February 29, 2024 • 24 mins
In this episode, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey discusses his work and the challenges he faces in protecting freedom, safety, and prosperity in the state of Missouri. He highlights the opposition he faces from the left and the importance of fighting for the rule of law. Bailey discusses his investigations into Planned Parenthood and the need to protect children from harmful procedures. He also emphasizes the significance of the Second Amendment Preservation Act and the role of states in defending their rights. Bailey addresses the crisis at the southern border and the need for states to hold the federal government accountable. He also discusses the issue of student loan forgiveness and the redistribution of wealth. Bailey expresses concerns about the erosion of the rule of law and the weaponization of government. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My next guest is an absolute savage. His name is
Andrew Bailey. He is the Attorney General of Missouri. He's
only been there for a little over a year and
he's already made waves. He's a thorn in the side
of the Biden administration. The left hates him. He started
by ousting a Sorrow's backed prosecutor and since then he's
tackled every big issue, transgender issues, abortion, Second Amendment, the border.
(00:25):
I mean, the list goes on diversity, equity, inclusion, every
issue you care about, every issue we talk about on
this podcast. He has taken up the mantle to defend
the rights of Missourians and Americans and to go after
the left. So I think you're really going to enjoy
this conversation. I was going through everything this guy has
done so far. I can't believe it's only been a
(00:47):
little over a year. So stay tuned for this conversation
with the Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey. Well, Attorney General,
it's great to have you on the podcast for the
first time. You know, I was going through this and
(01:09):
you've only been in office for like a little over
a year.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, that's right, Lisa. I mean, look it's a privilege
to get to serve the people of State of Missouri
as the forty fourth Attorney General in our state's history.
But we hit the ground running back on January third,
twenty twenty three, when I first swore into office, and
we haven't looked back. And I'm here to tell you
we haven't hit our ceiling yet. No.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I know. I was going through all the stuff that
you've done, and I'm like, I don't even know if
we're going to have time from investigating Planned Parenthood stuff
on the border, big tech, investigating media matters, Second Amendment stuff.
I mean, getting rid of a Soros product. Like the
list is long. How much does the left hate you?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh, I'm despised by the left, and that's okay. You know.
I tell the people of State of Missouri to judge
me by my enemies. I mean, the fact that the
ACLU and Planned Parenthood have sued me more times than
I can count on my my my fingers means that
we're doing the right things for the right reasons. I mean,
at the end of the day, we are fighting in
a war to protect our freedom, our safety, and our prosperity.
(02:10):
It used to be that Republicans and Democrats had differences
over policy nuance, but the rule of law matter. And
these days the left has abandoned this approach of elevating
the rules of the game above the players in the outcomes,
in favor of weaponizing the government to tear down cultural
and legal institutions in the United States of America to
(02:30):
achieve radical progressive evolution. And I think it's contrary to
the will of the peoples state of Missouri. It's certainly
contrary to our interest in freedom, safety, and prosperity. And
it's a fight, it's a war. It's no longer a
debate over nuance of policy.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Do you think in part that's happened just because the
government has gotten so large and inevitably we the people
loser rights in that process.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Absolutely, I think that it's a zero sum game, more government,
less freedom. I mean, I believe that the best thing
the government can do so many times is get the
heck out of the way. But at the same time,
there is a proper role for government. And you know,
it seems to me that under the Biden administration, and
it really this became pronounced during COVID and it grew
(03:16):
exponentially once Biden took office, that the government was everywhere
were unwanted and nowhere where needed. In other words, during COVID,
they were going to tell you you had to wear
a mask and stand this far apart, and you couldn't
do this, and you couldn't do that. But they wouldn't
secure the southern border once Biden took office. I mean
it's instances like that. Or you know, here in Missouri
you had a source back prosecutor had a ninety six
(03:37):
percent non prosecution rate. So she'll be the first one
to demand that you put on a mask and to
go after political opponents, but she won't prosecute the criminals
that are actually breaking things and hurting people. And so
it undermines the rule of law. It undermines the credibility
of our legal system. And that's why it's important to
have state attorneys general who are willing to fight back
and have the not only the audacity to fight back,
(03:58):
but the experience and the battle scars to take with
them into that fight.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, you know, it is kind of funny come to
think about it. You know, Joe Biden trying to force
a vaccine on Americans that is untested, but somehow he
doesn't have the authority to close the southern border and
stop the invasion.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That or saying yeah, that's right. I mean, look, we
had to file suit against the Biden administration because he
used the Department of Energy to try to regulate which
dishwashers and washing machines you have in your house. I mean,
the federal government has no authority to select appliances for
your home. And as a you know, a parent who
has four children at Galli, I need my appliances running
(04:37):
NonStop just to keep up with the daily grind and
keep people fed and clothed. But I'll tell you you
know that lawsuit. People think it's trivial, or you know,
might might mock the insignificance of it. But if you
give an inch there where, what is the principled response
when your freedom's on the line. And so keeping the
federal government in its limited proper role is essential to
(04:57):
maintain maximizing our freedom and maintaining our constant structure.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You've been willing to engage on a lot of important
cultural issues. You know, at one point, an emergency rule
that would require adults and children to undergo therapy at
other requirements before they can move forward with, you know,
transgender surgery, puberty blockers, things like that investigation, a planned parenthood.
