk about that at all? Uh, I don't... He, a lot of his financial supporters obviously came home to Roem because he was a much more natural policy fit for them, right? And, and stylistic fit as well. 12:02 Um- Well, and long, much more familiar... he provided us a little of their data as well that was helpful. Yeah. Um- But Well, those guys, before this election cycle, I mean, we were... 12:15 all those candidates were, like, friends and, like- Oh, yeah... friendly, right? Toby Gordon was, like, the Johnny Come Lately. And that's what's tough about- They might be like, that rubbed people the wrong way. 12:24 Like- That's what's tough about primaries... you fucking tooth. It's, it's a family feud, you know? You don't, you don't... It's never fun to fight with family- Yeah... 12:32 'cause there's history there and wounds get clawed off and whatever have you. But, um, I think we got the right guy going into the general election who knows how to put people back together. Yeah, I was gonna say that. 12:45 He's been, like, the unity guy, right? He reset the legislature and all that when he took over. Is it kind of the same approach then? Like, let's reset- Yeah... the party? I mean- Yeah... 12:57 'cause he didn't really have to rebuild, like, the... I mean, people still liked your old boss, and, like, the party itself, aside from the legislative feuds, you know, your average Republicans didn't- I, I don't-... 13:09 buy a craft law as much... I don't know that the, I don't know that the need to reset is as big as what you're suggesting. 13:15 He got more than 70% of the vote, and then I point to things like- Look at the- So, so we, we had real wind in our sails of legislative endorsements from both Dusty and Hansen's camps. Yeah. 13:26 Um, and I, I think back to the event where when Mayor TenHaken endorsed the governor, and we had Kevin Jensen and Roger DeGroot standing right next to each other behind the governor and the mayor. You know? 13:41 Could- Yeah... 13:41 could not be more different members of that House Republican caucus, but both equally supportive of, of Governor Rhoden because for, and for similar reasons, because they'd seen how he leads and, and they liked it, and they- Was-... 13:56 very, very much preferred it to the alternative. Was Casey Crabtree at your party? Casey was at our party. How is he doing? Uh, I, I came up to him and gave him grief. I said, "Aren't you at the wrong party?" 14:07 [laughs] Yeah, I talked to him yesterday. He, he was pretty confident. Did you talk to Casey? I did not talk to Casey, but I did talk to somebody around that, that neck of the woods who was very perplexed by that. 14:18 And- Then, uh, and then I think it was the day after your story came out, I was, I was in Pierre, and I saw Jason Williams walking down the street. Yeah. And so I, I gave him grief too. 14:27 These guys- That was kind of funny... those guys, I don't... Just 'cause you're on a list doesn't mean you wanted to be on the list, right? I didn't make the list up. Well, you should- You know?... 14:37 you should tell the listeners, like, what you're t- referring to. All right. Well, if you're listening to this, I'd imagine you probably- Probably know, but-... probably read the story that- A, a lot of people did... 14:46 saw this. Everyone wanted to know who Toby Doten's lieutenant governor is gonna be if he was gonna win. So, like, it became very clear pretty fast that that shelf life on that story was getting short, right? 14:58 'Cause if he's not gonna win, there's nothing. So I started asking people, um, you know, "Who are you gonna pick? Who is he gonna pick?" That kind of thing. And then they haven't decided. He hasn't decided. 15:12 So then, "Is there a list? Is there, like, a shortlist? Have you whittled it down? Can you tell me who you've interviewed? Anything?" And they, um, 15:21 you know, they managed to, uh, uh, help me shake out some four names, and I was just as shocked as everybody else actually, you know, kinda. I had started hearing Casey's name, though. Whoa. 15:33 And, and, you know, uh, I did talk to Jason Williams before we published, and he was... He w- he wasn't so much surprised that he was on the list, but, like, it became clear it was Toby wasn't gonna win, right? 15:46 And nobody wanted to be tied to this when it wasn't gonna come to anything. Now you're just sort of remembered as somebody who Toby Doten would've liked to have on his staff. Uh, but his name, I mean, is what it is. 16:01 It's one of those... I didn't make the list up. If I was gonna make the list up, I'd put... and I wanted to stir the pot, I'd put your name on that list. That's funny. See what you people do. 16:09 [laughs] A lot, a lot of people were surprised to see Casey's name. 16:12 I was not just because of, I think it was a couple weeks before Toby had been on Dakota Town Hall and seemed like out of the blue just started speaking very glowingly of Casey. Yeah. Well, I think Casey... 16:26 Well, the pipeline thing is, is why that's surprising to people, right? That's a dead issue, you know? It's... I think it shows... 16:36 Like, when I saw his name on the list, it made me think, "Okay, Toby's being thoughtful here," right? He's got an eclectic list, and he's not putting himself in a corner. Steve Haugaard and Taffy, very obvious. 