Congressman-elect Richard Ojeda on the Fight Ahead

magamaik johnson who is the republican acting lame duck speaker of the house right now is freaking out as a lot of his republican members in the house of representatives are no shows they've lost their races they are not showing up to congress meanwhile you had pretty good attendance among the democratic caucus even though for this lame duck session technically republican still have the majority in the house until democrats get sworn in in january and take control of the house and take control of the senate there's a democratic majority right now in the house of representatives because far more democrats have shown up than republicans two hundred and two democrats have voted in the last vote this evening to one hundred and ninety six republicans so technically democrats right now have the majority even in the house of representatives even though we're in this republican lame duck session and look like magamaik johnson was going to cry when he just held a press conference moments ago and we know the democrats right now are going to push a lot of strong initiatives including headsets impeachment maybe RFK's impeachment maybe Tom homins impeachment and if democrats can still have a majority right now before the overwhelming majority they're about to have in the one hundred and twenty at congress come january we can see a lot of activity right now and we already saw Thomas massie this morning introduced the articles of impeachment against hegsith we know that there's actually a lot of support from it in the house and even in the senate we've heard from people like republican senator of north carolina who's losing his job senator tell us he was pushed out by trump there's going to be the new senator there senator cooper come january but tell us as i'm going to vote to convict hegsith as well so let me show you moments ago magamaik johnson looked like he was about to cry as he's this lame duck speaker his own members are even showing up and then i'll show you at a moment as well magamaik may be quitting entirely from the house of representatives he may no longer even be a congressman we already know he's not going to be running for any leadership position when the magga republicans are in his magga dead when the republicans have the minority he's not running for any leadership but he may quit congress entirely and he previously said he may open up a lawn mowing business in Louisiana so he may do that although i think he'd be a very lot lousy lawnmower lawnmower business owner because he would probably lie about the grass and pretend that things were handled well but then the grass would just grow out of control he was everything's amazing everything Donald right is the grass amazing and Donald won't pick up his phone calls anymore anyway here is magamaik johnson moments ago saying you know with the polls the polls were wrongs we don't know what even happen with the polls the polls magamaik actually underestimated these support for democrats not the other way around magamaik here play this clip i was traveling around the country i mean i went to over 40 states i mean hundreds and hundreds of campaign events we would be in ballrooms and and airplane hangars and big big you know i'd have three four hundred people and i'd say raise your hand if you participate in a poll in the last six months and there would be three hands out of three hundred and i saw that all around the country coast to coast you had to see an in reported the week before the election it was on a monday morning they had a data story and they said that 15 at the last 16 elections the october uh generic ballot for congress underrepresented republicans by an average of four points that was the average so what i was saying was not breaking news i think everyone acknowledges the polling there's a serious problem in the polling industry uh it missed it yet again by a mile this time and uh i just we've all learned that you know you really can't put a lot of emphasis on that now whether the second question whether more for magamaik johnson again it looked like he was about to cry and wow magamaik is not even committing to being a congress member anymore he's certainly not going to be a leadership but it sounds like he's about to quit entirely and not even be in the 120th congress right now let's play this clip well my plan is here we're focused on finishing the hundred nineteen strong we're going to do that i'm still in charge here till early january uh and we're going to do our duty and after that my uh my commitment and my objective is to help my team ensure that uh the republican party has a very successful 120th congress and um and we'll see how all that develops and that's my commitment they know it i i decided not to run for a minority leader uh really the only person in the modern era that that that um that decided to to uh to to stick around and and serve in the speaker america uh position was uh nancy policy and i just didn't feel after a lot of prayer and reflection i didn't feel like that was the best thing for me to do um we we we have a leadership uh election tomorrow as you know and we have uh two extraordinary guys that are running to uh lead the conference i'm close to both of them and we'll see how that