I believe there was a lawsuit into a school over
(05:20):
a bathroom as well. I think not doing an open
hearing on that correct in the school. So why are
these fights important to you? And kind of go through
some of the things you're most proud of in that arena.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, Lisa, Look, I want Missouri to be the safest
state in the nation for children, and we've been fighting
for that since day one when I took office. You know,
in February January, February of twenty twenty three, a whistleblower
came forward from a pediatric transgender clinic in the Saint
Louis region that made allegations in an sworn testimony. I mean,
she was willing to put her life on the line,
put her name on the line, subject herself to scrutiny
(05:53):
and penalty of perjury, and the allegations she made were
not only credible, but amounted into nothing short of child abease.
So we launched an investigation. It was the first of
its kind in this nation. It was a multi agency
investigation to hold wrongdoers accountable. And as we looked into
the matter, we demanded the clinic institute it self impose
a moratorium on these procedures until we could the state
(06:14):
can determine what safeguards were in place to protect kids.
The clinic refused and opined that they were the only
clinic in the state of Missouri offering these kinds of procedures. Well,
subsequent investigation revealed that wasn't true. There's a shadowy and
clandestine network of these clinics operating across the state, and
so it was necessary for the Attorney General's office to
use the full authority of the state to propose an
(06:37):
emergency rule to stand in the gap as a safety
measure to protect kids and give our General Assembly a
time to enact a statute that was ultimately signed into law,
that Senate Bill forty nine. And I'm proud to say
that Missouri is the first state in the nation to
successfully defend that kind of statute that ends this pediatric
child gender mutilation. We're the first state in the nation
(06:58):
to successfully defend that kind of status at the trial
court level. The work we've done to root out and
shut down the pediatric transgender mutilation industry in the state
of Missouri will have saved countless lives, will have preserved
the bodily integrity of countless children, and will have protected
printal rights. You know, one of the allegations that was
made by the whistleblower was that some of these parents
(07:20):
were cajoled into consenting to these procedures and weren't provided
the opportunity to actually provide legitimate legal consent because they
were deprived of information, and that the patients at these clinics,
the children, were deprived of access to mental health services
like psychology and psychiatry. And so just having the fortitude
and the moral clarity to call this what it is
(07:42):
and to take on that industry and to have delivered
wins for the people of the state and certainly for
the safety of children of the state, I think is
a major accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, Nan, I've interviewed people at Chloe Cole on this
show who underwent a double misactomy at fifteen years old.
I mean, you just you aren't fully aware of anything
in life at fifteen years old, particularly making life altering decisions,
and you know, destroying your body should also take in
puberty blockers at one point as well, or you know,
(08:12):
we're not doing right by these kids.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's absolutely right. I mean, look, there are zero FDA
approvals showing that puberty blockers or cross sex hormones are
safer effective in the treatment of gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria,
of course, is the mental health condition that so many
of these children present when they come into these clinics.
They're confused about their gender. So rather than talking to
the kids, are providing psychology or psychiatry. So many of
the clinics race towards powerful life changing drugs or referring children,
(08:39):
you know, under seventeen years of age for irreversible surgeries.
And as you point out, these kids will never enjoy
the full spectrum of adulthood because the adults in the room,
they were supposed to be responsible for their health and safety,
failed And so that's why it's important that legislation like
Senate Bill forty nine be enacted and defended in court.
That's why it's important that state attorney's General used their
(08:59):
investigation of authority and rule making authority to stand in
the gap to provide some kind of safeguards to protect
the children.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You're also involved in a Second Amendment case as well.
Can you talk a little bit about that, the Second
Amendment Preservation Act, and you know, what is it, why
is it important, and what could this mean for the
country moving forward. Regarding the Second Amendment in states rights.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Absolutely, you know, I believe that the Second Amendment is
one that makes all the other amendments possible. The Constitution
exists to protect us from the government, and the government
exists to protect our rights. And we celebrate the right
to keep in bare arms here in the state of Missouri.
If you look at Article one, section twenty three of
the Missouri Constitution, it is a robust protection of the
right to keep in bear arms, and it says that
state officials are obligated to defend against infringement of infringements
(09:47):
upon those rights. And it's a sacred and honorable duty
that we undertake happily here at the Attorney General's office.
But our General Assembly an act at a statute to
the Second Amendment Preservation Act designed to prevent enforcement of
unconstitutional Second Amendment infringements in statute or rule and to
really be a codification of the Tenth Amendment anti common
(10:07):
deering doctrine. As you'll recall, the Tenth Amendment stands for
the proposition that authority not explicitly given to the federal
government or deprived to the states, is enjoyed by the
states and the people of the states. And so what
SAPPA actually says is that state officials can't be cajoled
by the federal government into enforcing unconstitutional federal mandates. But
(10:27):
it doesn't. It only limits state officials, it doesn't limit
federal officials. And so we've defended this statute in court.
The Department of Biden's Department of Justice instantly sued the
State of Missouri and hauled us into court and attacked
our state sovereignty and our Second Amendment rights. They believe
that the supremacy clause makes the federal government supreme to
the state of Missouri. That's not what the supremacy clause says.
(10:49):
The supremacy clause says that when there's a conflict between
a constitutionally valid federal statute and a state statute, that
the federal statute prevails. But that doesn't mean that the
federal government has the right to commandeer the apparatus of
state government to carry out unconstitutional objectives. So one of
the issues that we've defended, and we were at the
(11:09):
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals defending this matter just last
week last Friday, and we're confident in our ultimate success
on the meriage. But one of the issues here is
that when the Department of Justice sues the state, you
have to be able to show the plaintiff has to
be able to show an injury in fact, a concrete
injury in fact from a result of an unconstitutional act.
