Ken Paxton: How Soros Protects Drug Cartels, Being Blacklisted by Fox News, and the Laken Riley Act
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Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot, crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton? And time just stands still. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Thank you for coming on, Mr. Attorney General. Glad to be here. So the most pressing problem, I think it's fair to say, as an outsider in Texas is immigration. It's totally changed your state in every way. Do you expect that the new administration and the executive orders in the first couple of days are going to have a material effect, a noticeable effect? I know they are, just because I saw what happened four years ago, or eight years ago, when Trump came into office. I mean, I went through, I've been in politics since Bush was in office, and

And I've seen how Republicans and Democrats have dealt with immigration. They have not dealt with it effectively because they have not enforced federal law. Trump was the first president to use the force of our federal laws, which are good and designed to protect us, whether it was Romania, Mexico, or whether it was Title 42, or it was stopping catch and release, basic common sense things like building a wall. Those things work. They just absolutely work. And just what he's done in the first couple of days is significant and changing where Biden was taking us.

So one of the things you pointed out off camera was his executive order designating the drug cartels as terror organizations is significant. Yes. We as states don't have much authority to stop illegal immigration, but the federal government has that authority. And by designating these cartels as terrorist organizations, now the military, our military force can be used against them rather than just using border patrol and leaving the states subject to the cartels' crimes. Right.

You do wonder about the power of the drug cartels. They've, you know, a lot of the weapons we have sent to Ukraine have been sold by the Ukrainian military onto the black market. That's a fact. A lot, up to half. And a lot of them have been purchased by the drug cartels you see in Mexico, pitched battles, military engagements between the cartels and the Mexican military.

where they're very, you know, they're well-armed. Are you worried about that happening in Texas? Absolutely. I think the Biden administration has indirectly funded the cartels. They have encouraged, by saying no deportations on day one of his administration, they've encouraged illegal immigration, and that's a profit center for the cartels. They make...

You know, $8,000 to $12,000 a person. If you just do the numbers on $14 million, that's a lot of money. They're making billions every month. And then they can go and use that money to buy weapons from Ukraine, which we're sending that over free. So indirectly, they're part of the whole process of, one, allowing the cartels to have access to our country and allowing them to make a profit and then to use that money to arm themselves in a significant way.

i was just that's our government well it's horrifying i mean because you know some of the weapons are surface to air weapons so you wonder like what's the threat to commercial air travel you can see things kind of starting to fall apart um is there like widespread acknowledgement of this in texas that we could have a serious problem with these cartels i think even just common people are aware of that just because of the influx and the m they just think increased crime associated with just

everyday crime that they that people see as relate as it relates to the cartels moving into our state and that network that they built is not just in texas they are building that network all over the country and they're not gonna they're not gonna want to give it up they're making too much money on drugs sex trafficking other crimes and the importation of people every big construction site in this country has prostitution run by the cartels often of children

I don't see anyone doing anything about it. And it makes you wonder, like Mexico is completely, utterly corrupt because of cartel money, politicians, judges, journalists, all in the payroll. You see this in other Latin American countries. I mean, our politicians are not that expensive. Like you could do that in a state like Texas, right? Or California. Well, here's one of the biggest problems we have. We have it in Texas. We have it in other parts of the country. George Soros has figured this out. He's gone in and elected DAs in Democratic counties.

Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio. So 70% of our population controlled by Soros DAs. He went in and knocked off Democratic DAs because we can't get elected Republicans in those areas. So he went in and knocked off DAs who were actually prosecuting and replaced them with Soros DAs.

Now, our legislature could fix that. They haven't. They could come in and say, A.G., you have concurrent jurisdiction to go after these crimes. But because they haven't done that, crime is proliferating in all of our cities, financial crimes, other types of crimes, because they will not prosecute crimes. And so the cartels have an open invitation. So do other cartels from other countries. So if you go out to our financial crime unit in Tyler, they will tell you about all these crime crimes.

Groups coming in from other countries because they know they can get away with it. And our legislature so far has never has not fixed that. Why? OK, then the question of motive arises, like why wouldn't you want to stop crime in your state? That's a very good question. I find that DAs have they have more power in Texas than any elected official I've ever seen because they're not accountable to anybody.

That if they commit a crime, no one can prosecute them. If it's a state crime, they'd have to prosecute themselves and they can allow any crimes in their area and they can go after in Texas. It is so easy to get an indictment. You just walk in, you can tell the grand jury anything you want to. You can lie. Once you have the indictment, you've got it. There's no getting out of it. And so I think a lot of our politicians are afraid of their DAs.

even if they're liberal Democrats. But if we don't get control of this in our state, in other states, and give somebody like the Attorney General, I'm not going to be there forever, give that authority so that there's another way to prosecute when the Soros DAs, and Soros has figured it out, but the Republicans have not. I mean, it's so obvious just in your, you know, 45-second explanation that, you know, it makes sense.

So is it that they haven't figured it out or do they have a higher loyalty? - They're afraid of the DAs. They're afraid, the DAs come in and lobby and everybody's afraid of their own DA that they'll get indicted if they do it. There's just that power. 'Cause to get an indictment in Texas,

You don't have to have, there's no recording of it. It's only one side of the story. You can, and if they lie and they get the indictment, there's no remedy. There's no consequence to the DA and there's no remedy for the victim of that lie. You are going to trial. You can even, if somehow you could find out what happened in that secret grand jury proceeding.

which I have before, it doesn't matter. You can go to judge and say, they lied. You still are indicted and you're still at risk of going to prison. You have to tell your kids you've been indicted. And you might be in prison. You might be in front of a jury that doesn't know the truth and you go to jail or you're in a Democratic County, you might go to jail immediately

on something that they made up. So you really think, I mean, I'm sorry to be so naive, but I grew up in this country and we didn't have things like this that I was aware of in 1985. But you think that members of the Texas legislature are afraid they'll be indicted if they push back against the DAs? I think there is a fear and there is this lobby. These DAs have so much power. Otherwise, why would they allow Soros to control the major cities that

And the it's obvious that they're not prosecuting crimes. They won't even prosecute shoplifting for free ride. If you want to, as long as you take $750 a day in Dallas County, whatever the number is, and you go to different stores, you can do that every day. And you will you the D.A. there said we will not prosecute you. But why would you want that unless you were trying to destroy a civilization? Soros?

That's exactly what he wants to do. So there's no political goal here. It's just destabilization. Right. And it's so easy. It is literally so easy to do that. And he also, I believe, got control of our court of criminal appeals, which is our highest court. We have a bifurcated system in Texas. We have the Texas Supreme Court that that's the final appeal in civil court.

and the Court of Criminal Appeals. But no one knew who they were, and suddenly they strike down a law that directed me to prosecute voter fraud, and they took it away just by saying, oh, it's unconstitutional because you're in the executive branch, and separation of power says you can't be in court. How insane is that? So I've had to go run three, I'm trying to take that court back, but right now I can't even prosecute voter fraud, which opens us up to unfair elections in Texas, which I was prosecuting plenty of voter fraud before that happened.

- So who's supposed to prosecute voter fraud? - The Soros DAs. That's where we're at in Texas. So that's why I ran, this is a nine-member court, six-year terms.