16:46 You know, I could have picked those. They would've been on my list if I was making one up. Uh- I put in the Taffy a year ago. 16:51 Yeah, I mean, I think in her announcement story we wrote, like, presumed his running mate candidate. And, um, it just... The pipeline thing, I mean, I don't think it hurt Casey to be on that list. 17:05 I mean, he gets some name recognition. That's what he struggled with in his congressional race. 17:09 And then, uh, it shows, like, somebody you can be on a di- you know, complete opposite issue, like, on the opposite side of a very stark and emotional issue, 17:21 you can move on and work together with somebody that's sort of not in your, you know, uh, the narrative or whatever as part of your base or whatever. So I don't know. It felt like the, the pe- Toby... 17:35 I don't think it helped Toby Doten, though. I think his hardcore supporters, um... 17:42 You know, if Dan Leaderman and Larry Rhoden being in a picture together drove anybody to Toby Doten, I think Casey Crabtree being on that list drove them back- Yeah... is what I think happened. Well, and I think, um, 17:55 the, the, the real flaw and the, and the real strength in our plan, um, Governor Rhoden's good at working with different factions and bringing them together. That, that's a skill that he has. 18:08 Um, and so we moved very quickly right out of the gates to, to send the right messages to John Hansen's supporters that- 18:17 Governor Roden was gonna work with them, even, even in the new legislature, he, he was ready to work with them. He signed that pledge that was built on his 20-plus years of actual record, you know? 18:29 He, he didn't say anything in that pledge that was a surprise to anybody, but putting it all in one place to say, "Hey, conservatives, here's my olive branch to you." Yeah. Right? 18:37 We, we moved very quickly to consolidate those folks. Um, that is what Toby actually needed to do to make this competitive. He needed to bring home all of those people, and it, and it didn't happen, fortunately for us. 18:51 You know, I was surprised. Last night I was in Aberdeen, and I didn't see any legislators there. I almost felt bad for the guy. He was like... It became clear he wasn't gonna win, so nobody showed up. That, that, uh, 19:05 it's gotta hurt a little bit. But, like, you'd think some of his most avid supporters would be there, but he didn't have a lot of lawmakers supporting him. 19:13 So maybe if he had knowable people there that I just didn't recognize their faces potentially, but, um- Well, you, you bring, you bring up the Hanson. I mean, the, the, the... 19:24 Going into the, the primary, I mean, those two were trying to get... Or Toby was trying to get Han- Hanson out because he thought that they were splitting a vote. Mm. 19:32 But that did not play out in this runoff at all, that there was this, that those voters would then go to him. And you're saying it's because the governor made overtures right after the primary. There's a... The... 19:43 That wa- that was a big part of it. There also was a lot of love lost, I think, in the first round primary. I think that's what it is. Um, just- He went, he went too hard against Hanson... 19:52 some are, some of, some of John's supporters are some of the most politically engaged people in the state. They, they b- they very much are. I- Yeah... 19:59 we, we had one poll come back where party-wide, Toby's favorability was underwater, but it was underwater in the single digits, but among people who had voted for Hanson in the primary, it was negative 20-something. Why? 20:12 'Cause he went too hard to the hoop to court Hanson voters in a- No, to, to, to, to, to- To drive th- to drive them down... to attack, to attack John, to try and- Yeah, that's what I mean... throw those voters off. Yeah. 20:22 Yeah. Like, it just... They weren't gonna be won over anyway, but it, what he tried to do, what he did in an attempt proved damaging. 20:33 So, uh- Whereas throughout the whole primary, and to his credit, this is true for Speaker Hanson as well, the governor and the speaker treated each other with respect and politeness and- Yeah... 20:47 shared credit for the property tax cut, you know, among other things. 20:50 And- I thought it was interesting before the debate we did at the Pavilion, um, right when these, the candidates were kind of, uh, te- five minutes before going on stage or whatever, 21:02 Hanson and the governor were sitting together talking and sort of, like, more relaxed than anybody else. And then Dusty was on his own with his people, and then, uh, Toby was getting makeup put on. 21:19 So, uh, it was... I, I noticed... And I got a photo of that, too. I noticed those guys just kind of being, uh, bros, but, like, they seemed a lot more casual, like, "Whatever. This is..." 21:32 They knew, they know each other really well. 21:34 They've worked together for a long time, and that, that's something that made it easier to bring a lot of that legislative support home, too, is a lot of these people are folks who the governor's worked with for years. 21:44 And th- throughout the primary, some of the people who have worked with him the longest were the most likely to support him, no matter how much they disagree with him on an issue here or there be- because of temperament and leadership style. 21:55 How much money you guys got left? Oh, I don't know. Uh, not enough for the general, but within spitting distance that we'll get there without a problem. Do you, uh, do you need money? We'll, we'll raise a little money. 22:09 Everybody always needs money. For this one? I mean, I think- Okay, my, my, my, my whole style-... the Democrat's best chance is Toby Doden to win... 22:16 my whole style, and these guys behind me will vouch for this, I don't give a crap what any data tells me. We run like we're 10 points behind. That's right what he says. These, the, these guys- [laughs]... 22:25 the, these guys call me the slave driver because get to more doors, make more phone calls. Yeah, that's good, but- Wh- which, which makes me happy that they're actually sitting here supporting me. 22:34 That's some cliche, though. 'Cause it means, I hope, that they actually still like me, but- But, yeah, that's like, give it 110%. Last- First one in, last one out... last- You know? 22:43 But seriously, last night- Fundamental... last night Todd County comes in, and initial returns said we lost Todd County by one vote. I think final f- or the, later on it updated that we lost Todd County by three votes. 22:54 But they got to open some provisional maybe. Maybe. I don't know. But- [laughs]... dang it, guys, we didn't knock any doors in Todd County. [laughs] Yeah. Well, see, there you s- you got real results. See what happens. 