So the midterm elections obviously didn't go as well as we had hoped. We will win the House, unfortunately, will not win the Senate, and some future stars fell a little short, like Carry Lake we've had on this podcast and who we really like. She's very talented. That's for a few different reasons I got into the other week. I think largely we didn't win independence, which you have to win to win a midterm election. They are able to drive out their base with the issue of abortion, and then third mail and ballots and early voting Republicans, we've now had her, you know, teeth knocked into elections in a row on the issue of mail and ballots. I mean, Democrats aren't searching for votes, they're searching for ballots. They're doing a lot of this in certain states that allow for it, with things like ballot harvesting. And it's frustrating as Republicans to see that happen, to know that they unfairly changed the rules of the game during COVID using a virus that's as deadly as the flu to append the political process. It's incredibly frustrating ng But you know, complaining about it doesn't help. It doesn't win elections. So we've learned some hard things through the midterm elections, and the best thing for us to do as a party moving forward is to adapt and make changes. You know, we don't want to be the toys r us of politics. We've got to innovate. We've got to focus on things like mail and ballot it's in early voting, but it's not all bad. I mean, ultimately, Republicans we are now better off than we were before the midterm elections. With controlling the House. Democrats have an incredibly difficult Senate map. They're defending twice as many seats as we are in states that are also very competitive for Republicans. So we have another bite at the apple with the Senate race as well, and then we'll have the presidential election as well. But one thing we also discovered through the midterm elections is Republicans have a lot of future stars. Governor to Santa's crushed it in the state of Florida, beating Charlie cris by twenty points, biggest margin in any Florida gouber toil race in forty years. He won sixty two of the state's sixty seven counties, winning majority Hispanic districts like Miami Dade County for the first time in twenty years. And we also discovered that there are other bright future leaders of the Republican Party as well. We're going to talk to one of them. Congressman Byron Donalds, who represents Florida's nineteenth congressional district, smoked his competition in the race that he had, and I had a chance to see him speak. He spoke at Governor to Santis's victory party in Tampa before the governor took the stage, and he was incredible. I mean, it's one thing to watch people on TV. And I've always liked him, have always respected him. I've always thought he was really smart, always talented, and I really respect him after he said he wasn't going to get the vaccine because the House and Nancy Pelosi they're trying to put a tremendous amount of pressure on people to get it. So I have tons of respect for him for saying, nope, you don't know me. I do what I want on my own, man. But he was phenomenal watching him on stage, and so I think the bright spots from the midterm elections are our one. We know what we need to work on moving forward. But two, we do have a lot of bright future leaders and Republican and conservative politics do work. They worked in the state of Florida. We were able to show Floridians what conservative leadership looks like and the voters responded. So we're going to get into what lessons we need to learn, do we need new leadership moving forward, and what should the Republican Party focus on this next congress. We're gonna get into all of this with Congressman Byron Donalds. I loved meeting him. He's a really awesome guy and we are so lucky to have him as one of our future leaders in the Republican Party. Congressman Byron donald So, I met you for the first time at the victory night for Governor to Santis last week. It was awesome meeting you. I really enjoyed it. Well, listen, it was great to meet you. Like I've heard the name, I've seen your having to listen to your work and I was like, oh wait, this is her. So it was actually awesome. So it's pleasure meeting you that night, and it was a great night for Florida. Well, and it was, and you spoke before Governor to Santis did. And I gotta tell you, you did sech a good job. I wanted to put the warp pay now on, like beat my chest, go out and do push ups, run laughs, like you got us all really fired up, and you gave such a good speech, So you know, congrats on killing it. Well, look, it was really from the heart, you know, somebody who came in in the Tea Party movement and was watching the country, you know, back when Obama was president and really concerned about the direction. You know, I got passionate about politics. And it wasn't because I came up as a young kid in politics. It was never a thing I wanted to do in high school and college. I was an adult, I was a citizen. I'm looking around the country and not seeing things that look good to me, and I found conservatism. And so I think when people heard on the stage from me, you know, Tuesday night, was just from the heart. This is what I think, this is what I feel. But it's also how proud I am of Florida, proving and showing what I've already known, is that Florida is a is a conservative state. We are a free state, and the voters said that loud and clear. Well, and it was such a weird night because you know, at the