They waited until two days after the filing deadline to announce their decision. This is a 1951 statute that has thousands of cases of precedent. And they came up with this insane idea that it was unconstitutional for the attorney general to be in court because I'm in the executive race. If that's true, every AG in the country is violating the Constitution. So that was a rationale.

I had to wait two years. I recruited three people to take out the three people that were up. So we've replaced three. We've got one good one on there, but we're still down 5-4. So until we fix those things in Texas, we're at risk. Oh, big time. Oh, big time. So do you think that the Soros DAs have hesitated to go after the drug cartels? They don't.

They don't go after crime in general. They don't work. They are, they do political crimes, but they generally are not there. They don't do their jobs. They don't prosecute. Even when people get killed. Hit and miss, hit and miss, but they're not there. The message from Soros is let as much crime go as possible. It's amazing that a non-US citizen who hates the United States hates the West and

could have that much power in our country. - It's just his money. It doesn't take very much. To elect a DA in a Travis County, which is Austin, you're in a Democratic primary. It doesn't take that many votes.

I was working with a DA there who was a Democrat. I didn't agree with her on everything, but she was doing her job. He spends a little bit of money, takes her out, and suddenly now I've got a DA who won't prosecute anything. Same in Bear County, which is San Antonio. I worked with a DA a lot in Bear County, a guy named Nikola Hood. His brother is now converted to Republican. He's a state rep.

He was awesome to work with. And he was a Democrat. He was a Democrat. He did his job. Guess what? Soros replaced him with money. So that's what it doesn't take him that much money and controls our our our whole situation with crime and controls our judicial system, at least on the criminal side. And we're sitting here letting it happen in Texas and other states. What did you think when Joe Biden gave George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

I mean, the guy's done more to, I mean, as far as I know, there are not many people in the world that have done more harm to our country. And he's being applauded by Joe Biden. It's not surprising because Joe Biden has the same motivations. I mean, what did Joe Biden do that was good? Can you name it? I can't think. No, they worked from day one to destroy what past generations had built, this amazing country. And it had to be on purpose. And the reason I say that is because you would think that randomly he would have done something good if it weren't purposeful.

He would have had something economically, internationally, the border. Something would have been right. Right. Just randomly. There's no law of averages. Just a victory once in a while. The bell curve tells you you would add something good. He didn't have anything good. It was all on the other end of the curve, the downside of the curve, which was harm to Americans that that cannot be accidental. And to individual Americans, I think that's absolutely right. But again, I just I'm so fixated on this. Why would you want to do that?

I truly believe that this, and this started, I think, with President Obama, first president, I believe, that didn't love America, that really thought we were a bad country, that thought we were racist and that we deserved to be taken down to another level. And I think they operate under this idea that we're a bad country, there were bad people, and that we don't deserve this. And they fundamentally don't believe in what was created here. I truly believe that. And they want to destroy it, take it down, dismantle it. Because they think it's bad. They think we're bad. Yeah.

I don't see another explanation. There's hate behind it. There's no doubt about it. I mean, how could you how could you wind up with it with the outcome with people dying of drug ODs on the street and stores closing because of stealing and kids cutting their own genitals off? Like you would have to hate someone. You know, the contempt that Biden that not by Obama said they cling to their religion and their their their guns and their their God.

There is contempt for that, what the founders put in place, a bunch of white racists who had slaves. And so that permeates his view of America. And yet that's not...

there's no excuse for slavery. We messed up in that. We fixed it. We were moving in the right direction, but his view is we're broken because of that, and therefore we deserve to be dismantled because we don't deserve- It's not about that. I mean, there are countries where slavery is still practiced in certain countries, but there were critical U.S. allies that had slavery until the 1970s, and no one ever mentions that anymore.

It holds them responsible. Obama has no problem taking money for speeches in those countries. That's why it doesn't make sense. It's slavery around the world forever. And it's not awful. It is awful. And the U.S. and Great Britain were the reason that we don't have it anymore. And globally, for the most part, and no civilized country would tolerate slavery anymore.

But if you're against slavery, by the way, why would you be for the drug cartels which practice slavery, which sell people? All I know is it seems like the things they focus on do the greatest harm to America. Oh, I totally agree. But it doesn't – I think it's a mistake to take their explanations at face value. I think there's something deeper. Like, they just hate and want to hurt people.

They do not have an abiding love. Look, I didn't like Jimmy Carter as president. I think he did a good job, but he didn't have a hatred for this country. I don't think so. I don't think he did. I think we've had a lot of mediocre to bad presidents who still didn't want the country to be disbanded. I agree. But I think it started with Obama. Biden didn't know what he was doing. He was being told by others he wasn't competent. And that...

This was the third presidency of President Obama, and he didn't have to worry about being popular anymore because he limited himself a little bit because he wanted to get reelected. He didn't care if Joe Biden got reelected. You think it's over for Obama? His influence is permanently diminished?

I think it's been impacted and affected. It could be. If we continue the momentum, we don't mess this up. If we get caught up in not focusing on the best things for America, he can come right back in. If we don't take care of the American people and make that our number one focus, what's best for the American people? If we stay on that track, we have a really good chance of being successful for a long time. If we lose sight of that and we start worrying about our power and our- I agree. Once we start taking care of ourselves-

then they have a chance back in because the American people see that. I think that's really wise. I'm concerned about that. Not because of any individual acting in bad faith, but because human nature is what it is. It's exactly right. The Presbyterians...

actually had that right when they set this government up. It was based on the depravity of men. It was the reason they wanted three branches of government that made it so frustrating to get things done is because they didn't trust people in power because every human... I wouldn't trust myself in power at all. I don't want power because I don't trust myself. I don't think any honest person can really say my motives are pure.

Right? No, I agree with that. We all have this pull towards. Yeah. And anyone who doesn't admit that's a liar. Right. So, yeah, I want oversight of me. Right. You know, and then you see Chuck Schumer and you're like, that guy needs a lot of oversight, like armed oversight. You know what I mean? Like all of us. Yeah. I think you got it right in your speech at the Bible Museum during the inauguration about humility and realizing your need for God's work in your life. Yeah.

without that you you have a tent we all have a tendency to go down 100 and you lie to yourself oh i'm doing this for the greater good you know i have known people personally who've killed other human beings because they thought or they convinced themselves you know this is actually for the you know some the humanity will benefit from oh yeah that's what we all convince ourselves whatever we're doing that we're doing this and it really we we we

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So can I ask you, I was reading in the final weeks before the election that the Biden administration was selling off portions of the materials for the border wall. Is that actually true? I believe it is. And here's what happened. We had sued the Biden administration a couple of years ago. And you know, these cases, these federal cases don't happen overnight. It took us a couple of years. We sued him and we said, Congress appropriated money for the building of the wall. You are not building that wall. You're actually selling off assets. So we sued him.

And we won that lawsuit. And in May, we got an injunction from a federal judge saying, you, DOJ, you, Biden administration, cannot sell any more assets off. So then I get a call from President Trump, you know, a month ago, and he said, they're selling assets off. So would you sue them? I said, well, I don't have to if I've already done it. So I already got an order.