23:05 But that's the only one he didn't win. Uh, we also lost Fall River, which again, pro- proof of the good work that these guys did, we knocked a ton of doors in Custer County. 23:15 We didn't knock any doors in Fall River County. Yeah. They both went to Doden by mid-40s. Were you afraid you'd run into Julie Freymuller, or...? 23:22 [laughs] It's just there, there, there's so mu- there's so much bandwidth, you, you allocate your resources in different places, right? Yeah. But we won Custer. [laughs] We lost Fall River, 23:32 and that's all the proof I need that I told these guys that every day, doors win wars. Yeah. I saw your post about that. So, you know, I'll cheers to that with my Busch Light Bass Pro Shops collector's edition. 23:49 Here, here. Here's to, uh, your, your victory. You guys got anything you wanna add? And, and your... We're, we're gonna take a break, but the, uh, uh, here's to your crew, too, your war, your soldiers. 24:00 So- No one does it alone. Let me grab my car keys, and we'll roll. Are we still going to that new bar downtown? Yeah. It's supposed to be fun. Lexi, give me driving directions from home to downtown bar district. 24:11 Autocorrect. Suggest Uber. Pick-up home. Drop-off downtown bar district. No, I'm driving. Suggest the Metro bus departing in 12 minutes. Huh, point taken, Lexi. We'll grab a ride. If you drink, don't drive. 24:25 Decide to ride. 24:25 Brought to you in partnership by Anheuser-Busch, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Uber This message brought to you by Biel Distributing of Sioux Falls My grandpa was one of my favorite all-time people growing up. 24:36 I remember going to the Tulip Festival with him. I remember his blue jacket was always full of Starburst. 24:43 I remember a lot about my grandfather, but I also remember a lot about what he instilled in me and some of the values he dropped along the way. Things like, "I could never afford to buy cheap." 24:54 Now what that means to me is that in the industry that I'm in, mattresses don't last through their warranty, and those big box brands really don't have your best interests in mind. 25:03 They'd rather have you buy a bed and it break down prematurely, and you'd have to buy a new bed again. 25:08 But at June Sleep Systems, we value our commitment to our customers and their satisfaction longterm, which is why we only use the best quality ingredients, and we're there for you any time you wanna make a change to the mattress, even per side. 25:20 At June, 1950s values are still alive. We're only as good as the quality products we turn out at the end of the day, and our word is our bond. Come on down and check us out today, 41st and Grange in Sioux Falls. 25:32 Thanks again to June Sleep Systems and Biel Distributed Beers. Biel Distributing. Biel Distribution. Yeah, Biel, but they... It's their beers that we really- Although, Art-... really come for. Yep... 25:42 Art deserves a congratulations as well. Yep, 'cause he was an early- Him and, him and Mike Derby... a very early supporter. Early supporters. Much appreciated, yep. Yep. 25:51 Um- Say, they very early supported the Dakota Scout as well. They were. So. They were. How long... Did you get to party with these guys last night? No, they, they had to get on the road. Didn't you guys go to... No? 26:03 I went to- I went to Wylie's... I went to Wylie's last night. Oh, you did? I did some karaoke. He's swinging. Corbin, Corbin sang a song with my wife last night. Bergalicious. [laughs] Bergalicious? Yeah. 26:13 [laughs] Really? I should find the video of you doing, uh, Slim Shady. I did Slim Shady last night. [laughs] You did? That's good. I got video of that from a couple years ago. 26:21 I got some other video too, but- I had to write a story- Yeah... so we had, so we had morning content. Good. Thank you. Um, yeah. Anyway, so I guess I thought you guys were going to Rapid last night. 26:31 That's why I wouldn't... Okay. Well, anyway. So here, question for you. Like, with, like, contested primaries, there's typically a, a lesson you learn, and I'll just, like, give you an example. 26:42 Like, we haven't had a lot of, like, contested primaries in s- state history that, um... I mean, you had one with, like, Noem and Jackley. 2002, the Rounds, the Rounds, uh, y- that's... 26:53 You obviously weren't here, but it lives on in lore of, like, the nice guy who the... you know, the people go negative don't do as well. Uh- That, that race loomed very large over our shoulders. That's, that's okay. 27:03 That's what I wanted to get. So what lessons or what lessons did you take from the past, and what lessons did you learn going into the future perhaps for, for future primaries? Yeah. I, I haven't had a chance to really 27:13 sleep on that question yet- Sure... but the, the, the one thing that I've thought of so far is I don't think anyone enjoyed this runoff, having to do this for another two months. The voters didn't get a break. 27:29 Neither did we. Right. [laughs] Very fun. Neither did you. Right. It wasn't fun. No. But, but, but we do this for the constituents, right? So I mean, I'm, I'm thinking about the voters in this. Um, 27:41 we're gonna try to give them a little bit of a break here before November, but at some point you gotta get back to it for the general. You can't just, you can't just forfeit the field. 27:49 You gotta wait till after Labor Day. Right. Right, but i- ideally a little longer- Yeah... just because it- Yeah, it's only a month... first the mayoral runoff and then this one, especially here in Sioux Falls. 27:58 But I wonder if we maybe don't see a race like this in the future where there are four serious candidates, um, because people don't wanna see this runoff happen again. What do you mean? 28:14 If there's four- If, if there's three candidates, 'cause, 'cause you have to get to 35, right? Oh, you mean like a candidate might not go in because they just don't wanna deal with it. 28:21 Or somebody drops out because it, it's clear that the thing's headed for a runoff or something like that. 