victory party, I mean, it was a historic night for for Republicans in the state. You crushed it in your race. Uh you know, does Santa's beat Charlie cris by twenty points? You know, the biggest margin in any Florida gubernator race in forty years, not just for Republican but for for anyone. So we had this huge night and then it's like you leave the party and then it just you know, reality hits with what was going on in the rest of the country. So what do you think happened? You know, what do you think was the breakdown where Republicans fell short of what we thought was going to happen. Well, a couple of things. I think First, in these other states, the citizens haven't had the experience of what conservative leadership really means and how it impacts your life. People gotta understand, Florida has been building towards this for thirty years. Um. I was actually with some of my colleagues in the Florida delegation, people like Dan Webster and Mario Diez Blart, who were in the Florida legislature when the Democrats had control of the Florida legislature. So this has been building for quite some time. The other states keep going back and forth. Um they never you know, they never go strong into the conservative lane from a policy standpoint. And so in Florida, voters saw the realities and the difference is very clear because of COVID nineteen, and I think they responded to that. Number two and I think on the national level, number two is we didn't answer the bell when it comes to the Dobbs decision. I think that the decision by you know, people in the Republican leadership and Republican Party above, you know, they just decided that it's not a big issue, we don't have to focus on it, and we kept focus on on on inflation and economy and crime and the border. And I'm not saying those aren't key issues. They definitely are key issues. But what we didn't take seriously enough, in my view, is how you know how volatile uh issue like abortion is. I think we should have been and we should have created a position as a party. We should have stood by that position as a party, and it would have deflated the lies frankly, that came from the left. You know, if you look at some of the campaign ads. I was in different states campaigning, and if you look at the campaign ads, every ad from a Democrat was about abortion, every ad, and we had no counter message to that, and I think that did hurt us in these other states. You know, that's a really good point, and I'm guilty of that as well, because I didn't think abortion would supersede some of these bigger issues, or at least in my mind, like crime. But what they did do was use it to turn their people out. And of course, we know, to win a midterm election, you've got to get your base more fired up than theirs, and you've got to win independence. So I think you really nailed it with what you just said on that issue. And you know, and I was guilty of that in Italy. Um. You know, what do you think what should our priorities be as a party moving forward? I think we're going we're gonna have a majority in the House, so that's great news. I think our priority has to be going through all of the policies that we talk about and passing it. And I mean, you're getting into the weeds on policy. We We don't need to let the Democrats get their feet settled on what they think Republicans stand on our doing. We don't need the press being able to lay out narratives about all the Republicans are going to do this. It needs to be a very aggressive strategy, and we need to go into every policy solution and not shy away from it. I think if we do that, the voters will see two things. One they're serious about governing, and number two, they'll see the contrast that we need with the Democrats. It goes back to Ronald Reagan. There can't be pale pastels. There have to be bold colors, and I think congress um in the House, that's what we need to be focused on. Do you think that's a great point? And and to your point, you know, part of the reason why I think Florida and Republicans did so well here is because you guys did lead with a bold plan in the state of Florida and really showed what leadership looks like. To your point, you know, I also believe we learned some important things in the process front front and we learned this in but most particularly this past election with mail ballots and early voting has really changed the dynamics and the political dynamics in the country. I mean, we got to be more aggressive on getting voters out early and getting voters to to do mail and balloting as well. We've got to play the games in each state as they're written in order to change them. Listen, I always bring it down on this. You know. I used to cochise sports, and you know, if I wasn't in Congress, that's what I would be doing with my time and also in addition to my financial services career and what I would always tell, you know, my young kids who I would coaches. You can't complain about the rules. You gotta go compete because if you spend your time complaining I don't like this referee, this person you know always does this, then you're already defeated. So we have to just understand this is the game, and we gotta get in and do it now. In some of these other states, they need to adopt Florida's election law, or at a minimum, Georgia's election law, because though the Georgia's election law actually worked quite well despite the Democrats lying to voters and gas lighting voters about it being Jim Crow two point oh. Turned out Georgia had successful