So we go back into court. We tell the judge, hey, they're selling off assets. We've been told they're selling off assets. We went into accounting. And before we got there, DOJ is calling us, begging us, hey, we're not selling. We swear we won't sell any more assets. They didn't say they hadn't. They said we won't sell any more. So they signed an agreement and said we wouldn't sell any more. But the judge...

which we asked for, there's gonna be an accounting and there's potential sanctions if they lied and they follow it, they did not follow that order. We don't know that yet, but we're gonna know that soon now that DOJ is switching. We're gonna know that soon. I truly believe they were selling off assets in violation, not only of federal law, but in violation of a court order that we got in May saying you can't sell off assets. 'Cause we were trying to protect those assets so that if Trump won, we would come back, 'cause I knew Biden would never build that wall, even if he was instructed by Congress to do so.

How hard is it? I never have really understood why is it so hard to build a, seems like a pretty straightforward infrastructure project. It is a pretty straightforward infrastructure project, but they hate it. It's some kind of symbol of, I don't know,

or whatever, but it's not. It protects us from exactly what we've had. So why not pass a law that says anyone, any elected official who opposes the building of a border wall is prohibited from putting a lock on the front door of his house? Well, that would affect a lot of Republicans. I mean, my own senator would have trouble with that. John Cornyn, because he's been against...

the border wall saying it wouldn't work but we all know that walls do work they do work and i've seen it i've seen how it works the border why would john cornyn be opposed to a border wall protecting his own state i don't understand it i've seen quotes from him i've seen video clips from him over and over how it's it's not enough it doesn't work it's a bad i it he is opposed to the border wall he but he's i mean boy he's helped appropriate billions and billions and billions of dollars for border security in other countries

i know it's really odd that he thinks it works other places but it doesn't work in texas and he's he's sort of mocked it and said it's it does it doesn't work it's not it's not it's not i'd love to hear him mock israel's border walls do you think he will no well i'd love to hear him mock ukraine's territorial integrity do you think nope never heard him do that what is that about

I don't understand it. It's, I mean, I think the Bushes had the same idea that open borders were relatively good. I don't think that he or the Bushes- But only for us, not for, no one's calling on China to open its borders. No, I don't know why they have this view, but they, I mean, even under the Bush presidency, I don't think they took immigration seriously. The first president I've ever seen take it seriously is Donald J. Trump. How did John, I mean, this is a question I could ask if so many, no offense, I say this as a Texas lover who's got a lot of relatives there, including a child.

So I love Texas. However, I think you've got some of the worst politicians in the country. How did that happen? How does that happen? So I think about the Texas House and what's going on there. What's gone on there for 16 years were a small group of Republicans for power.

align themselves in the house with the democrats so that the speaker is elected by mostly democrats and a few republicans they just did it again dustin burroughs just got elected by a minority republicans after he put the rules in place uh that the caucus the republican caucus would decide who the speaker was and when he lost that vote in caucus he walked out cut a deal with the democrats and he just became speaker of the texas house that is for power that is for his own personal

And the Republicans that do that have traded getting good policy done, getting property tax done, school choice, protecting the border, not doing impeachments of guys that just got elected. They traded that to have power. That's all it is.

With all this drug cartel money in your state, it's not going to get better because you could just buy a member of the Texas legislature. What would that cost? Not too much, right? Not too much. I mean, these guys, I mean, they only make $600 a month. So, you know, anything is good after that, I guess. We're pretty vulnerable that way. I think we are. And I think a lot of these people, because Texas House, you get paid $600 a month. So most people that run have to have money.

You can't. Of course. And if you don't have money, you're getting paid somewhere for something because it's impossible to live on, obviously, $600 a month. So everybody has to either work, and it's hard to work when you've got a job that may take a year out of every two years. So what...

Specifically on John Cornyn, how did he get to be a senator when statewide in Texas? So this goes back to George W. Bush appointed him to be a U.S. Supreme Court judge in – not U.S., but a Texas Supreme Court judge. And when he did that, he authored an opinion that –

created this thing called Robin Hood, which takes from the wealthy school districts and gives to the poor supposedly. And what that did to our system was it created a mediocre school system because it's just socialism. Instead of just letting the wealthy school districts make their schools however they want to, we've got to take their money away. Why don't we just fund the poor school districts? It makes no sense. But

Because it's not about helping the bottom, it's about crushing the top. It's about making it all equal. That's socialism. It doesn't work. It's never worked anywhere. We have no example that it actually works. And yet, John Cornyn did that for George W. Bush because George wanted to be president. He didn't want to pass a major tax increase, so he let John do it judicially. It was a 5-4 decision. John Cornyn was on the 5-4. Really? And I'm pretty sure he authored it. This was in the late 90s. Yes. And for that...

They pushed him, Rove and Bush pushed him to be the attorney general of Texas, first Republican actually. And then they pushed him into the U.S. Senate. So he has been pushed and funded by that group. And fortunately, Texans have caught on to that and realized that group, whatever they say they believe isn't really what they believe because they don't actually follow through on it.

Well, I mean, we kind of know what Bush believes. I mean, his family's out there campaigning for Planned Parenthood, voting for Kamala Harris. I was with him two days ago.

and Obama at the inaugurations right next to them, across from them. I watched him, you know, pal around with, you know, he's friends with Obama. That's his world. Right, that's his world. That's all well known. But what's, and pretty distressing, was running mate endorsed Kamala Harris and his sad little daughter campaigned for Kamala Harris. So that whole world is now, they're all Democrats. But John Cornyn is still an elected, statewide elected official in Texas. He's a puppet of the left, obviously. Yeah.

Like, how does that continue to happen? So I think it's because people weren't as aware of what the Bushes did and what he's done, but they've become more aware because of people like you and others who have outed that. So he's never had a real problem. He had four people running against him. None of them had money. Nobody had ever run before. No one even knew who they were. It was all fake. And he claims, you know, he got 76% of them. Of course, he had nobody running against him that I could tell you who it was. And I'm pretty involved in politics.

Somebody needs to run against him this time because he has been there for what, 16 years, just in that position, count his AG, that's four years. He was Texas Supreme Court Justice and before that, he's been doing this a long time and he's gotten away with this. It's about time that he be held accountable because I can't think of a single thing that he's done for Texas that's good.

he has no claim for doing things good for texas or no he's helped zielinski and that's pretty much it so um how do okay so what's the process the guy i mean i've never met anyone who likes john cornyn never met anyone who thought he's achieved anything never met anyone who thinks he's smart he's pompous he's quite a self-righteous little guy um so i think he's very unpopular with every person i've ever met in my life and yet

All things being equal, he gets reelected. So how do you stop something like that? So I'll give you an example of what you're just saying. So right after I beat George P. Bush, who he came out and endorsed-

And then he made disparaging comments about me being an embarrassment to Texas. And he made some comment about me being part of Russia propaganda. Oh, you're a Russian propagandist? Oh, I don't know how that happened. I'm in Texas. I became part of the Russian propaganda because I criticized him on Ukraine. He said that you were a Russian propagandist? Yes, that's what he said. Cool.