'Cause if there's three candidates, it'd have to be a pretty specific set of circumstances. 28:30 You'd have to go like 34, 33, 33. No, it's not gonna happen. You know what? I also wonder though if the legislature... You said smash and grab with Noem. The sma- the smash and grab, yeah. Maybe is there... 28:40 Like, kinda like in Sioux Falls when Theresa Staley won, they came back and changed the rules so you had to get 50% instead of plurality because they didn't want a smash and grab from a non-establishment person. 28:52 Would the moderates ever consider, given that the pendulum seems to be swinging towards populism and sort of, you know, Toby Don-esque, right, like Trumpism, like that sort of thing. Is it though? But I don't know. 29:05 I'm just throwing it out there. The... I don't think it would happen where they would raise that threshold. The legislature wouldn't, would it? Would they? 29:12 So what, what, what that would do is you'd get a runoff more often. You would. Yeah, but, but you also wouldn't... Would it guarantee that the, you know, the... that Toby Don couldn't smash and grab? That's my point. 29:23 I mean, i- in, in 2010 there were multiples. I can't remember how many candidates there were, and Dennis Daugaard did clear the 50% mark in that primary. But, uh, to your point, I... 29:36 you would see a lot more s- you would see a lot more runoffs for sure. Right. Even, even if- Well, I-... 29:40 even if you raise it to 40, now, now a three-man race could go to a runoff without too much difficulty Well, the legislature's gonna be more moderate this time, but I don't think there's enough alarmism or fear of what had happened because the governor won 70-30. 29:54 If it would've been 51-49, I bet there might be some consternation and some, some energy around raising that threshold from the establishment. Yeah. But he- I, I- The, the electorate showed it's, it's... 30:09 If I am somebody in Hughes County, right, I'm... Today I'm thinking the electorate showed it can be trusted to protect the institution. So if it felt like that was too close for comfort, then maybe there's... 30:23 someone's writing a bill today. Yeah. Well, I think, uh- Another takeaway too is people don't wanna see your 10-page, 10-part, 10-step plan, but you gotta hang some meat on the bones, you know? 30:38 I think the, the governor said this a few times, but people found Toby intriguing at first because he had these bold promises. Oh, that sounds good. 30:46 Th- th- but at some point you gotta tell them how you're gonna get it done, and so I hope that the candidates of the future remember that and, and 30:55 give the voters of South Dakota a little credit for wanting to see a little bit of specifics in their policies. A little substance. A little more substance. 31:03 You said that the 2002, uh, lessons that did play a role in this race and how you guys a- uh, approached your opponents. Yeah. Um, couple of things. We never punched first. I, 31:18 I often- Well, it's tough when you have to defend him... I often said, "Team Rhoden doesn't start fights, but we finish them." [laughs] Um, but every, every- You have to break a cliche as you read... every... 31:26 [laughs] They work. But every, every, um, contrast that we made, we had the Rhoden for governor branding on. We weren't gonna hide behind a PAC. Mm-hmm. Um, and so- No, I noticed that. I noticed that. 31:43 It was- I noted that... it was probably not gonna be possible to, to not run any kind of contrast whatsoever, at least in the four-way primary. 31:55 'Cause the, the difference between that and the three-way race in, in 2002 is there's two guys attacking each other in that race and one guy slips through unscathed. This four-way primary was just a mess. 32:08 Everyone was kind of attacking everyone. In fact, the only one who didn't get attacked- By and large was Sobie... was Sobie. Right. Yeah. Um- And probably the most you could attack on too... 32:20 so the, the obvious lesson would've been be the candidate who, who plays clean and stays positive. At some point that wasn't gonna be strictly possible. [laughs] Yeah. 32:32 Uh, we, we, we had to make some contrasts, but we did it in a way that protected the governor's reputation of civility and integrity, told the facts- Yeah... 32:44 didn't, didn't really sling mud and- Well, I feel like you guys-... I think it worked... you guys... 32:51 I mean, coming into it, it felt like Toby and Dusty and then I think Hanson probably from where he started to finish probably had the, like, Comeback Player of the Year Award or whatever. 33:03 And then you guys were able to... 33:07 You had the good fortune of some missteps by the two early front runners I think, and then you also have history kind of dragging you as far as, like, lieutenant governors don't necessarily fare well in a situation like this. 33:21 But that doesn't... That's... None of that's in a vacuum either. Well, nobody's, nobody's been elected from West River- Yeah, I was gonna bring that up... since the '40s, right? Yeah. That's pretty good. 33:30 I, I just read the lieutenant governor's history article this morning on the, on the, kinda recapping the runoff. Yeah. Well, it comes at a time when it's, like, cool to be a cowboy too. Yeah. You know? 33:43 Yellowstone and stuff and he, like... South Dakota ruggedness. You know, he, like, fits the brand. People call him John Dutton. I don't think he's quite as mean as John Dutton. [laughs] The, uh... 33:55 That's a character from that show? Yeah. Okay. I don't really... It's a good show. Yeah. Well. Yeah. It's a show. It's a show. 34:02 I know you listen to the, you watch your, you got your little T- TV antenna shows that you watch. EnchanTV, baby. What's your favorite? Leave It to Beaver? Is that what... Yeah, that was on there. 34:10 I just figured he watched Pearl Jam concerts on, on repeat. I think. Carrie and I watched Pearl Jam 20 documentary the other night for the first time. She's, like, looking at me like, "Is that AI?" 34:20 It's, like, we're swinging on the rafters and stuff. Well- Well-... we appreciate you coming in and not taking the Fifth and being candid because somebody else has been taking the Fifth a lot at, from what I understand. 