elections just like Florida did. So we're the model now for how you run elections. And it's done with making sure people are requesting their ballot. Nobody else is doing it for them. They can't request for like ten people, they can't return ten. You can return yours and another family members. That's the law on Florida. You have to repress repress your ballot every election. That's the law on Florida. You have to have I d UM. Your supervisors of Elections are allowed to tabulate ballots um starting forty days before the election as they receive them. So on election night, all we're doing is just reporting the numbers that we already know, as opposed to you're waiting on these batches of votes and all this other stuff, which actually brings more pessimism to the effective the effectiveness and the efficiency of our election process. I think that's where we need to go once again. The Florida model works. We need to embrace it and go down that line. And if we do that work, then we can be focused on the things that really truly matter, the policy issues, and frankly, some of the cultural war issues in our politics, as opposed to then getting into this weird debate with Democrats about who really supports democracy. You know, I think that's really a joke argument from the Democrats because a lot of them actually have a problem with suppressing free speech. We know that through social media, we know that through national press that they actually suppressed stories that they feel are not advantageous to them. So we need to step into that, into that field, into that argument. But you've got to look at the playing field and say these are the rules. Then let's play, and you put your helmet on and you work hard. Quick commercial break and then back with Congressman Byron Donald's California is liberalism taken to its you know, final conclusion, right like. So that that is what Democrats want California policies. And I think Florida to the opposite of that is conservatism to its natural conclusion, right like. And we've really led the nation in the state of Florida in some big ways on election laws, which you're just talking about as well. You know, But as we look at the party moving forward, is it time for some leadership changes? Well? I think so. I mean, look, I'm running for a leadership posts in the House of Representatives right now, Um, and so I definitely think so. Look, we have had essentially the same leadership for eight, nine, ten years, and so you know, my attitude is is that you know, if you if you're if you're winning Super Bowls every other year, and then great, but if you're not, you got to really evaluate that. And I think it requires not just the electorate but also the members to have frank and honest conversations. Now, if through those those those conversations you come back to saying no, this is the best foot forward, then that's fine. But look, I'll take the United States Senate. In the Senate, there is no vote for Mitch McConnell because nobody decides to step up and run against Mitch. And that's not a pro mid statement or anti Mitch statement. That's just saying that that Senate Republicans they have to look at this as well and say, you know what, maybe there's a better way to do this and not be so concerned about well so and so will punish me if I oppose them, Because these lots of leadership aren't shouldn't just be taken by acclamation. They should be given by the will of the members who get voted on the serve up here, because we get our authority from the will of the voters who sent us from back home. It's a great point, you know, Congress, I always liked you when I saw you on TV. Obviously I thought you're awesome when I met you in person. But when I really started being like, I like this guy a lot was when you didn't get vaccinated, just because there's so much pressure, especially in Congress, to to force you guys to submit right to to Nancy Pelosi's will, and you refused and you stood strong. Why did you make that decision for yourself? Because, UMT three years old, and I'm healthy, and the data was pretty clear that if you're a healthy individual under the age of sixty five, um, you'll recover from COVID nineteen just fine. And if you were older, if you're older than five, then yeah, you had a legitimate decision to make about getting vaccinated. That was always been my position. UM, I wasn't gonna let media or public pressure make me do that because that's just not how we should be making decisions for our own personal situations. And number three, and this is a thing that really, you know, it really pissed me off in the whole COVID debate. For for all of human biology, we've known that when you get a virus, you develop antibodies because you actually contracted it and you got over it and you pass it and then you have antibodies. But they're a COVID nine team. The entire media establishment just ignored the fact that antibodies exists. It was the craziest thing to me because the people who were saying you gotta follow the science have basically ignored the base scientific fact that all of us had learned in high school. So that's just that kind of stuff. This doesn't sit well with me. You know, my I'm somewhat I can be a contrarian at times. It's like my base nature. And even my wife will tell you, if you push on him to do something, he's going to just like get his back up just because you're pushing on him. If you have the logic and the facts behind you, hey, I can be supportive of that and actually champion it. But if