Crazy stuff. You know, people didn't used to say things like that. Right. Well, guess what? So... Who's the more loyal American, you or John Cornyn? Look, I'm... Who's more focused on the fortunes of his own country and his own people, you or John Cornyn, who obviously doesn't care at all, didn't say anything as his own state was invaded and lectures us endlessly. It's a tool the intel agency is lecturing us about Ukraine, but you're the disloyal American. It's actually...

like you shouldn't say things like that it's not talking it's crazy it's so and so justice the crazy thing we have a texas republican convention shortly after the election where i win by 38 points against george b bush which is a pretty significant margin in a primary so we have the convention there's 12 000 republicans there he he and his wife walk up on stage and for 10 straight minutes he doesn't say a word he gets booed for the 20 minutes that he's speaking he never adjusts his speech he gets booed the entire 20 minutes he gets booed 30 minutes straight

I'm standing waiting to go on stage. I walk away because I'm afraid of what I might say after he said these things public to me. I go up and get a standing ovation. So there is the people of Texas know John Cornyn, and I don't think he'll survive another primary. So how do you stop this cycle? So I think in Texas it's very doable because people realize now who John Cornyn is. We have a primary next, not this March, but the next March. So-

somebody needs to run against him in that primary. So in a year, basically in a year and two months, you have a primary. Yep. So that primary. Oh, it's imminent. It's coming. Yeah, absolutely. So he's, he's, I don't think he's, he's long for this Senate world.

So, well, I'm sure he's got such an enormous reservoir of skills and talent that he'll thrive in the private sector. Doing what? I don't know if he's ever been there. He couldn't start my truck on a cold day. He has no idea. He has no skills. But anyway, sorry, I'm being too mean, but it's all true. How do you beat him in a primary role?

So, I mean, I don't know. I'm running for sure. I'm looking at it probably in the next few months. I'll be talking to people around the state. But, I mean, I've run two primaries against George P. Bush and another guy, Dan Branch, who was one of George W.'s close friends. I knew Dan Branch, yeah. One of his close friends, but very moderate.

You're a nice guy. I beat him nicer to you than he was me. I served in the House, wasn't always so nice to me. 65-35 him, he had a lot more money. Same with Bush. I beat him 68-32. So primary voters, if they're educated, will make good choices based on what you've actually done. And that was always me. With Dan Branch, we were in the House together for 10 years, and I moved over to the Senate for two while he was in the House. And I said...

don't listen to the rhetoric, look at the record. We both have a record, go look at the record, compare them, see if they're the same, they're not.

He can say what he wants. He is not what he's, he's, he's running on my record. Look at his record. And that works in primaries. And the same thing with John Cornyn. I bring out what he said about Trump and how disparaging he was at Trump in 2016 and 2000, just in this last election saying he shouldn't run. He's not the right guy. I mean, John's wrong about most everything. There's very few things. He tends to side with the swamp in Washington and he does what Karl Rove tells him to do. So that, that doesn't work in Republican primaries, not in Texas. Yeah.

What is Karl Rove? I mean, Karl Rove is, I mean, he's got to be 70 anyway at this point, I would think. He's been around, I mean, I've known him for pushing 30 years. I don't think his track record is something anyone could brag about at all.

He's been wrong about, he's sub-genius, I would say, for sure. I'm a genius. No, you're not. And his records suggest he's not. And so like, why does he still have influence? Is he still effective? Let's be honest. He's propped up by Fox News. He has the platform. They take care of him. He can keep people like, for instance, I can't get on Fox News. He's still on Fox News? He's still on Fox News. And he's kept me off for a couple of years because when I ran against Bush, they got Bush on and took me off. And all the shows I used to be on,

Almost all of them. Are you serious? I know that for a fact. I don't have a TV that's a disadvantage. Karl Rove is still on Fox. He's still on Fox. I just saw him during the inauguration. He's there a lot. I used to go in studio at the same place in Austin. I used to trade out with him. Yeah, I've been to that studio. Yeah, and he got me cut out for sure. And I know that from hosts of shows who have said, sorry, weak. They will even like, I will have a case.

Jesse will talk to them, I communicate with them, talk to them, they'll book me, then they'll cancel me, then they'll go try to find another AG, they'll call the Republican, can we find another AG? Or they'll ask for somebody else in my office other than me.

That was Karl Rove blacklisting me on Fox. Karl Rove is booking shows at Fox News. He just goes around and he controls. He's so crazy. No, I've been told by people you know that have shows. I know everyone there. I just don't want to out them. Yeah, no, I get it. That have told me, we can't have you. And for the last two years, I've been on Fox like maybe a couple times. I used to be on every day. Sometimes multiple times. Imagine if I can just say, since I know these systems work.

I lived it. Imagine you're the host of a show and you get a call saying the sitting Republican attorney general of the second biggest state is not allowed on your air because...

of reasons we won't explain because like carl rove it's like a totally discredited buffoon doesn't like the guy be like buzz off well i think he went to like paul ryan the board and just got it's like i am why would you cave to that like no job is worth taking orders you didn't cave to that well i got fired exactly but that wouldn't even consider that like what i would always say on the three or four times they ever said anything like that to me i'd be like that's totally great just put it in writing

Just send me an email explaining why we can't have this guest, the rationale for it, and I'll assess and I'll respond in writing. The second you say put it in writing, they're like, ugh. They never call you again. Well, I'm just telling you. Just put it in writing. It's totally fine. You know what? I've got some hearing issues. So if you could just write it down. Explain what exactly about Ken Paxton is like verboten. I was supposed to go on a show. There was still one host that would sort of have me. And I was supposed to go on this show and I

I had two different settings to go on and both got canceled. I was sold.

you got canceled from the public. We're moving in another direction. Yeah. Even if it's my case. I mean, I follow the case and they want another attorney general to come on and talk about it. Yes, I would just never put up with that. That's what they do. I would always call and say like, what, you know, what is this? Well, the decision's been made by whom and why? But that's why Karl Rove still has his platform because it's all the most disgusting kind of power, which is like stealthy feline power, behind the scenes power. Rather than just say, you know, here are my views.

And this is what I think, and I'm happy to debate it or whatever. I think you're wrong. I don't like, you know, Ken Paxton's evil. Here's why. They'll never do that because they're not honorable people. And I'm not just talking about at that company. I mean, more broadly in our society, like the people who win every bureaucratic battle are exactly the same. They're all...

They operate in darkness. You know, they're never straightforward about anything. You talked about my impeachment. I came in. You were the first person I talked to about the impeachment. That was how my whole impeachment went. It was done in three days. No due process. I didn't get any information. I wasn't allowed to participate or respond. All behind closed doors. And then they leak stuff to the media that's not even true. And I've got a gag order on me and I can't talk. It's so dishonorable.

How do you survive that? It's really hard. How do you live with yourself? Like, how do you live with yourself? If you operate that way, they convince themselves. I don't like someone. I'm always delighted to call him on the phone and say, I don't like you. And here's why they convince themselves that like, I deserve it because I'm a bad person because all of this stuff is true, but none of it was proof. You know why? Because it wasn't true. But what, but why do it behind the scenes? Why? Because I can tell you why they, so I had friends that were called into the speaker's office, Republican house members, uh,

and they were saying look we need you to vote for this impeachment they said well can you just show us like some evidence well you have this you know three day hearing three hour hearing well there's no evidence there can we see this no you're not getting any more well can we like uh have a little more time to like kind of figure this out we've only had like three days we're gonna vote on this and three no that we're not giving you more time what about like can we talk to the witnesses we don't even know who they are none of them were sworn in we don't even know who the witnesses against him are ah and they said no you we're not going to let you do that and they said well

why is it that we can't see the evidence? Why is it that we can't see the witnesses? Why is it that has to be in three days over Memorial weekend? And they said, because if we give Ken more than three days, he'll win. That's what they told him. That is, you know, if you find yourself living your life like that, you have to make a change because that's really deceptive. That was the Republican, supposedly the Republican house controlled by the Democrats. Oh, they're all like that. I got called in one time.

by executives of a company and they're trying to tell me that Roger Ailes was a rapist who I knew well and really loved. He was a flawed guy like we all are, but I didn't feel like a rapist to me. Pretty sure he wasn't a rapist. And I remember saying like, okay, who did he rape? Well, we know this. We just know this. We had Robeson Gray do this investigation. He raped people. Well, okay, who were they?