34:29 Do you feel... Have you talked to your old boss lately? I've- That much?... I've talked to her a little bit, but not- Have you talked to her since the Fauci stuff? No. I bet she- Well, not, not... Since, yes. 34:38 Not about it. S- uh, I bet she feel, feels pretty validated about all this. I'm, I'm sure she does. So, you know. We're, we're unveiling her statue here in about a week. I'll, I'll ask her about it. The, uh, uh... 34:51 So this will come out hopefully. I'm finding talking to some of my 34:56 normal friends that don't, like, live in the PR, uh, like, political world and stuff, uh, they don't know the Fauci stuff's happening because the mainstream media is, like, not really 35:08 fanning it because- Why wouldn't they? Because they all, they- He died for them... they all- Yes. They look, they look bad. They doted over the guy, right? So, uh- They lionized him... 35:19 we spoke on the program last week, we even mentioned with our conversation with Toby Dutton that, like, but for COVID, like, this paper probably doesn't exist because it exposed some major intellectual gaps in the- Can, can I tell a mother's history? 35:32 Yeah, sure. So, so I joined Team Gnome in April 2020 and Maggie was still pretty new to the team. I think she joined in December of '19, give, give or take a month. Um, and th- this is an Ellis story. 35:47 I know where this is going. [laughs] Um, uh, and Jonathan was, was working on a story that I think he thought was fascinating because it was Sweden, right? 35:56 Was the country that kind of really didn't lock- Well, the thing that pissed, that got, that got us sideways was I wanted the fricking model that you guys were basing your epidemiology- Oh, yeah... 36:04 I, I'm like, "Give me the fricking model." Like, they're, "Oh, we're not giving it to you." 36:07 And so you have to- Well, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't remember if this made it into the story, but you were trying to compare South Dakota to Sweden and in your mind you were doing it favorably. 36:16 And because we- Yeah. [laughs]... because we had- You've got the media or the-... 36:18 because we had such a profound distrust for the media And, and, and how they were treating the whole situation, we thought, we thought it was, you know- A dig... a dig. It was. Very, uh, trying. 36:28 No, I mean, like, because I had been listening to interviews with the, with the, uh, their health authorities, and I'm like, "This is a complete departure from the other shit that was going on." 36:37 And I'm like, "This makes sense." And by then, by then, H- mind you, we'd had the Smithfield outbreak, a huge data set that we could- Even then, they weren't putting people in qu- They weren't want- Yeah... 36:47 they weren't doing lockdowns and stuff. You could... They weren't closing restaurants. They weren't doing all this stuff. They were doing some minor stuff here and there. And we had- They closed schools... 36:55 by then, by then we had this huge data set of Smithfield, right? And the whole, like, uh, f- uh, fatality rate was total bullshit that they were spreading. I'm like, this is... I mean, I was analyzing the data all day. 37:08 I, I remember what the fatality count out of Smithfield was, but it was low single digits. Two. Two, I think, was initial. Uh, there might have been... But... 37:15 And we're talking, we're talking, you know, w- uh, well over 1,000 cases. Did it get in the meat? 37:20 And, and it mi- another thing is too, I bet you, because there's a g- uh, there was a decent chance that those two individuals who, who died, they were probably put on ventilators immediately, which now we found out- 'Cause it was still very early... 37:32 right, 'cause now we found out- And it may-... it killed everybody. Yeah. It was making worse. So anyway, anyway, it was total bullshit. 37:37 I'd been listening to these Swede- you know, these Sweden health authorities- Oh, yeah, it ma- it turned out-... and, and I'm like-... it made your lungs like a balloon. It actually killed you. 37:44 Like so the government's very first thing it was pushing, with money- Yes... was actually counter. So, so I- Like are we ever gonna learn? 37:51 So I wrote this, I wrote this analysis piece right, like right before I had to go on a furlough. Like here we go. Like, like by this time the gov- Governor Noem had said, "No, we're just, this is it. 38:00 We're, w- this is how we're gonna roll." And any of the temporary stuff she'd put in, I think had come off by then. You know, she had some. 38:07 And, uh, and I'm like, so I did this piece like, "Yeah, we're gonna, this is gonna be the Sw- the Sweden way." And again, I thought it was favorable, and you guys got all pissed and bent out of shape about it. 38:16 You're comparing us to the commies. [laughs] We, we didn't know you. You called her a bozo. We had no idea who this prick was. You called her a bozo. A bozo from Bozo Land. Oh, well, I need to get the model. 38:25 [laughs] I want the freaking model. And Maggie's great, so. And you're friends now, right? Yeah, we're on good terms. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's just a good lesson in- Bring up-... picking up the phone and talking. 38:38 But yeah, that was- So... uh, yeah. Anyway. But none- yeah, nonetheless. So the, uh, Fauci's in the news. His diary came out. Yeah. The guy is a piece of shit. [laughs] Just gonna say that right now. 38:52 So he's on Senate, in the Senate committees, right? Testifying, pleading the Fifth like 200 times. To question like, do you know what the Fifth Amendment is? And he's like, "Plead the Fifth." And- Are you serious? Yeah. 39:04 And, you know, he's got the preemptive pardon from Biden, so what's the... I mean, I get it, like civil. He could still get civil for that. I don't know if preemptive pardons have ever been... 39:14 I don't know that there's any case law there. Yeah. Well- John? I think, I'm not one to like get caught up in like the national stuff, right? 