shakes out but um i had uh uh you know three years over three years now is to speak to the house um most of y'all didn't know if i'd last three weeks and that's okay i just that's nobody did uh but we did it uh by a lot of patience and prayer and faith and with a great team and i genuinely love my colleagues uh i have enjoyed uh leading this group and i'm i'm really grateful we got so much done yes they mag and mike's like all right the results were not what we hope for but that's our system let's play this clip um the results were not what we hope for and the work for as you all know uh but this is our our system i i know without any shadow without that we left it all on the field um i personally raised well over half a billion dollars for this campaign cycle and i i logged enough miles uh campaigning for my colleagues to circle the globe over nine times um there's not much more uh that any of us could have done uh and that the people have have spoken should be noted as well that democratic congresswoman or we're not even democratic heli stevens who attacked who attacked senator elect dr abduel al-sayed in the final days before that michigan election and torched her entire career she has been hanging out with the republicans so i guess maga might you've got heli stevens right now she was in the republican cloakroom all day chilling with the republicans because no democrats would talk with her so i guess he did pick up heli stevens but by heli stevens but have you seen all these photos we showed some earlier today of all of the new democratic senators elect in the capital they look like they're happy people who are ready to make a change and actually make a difference it's so cool seeing all of them together and then we got the news as well that law and bobert officially loses her race in colorados fourth congressional district but by law and bobert that was called a few hours ago she will lose the fourth congressional district to democrat i lean labaker and i lean labaker is a veteran ran a great campaign and remember law and bobert moved to colorados fourth congressional district because it was even more republican and more trumpie she moved from her other district to basically try to rig it for herself and she's still lost to this incredible candidate let me show you moments ago when CNN made that call let's play objection CNN projecting that democrat i lean labaker will win colorados fourth congressional district unceding republican incumbent and reliable trump ally Lauren bobert bobert's loss coming after she decided to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future her opponent labaker served more than three decades in the navy and focused her campaign on affordability issues this win growing the democratic majority in the house to 256 seats now so i guess we don't have to see Lauren bobert running in and missing votes anymore the might as touch nail work was there every time she would like miss the vote and she would run and then like the vote would be closed like remember when we captured this one right over here where she missed a vote play this clip or remember back in 2023 this clip outside of the capital building where she ran up the stairs as she was missing yet another vote i'll show you without like play this clip and then she like did this video where she lied back in 2023 and she's like i did a protest there's absolutely no way to justify adding four to six trillion dollars in the debt so i did a protest vote and i know you just missed it we saw you miss the vote this was back from 2023 play this clip hey everyone i am back in colorado but let's talk about dc no excuses i was ticked off they wouldn't let me do my job so i didn't take the vote once again washington's power machine shoved a multi-trillion dollar bill down our throats refused to allow debate or amendments disregarded everything we fought for in january to actually allow representatives to do their jobs and instead they served us up a crap sandwich call it a no-show protest but i certainly let every one of my colleagues and the country know i was against this garbage of a bill and against bypassing the voice of each representative deals cut in the dark or why we're headed towards thirty six trillion dollars in debt and i fused to be a part of it. Got this photo over here of Senator elect James Tolerico meeting the individual who had that seat before senator cornon of Texas who Donald Trump pushed out Donald Trump elevated a Ken Paxton who ran one of the worst campaigns Tolerico had one of the best campaigns he beat Paxton by like 13 to 14 points in Texas and every Texas state office went blue every single one of them and the Texas Supreme Court seats and the Texas House, but Senator cornon right over there being it being nice with Senator elect Tolerico you see that over there. Oh, by the way, our friends over at TMZ Charlie cotton who's on Capitol Hill, he caught up with John Houston and just started mocking John Houston. So now that you lost your race, talk to us like are you happy that Donald Trump talked about your ass the entire time? Are you happy about that? Here, play this clip. Hey, now that the dust is settled, how do you feel about the president complimenting your butt? I take compliments from the president very well. I