Because I know everybody. I work there. I know everybody. No, I can't. Just trust me. If you saw what we saw, you. And I was like, OK, but can you just tell me, like, what were the circumstances of the rape? This is like an elderly man who's got hemophilia. Don't think he's raping anybody. And they were very annoyed that I asked the basic questions. And look, I don't know so many things I don't know. But I did come out of that meeting thinking he didn't rape anybody.

You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely. I see it all the time where people get accused of things, then they get overwhelmed by media, and then they're... They get overwhelmed. People always say the same thing. We know this. Look, I've talked to people. We know this. Look, let's just start there. We know this. Karl Rove did that to me. He went to people and said, we know this, we know this, we know this. And they're like, well, where's the proof? I've got it somewhere.

That's what he does. But I do think all you need is self-respect. Like, I'm not going to be lied to. If I can help it, I'm lied to all the time and I don't know it. But I'm not going to allow myself to be lied to if I can help it.

Well, but people are just like they're willing to be lied to. It's the vaccine safe and effective. OK, then it turns out it's not safe and effective. And then they don't have enough self-respect to demand an accounting of those lies. Like you told me this turned out not to be true. Why did you do that? No one ever does that. Or that Karl Rove shows up and is like, we know Kemp Axson's a criminal. OK, where's everyone's self-respect? Like I'm an adult man. You can't lie to me.

okay that just seems like a kind of baseline it is a baseline and that's why when i was in the middle of that impeachment and i had no voice i could not respond i'm getting beaten up every day tell my lawyers i know you i know you think i'm going to resign but i haven't told no one i'm going to resign because i'm not even allowed to talk to the media so how could i even tell because there were printing stories i'm going to resign

I said, I want you to know, I don't care how bad it gets. I don't care what they say. These senators are going to, I'm going to make them vote. They're going to, I got elected four and a half months ago by the people. Let them vote me out. If they do, they will be accountable to voters, but I will not give in no matter what. I watched it up close and you won. It was, it was amazing. And it was, it was hard to, so how many times did you win at the Supreme Court with the

Pre the Biden administration. How many times? Yeah. Gosh. I mean, we had 106 cases. We won over 75% of our cases, but several months that we, I can't even keep track. Yeah. 106. A lot. We went there a lot. You sued him 106 times. So I'm kind of thinking since this is politics, that that may have had a role in your impeachment. I have no doubt. You know how I know they were there.

I'm convinced that Biden administration went to the house, Texas house with the Democrats that we want him impeached. And then Biden sent two lawyers from the department of justice to help the general investigating committee, which was five member committee, three Republicans, two Democrats. They had four lawyers. Two of them came from the justice department, just randomly showed up to help. Was the Biden administration involved?

I don't have proof. Can't prove it. I'm not stupid. That's unbelievable. So do you expect that Karl Rove will be involved in this primary? Oh, absolutely. He will do whatever he can to stop. He does whatever he can to stop conservatives in Texas in general. But not just in Texas, nationally. Yeah. His fundraising, everything he's got to help Republicans, he goes into primaries to get Republicans, to take out conservatives. He is not there raising money to go after Democrats. He's there to go after Republicans. What do you think he's doing now?

I mean, it's amazing the number of Republicans who are mobilizing against Trump's nominees, particularly Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard.

he must be having I I don't know this but do you think Carl has a hand in any of that I would not surprise me at all wouldn't surprise me not at all and the reason they want to go after those two is because they're gone they're effective they're courageous of course and they're going to change America if they're given the opportunity exactly right in there you know so sad to see um some Republicans who I know well mobilizing against Bobby Kennedy and they're saying we're doing because he's pro-choice and

Well, I'm vehemently, passionately pro-life. I have always been. I will always be. But these are all people who are themselves pro-choice, who supported plenty of pro-choice nominees. And it's not about that. It's about the fear that Bobby Kennedy means it, that he's sincere about it.

And that he'll get something done. And by getting done, it's like fighting the corruption that controls Washington. The thing that's most missing in political leadership is not knowledge of what to do or how to do it. It's courage. And the thing that Bobby Kennedy has, he will take on the Democrats, his own family, and the food, the big food world. That's exactly right. And they know that. And that's what they're afraid of. So they have to stop him.

Yeah. It's the testosterone level that scares them. It's totally, absolutely right. Unafraid. He's unafraid. So in September, we went across the country, coast to coast, 17 different cities on a nationwide live tour. And it was amazing. We brought the entire staff with us like we always do because we all work together for so long and enjoy traveling together. And one of our producers is a documentary filmmaker. And so he decided to make a documentary film about our trip, a full month across America,

with some of the most interesting people around. Different people join us every single night. Bon Gino and Russell Brand and Bobby Kennedy and J.D. Vance and Donald Trump, et cetera, et cetera. We had the best time. And the fruit of that is a documentary called On the Road, the Tucker Carlson Live Tour, which is available right now on TCN. On the Road, Tucker Carlson Live Tour is hilarious. You will like it.

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It's interesting. Do you think it's fair to keep a list? I mean, I'm probably too fixated on this because I've lived in a Republican world in Washington for so long, but I think it's fair to keep a list of like the Republicans who are working against reform, who are working against Trump's best decisions, which are reform monologues.

minded decisions like nominating Bobby and Tulsi. Like we should keep a list of that. Absolutely. And it should be open. We should be transparent. We should tell the world like who's working against us because they've done all this and they try to do this in secret. And then they go back and tell their constituents, well, yeah, I did my best. No, they did not do their best. They were behind the scenes. This is John Cornyn's career. This is what these people do.

transparency, just like my impeachment, the transparency of a trial actually helped me because the truth comes out. Transparency is what we need in government and we don't get it with people like the people you're talking about. I think that's really deep and true. The thing they hate most is exposure. I've always thought that's why they hated Trump. They were worried he was going to declassify stuff or say secrets out loud that

You know, that implicate the people running things. They hate him for that. And they hate him because he also is courageous and he doesn't. His agenda is the American people. Yeah. No, I think that's interesting. So do you think you may run against Cornyn?

I'm strongly considering it. I haven't made a decision. I have the spring to kind of work it out. And, you know, I'm still doing my job. I had a lot to do under Biden before he left. It's a lot easier with Trump because we're working cooperatively instead of having to be adversarial and everything. So, you know, I'll be looking at this spring and seeing what people see. I'm going to travel the state and get a feel for it. But my sense already is that John Cornyn is not loved in my state by Republicans. He may be loved by the Democrats, but he is not loved by the Republicans. Right.