And the problem here is because SAPPA does not limit
(11:30):
federal officials, and no federal officials can demonstrate harm, the
federal court actually lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this case.
And we think that ultimately the courts will dismiss this
case and SAPPA will stand.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Let's take a quick commercial break more with Attorney General
Andrew Bailey. You've been involved with Texas and securing the
border and kind of you know, pushing back against this administration.
Is that the path forward for our country is for
state to start taking back state rights and you know,
(12:04):
kind of peeling back that power from the federal government.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, Lesa, I think it has to be. I mean,
look at what federal authorities have done at the border,
and really it's the Biden administration. President Trump used the
immigration laws on the books to reduce illegal border crossings
by more than ninety percent. He instituted policies like remain
in Mexico and detention of illegal criminal aliens, and that
deterred illegal border crossings. But what Biden has done since
(12:27):
day one is hanging an open sign at our border,
undermine our rule of law, and deny Americans of our
national sovereignty. Some of the ways he's done that include
termination of the Remain in Mexico policy, institution of a
catch and release policy, an executive order that said he
wasn't going to build any more border walls, despite the
fact that in two thousand and six, while serving the
United States Senate, Senator Biden voted for the Secure Fens Act.
(12:50):
But now all of a sudden he thinks they don't
work because President Trump lights him. And the problem he's
got is that he's perverted the law to allow people
into this country to have no legal right to be here.
It undermines the rule of law, discredits are legal institutions,
and again it's creating a crisis of enormous magnitude. More
than fifteen hundred deaths from finnyl exposure in Missouri and
(13:12):
one year loan forty three innocent children who have died
from accidental finnel exposure. We've had more than eleven hundred
cases reported of human trafficking, and that's the cases that
are reported. How many go undetected. And so you know,
every state's of border state, Missourians are suffering and are
less safe because the President Biden's refusal to do his
job at the southern border. And so it's going to
(13:33):
be up to states to hold him accountable.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And you testified before Congress regarding Secretary markas correct.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, that's right. I was honored to be allowed to
be called before Congress to testify in the impeachment proceedings
against Secretary of may Orcus. And look the border wall
lawsuit that Missouri and Texas have pen against the Biden
administration right now, I think it's going to end up
being a really significant piece of litigation, mark my words.
In fiscal year twenty twenty, Congress appropriated money to erect
(14:02):
new border barrier systems. Period. Well, like I said, on
day one, President Biden signed an executive order saying he
wasn't going to do that, and then he hired Secretary
of may orcis to submit an endless series of environmental
studies to vex harassment, delay the command from Congress and
the Appropriations Bill to build new border barrier systems. Well,
if may orcus didn't want to follow out the commandments
(14:22):
of Congress that are in the Appropriation Statute, he shouldn't
have taken the job and taken an oath to uphold
the laws of this country in the Constitution of the
United States of America. So I think that at the
end of the day, Congress has the power of the purse,
but it ceases to mean anything if federal officials can
just ignore Congressional commandments that are codified in statute. And
so certainly our lawsuit against the Biden administration we think
(14:44):
will be successful in that we've been reinstated by the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and are back at the
district court level. We may be the first state in
the nation to successfully sue Biden on one of these
border issues. But in the meantime, Congress has a role
to play too, and that's holding federal officials who refuse
to follow the law accountable.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
And you've also been involved with the administration with the
student loans. I mean, it's not really forgiveness because we're
all on the hooky can't forgive. It's you know, tell
us about your involvement in that and what should people
be looking out for.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, so, you know, President Biden initially tried to quote
unquote cancel student debt, and any of your working families
out there, business owners out there that are listening, are
going to understand, like, there is no such thing as
a cancelation of debt. Someone is paying it, you know.
I think that the estimates were somewhere around four hundred
billion dollars to taxpayers in the state in the United
States of America, forty four million dollars to working families
(15:39):
an additional tax burden here in the state of Missouri.
It decreased revenue to the state of Missouri. We're not
gonna let President Biden saddle working Missouri families with Ivy
League debt. And I paid for my college and blood,
sweat and tears. I went to University Missouri on an
Army ROTC scholarship, served in the War on Terror, deployed
to Iraq twice. Used the post nine to eleven GI
Bill for law school. So look, I did it, honest.
(16:00):
There's no such thing as a free ride. You got
to earn it. It's not given. And so President Bien
trying to saddle working Missouri families with IVY League dead
is unacceptable. The Court has already deemed it unconstitutional once before,
and certainly we are joining with other states and looking
for opportunities to fight back against another unlawful, unconstitutional redistribution
of wealth.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know one thing that worries me, well, a lot
of things worry made these days, but one of them
that I will bring up to you is this article
in the Atlantic, and the headline reads how Democrats could
disqualify Trump if the Supreme Court doesn't, and it goes
out to lay out how senior or House Democrats would
not commit to certifying a Trump when YadA, YadA, YadA.