39:25 But, um, and a lot of times these spectacles on Capitol Hill are, are mostly partisan driven, and it's gonna be tit for tat. But this is definitely bigger than that, given what the, the country went through, I guess. 39:42 And I can't help but think about, I mean, that he got this preemptive pardon is a big red flag, and now it makes a lot of sense. And then, uh, 39:52 you know, if, if the government, if the Supreme Court can rule that the government has to repay corporations for 40:00 the financial suffering that came from tariffs that were unconstitutional, like we all got big checks coming here. Because it's not just like a direct financial benefit. 40:11 You got, uh, like catastrophic setbacks that we still haven't- I don't know that we want more big checks though. We'll see inflation all the way down to world inflation... Yeah. 40:17 Well, I know, but like, but I think it's probably too damaging for the courts to even fathom a, a evaluation because, uh... 40:26 And it would have to be the states also doing that, 'cause the federal government didn't enforce any of that stuff. It was the states. And like, yeah, just because you have sort of 40:35 95% of public officials lacked leadership in those moments. And I mean, I, I tweeted, um, and social back then like, "What's the point of having a, uh, elected representatives if this makes CDC the king?" That, you know? 40:50 If the re- if the recommendation is what is the law- Right... then what is the point of leadership? And, uh, it showed a lot of cuckery, I will say, in, uh- That, that word-... government failures... 41:01 that word was a choice. I remember- Yeah, and I'll use it again... but, but, but- So-... at the RNC- Seriously... at the RNC in 2020, 41:08 I remember this is one of my, this is one of my favorite lines that she ever delivered. Noem said, uh, "We are not beholden to unelected so-called experts. We the people are the government." Yep. You know? 41:22 And, and I, I think there are some people who think that the public has a short memory, a short attention span. COVID's in the rear view mirror. People have forgotten it. I think it's a little too big to be forgotten. 41:35 Yeah. I mean, there's people- Uh-... who are still stuck on who shot JFK. Well, there are people who are addicted to [beep] heroin because of it. You know? Right. There are families that were destroyed. 41:45 There was the whole system, you know, our dollar's worth less. Like there, like you, we could spend five hours here coming up with examples and still not be through. 41:53 D- different, different societal crap that's happened since 2020 that- Yeah... oh, why, why is this suddenly worse, right? Like yeah, it's awful. 42:01 So, uh, after last week's interview with the governor, when we went off mic, we had a pretty candid conversation about how that all came to be. Yeah. 42:09 And the governor, uh, Governor Noem gets, you know, some of her adversaries like to bring up, you know, that things were uncertain at the beginning, whatnot. 42:21 But at the end of the day, like, uh, and we had like the Lincoln County meeting. I count if you're 65 or older, like please do this. But there was no of- A strong suggestion- Yeah... with no enforcement mechanism. 42:31 Yeah, exactly. So- And, and I'll, I'll, I'll say now what I told you then off mic that I, I don't like sharing-... internal debates behind closed doors, but I'll say this about our current governor. 42:43 There, there was a debate among the team about, about what should be done, and Lieutenant Governor Rhoden fully had the governor's back the whole way. We are not shutting down South Dakota. Well, 42:58 the, on the capital hearing today, uh, one of the senators laid out, like, he asked the people in the room, like, could you raise your hand or stand if you thought the vaccines were, you know, kind of absurd. 43:12 If you thought... Like, he kinda laid out all the stuff that I would hope most people at least thought a few times about as like, was that really the right way to do? 43:21 That doesn't feel like a, a, a letting human beings be human beings kind of a thing. And then, um, 43:29 and at the, after he laid it all out, he said, "And the, the worst part about it is if anybody uttered those things for three years, you were made to feel like less of a human being." Mm-hmm. 43:37 And, uh, that was, like, a moment in the testimony that sorta like, I don't know, brought it all home or brought it back. Because it wasn't so much... 43:49 I mean, you're gonna have a lot of people armchair car- uh, quarterbacking now, right? Like, "Yeah, I knew that," whatever, and they didn't. 43:54 They, "I thought that," but they didn't have the courage or anything to stand up and say it. Um, so I, I guess I haven't decided if I want those people to just stay in their holes or not yet. Um, 44:07 but I, and I'm sure I've said this before on this program. I remember in 2020, the first time I ever wrote the word COVID was in a story about how masks shouldn't be worn unless you're sick. 44:19 And then that changed like two months later, and it was like showing a dog a card trick asking people like, "What, what changed here?" And you couldn't get a straight answer. 44:27 Um- I vividly remember the first time I ever heard about it, and it was in January 2020. 44:32 And it was on, I w- I was living in DC at the time, and every day on my drive into Capitol Hill, I would listen to a slew of, like, morning rundown short podcasts, you know? 44:43 And I remember one of them, I don't remember if it was, it was ei- it would either be political CNN or New York Times, and they're talking about this disease in China where, like, 20 people have died. 44:55 And I could not for the life of me understand why a disease that had killed 20 people was day after day after day getting talked about on this podcast. You know? Nice. And, and then I was, 45:09 I got offered the job in South Dakota in late February. Wasn't gonna start until the beginning of April, and then DC locks down in early March. So I saw the first month of the lockdown and then got the heck out of here. 45:18 Yeah. Good for you. You know. But- And you saw a billboard on your way into town... so I saw a billboard into town that said, "Facts, not fear." Um, but I could not for the life of me grasp... 