appreciate. All the things that can happen to you in a political campaign, people are saying all these things about you. It was nice to have somebody say something positive. Did you laugh about it privately, sort of thing? Oh, my wife and I, my wife and I took the responsibility very seriously, we've been on the gym doing our lunges and our squats all the time. That's hilarious. Maybe in your next career you should use your asset, you know what I mean? Well, we do our best to live up to the expectations of the president. You could be a model. I don't know about that. I think I'm a little past my time. Yeah. Have you got any like what physical trait of the president's do you most admire? Well, I, you know, thank you, mate. I appreciate that. She's my oh, oh, TMZ also caught up with Lauren Bobert moments ago as well. Here's what she was saying. She's not officially conceding it. Let's play this clip. CNN's called your race. Yeah, but you still feel like I'm listening to CNN. You still think you got a shot. No, no, no, no, so listen. Yes. The fat lady saying song yet. Okay. So anyway, we have thousands of ballots that are being cured. Those are rejected ballots and those are being cured. They'll be counted Friday. There's also military and overseas ballots that are still coming in. So there's thousands of ballots. You know, and if it, if it changes the outcome, it changes the outcome. And if not, we'll accept the decision. And here is Democrat Eileen Laubecker declaring victory in her race, even though Lauren Bobert has not officially tapped out yet. Play this clip. We're going to be people around the country who hear about this race in large part due to the national prominence of a Congressman Bobert who held the seat previously. And they are going to say, what happened in Colorado's fourth congressional district? And a lot of people are going to have takes on that. What is your take? What happened? So my take is that people, um, people are hungry for servant leaders, you know, people are hungry for people who understand what I've always said this job is about. I've always said that it's pretty clear to me the job descriptions in the title representative job is not about me. It's about the people, the district. It's about the idea that they want someone who's going to actually show up for them, who's going to actually serve them, who's going to put the needs of the people of the district above their own. And, and that is what I have always said that I want to do that. I spent 34 years doing it in uniform. I'm, I'm ready to deliver for people here. And I think, um, that's the message, uh, if you, you have to, you have to, you have to instill trust in people, you have to be transparent with them. You have to talk to them. You have to show up for them. You have to listen to them. And then you have to serve them. And that is what I am determined to do. I mean, the race is called Lauren Bobert Loss. What are we even talking about here? And then let me share this with you over here. This is Richard O'Jada over here major. He's a retired major in the military. And he said that my wife Kelly got, gave me hand sanitizers with all these politicians around. I got to make sure my hands are sanitized, shaking all of these hands. Here's what he had to say. Richard, you're going to be meeting a lot of politicians this week. You bring in anything to keep yourself prepared. I actually am. I'm bringing hand sanitizer because not everybody's hands are clean. Now I want to bring in the interview I did moments ago with Democratic congressmember elect Richard O'Jada veteran incredible guy. Let's bring, let's bring in this interview right over here. Now I want to bring in congressman elect Richard O'Jada retired major. O'Jada congressman elect. Great to see you over there winning big in North Carolina's ninth congressional district defeating the Maga Republican incumbent Richard Hudson who actually led the entire Republican house strategy. You took down the Maga Republican in charge of that. And you've come out swinging congressmen. You posted first Hegsith then home in belt to ask hold them accountable then today. You said that's the philosophy right there launching the new belt to ask congressman from North Carolina. Talk to us about that congressman. Hey, look, I didn't, you know, make it to congress to come up here and allow things to just go unnoticed. You know, we absolutely need to hold these people accountable. I think it's time for us to impeach people like Pete Hegsith and RFK Jr. But when it comes to Donald Trump, what I would like to do is I would like to investigate him thoroughly and let America watch. Because if we impeach Donald Trump, they're going to martyr him. But if we investigate him January 6 classified documents Epstein files and let the American people watch all of it, then finally, I believe we will finally be able to wake people up in this country. You're someone who doesn't hesitate to speak their mind for those who knew you before you ran. And right now, you're just calling it like it is. Talk to us about what people can expect from you now representing North Carolina's ninth and just be in there on Capitol Hill. Yeah, it's, it's time for us to, you know, start doing things for the American people for the working class