(16:41):
But what worries me is I do feel like the
left is at a point where, like, let's say Trump wins,
that they would just outright deny him that victory. So,
I mean, I guess how close are to were we
to where like there is absolutely no rule of law.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I think we're on the precipice. I mean, we're certainly
slouching towards authoritarian third world dictatorship. I mean, President Biden
has the and his army of federal bureaucrats have the
attitude that they get to do whatever they want until
someone tells them to stop. I mean, thank goodness, here
in the state of Missouri, we've used the long arm
of the law to sue the Biden administration thirty times,
(17:20):
to take them to court, to get a court order
demanding that you preventing them from unconstitutional, actually demanding that
they stop. But you know, to your point, more government,
less freedom right And at the end of the day,
there is no sanction in the United States constitution free
fourth branch of government. And yet look at the alphabet
soup of federal bureaucratic agencies. And when President Biden deploys
that army of bureaucrats, like minded individuals that are like
(17:43):
minded with him, they're not there to maximize your liberty
and the choices you get to make. They're there to
make decisions for you and take away your freedoms. And
so the apparatus is certainly there. And the left seems,
in the radical progressive left, seems intent on tearing down
the structure of our government. Again, that structure was carefully
designed by our founders to maximize our freedom and liberty
(18:05):
and to restrain an overactive central authority and prevent us
from slouching towards authoritarianism. And the Left is clearly jettisoning
that approach in favor of authoritarian dictatorship. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I do think, you know, at least if you look
at what the Left has tried to do to Donald
Trump with these four criminal indictments well and then also
whether they're trying to do it to him civilly and
you know, bankrupt him. But I do think Americans are
kind of waking up to they've overshot a little bit,
you know, particularly when you have the Special Counsel's report
(18:39):
on Biden showing that he's mishandled classified information since the
freaking nineteen seventies, you know, and then you've got Fanny
Willis inappropriately engaging with you know, a man that she
hired who didn't have a background in Rico or anything.
You know, he's involved with with that case in Fulton County.
I do think people are kind of like, okay, you know,
(19:00):
are going to go after someone like that, You really
have to have the moral high ground, and they don't.
And so I think Americans are kind of realizing that,
all right, you know this, this is a witch hunt.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
No, that's right, And again it undermines the credibility of
their position. It undermines the credibility of our system of government,
certainly of our judicial processes, when those processes can be
weaponized against political opponents. And I refer to you know,
third world banana republics, That's exactly what I'm talking about,
and America was not. The United States of America is
never supposed to be that way, and if we just
(19:31):
followed the rule of law, we wouldn't have these problems.
But again, the left is jettison that approach. They hate.
They're blinded by their hatred for President Trump and are
willing to destroy the United States of America to attack
him politically and legally. I think there are three really
main strategic objectives in the fight for the soul of
America today, and you've covered two of them already. You know,
(19:52):
the border, no border, no country. If we don't secure
our southern border and maintain our national sovereignty, we don't
have a country anymore. Number two, it's the weaponization of
government again, are we going to allow the apparatus of
our legal system to be hijacked by radical progressives who
are willing to use it to take out political opponents
while ignoring the actual law breakers elsewhere. And then finally
(20:16):
number three, I think one of the other main strategic
objectives in the fight for the soul of America is
the fight for free speech. I mean, this used to
be a non partisan, non controversial issue that the First
Amendment protected a freefair and open marketplace for ideas. And
yet now the left screams for government censorship, and one
wonders if the legacy media would squeal so loudly if
(20:37):
they were the one censor quick break.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
We've got so much more to get into. I've heard
different arguments on this, but you know Donald Trump saying that,
you know, look, Presidential Records Act, the authority to declassify
and classify. You know, where are you into that?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah? I agree. I mean they're prosecuting him for a
technical procedural flaw when certainly there is evidence to suggest
that President Trump engaged in the proper procedure and the
bureaucracy stemi his attempts to accomplish his objective which ultimately
is his decision as the president to make. And so
(21:18):
Joe Biden, you know, for forty years or more, has
classified documents sitting in a cardboard box in his closet.
And yet President Trump, who had the authority to declassify
these documents, has them locked in a sealed safe and
is negotiating with the National Archives to do it the
right way. And all of a sudden, stormtroopers are rating
(21:39):
mar a lago. I mean again, this points to the hypocrisy.
And look, I agree with Senator Holly on this. Merritt
Garland has two options here. He either charges President Biden
for knowingly retaining classified documents and violation of federal law,
or he needs to invoke the constitutional amendment that gives
him and the rest of the cabinet the authority to
declare that there is not no longer fit to hold office.
(22:02):
Either he has the mental state to commit the crime,
or he doesn't have the mental capacity to be president.
But Merrek Garland can't have it both ways on that issue,
and right now, that's the needle he's trying to thrive.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Real quick before we go. I can't believe I almost
forgot to ask you about this the Supreme Court is
going to be hearing Missouri versus Biden on March eighteenth.
What should people know about that? What should we be
looking out for? If you can just kind of break
that down with us or for us before we go.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, a, Lisa, and again, this is the most important
free speech case in this nation's history. We've uncovered through
this lawsuit or relationship of both coercion and collusion between
the Biden administration across a spectrum of bureaucratic agencies with
big tech social media platforms to silence American voices in
violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. The
remedy for disfavored speech in this country has always been
(22:52):
counter speech, not government censorship. The President has again he
has rejected that approach. The President, his staff, his army
of bureaucrats have now developed a vast censorship enterprise, and
it's going to be up to us in this lawsuit
to root out that censorship enterprise, to restore the proper
constitutional order to the freefare and open marketplace of ideas.