it's just gonna be this thing where we all have to have to have to have to genuinely, because that's where the whole group is going I don't respond well to that. I was. I was smiling to myself as you were saying that, because I'm like, I feel like you're describing me like I I as soon as someone tries to force me to do something, I'm like, whoa, Nope, Nope, this is not this is not going to work with me. I do hope that the House changes all the COVID rules and gets rid of proxy voting, makes people show up in person, and and changes, uh, you know some of those things. You know. I know you're a busy man. You've got a lot going on, sir. Is there anything you'd like to leave us with before we go? The biggest thing is like, look, I know that it looks like elections didn't turn out the way we wanted, but people should not lose heart because I think, and this is something that comment Up made to my members has really shown us, is that the American people are sick of the Democrats. But the other problem is they're not quite sure that they love Republicans, and so I think I think the silver lining is that there is an opportunity for us to make our case and to demonstrate with bold leadership why people should be choosing not just a Republican Party, but conservatism more, more, more and more appropriate overall. And I think we have a golden opportunity to do that across so many demographic groups that were not open to conservatism before, they're open to it today. And so it's our job just to leave with our ideas and really understand all the issues that exist in America and not be afraid of the solutions that'll be bringing. That's really well said. Um, totally agree with you, Congressman. I'm glad that you represent the state of Florida, my home state now, and uh, you know, I hope you have a bright future in the Republican Party and hopefully leadership as well. So I appreciate you taking the time. Great to have met you last week and great to have a chance to talk to you for the for the podcast. So thanks so much, No, awesome, thanks for your time, Lisa, really appreciate it. And hey, I can't wait to do it again. Yeah. So that was Congressman Byron Donald's. I really like the guy. He's incredibly smart. Uh you know, I love the fact he stood strong on vaccines and I gotta tell you watching him speak before the Governor. He just he crushed it. He did such a good job, so really cool having him on the podcast, especially as a fellow Floridia and I appreciate you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I always love when you give me reviews on Apple Podcasts or you leave us a rating. Those are fun to see and read. I want to thank my producer, John Cassio for putting this together and for you at home listening. Thank you so much.

So the midterm elections obviously didn't go as well as we had hoped. We will win the House, unfortunately, will not win the Senate, and some future stars fell a little short, like Carry Lake we've had on this podcast and who we really like. She's very talented. That's for a few different reasons I got into the other week. I think largely we didn't win independence, which you have to win to win a midterm election. They are able to drive out their base with the issue of abortion, and then third mail and ballots and early voting Republicans, we've now had her, you know, teeth knocked into elections in a row on the issue of mail and ballots. I mean, Democrats aren't searching for votes, they're searching for ballots. They're doing a lot of this in certain states that allow for it, with things like ballot harvesting. And it's frustrating as Republicans to see that happen, to know that they unfairly changed the rules of the game during COVID using a virus that's as deadly as the flu to append the political process. It's incredibly frustrating ng But you know, complaining about it doesn't help. It doesn't win elections. So we've learned some hard things through the midterm elections, and the best thing for us to do as a party moving forward is to adapt and make changes. You know, we don't want to be the toys r us of politics. We've got to innovate. We've got to focus on things like mail and ballot it's in early voting, but it's not all bad. I mean, ultimately, Republicans we are now better off than we were before the midterm elections. With controlling the House. Democrats have an incredibly difficult Senate map. They're defending twice as many seats as we are in states that are also very competitive for Republicans. So we have another bite at the apple with the Senate race as well, and then we'll have the presidential election as well. But one thing we also discovered through the midterm elections is Republicans have a lot of future stars. Governor to Santa's crushed it in the state of Florida, beating Charlie cris by twenty points, biggest margin in any Florida gouber toil race in forty years. He won sixty two of the state's sixty seven counties, winning majority Hispanic districts like Miami Dade County for the first time in twenty years. And we also discovered that there are other bright future leaders of the Republican Party as well. We're going to talk to one of them. Congressman Byron Donalds, who represents Florida's nineteenth congressional district, smoked his competition in the race that he had, and I had a chance to see him speak. He spoke at Governor to Santis's victory party in Tampa before the governor took the stage, and he was incredible. I mean, it's one thing to watch people on TV. And I've always liked him, have