How long do you think Texas has before it becomes a democratic state? - It's totally up to us. If we can preserve it, we can just like with this thing I told you about America, if we do the right things and we take care of the people in our state and we give them opportunity, we give them a good education, which the state is responsible for. If we provide opportunities for their children, if we provide just freedom to go be the best you can be and not get in their way with regulations and taxes,

We give them, we will be a Republican state because what, it doesn't matter what your skin color is. If you get a chance to be successful, you're going to vote with the people that gave it to you. I think that's right. I think that's right. And I, and I'm embarrassed to say that I kind of bought, I guess, intuitively, I didn't really think about it, but the idea that demographics is destiny. And I do think that's, there's a lot of truth in that. However,

Texas went from a majority white state to really a majority Hispanic state, but that doesn't mean that it has to be like a dystopian left-wing state at all. Hispanics are conservative socially. They are hardworking. They are family people. I totally agree. And they want to be successful too. Well, but it's interesting. So I first heard that line from Karl Rove.

How surprising.

It was actually the liberal whites who are the problem. I mean, that state's run by Gavin Newsom. He's not from Oaxaca. You know what I mean? He's from Brinton County. And a lot of the decisions are made by people like that. And actually, Hispanics are conservative. I mean, that's real. Look at El Salvador. And so what's happened, though, is that the party is controlled by neoliberals like Gavin Newsom, like Karl Rove.

And they use the power of the Hispanic vote to affect outcomes that I think a lot of Hispanic voters reject, right? Yeah. And look, Trump is winning counties in Texas that have never been won before. And we are having more and more –

Democrat, Hispanic politicians moved to our party and their positions are not changing. They're just realizing that the Democratic Party allowing all this illegal immigration and hurting their areas and all those types of things, they don't want that. They're leaving the machine. I guess the only thing I would say just as an outside observer is –

If the drug cartels are allowed to control the machinery of democracy in Texas, like it could become Mexico. That's why the whole DA thing that I was telling you about is so important. I remember when I was coming into the attorney general's office, Abbott served as long as serving AG in Texas history, 12 years, becoming governor. I'm now about to tie that, but it was, he was the one that told me the most important.

powerful elected officials in the country, Texas district attorneys, because they can do whatever they want. They can allow any crime they want. They can let their friends commit crimes and there's nothing that can be done to them. They are free to do what they want. Well, so we had problems like this in the fifties and sixties after Brown versus board where, you know, certain states just didn't want to comply with federal law. There was, and you know, Eisenhower,

sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock and said, I'm sorry, you can't violate federal law. You can't, you're not your own country actually. And you wonder like how serious could the Trump DOJ be in reigning in this crap? No, you're not allowed to have chaos in your state. This is an American state. No. I agree with that. And I think you're already seeing it on the board. He's already sent federal troops down there. And I think he, as long as it's following federal law, I know that Trump is going to be aggressive at protecting this country.

I hope so. And I believe it. So here's a question I've been obsessed with recently. I don't know the answer, but you're an attorney general. How are states allowed to have sanctuary cities and open violation of federal law? And that's not insurrection because we've allowed it to me that that should I mean, like in our state, we banned them. You cannot have a sanctuary city and we can remove people from office.

that put that in place. - But can states just say we're gonna ignore federal law? I think we had a civil war over that, didn't we? - No, as long as the federal law is constitutional and it is not infringing upon states' rights. You know, not every federal law is correct, right? But the ones that are,

that are correct, then yes, it has to be followed. Well, these are the borders of the nation. Yes. Right. So what states do with immigration affects the other 49, any individual state. Exactly right. Because it does seem like there was a standard in place under Biden where illegal aliens who are by their presence committing a crime were held to a lower standard.

than American citizens. We had to sue the Biden administration. We sued them specifically over letting criminals into this country, known criminals. And they fought us on it. They fought us on a very, yes, we are in litigation over whether the Biden administration can purposely bring criminals. And of course, all these countries were emptying their prisons to get rid of their bad people from all over the world. And Biden say, come on in. That's when I say evil. Like, I don't believe they were trying to do good for America. You cannot do that.

And tell me you are trying to help America. How hopeful are you that we can deport millions of people?

look i've seen donald trump do things that i never thought could be done he he said he's gonna do it i think it's you're not gonna get every one of them but i think tom holman i love that guy he i think there's gonna be a real serious effort to get as many out as possible and that's really all you can do but i think it's i think it will be a success in the end because they are gonna one stop the you got to stop the bleeding right we've been bleeding like profusely and then second start moving don't accept the fact that these people came in here illegally and

and just let them stay? There will be a lot of forces arrayed to stop that, obviously.

I already know the Democratic AGs. I mean, I know the game plan. What's the game plan? The game plan is to sue Trump and stop him at every turn legally. Go to a liberal judge, try to get an injunction, and then, you know, just slow it down. So I know, I think California AG, they've already allocated $25 million to this fight. To stop Trump from deporting criminals. And to stop his agenda in every possible way. So the Democratic Attorney General's are going to be suing and trying to stop all of this.

The good thing is, you know, I've got one of my guys that was my offensive coordinator to sue the Biden administration. If he gets confirmed, he'll be in a strategic position and he knows exactly the game plan and how to deal with it. If you go and beat Cornyn in the Senate, which I certainly hope you will, is there someone coming up behind you who can get elected who...

who will be as aggressive and focused on the needs of Texans. So one of the reasons I didn't want to leave last time, one is I don't want to be forced out. Like I didn't, I didn't want them to, I didn't want to step away under their terms because I just thought it was wrong. That's the spirit. So second was I didn't, I mean, I ran against three people that I just thought would be horrible for that job. They didn't know what they were doing. There are certainly people that will run that,

i mean there are there are lawyers who've never practiced law that want that job because they're in politics that's not the right way i want somebody knows how to practice law that understands the law and yes there are a couple people that i know that could run and i think might run and

Otherwise, I'd have a hard time walking away from it because I don't want to give this is such a crucial position really for the entire country. The Texas Attorney General has the largest Republican office with the most resources and has the most ability to go fight. We can attract talent. And so we have a lot of ability to take DOJ straight up. That's why we've run one over three-fourths of our cases because we can fight them toe-to-toe.

I just think it's, you see this weird dynamic in Texas where, I mean, there's so many great people in Texas, but all the money, not all the money, but a lot of the money in, you know, Highland Park and River Oaks, you know, your richest zip codes, pretty liberal. What is that? And by the way, I know a lot of those people and I really like them. I'm not attacking anybody personally because I know, you know, I know a lot of them, but boy, they seem to be funding people

people who will not continue Texas as currently organized. It's exactly right. So a lot of, it's very strange. So this group, Texas for Lawsuit Reform, used to take a lot of that. They would funnel their money through them. So it wasn't them directly. And that's the group that spent, you know, 10 million recruiting the Supreme Court Justice who was a DEI person. As it turns out, that's how we exposed that. And she blew up. That's who they supported.

I don't totally understand it, but it's- Well, they don't like you too. They're like, oh, Ken Paxton's so embarrassing. I know. It's because- But if you ask them to write on a piece of paper, like, what are your political priorities? They would be not so different from yours. It's that whole thing. But they don't like it when you actually try to implement what you say you believe. Here's part of what I think happened. I think that when I ran into Dan Branch, he was W's one of his best friends. Of course. I knew Dan Branch. He was not, his deal was always this. I've spent 10 years with him.