45:32 It seemed like the media was way ahead of this one. And I don't mean you guys, I mean- Yeah. Well, it was because Dr. 45:39 Fauci was handing out his business cards and making sure everybody knew what was coming, which- I don't think anyone should be in the same role for 30 years, whoever it was... 45:46 uh, yeah, k- it was, I mean, look, the guy was a career bureaucrat and, you know, a- and, and, and at the end of the day, one of the, the complaints about w- on his resume, he had no clinical experience, right? 45:56 I mean, he was, he's just been a career bureaucrat. Well, that's okay, but I mean, there are a lot of career bureaucrats. But they were changing, like, the definition of gain and function. Right. 46:04 And, like, and they were lit- To get around laws that, that- And they were literally, like, telling the American public what they knew to be untrue. Well, right. Where, where there's, there's stuff in these diaries 46:17 that are, and I have not had any bandwidth to pay attention to national news the last few months, but th- this one's- Well, you know, it's a big fucking deal if I did... th- right. This- Yeah, I know. 46:25 [laughs] This, th- this one's really stood out to me, uh, for I think obvious reasons. Um, he was writing in his diary what he knew the mortality rate to be, 46:36 which was much closer, still higher, but much closer to what it actually was. Right. And it was turning around and telling people something that was astronomically higher. Yeah. Well, I- Right... 46:45 he would, like, start his entries with, like, "5,000 deaths today. Went and had dinner at the Tappers. Great couple. Friendship building." You know, shit like that while we're all, like, holed up in our houses. 46:57 [laughs] And he's, like, having dinner parties with Jake Tapper. And, like, I don't have enough history. I mean, Spanish flu stuff, did anything ever come, like was there any Machiavellian bullshit that came out of that? 47:11 You know? I don't have any history there, but, uh- Okay, so Spanish flu happened in what, 1919? Yeah. Yeah, e- 1718 or something like that... 47:19 was there like a Rockefeller in the corner or whatever they- Well, not, not long after- Yeah... was when Coolidge got elected, and so there, there was kind of a... Coolidge is my favorite president. 47:28 I, I think maybe the smallest government president of the 20th century. South Dakota connections. He does have South Dakota connections. Yeah. 47:36 Well, I would hope, uh, I don't know, for the first time in, uh, his- world history, human history, cognitive thinking has gone down for, to another generation. Uh, that doesn't give me... 47:50 That undercuts the idea- Maybe, maybe because kids should be in the classroom... maybe. Maybe 'cause, uh, you don't retain things through tablets and devices, stuff like that. But that's a different conversation. 48:01 But I would hope we could retain these lessons for more than 100 years this time. You know. 48:07 During the Spanish flu, there was lockdowns and city ordinances and things like that, but they didn't last as long, and there wasn't the mass communication ability that allowed, 48:18 I don't know, such centralized planning in that way, I guess. But yeah. Well, the thing about the lockdowns too is they were contrary to what they'd always said. Like, you can't do that. 48:27 You c- you c- they won't work, right? I mean, they, they were just contrary to all the, the planning that went into these sorts of things, and then all of a sudden, "Oh, we need to have lockdowns," you know? 48:36 And it was, I don't know. You know, in the UK at first they were like, "Oh, we're not gonna do this. We'll stand our ground," and well, Boris Johnson got swe- I mean, it just, I don't know. It was ridiculous. 48:46 And to your point about the media Again, this publication exists because of the media's, in l- in large part because of the media's reaction, and piss poor reaction. And I'm always reminded- It's a fair question... 48:59 I'm always reminded of, like, what was the media's motivation? Why, you know, like, I don't know. 49:03 I, I always wanna like laugh or chuckle a little bit and go back to that episode from The Simpsons of the, uh, h- House Cat Flu episode or whatever [laughs], you know? I mean, it was so apropos. 49:13 So- Well, I was gonna say, the media stereotypes are true for a reason. The media's run by, um, at the top, academic liberals. They're risk averse. 49:24 And the diaries are also showing us that all these recommendations were very partisan. They were very partisan. The fact that the idea that this came out of a lab and not a wet market became partisan very, very quick. 49:37 Uh, who's the dude who just switched to Pennsylvania, senator, federal- Fetterman? He was there today, and he noted that. He said it seemed to make sense that it came from a lab, and so that was quickly 49:52 sort of dismissed as just a conspiracy theory of the right. The weirdest thing about the wet market theory, the wet market lie, was that they kept changing what animal it was. It started with the bat, right? 50:04 And then it was a pangolin- Yeah... which I'd never even heard of. Yeah, maybe they made that up. [laughs] But, I mean, this, this is what he's saying. 50:14 I haven't had a chance to delve into that, but this is what he's saying in the diary, that, that was the... It was an amp. The, the wet market was an amplifier and not the source. 50:20 I mean, he basically s- they ba- And we knew this before, 'cause there had al- already been some emails that have been FOIA'd that show that he was emailing. 50:26 Like they, "Hey, we gotta figure out, you know, this-" Well, how to say this... I- it's, i- it's, it's happening in this, in the one town that's got the coronavirus- Right... research lab. 50:34 Like [laughs] how stupid- Yeah... do you think we are? Yeah. Right. 