always respected him. I've always thought he was really smart, always talented, and I really respect him after he said he wasn't going to get the vaccine because the House and Nancy Pelosi they're trying to put a tremendous amount of pressure on people to get it. So I have tons of respect for him for saying, nope, you don't know me. I do what I want on my own, man. But he was phenomenal watching him on stage, and so I think the bright spots from the midterm elections are our one. We know what we need to work on moving forward. But two, we do have a lot of bright future leaders and Republican and conservative politics do work. They worked in the state of Florida. We were able to show Floridians what conservative leadership looks like and the voters responded. So we're going to get into what lessons we need to learn, do we need new leadership moving forward, and what should the Republican Party focus on this next congress. We're gonna get into all of this with Congressman Byron Donalds. I loved meeting him. He's a really awesome guy and we are so lucky to have him as one of our future leaders in the Republican Party. Congressman Byron donald So, I met you for the first time at the victory night for Governor to Santis last week. It was awesome meeting you. I really enjoyed it. Well, listen, it was great to meet you. Like I've heard the name, I've seen your having to listen to your work and I was like, oh wait, this is her. So it was actually awesome. So it's pleasure meeting you that night, and it was a great night for Florida. Well, and it was, and you spoke before Governor to Santis did. And I gotta tell you, you did sech a good job. I wanted to put the warp pay now on, like beat my chest, go out and do push ups, run laughs, like you got us all really fired up, and you gave such a good speech, So you know, congrats on killing it. Well, look, it was really from the heart, you know, somebody who came in in the Tea Party movement and was watching the country, you know, back when Obama was president and really concerned about the direction. You know, I got passionate about politics. And it wasn't because I came up as a young kid in politics. It was never a thing I wanted to do in high school and college. I was an adult, I was a citizen. I'm looking around the country and not seeing things that look good to me, and I found conservatism. And so I think when people heard on the stage from me, you know, Tuesday night, was just from the heart. This is what I think, this is what I feel. But it's also how proud I am of Florida, proving and showing what I've already known, is that Florida is a is a conservative state. We are a free state, and the voters said that loud and clear. Well, and it was such a weird night because you know, at the victory party, I mean, it was a historic night for for Republicans in the state. You crushed it in your race. Uh you know, does Santa's beat Charlie cris by twenty points? You know, the biggest margin in any Florida gubernator race in forty years, not just for Republican but for for anyone. So we had this huge night and then it's like you leave the party and then it just you know, reality hits with what was going on in the rest of the country. So what do you think happened? You know, what do you think was the breakdown where Republicans fell short of what we thought was going to happen. Well, a couple of things. I think First, in these other states, the citizens haven't had the experience of what conservative leadership really means and how it impacts your life. People gotta understand, Florida has been building towards this for thirty years. Um. I was actually with some of my colleagues in the Florida delegation, people like Dan Webster and Mario Diez Blart, who were in the Florida legislature when the Democrats had control of the Florida legislature. So this has been building for quite some time. The other states keep going back and forth. Um they never you know, they never go strong into the conservative lane from a policy standpoint. And so in Florida, voters saw the realities and the difference is very clear because of COVID nineteen, and I think they responded to that. Number two and I think on the national level, number two is we didn't answer the bell when it comes to the Dobbs decision. I think that the decision by you know, people in the Republican leadership and Republican Party above, you know, they just decided that it's not a big issue, we don't have to focus on it, and we kept focus on on on inflation and economy and crime and the border. And I'm not saying those aren't key issues. They definitely are key issues. But what we didn't take seriously enough, in my view, is how you know how volatile uh issue like abortion is. I think we should have been and we should have created a position as a party. We should have stood by that position as a party, and it would have deflated the lies frankly, that came from the left. You know, if you look at some of the campaign ads. I was in different states campaigning, and if you look at the campaign ads, every ad from a Democrat was about abortion, every ad, and we had no counter message to that, and I think that did hurt us in these other states. You know, that's a really good point, and I'm guilty of that as well, because I didn't think abortion would supersede some of these bigger issues, or at least in my mind, like crime. But what they did do was use it to turn their people out. And of course, we know, to win a midterm election, you've got to get your base more fired up