It is a sign of cowardice and weakness that the
(23:14):
President and his left wing bureaucrats can't win an argument
on the merits, so they feel the need to silence
any voice and opposition. We have the evidence to prove it.
We've won in court three times now. We're going to
the super Bowl on March eighteenth. We'll be arguing that
case at the United States Court Supreme Court, the highest
court in the land, and we're going to bring home
a win.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I can't believe you've only been there for a little
free years. We just went through so much stuff and
I feel like I'm going to look back and have
missed some things to have discussed.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
We hope we'll be talking again soon. We're going to
update you.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
With well, obviously I will. It'll be two months from now,
and it will be fifty things we have to cover.
Where where can people learn more about you? You know,
help you out? I know you've got a campaign race
right now. Where can people learn more about you and
help out?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah? Check us out at AGO dot MO dot gov.
That's the official website where you can see all the
work we're doing to fight back against the enemies of freedom, safety,
and prosperity, and certainly for people in the state of Missouri.
If you feel like you've been aggrieved by a fraudulent
business practice. We've got a consumer Protection division for standing
by to assist you, and the complaint forms are available
there on the website. We want to serve the people
(24:23):
of the state of Missouri and fight for freedom across
the nation.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Attorney General Andrew Bailey appreciate you taking the time to
join the show. Loved having you. Would love to have
you back.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Hey, Thanks Lisa, great talking. Do you hope we can
talk again soon?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
That was Missouri. Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Appreciate him taking
so much time to join the show. Obviously he's already
done a lot and he's barely been there, so we'll
keep a look out for him. Thank you at home
for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen
throughout the week. I want to think John Cass you
and my producer for putting the show together. Until next time.
My next guest is an absolute savage. His name is
Andrew Bailey. He is the Attorney General of Missouri. He's
only been there for a little over a year and
he's already made waves. He's a thorn in the side
of the Biden administration. The left hates him. He started
by ousting a Sorrow's backed prosecutor and since then he's
tackled every big issue, transgender issues, abortion, Second Amendment, the border.
(00:25):
I mean, the list goes on diversity, equity, inclusion, every
issue you care about, every issue we talk about on
this podcast. He has taken up the mantle to defend
the rights of Missourians and Americans and to go after
the left. So I think you're really going to enjoy
this conversation. I was going through everything this guy has
done so far. I can't believe it's only been a
(00:47):
little over a year. So stay tuned for this conversation
with the Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey. Well, Attorney General,
it's great to have you on the podcast for the
first time. You know, I was going through this and
(01:09):
you've only been in office for like a little over
a year.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, that's right, Lisa. I mean, look it's a privilege
to get to serve the people of State of Missouri
as the forty fourth Attorney General in our state's history.
But we hit the ground running back on January third,
twenty twenty three, when I first swore into office, and
we haven't looked back. And I'm here to tell you
we haven't hit our ceiling yet. No.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I know. I was going through all the stuff that
you've done, and I'm like, I don't even know if
we're going to have time from investigating Planned Parenthood stuff
on the border, big tech, investigating media matters, Second Amendment stuff.
I mean, getting rid of a Soros product. Like the
list is long. How much does the left hate you?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh, I'm despised by the left, and that's okay. You know.
I tell the people of State of Missouri to judge
me by my enemies. I mean, the fact that the
ACLU and Planned Parenthood have sued me more times than
I can count on my my my fingers means that
we're doing the right things for the right reasons. I mean,
at the end of the day, we are fighting in
a war to protect our freedom, our safety, and our prosperity.
(02:10):
It used to be that Republicans and Democrats had differences
over policy nuance, but the rule of law matter. And
these days the left has abandoned this approach of elevating
the rules of the game above the players in the outcomes,
in favor of weaponizing the government to tear down cultural
and legal institutions in the United States of America to
(02:30):
achieve radical progressive evolution. And I think it's contrary to
the will of the peoples state of Missouri. It's certainly
contrary to our interest in freedom, safety, and prosperity. And
it's a fight, it's a war. It's no longer a
debate over nuance of policy.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Do you think in part that's happened just because the
government has gotten so large and inevitably we the people
loser rights in that process.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Absolutely, I think that it's a zero sum game, more government,
less freedom. I mean, I believe that the best thing
the government can do so many times is get the
heck out of the way. But at the same time,
there is a proper role for government. And you know,
it seems to me that under the Biden administration, and
it really this became pronounced during COVID and it grew
(03:16):
exponentially once Biden took office, that the government was everywhere
were unwanted and nowhere where needed. In other words, during COVID,
they were going to tell you you had to wear
a mask and stand this far apart, and you couldn't
do this, and you couldn't do that. But they wouldn't
secure the southern border once Biden took office. I mean
it's instances like that. Or you know, here in Missouri
you had a source back prosecutor had a ninety six
(03:37):
percent non prosecution rate. So she'll be the first one
to demand that you put on a mask and to
go after political opponents, but she won't prosecute the criminals
that are actually breaking things and hurting people. And so
it undermines the rule of law. It undermines the credibility
of our legal system. And that's why it's important to
have state attorneys general who are willing to fight back
and have the not only the audacity to fight back,
(03:58):
but the experience and the battle scars to take with
them into that fight.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, you know, it is kind of funny come to
think about it. You know, Joe Biden trying to force
a vaccine on Americans that is untested, but somehow he
doesn't have the authority to close the southern border and
stop the invasion.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That or saying yeah, that's right. I mean, look, we
had to file suit against the Biden administration because he
used the Department of Energy to try to regulate which
dishwashers and washing machines you have in your house. I mean,
the federal government has no authority to select appliances for
your home. And as a you know, a parent who
has four children at Galli, I need my appliances running
(04:37):
NonStop just to keep up with the daily grind and
keep people fed and clothed. But I'll tell you you
know that lawsuit. People think it's trivial, or you know,
might might mock the insignificance of it. But if you
give an inch there where, what is the principled response
when your freedom's on the line. And so keeping the
federal government in its limited proper role is essential to
(04:57):
maintain maximizing our freedom and maintaining our constant structure.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You've been willing to engage on a lot of important
cultural issues. You know, at one point, an emergency rule
that would require adults and children to undergo therapy at
other requirements before they can move forward with, you know,
transgender surgery, puberty blockers, things like that investigation, a planned parenthood.