50:36 Well, you know, more so than like, I mean, Fauci had a power, and if you have public, if you have power and you're a public official, you, you have the public trust, you should be held to a higher standard. 50:48 But- Can, can, can I bring it full circle? Yeah Which is why it's good that we elected the integrity governor- Oh... in this ruck of a whole election. Yeah. But I'm mad. 50:57 I have great resentment for, like, 40 and up, well, anybody really who had the audacity to think everyone should be locked in their houses so that they could feel better, right, emotionally. 51:10 But, like, these older folks that had a great life, right, they get to the end, and they wanna make... Like, okay, let's say it is dangerous, right? Let's say it is that dangerous for older folks. 51:22 Let's ruin the world so I can live 10 more... Like, it's so conceited- And people who are-... and selfish is what it was... 51:31 people who are more likely to watch the news, who already know that their health is declining and they're a little more cognizant of it probably, right? And, and the amount of fear that was created in- Yeah... 51:43 that group of people. And they were so selfish. They didn't have the foresight to think like, "Maybe if we don't send Jimmy to school, he will have 80 years of a shitty life." 51:51 I don't, I don't- "Uh, I've had a great life, and I wanna make sure COVID doesn't come in in the last five years of my life." They were, they were manipulated by nobody's fr- like, nobody's fricking business. 52:00 I don't think- Oh, I know. Because of Dr. Fauci, but- I, I, I don't, I don't, I don't think it's selfish to not wanna die. They grew up in the era of Walter Cronkite. Yeah. Cronkite. I agree. Walter Cronkite, right? 52:09 Where they probably have a more established trust of the media, and so when the media manipulates that trust- Yeah. And they see stuff on Facebook, and they still- Yeah... 52:18 and because of that, because they're not, they're not used to being- Critical thinkers... 52:23 Well, uh, critical thinkers, but they're not put to, to, like, being inundated, I think, with propaganda all the time, whereas where we get that now on social media. Yeah. And so- Thomas Massie said that, right... 52:32 since, since then, there's been so much propaganda that people have kind of developed a filter for it, you know? Yeah, like Massie said that after he lost. He's like, "I'll, you know... 52:41 Those AI videos aren't gonna work in a couple election cycles." Right. Because the boomers aren't gonna have the electorate base, you know? They're not gonna... They don't get it. 52:53 They were duped by Fauci, and they were, they're being duped by AI. Well, anyway- I'm gonna clean some of this up... dark, dark ti- dark times, but it's, it's, I think it's- I hope you don't. No, I don't. 53:04 I, I think, uh... But I'm glad. 53:06 I mean, I haven't had a chance to catch up with what was going on, but I'm gonna enjoy catching up to what, to these hearings and the diary and all this other stuff because it pissed me off. 53:15 Well, I'm emotionless when it comes to, like, news and current events, you know? And- Like, I don't care... and props to Rand Paul- But that doesn't mean I-... for being a dog with a bone for the last five years. 53:24 Oh, and that's a g- again, going back to media coverage. Oh, like, when he would confront Fauci early on and say, "Hey, what's this gain of function stuff? And did it come from the lab?" Tom Cotton along those lines too. 53:33 And the, the, you know, th- these are, again, opinion media people, but, "Fauci slams Rand Paul," like, "Takes him to the mats," you know, like, just lionizing Fauci. And, like, actually what he's saying makes sense. 53:45 Just because you don't call it gain of function, that's what it is, you know? I mean, it, it... So- Yeah, well, I bet Rand Paul, Rand Paul feels pretty validated today- Yeah, he does... 53:53 watching that little fucking weasel squeam. The, the Fifth Amendment over and over and over, so. 53:59 'Cause there's lots of those hot, very f- hot, famous video of him telling Rand Paul, "You don't know what you're talking about." Right. "If anybody's lying here, it's you." And- Rand Paul being a physician, of course. 54:09 Right. So he does have some medical training. Who, who, who actually practiced. Clinical. It, it, uh, yeah, I don't know. It's, I'm tired of being right all the time about stuff like that, you know? 54:20 You would hope, feel validated, but you'd hope, you know- If you're, if you're tired of being right, hang out with me more. That's why I feel right all the time. [laughs] So anyway, uh, appreciate. 54:32 So to our listeners, sorry if we've offended you, you, but if you were offended by this, then maybe you should think back to what you were thinking about six years ago. I'm serious. Cheers to that. 54:41 So think a little bit harder. Like, there's a Sturgill Simpson, there's a song. He says, "Most thoughts deserve two or three more." You know? Think most thoughts deserve two or three more. 54:52 And for some of you, make it, like, 10 or 11. You gave me shit for cliches. The, the... Well, I, I've never heard that before. Had you before the line? I'm gonna make it a cliche. Do you know what a cliche is? 55:04 [laughs] Please don't. Thank you to Bill Distributing- Yep... to June Sleep Systems. Thanks for the, the team rodent in here. You know, congratulations. Studio audience. Ian Fury. Uh, 55:17 if people didn't like Ian, well, you're screwed, 'cause now he's sticking around for another four to eight years, you know, whatever the hell. I've, I've actually found a lot more friends in the last few months, so. 55:25 Yeah, good. Good. I, I, I've loved all the social media comments that are, "I can't believe I'm agreeing with something Ian Fury said." [laughs] It's a time of unity. Uh, all right. Well, thank you. 55:37 Uh, news tips welcome. Thanks. 55:39 [upbeat rock music]