than theirs, and you've got to win independence. So I think you really nailed it with what you just said on that issue. And you know, and I was guilty of that in Italy. Um. You know, what do you think what should our priorities be as a party moving forward? I think we're going we're gonna have a majority in the House, so that's great news. I think our priority has to be going through all of the policies that we talk about and passing it. And I mean, you're getting into the weeds on policy. We We don't need to let the Democrats get their feet settled on what they think Republicans stand on our doing. We don't need the press being able to lay out narratives about all the Republicans are going to do this. It needs to be a very aggressive strategy, and we need to go into every policy solution and not shy away from it. I think if we do that, the voters will see two things. One they're serious about governing, and number two, they'll see the contrast that we need with the Democrats. It goes back to Ronald Reagan. There can't be pale pastels. There have to be bold colors, and I think congress um in the House, that's what we need to be focused on. Do you think that's a great point? And and to your point, you know, part of the reason why I think Florida and Republicans did so well here is because you guys did lead with a bold plan in the state of Florida and really showed what leadership looks like. To your point, you know, I also believe we learned some important things in the process front front and we learned this in but most particularly this past election with mail ballots and early voting has really changed the dynamics and the political dynamics in the country. I mean, we got to be more aggressive on getting voters out early and getting voters to to do mail and balloting as well. We've got to play the games in each state as they're written in order to change them. Listen, I always bring it down on this. You know. I used to cochise sports, and you know, if I wasn't in Congress, that's what I would be doing with my time and also in addition to my financial services career and what I would always tell, you know, my young kids who I would coaches. You can't complain about the rules. You gotta go compete because if you spend your time complaining I don't like this referee, this person you know always does this, then you're already defeated. So we have to just understand this is the game, and we gotta get in and do it now. In some of these other states, they need to adopt Florida's election law, or at a minimum, Georgia's election law, because though the Georgia's election law actually worked quite well despite the Democrats lying to voters and gas lighting voters about it being Jim Crow two point oh. Turned out Georgia had successful elections just like Florida did. So we're the model now for how you run elections. And it's done with making sure people are requesting their ballot. Nobody else is doing it for them. They can't request for like ten people, they can't return ten. You can return yours and another family members. That's the law on Florida. You have to repress repress your ballot every election. That's the law on Florida. You have to have I d UM. Your supervisors of Elections are allowed to tabulate ballots um starting forty days before the election as they receive them. So on election night, all we're doing is just reporting the numbers that we already know, as opposed to you're waiting on these batches of votes and all this other stuff, which actually brings more pessimism to the effective the effectiveness and the efficiency of our election process. I think that's where we need to go once again. The Florida model works. We need to embrace it and go down that line. And if we do that work, then we can be focused on the things that really truly matter, the policy issues, and frankly, some of the cultural war issues in our politics, as opposed to then getting into this weird debate with Democrats about who really supports democracy. You know, I think that's really a joke argument from the Democrats because a lot of them actually have a problem with suppressing free speech. We know that through social media, we know that through national press that they actually suppressed stories that they feel are not advantageous to them. So we need to step into that, into that field, into that argument. But you've got to look at the playing field and say these are the rules. Then let's play, and you put your helmet on and you work hard. Quick commercial break and then back with Congressman Byron Donald's California is liberalism taken to its you know, final conclusion, right like. So that that is what Democrats want California policies. And I think Florida to the opposite of that is conservatism to its natural conclusion, right like. And we've really led the nation in the state of Florida in some big ways on election laws, which you're just talking about as well. You know, But as we look at the party moving forward, is it time for some leadership changes? Well? I think so. I mean, look, I'm running for a leadership posts in the House of Representatives right now, Um, and so I definitely think so. Look, we have had essentially the same leadership for eight, nine, ten years, and so you know, my attitude is is that you know, if you if you're if you're winning Super Bowls every other year, and then great, but if you're not, you got to really evaluate that. And I think it requires not just the electorate but also the members to have frank and honest conversations. Now, if