I would say, hey, we need to do this. This is the right thing to do. He goes, man, what are the optics here? I'm like, who cares what the optics are? This is the right thing to do. It was always the optics. How does it look? And his voting record, you can look at, is not consistently what most voters, most Republican voters would want, but it was for Highland Park. I don't know what is- Which is an affluent part of Dallas. Yes. And same with, you were talking about River Oaks in Houston. Yeah.

But that Bush world that supported Bush and... I have family in both those places, and I think they're wonderful. They're not, no, they're not. And I like all the people. And as I said, I like Dan Branch. I mean, I think I'm probably susceptible to charm in a way I shouldn't be because I like all those. They're all good guys. But in the end...

it's considered somehow gauche or bad to actually try and do what you say you're going to do that's why they don't like i've just no offense hope it doesn't hurt your feelings but i've been at dinner and people like oh ken paxton you know ken paxton it's like why because he's doing what you say you believe the same thing happened what the hell it's the same thing with trump people have were i mean i don't know you're right it is i was at his announcement marlo you know you elected officials were there to support him that first there were lots of regular people there

me and Troy Nels at the very first announcement. Everybody then was like thinking it might be somebody else and no one wanted to tell you because you had these indictments and

It's the same thing with Trump. If you actually go out and do the hard things, then you're controversial. And then they attack you for being, the media attacks you. They don't like it. And then people go, well, you know, we need to see. And I'm like, okay, you don't want Trump because he's controversial. That means you don't want somebody to actually get something done. The people that aren't controversial are the people that don't get anything done. The media doesn't attack them. And so then all these people are like, oh, I just don't like his tweets, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I care about what he gets done.

I think it may be that rich people are so insulated from the effects of everything that they don't really feel like these arguments are existential, that they really, really matter. Whereas, you know, if you make 120 grand a year and you live in Houston and you see the city, like you can't use the hospitals and crime's out of control and like everything is changing too fast to metabolize and you can't really, you make 120 grand a year, you can't really do anything about it. You're powerless. And that's, by the way, twice what the average person makes. Yes.

You're like, you realize this is not a joke. They're wrecking my city for real. It can't be fixed. I think you've hit it because those people, even those people are affected by inflation, right? Everything is more expensive. Gas is more expensive. No, it's totally right. The average American and even above average American feels all of those negative effects every day. If you're a billionaire-

I just, you just, it's no, you don't care what it costs to fill up your gas can. You don't even think about it. It's just weird in Texas. So if you go to California, if you go to Marin or downtown San Francisco or the town that I grew up in, affluent town, you know, everyone's kind of openly liberal. You know what I mean? Like they're smoking weed with their kids and they're whatever, they're liberal. You go to Texas and you meet the

affluent class in Texas. Boy, they're just great people. They're just great people who share your values. And I think they really do, by the way, at least the ones I know, they sincerely do. But they don't feel that sense of

of eminence of like, holy shit, we got it. This is like a crisis. They do not feel that. those are the people that elect me. If you look at my campaign finance reports, I usually have a massive number of people giving, but a lot lower level than some of the other statewide officials. The numbers are just staggering. I, I raise less money, but my contributions from the number of people I get, I think I had the last report. Maybe I'm off on this. Maybe it was one for 8,000 contributors in six, six, six months. Well,

Well, I don't think anybody comes close to that, but it's not the million-dollar checks. I don't get million-dollar checks. I have a much lower contribution, but I love it because I like the fact that the people as a group are helping me. Yes. That's who I'm beholden to, those people. I think that's right, and there's a –

By the way, I just want to be clear, especially in Texas, like the rich people I know in Texas are good people with nice, you know, love their families. Their children turn out well, like they're good people for real. I love them actually. But I...

And they would agree with everything you say. But in practice, it freaks them out. And you see this with Bobby Kennedy, too. Like anyone who's kind of tuned in realize, yeah, Bobby Kennedy is like a turbo liberal. He's a Kennedy. Yeah. You know, he said all this crazy gun grabby pro-abortion nonsense. But then you watch him and you're like, oh, no, that guy's on the same wavelength as me. And he might actually get stuff done. It's only it's it honestly, it's the rich Republicans who he freaks out.

He scares them. For the same reason you scare them, because you mean it. And they're like, ugh.

This is embarrassing and maybe I can't fully control it. I'm not sure I'm for this. Part of the problem is they all talk to each other and they all get their ideas from like each other. It's just almost too inbred. They don't get, they don't get down to talk to the people that you're, that you and I are talking about. They don't know them. They are not around them. They don't live with them. So they don't feel it. It's part of what your original point was. They just don't know these people. If they knew those people, I think, like you said, they're not bad people. I think if they can connect with people that are not,

billionaires instead of just with each other, I think it's totally right. It would help them. I think it's totally right. I grew up in a rich person world. The greatest gift I ever got was, you know, spending time in a non-rich area for a portion of every year. And it really changed my worldview like so dramatically, just having contact with people who aren't

you know, in that world, like just getting out of it a little bit. It's called perspective. I don't have a ton of perspective, but I have like a little bit of perspective. Right. You know what I mean? So like that's super helpful. It's super helpful. It is. It's super helpful. And wow, that's so interesting. Can you win if you don't have the support of the big money in Texas? Well, all I can tell you is I've been statewide for 12 years and I've won

My closest primary runoff when there weren't, you know, four people in the race was 65, 35. The last one was better at 68, 32. So I just go to the people and not, I usually get outspent as long as I can be within like two to one spending. I have a really good chance of winning a primary. And I think anybody that whole is consistent on views that are, that take care of their constituents. That's the key to winning is take care of your people care about them.

Yeah. Well, I've always thought that. But then I up and down the ballot and state after state, you see people elected who are basically promising to destroy their own constituents and all the black leaders in Chicago who are like, you know, lecturing about black political power and how important it is. And then they make this the city Hispanic. Now they have no political power. It's like what?

I mean, whatever you think of identity politics, I'm opposed to it. I don't think you should be running on your race anyway. But it's just a fact that they did exactly the opposite of what they promised their constituents. And really, now nobody cares what those people think. It's the same problem. People like that were taking care of themselves. They were not actually looking out for the people they said they were looking out for. And then they leave them in a terrible situation. They're not better off. What Donald Trump, supposedly the guy that doesn't like those people...

When he's finished, all categories of people, black, white, Hispanic, are better off. That seems like a good thing, right? I know. But yet, he's a bad guy. It's amazing. So, here's a complicated issue that I think, I know that you've addressed it in court. Data privacy. The idea that you ought to be allowed to have conversations without other people listening to them. The idea that people shouldn't be able to steal information about you and profit from it. Where are we on that? So...

My first term was about stopping Obama. And so I think in two years that he was there, I've seen him 27 times. Now, I stepped it up a little bit with Biden, but we had four years with Trump. And the reason I ran the second term was to deal with exactly that issue. I saw big tech and I saw big corporations,

and people felt powerless because all their information is being taken. They have no control over it. They're being censored. And I'm like, how do I solve this? So I went out to Palo Alto. I spent like a year of my life going out there, talking to professors, talking to lawyers who were tech experts.