people. It's time for us to start putting money in their pockets and stop giving every single penny that we find in and shoving into the pockets of somebody who has more money than they could spend in a thousand last times. It's time for us to stop caring about the billionaires so much and start caring about the people that wake up every morning, put on their work clothes and bust their humps to feed their families. Because those are the people that I'm working for. Talk about your background in the military, how that's informed, your run for this congressional seat. And now that you're there, there's clearly a lot of oversight needed into this catastrophic war in Iran. Now you've been into combat, you've seen what war actually looks like up front. So talk to us about that. So the first thing I want people to understand is that in the military, when you are told you're going to be deploying to a combat zone, there's training that is involved. And it's not just training for the soldiers. It's also training for the families. And, you know, this deployment, this con, this war, you know, people in unfort Bragg and North Carolina, a brigade combat team kissed their, what, their spouses and their children. And they left. And they thought, we'll be back in a week just to show a force. And when they got there, they were told it's a year long deployment. Those families were not prepared for this. And that is absolutely unacceptable, unacceptable. People deserve better than that. And that is an absolute fact. It bothers me that we have so many people that like to rattle the drums of war and they have no idea what the ramifications are. They don't look at what it's going to do to the soldier, sailor, airman, marine. And they don't think about what it's going to do to their families. And that's exactly what's been going on. And, and then there have been a lot of things that have been done wrong that need to be addressed. You know, we don't kill people in the Caribbean and just think it's no big deal. We don't, we don't bomb a school that kills 160 plus little girls and just say that that's, that's water under the bridge. It's not. Crimes have been committed. Now, I don't think we should have been involved in this catastrophic war in the first place, but even just from a military tactical perspective. Like, let's say, you're a Neocon and you wanted it, like, which I vehemently disagree with. But we have to look at it. I mean, I want to get your perspective just from a military tactical perspective. We now have moved an aircraft carrier group out of the Pacific. We don't have any there anymore. We have these two aircraft carriers that are 1000 kilometers deep into the Arabian sea. Our Navy is being basically used as a way to, I don't know, help transport oil a little bit and then tankers get struck in the straight of Hormuz while the admiral who's in charge of Sencom is doing a podcast about eating french fries and playing basketball that I saw them post. And while Donald Trump is out there saying, is it going to be a deal if I'm going to blow him up? I'm going to blow him up. I'm going to see. And this unpredictability to me, this utter lack of leadership, you know, I'm used to seeing military leaders who are nonpartisan or deeply serious people who are just boom, boom, here, here, strategy. And I'm just seeing like, it looks like a failed Trump casino, not our proud military. And I hear a lot of that from our military family members. base who watches the show. Look, you know, at the end of the day, anybody who has graduated from the command general staff college or the war college would know that anything that you do with Iran would automatically shut down the straight of hormones. You know, this was Pete Hagset, the Donald Trump moving on something, and it bothered me that at least, I mean, I guess, I guess senior leaders probably told them that it was wrong, and those are the ones that lost their jobs potentially. But I mean, this was, this was absolutely the wrong way to go. Everything about this was wrong. And look at what it has done to this country. People can't afford to put groceries in their refrigerators, people can't afford to put gas in their cars. Farmers are losing their farms because they can't, they can't operate their machinery because diesel was too high. You know, this, somebody should have thought about this because anybody who has anything between their ears would have known that if you hit Iran, the straight of hormones is going to shut down. And now Iran says they're not going to open it. As long as Donald Trump is sitting in that seat, they're not going to open it. And people in this country are struggling greatly. Talk to us about your congressional race because, you know, first of all, I've known you for a very long time, you and I have known each other since early summer of 2020. And when you ran and everybody doubted you, you would text me and you would say Ben, I'm going to win this race. And you would keep me updated from time to time. And I'd respond with, you know, I'm rooting for you or an emoji or let's go, you know, and then it started picking up moment to be like, I told you Ben, don't underestimate it. This campaign is growing and you weren't just running against anybody. I mean, again, you were