through those those those conversations you come back to saying no, this is the best foot forward, then that's fine. But look, I'll take the United States Senate. In the Senate, there is no vote for Mitch McConnell because nobody decides to step up and run against Mitch. And that's not a pro mid statement or anti Mitch statement. That's just saying that that Senate Republicans they have to look at this as well and say, you know what, maybe there's a better way to do this and not be so concerned about well so and so will punish me if I oppose them, Because these lots of leadership aren't shouldn't just be taken by acclamation. They should be given by the will of the members who get voted on the serve up here, because we get our authority from the will of the voters who sent us from back home. It's a great point, you know, Congress, I always liked you when I saw you on TV. Obviously I thought you're awesome when I met you in person. But when I really started being like, I like this guy a lot was when you didn't get vaccinated, just because there's so much pressure, especially in Congress, to to force you guys to submit right to to Nancy Pelosi's will, and you refused and you stood strong. Why did you make that decision for yourself? Because, UMT three years old, and I'm healthy, and the data was pretty clear that if you're a healthy individual under the age of sixty five, um, you'll recover from COVID nineteen just fine. And if you were older, if you're older than five, then yeah, you had a legitimate decision to make about getting vaccinated. That was always been my position. UM, I wasn't gonna let media or public pressure make me do that because that's just not how we should be making decisions for our own personal situations. And number three, and this is a thing that really, you know, it really pissed me off in the whole COVID debate. For for all of human biology, we've known that when you get a virus, you develop antibodies because you actually contracted it and you got over it and you pass it and then you have antibodies. But they're a COVID nine team. The entire media establishment just ignored the fact that antibodies exists. It was the craziest thing to me because the people who were saying you gotta follow the science have basically ignored the base scientific fact that all of us had learned in high school. So that's just that kind of stuff. This doesn't sit well with me. You know, my I'm somewhat I can be a contrarian at times. It's like my base nature. And even my wife will tell you, if you push on him to do something, he's going to just like get his back up just because you're pushing on him. If you have the logic and the facts behind you, hey, I can be supportive of that and actually champion it. But if it's just gonna be this thing where we all have to have to have to have to genuinely, because that's where the whole group is going I don't respond well to that. I was. I was smiling to myself as you were saying that, because I'm like, I feel like you're describing me like I I as soon as someone tries to force me to do something, I'm like, whoa, Nope, Nope, this is not this is not going to work with me. I do hope that the House changes all the COVID rules and gets rid of proxy voting, makes people show up in person, and and changes, uh, you know some of those things. You know. I know you're a busy man. You've got a lot going on, sir. Is there anything you'd like to leave us with before we go? The biggest thing is like, look, I know that it looks like elections didn't turn out the way we wanted, but people should not lose heart because I think, and this is something that comment Up made to my members has really shown us, is that the American people are sick of the Democrats. But the other problem is they're not quite sure that they love Republicans, and so I think I think the silver lining is that there is an opportunity for us to make our case and to demonstrate with bold leadership why people should be choosing not just a Republican Party, but conservatism more, more, more and more appropriate overall. And I think we have a golden opportunity to do that across so many demographic groups that were not open to conservatism before, they're open to it today. And so it's our job just to leave with our ideas and really understand all the issues that exist in America and not be afraid of the solutions that'll be bringing. That's really well said. Um, totally agree with you, Congressman. I'm glad that you represent the state of Florida, my home state now, and uh, you know, I hope you have a bright future in the Republican Party and hopefully leadership as well. So I appreciate you taking the time. Great to have met you last week and great to have a chance to talk to you for the for the podcast. So thanks so much, No, awesome, thanks for your time, Lisa, really appreciate it. And hey, I can't wait to do it again. Yeah. So that was Congressman Byron Donald's. I really like the guy. He's incredibly smart. Uh you know, I love the fact he stood strong on vaccines and I gotta tell you watching him speak before the Governor. He just he crushed it. He did such a good job, so really cool having him on the podcast, especially as a fellow Floridia and I appreciate you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I always love when you give me reviews on Apple Podcasts or you leave us a rating. Those are fun to see and read. I want to thank my producer, John Cassio for putting this together and for you at home listening. Thank you so much.