I believe there was a lawsuit into a school over
(05:20):
a bathroom as well. I think not doing an open
hearing on that correct in the school. So why are
these fights important to you? And kind of go through
some of the things you're most proud of in that arena.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, Lisa, Look, I want Missouri to be the safest
state in the nation for children, and we've been fighting
for that since day one when I took office. You know,
in February January, February of twenty twenty three, a whistleblower
came forward from a pediatric transgender clinic in the Saint
Louis region that made allegations in an sworn testimony. I mean,
she was willing to put her life on the line,
put her name on the line, subject herself to scrutiny
(05:53):
and penalty of perjury, and the allegations she made were
not only credible, but amounted into nothing short of child abease.
So we launched an investigation. It was the first of
its kind in this nation. It was a multi agency
investigation to hold wrongdoers accountable. And as we looked into
the matter, we demanded the clinic institute it self impose
a moratorium on these procedures until we could the state
(06:14):
can determine what safeguards were in place to protect kids.
The clinic refused and opined that they were the only
clinic in the state of Missouri offering these kinds of procedures. Well,
subsequent investigation revealed that wasn't true. There's a shadowy and
clandestine network of these clinics operating across the state, and
so it was necessary for the Attorney General's office to
use the full authority of the state to propose an
(06:37):
emergency rule to stand in the gap as a safety
measure to protect kids and give our General Assembly a
time to enact a statute that was ultimately signed into law,
that Senate Bill forty nine. And I'm proud to say
that Missouri is the first state in the nation to
successfully defend that kind of statute that ends this pediatric
child gender mutilation. We're the first state in the nation
(06:58):
to successfully defend that kind of status at the trial
court level. The work we've done to root out and
shut down the pediatric transgender mutilation industry in the state
of Missouri will have saved countless lives, will have preserved
the bodily integrity of countless children, and will have protected
printal rights. You know, one of the allegations that was
made by the whistleblower was that some of these parents
(07:20):
were cajoled into consenting to these procedures and weren't provided
the opportunity to actually provide legitimate legal consent because they
were deprived of information, and that the patients at these clinics,
the children, were deprived of access to mental health services
like psychology and psychiatry. And so just having the fortitude
and the moral clarity to call this what it is
(07:42):
and to take on that industry and to have delivered
wins for the people of the state and certainly for
the safety of children of the state, I think is
a major accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, Nan, I've interviewed people at Chloe Cole on this
show who underwent a double misactomy at fifteen years old.
I mean, you just you aren't fully aware of anything
in life at fifteen years old, particularly making life altering decisions,
and you know, destroying your body should also take in
puberty blockers at one point as well, or you know,
(08:12):
we're not doing right by these kids.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's absolutely right. I mean, look, there are zero FDA
approvals showing that puberty blockers or cross sex hormones are
safer effective in the treatment of gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria,
of course, is the mental health condition that so many
of these children present when they come into these clinics.
They're confused about their gender. So rather than talking to
the kids, are providing psychology or psychiatry. So many of
the clinics race towards powerful life changing drugs or referring children,
(08:39):
you know, under seventeen years of age for irreversible surgeries.
And as you point out, these kids will never enjoy
the full spectrum of adulthood because the adults in the room,
they were supposed to be responsible for their health and safety,
failed And so that's why it's important that legislation like
Senate Bill forty nine be enacted and defended in court.
That's why it's important that state attorney's General used their
(08:59):
investigation of authority and rule making authority to stand in
the gap to provide some kind of safeguards to protect
the children.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You're also involved in a Second Amendment case as well.
Can you talk a little bit about that, the Second
Amendment Preservation Act, and you know, what is it, why
is it important, and what could this mean for the
country moving forward. Regarding the Second Amendment in states rights.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Absolutely, you know, I believe that the Second Amendment is
one that makes all the other amendments possible. The Constitution
exists to protect us from the government, and the government
exists to protect our rights. And we celebrate the right
to keep in bare arms here in the state of Missouri.
If you look at Article one, section twenty three of
the Missouri Constitution, it is a robust protection of the
right to keep in bear arms, and it says that
state officials are obligated to defend against infringement of infringements
(09:47):
upon those rights. And it's a sacred and honorable duty
that we undertake happily here at the Attorney General's office.