running against incumbent Richard Hudson who led the entire house strategy for Congress. And you, you won that. Talk to us about the race and now being there today, how surreal it must feel. Yeah. So, you know, 22 months ago, we knew that if we were going to take on the chair of the NRCC, we were going to have to go nonstop. And I'm going to tell you right now for 22 months, we have went nonstop, three to five events a day, no weekends off. And that's what we did. And you know, we showed up, we put boots on the ground. And that was the big thing there is I went to areas and told people that didn't even know what Richard Hudson looked like because Richard Hudson was the chair of the NRCC. He spent all this time traveling the country, raising money for the Republican party. And 18 months ago, they thought that they was going to win this race without having to spend a single penny. And then the last month and a half, you got Republicans that are angered because they're not getting any money. And the money that is coming in is going to try to protect the chair of the NRCC. So, you know, we did everything right. And we knew, we knew that if we did, that we could win this race. And I'll tell you, it was pretty tough because on election night, we started with a 30,000 vote lead. And we were like, oh, this will be over in 30 minutes. And then it went to 17,000. Then it went to 11,000, then it went to 7,000. And it was at 5,500 and I'm sitting there at my desk and I'm thinking to myself, we've worked so hard. And remember, my father was upstairs in the bed. And I thought to myself, I don't want to ever have to walk in there and tell him, Dad, we fell short because he has been my biggest fan. And he passed away two nights ago, three nights ago. But we were sitting there and I started looking at where are the votes that are still waiting to come in. And I looked at it with Cumberland County. That's Fort Bragg. That's Fayetteville, North Carolina. And them's my people. So I knew right then I said to myself, he can't catch me. There's no way he can catch me. And then all of a sudden the side door opened and the person on my staff said, it's official. You can announce victory. And it went wild. And I went upstairs and I leaned into my father and I said, hey, Pops, we did it. We made it to Congress. And he had the biggest smile. And I'm sure you saw that video. It went viral. But you know what? I got that video for the rest of my life. And I know for a fact that my dad died a very proud man because he saw his son make it to Congress. So I will take that with me forever. And it's been amazing. And it's been a whirlwind. And I'm now here in Washington, DC for freshman orientation. We are just now, you know, we were finishing up day one of the orientation. And it's drinking from a fire hose, but it is just so humbling that, you know, last night I was sitting on the house floor. And even though me and Mike Johnson probably don't see out on anything, when we were sitting there, he said, where's Richard O'Jetta? And I raised my hand. And he said to me, he said, he said, this is in front of everybody. He said, I lost my father three days before I become a member of Congress. And at that moment, you know, I can't hate him. We can disagree, but I can't hate him. That man spoke my father's name on the house floor. And I'm forever grateful for that. Very few people can say that. Talk to us if you can. A lot of our audience would have seen that video of your father, but just to remind our audience, maybe who haven't seen it, what happened, you know, he was literally hanging on. It was remaining days to see his son win. He was your role model. You told him we win. And then he passed away. He was literally hanging on to life or remind our viewers who may not have seen it. So my father was diagnosed with Parkinson's six years ago and they told us four years. So we got an extra two years with my father. And every single day when I come home on this campaign, I had to sit down and tell him, did you give a speech? Who did you talk to? You know, and he just wanted to hear that. He wanted to be a part of that. And I really do believe that he held on. I believe he held on the life just long enough to see his son make it. And I'll tell you, you know, it's so humbling. Before he passed, he was holding my sister's hand and my sister leaned in and he was completely, you know, there was no emotion. He was for 24 hours, he was pretty much out of it. And Santana leaned forward and she said, don't you worry about mama, Richie and I are, we're rich and we're going to take care of her. And he squeezed her hand hard. And then she left there and went into the restroom when she come out and sit down. The nurse come in and said, I got to check his vitals and said, he's gone. And I really believe that seeing his son make it to Congress and no one that we're going to take care of a mom, he's okay. Congressman Richard or Jada, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you and congrats on the big victory. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. WTF America is officially out now. My brothers and I wrote it, but this book is also about you. The millions who refuse to back down when it mattered most. 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