And we ended up putting together many lawsuits, several against Google, several against Facebook. We just had like we sued Facebook because there's a Texas law that says you cannot steal somebody's face, take somebody's face or their voice without their permission. And then once you've taken it, you have a certain amount of time, a reasonable period of time to keep it. And then you have to destroy it and you can't sell it without their permission. Well, guess what? Meta, now Meta, they were doing it. They just didn't.

Did it anyway. Yeah, why do they care? So we sued them. And we got the largest settlement between a state and a business ever, $1.4 billion. We have sued Google, I think, five times. We've won two of those cases. We've got two settlements, but the three biggest are coming. One of them is...

It was about the same thing that Meta did. They stole our faces. Another was about incognito, where they told people, by the way, you go into this incognito, you sign up for this, we will not track you. Lie. They tracked us anyway. That's a deceptive trade practice in text, where they tell you one thing and do another. They lied. And they're so big, and they make so much money, they just think they can win everything. Well, the final one was incognito.

This is one that everybody thought was crazy, but we did it. And now then DOJ filed a copycat case under Biden, actually, where they, where Google controls 97% of the ad market and they destroy the competition. If you're competing and we believe they cut a deal with Facebook to keep them out of it, pay them off.

and they destroy you if you're small enough, they buy you if you're big enough, and they cut a deal if you're super big, and all of that's illegal under antitrust law. So we, in April, we are going to trial in Texas. They delayed me for two years by forcing me into what's called a multi-district litigation, and I got put in New York.

but we got a piece of legislation stuck on a bill that got us back out of that. So we're back in Texas. So we are going to take on the big tech companies. We're taking on General Motors because General Motors would sell you a car and they wouldn't tell you that their OnStar system, when you signed up for it, was tracking all of your driving. And then they're selling that to insurance companies. And then you get canceled and your insurance goes up because they're tracking every turn of your car, what time you're driving, how many miles. They don't tell you. That's a deceptive trade practice. And of course we sued Pfizer for lying to us about the vaccine.

It was a little weird after all of that to see Larry Ellison stand up and be like, everyone's getting an mRNA vaccine for cancer. What? I mean, it's crazy. I don't even know. I'm trying to digest all that. Maybe just living in Lanai is, you know. Yeah, exactly. But do you have a hope? It does seem, look, I'm not against, well, that's why I'm against technology, but I don't think I should be against technology. I should be a little more open-minded, but, um,

You know, there's a there's a place for technological progress. Of course, there is. But it does seem like it's unrestrained. It does. You know, I believe in force counterforce. I believe in balance. I believe in marriage, which is that, you know what I mean? Two forces having to accommodate one another. And in that you find peace.

I don't see that dynamic with tech right now. It just seems unrestrained. The charge of the elephants, like nothing can get in the way. So that is the reason. I saw that if we didn't step in soon, and I didn't see anybody else doing it, DOJ wasn't doing it. I didn't see other states doing it. So that's why I ran the second time. My mission was, if we don't stop this now, they make so much money. They just buy...

buy their way out of everything. So they get sued by the European Union. They just pay $2 billion. They just jack up their price. When you're making $130 billion a year, that's just a minor little tax, right, for Google. So that is why I didn't just, I'm not just doing this for money. I'm asking for restructuring of Google. I don't want them to be able to do this to us anymore. They need to divest things so that there is competition in the marketplace. I'm not, I am totally free market.

But one company that controls 97% of the market and then destroys competition, that is not good for consumers. And that's why we have antitrust laws. So if we don't stop them now, they'll control all our speech. Wait, we still have antitrust laws? We do. You'd never know it. We brought them back. And by the way, DOJ copied our Google case. Exactly. Biden did. Is there any hope? There's hope. And I think the fact that you see after we settled with Mark Zuckerberg,

He's shown up at Trump. So he spent what, 400 million trying to beat Trump last time? - Yeah. - You're seeing these CEOs come in. Now they're trying to keep their profit motive going and it's hard to get anything done in Congress 'cause they give so much money. But I think the state AGs and hopefully DOJ with Pam Bondi are key to making sure that they play fair. Look, go make billions. I don't care. I want you to. Go make a lot of billions. I want American companies to do well all over the world, but play fair.

And allow consumers choices. Don't destroy choice. Yeah. And just acknowledge that what you do has an effect on a lot of other people. And, you know, it's okay for other people to weigh in and have an opinion. You get this. I mean, I know all these people. You get this sense. They're so annoyed. If there's any impediment to what they want, like so annoyed, like they can't even believe it. Like what? You're getting in the way of progress. It's like, well, first of all, I'm not totally convinced this is progress. Like that's a subjective term. We can debate what that is.

But second, like, I don't know. There are all kinds of things I want to do, but I have to negotiate with the people who are affected by those things to reach some accommodation. That's just what life is. But the idea, and you see this with some countries too, like, oh, you know, our neighbors don't like a tough shit. It's like,

I don't know. That's not what life is. Like everything is. Give and take. Is a give and take. Compromise. Where do we get these attitudes? Like I just get to do exactly what I want. It's going to totally overturn your life. And if you don't like it, like shut up. These are super companies, right? Companies are bigger than most countries. They have more money. And I think that arrogance that we talked about in politics. Oh my gosh. It happens in business. And so not only do they want to control every market and control every transaction on the internet, but they also want to tell you what to say and speak.

what you can say on their platforms. And then they tell you they're not censoring, but they are. And so even with the Pfizer case, where we went in and sued them, we sued them not just for lying about the effectiveness of the vaccine, which they did do. But secondly, for trying to censor people once they found out that their vaccine didn't work.

I want to do that with this podcast. So what I want is Congress to pass a law preventing anyone from suing me no matter what I do. And then anyone who criticizes me is pulled off the Internet and called a racist. That's a pretty good deal, don't you think? Absolutely. And then if you happen to like not participate in their little scheme with the vaccine, then you lose your job and you're socially. Listen to my podcast or you're fired. Right. Yeah.

- Yeah. - That does seem like an unfair business advantage. - It's pretty unfair. And I actually, it's crazy because then there's no incentive for them to test it. They didn't test the vaccine. - Oh, of course not. - They don't have to. Why would they? They test it for like six days. - Well, they're fully indemnified. - There's nothing you can do to them. So we got, actually we sued Pfizer over the vaccine. We got dismissed by a federal judge who said we didn't have, because of that federal law, our state laws don't apply. I don't think that's right. So we've appealed to the fifth circuit saying, wait a minute,

They have their federal laws, but our state law, if you deceive someone, you lie to them, that is a violation of state law. Who cares what the federal immunity thing is? It has nothing to do with our state laws, and that's our argument.

Man, you guys, you know, there's so many arms available in the black market. I think Texas should buy some just to get a little more influence. You know what I mean? That's not my department. I always tell people they want me to go. Why don't you do something? Why don't you do something? I said, well, I am. But they didn't give me any guns. They just gave me like lawyers. All I have is lawyers. Be like the drug cartels. Just buy them on the dark web. Oh, hilarious. Ken Paxton, thank you so much for taking all this time. I enjoyed it. Thanks for having me. And I hope you crush that John Cornyn. I really do.

I'm rooting for you. Well, thank you. No one else agrees, but I'm in Highland Park, but I'm on your side. Hey, thank you. Appreciate it.