But our General Assembly an act at a statute to
the Second Amendment Preservation Act designed to prevent enforcement of
unconstitutional Second Amendment infringements in statute or rule and to
really be a codification of the Tenth Amendment anti common
(10:07):
deering doctrine. As you'll recall, the Tenth Amendment stands for
the proposition that authority not explicitly given to the federal
government or deprived to the states, is enjoyed by the
states and the people of the states. And so what
SAPPA actually says is that state officials can't be cajoled
by the federal government into enforcing unconstitutional federal mandates. But
(10:27):
it doesn't. It only limits state officials, it doesn't limit
federal officials. And so we've defended this statute in court.
The Department of Biden's Department of Justice instantly sued the
State of Missouri and hauled us into court and attacked
our state sovereignty and our Second Amendment rights. They believe
that the supremacy clause makes the federal government supreme to
the state of Missouri. That's not what the supremacy clause says.
(10:49):
The supremacy clause says that when there's a conflict between
a constitutionally valid federal statute and a state statute, that
the federal statute prevails. But that doesn't mean that the
federal government has the right to commandeer the apparatus of
state government to carry out unconstitutional objectives. So one of
the issues that we've defended, and we were at the
(11:09):
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals defending this matter just last
week last Friday, and we're confident in our ultimate success
on the meriage. But one of the issues here is
that when the Department of Justice sues the state, you
have to be able to show the plaintiff has to
be able to show an injury in fact, a concrete
injury in fact from a result of an unconstitutional act.
And the problem here is because SAPPA does not limit
(11:30):
federal officials, and no federal officials can demonstrate harm, the
federal court actually lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this case.
And we think that ultimately the courts will dismiss this
case and SAPPA will stand.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Let's take a quick commercial break more with Attorney General
Andrew Bailey. You've been involved with Texas and securing the
border and kind of you know, pushing back against this administration.
Is that the path forward for our country is for
state to start taking back state rights and you know,
(12:04):
kind of peeling back that power from the federal government.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, Lesa, I think it has to be. I mean,
look at what federal authorities have done at the border,
and really it's the Biden administration. President Trump used the
immigration laws on the books to reduce illegal border crossings
by more than ninety percent. He instituted policies like remain
in Mexico and detention of illegal criminal aliens, and that
deterred illegal border crossings. But what Biden has done since
(12:27):
day one is hanging an open sign at our border,
undermine our rule of law, and deny Americans of our
national sovereignty. Some of the ways he's done that include
termination of the Remain in Mexico policy, institution of a
catch and release policy, an executive order that said he
wasn't going to build any more border walls, despite the
fact that in two thousand and six, while serving the
United States Senate, Senator Biden voted for the Secure Fens Act.
(12:50):
But now all of a sudden he thinks they don't
work because President Trump lights him. And the problem he's
got is that he's perverted the law to allow people
into this country to have no legal right to be here.
It undermines the rule of law, discredits are legal institutions,
and again it's creating a crisis of enormous magnitude. More
than fifteen hundred deaths from finnyl exposure in Missouri and
(13:12):
one year loan forty three innocent children who have died
from accidental finnel exposure. We've had more than eleven hundred
cases reported of human trafficking, and that's the cases that
are reported. How many go undetected. And so you know,
every state's of border state, Missourians are suffering and are
less safe because the President Biden's refusal to do his
job at the southern border. And so it's going to
(13:33):
be up to states to hold him accountable.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And you testified before Congress regarding Secretary markas correct.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, that's right. I was honored to be allowed to
be called before Congress to testify in the impeachment proceedings
against Secretary of may Orcus. And look the border wall
lawsuit that Missouri and Texas have pen against the Biden
administration right now, I think it's going to end up
being a really significant piece of litigation, mark my words.
In fiscal year twenty twenty, Congress appropriated money to erect
(14:02):
new border barrier systems. Period. Well, like I said, on
day one, President Biden signed an executive order saying he
wasn't going to do that, and then he hired Secretary
of may orcis to submit an endless series of environmental
studies to vex harassment, delay the command from Congress and
the Appropriations Bill to build new border barrier systems. Well,
if may orcus didn't want to follow out the commandments
(14:22):
of Congress that are in the Appropriation Statute, he shouldn't
have taken the job and taken an oath to uphold
the laws of this country in the Constitution of the
United States of America. So I think that at the
end of the day, Congress has the power of the purse,
but it ceases to mean anything if federal officials can
just ignore Congressional commandments that are codified in statute. And
so certainly our lawsuit against the Biden administration we think
(14:44):
will be successful in that we've been reinstated by the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and are back at the
district court level. We may be the first state in
the nation to successfully sue Biden on one of these
border issues. But in the meantime, Congress has a role
to play too, and that's holding federal officials who refuse
to follow the law accountable.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
And you've also been involved with the administration with the
student loans. I mean, it's not really forgiveness because we're
all on the hooky can't forgive. It's you know, tell
us about your involvement in that and what should people
be looking out for.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, so, you know, President Biden initially tried to quote
unquote cancel student debt, and any of your working families
out there, business owners out there that are listening, are
going to understand, like, there is no such thing as
a cancelation of debt. Someone is paying it, you know.
I think that the estimates were somewhere around four hundred
billion dollars to taxpayers in the state in the United
States of America, forty four million dollars to working families
(15:39):
an additional tax burden here in the state of Missouri.
It decreased revenue to the state of Missouri. We're not
gonna let President Biden saddle working Missouri families with Ivy
League debt. And I paid for my college and blood,
sweat and tears. I went to University Missouri on an
Army ROTC scholarship, served in the War on Terror, deployed
to Iraq twice. Used the post nine to eleven GI
Bill for law school. So look, I did it, honest.
(16:00):
There's no such thing as a free ride. You got
to earn it. It's not given. And so President Bien
trying to saddle working Missouri families with IVY League dead
is unacceptable. The Court has already deemed it unconstitutional once before,
and certainly we are joining with other states and looking
for opportunities to fight back against another unlawful, unconstitutional redistribution
of wealth.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know one thing that worries me, well, a lot
of things worry made these days, but one of them
that I will bring up to you is this article
in the Atlantic, and the headline reads how Democrats could
disqualify Trump if the Supreme Court doesn't, and it goes
out to lay out how senior or House Democrats would
not commit to certifying a Trump when YadA, YadA, YadA.
(16:41):
But what worries me is I do feel like the
left is at a point where, like, let's say Trump wins,
that they would just outright deny him that victory. So,
I mean, I guess how close are to were we
to where like there is absolutely no rule of law.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I think we're on the precipice. I mean, we're certainly
slouching towards authoritarian third world dictatorship. I mean, President Biden
has the and his army of federal bureaucrats have the
attitude that they get to do whatever they want until
someone tells them to stop. I mean, thank goodness, here
in the state of Missouri, we've used the long arm
of the law to sue the Biden administration thirty times,
(17:20):
to take them to court, to get a court order
demanding that you preventing them from unconstitutional, actually demanding that
they stop. But you know, to your point, more government,
less freedom right And at the end of the day,
there is no sanction in the United States constitution free
fourth branch of government. And yet look at the alphabet
soup of federal bureaucratic agencies. And when President Biden deploys
that army of bureaucrats, like minded individuals that are like
(17:43):
minded with him, they're not there to maximize your liberty
and the choices you get to make. They're there to
make decisions for you and take away your freedoms. And
so the apparatus is certainly there. And the left seems,
in the radical progressive left, seems intent on tearing down
the structure of our government. Again, that structure was carefully
designed by our founders to maximize our freedom and liberty
(18:05):
and to restrain an overactive central authority and prevent us
from slouching towards authoritarianism. And the Left is clearly jettisoning
that approach in favor of authoritarian dictatorship. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I do think, you know, at least if you look
at what the Left has tried to do to Donald
Trump with these four criminal indictments well and then also
whether they're trying to do it to him civilly and
you know, bankrupt him. But I do think Americans are
kind of waking up to they've overshot a little bit,
you know, particularly when you have the Special Counsel's report
(18:39):
on Biden showing that he's mishandled classified information since the
freaking nineteen seventies, you know, and then you've got Fanny
Willis inappropriately engaging with you know, a man that she
hired who didn't have a background in Rico or anything.
You know, he's involved with with that case in Fulton County.
I do think people are kind of like, okay, you know,
(19:00):
are going to go after someone like that, You really
have to have the moral high ground, and they don't.
And so I think Americans are kind of realizing that,
all right, you know this, this is a witch hunt.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
No, that's right, And again it undermines the credibility of
their position. It undermines the credibility of our system of government,
certainly of our judicial processes, when those processes can be
weaponized against political opponents. And I refer to you know,
third world banana republics, That's exactly what I'm talking about,
and America was not. The United States of America is
never supposed to be that way, and if we just
(19:31):
followed the rule of law, we wouldn't have these problems.
But again, the left is jettison that approach. They hate.
They're blinded by their hatred for President Trump and are
willing to destroy the United States of America to attack
him politically and legally. I think there are three really
main strategic objectives in the fight for the soul of
America today, and you've covered two of them already. You know,
(19:52):
the border, no border, no country. If we don't secure
our southern border and maintain our national sovereignty, we don't
have a country anymore. Number two, it's the weaponization of
government again, are we going to allow the apparatus of
our legal system to be hijacked by radical progressives who
are willing to use it to take out political opponents
while ignoring the actual law breakers elsewhere. And then finally
(20:16):
number three, I think one of the other main strategic
objectives in the fight for the soul of America is
the fight for free speech. I mean, this used to
be a non partisan, non controversial issue that the First
Amendment protected a freefair and open marketplace for ideas. And
yet now the left screams for government censorship, and one
wonders if the legacy media would squeal so loudly if
(20:37):
they were the one censor quick break.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
We've got so much more to get into. I've heard
different arguments on this, but you know Donald Trump saying that,
you know, look, Presidential Records Act, the authority to declassify
and classify. You know, where are you into that?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah? I agree. I mean they're prosecuting him for a
technical procedural flaw when certainly there is evidence to suggest
that President Trump engaged in the proper procedure and the
bureaucracy stemi his attempts to accomplish his objective which ultimately
is his decision as the president to make. And so
(21:18):
Joe Biden, you know, for forty years or more, has
classified documents sitting in a cardboard box in his closet.
And yet President Trump, who had the authority to declassify
these documents, has them locked in a sealed safe and
is negotiating with the National Archives to do it the
right way. And all of a sudden, stormtroopers are rating
(21:39):
mar a lago. I mean again, this points to the hypocrisy.
And look, I agree with Senator Holly on this. Merritt
Garland has two options here. He either charges President Biden
for knowingly retaining classified documents and violation of federal law,
or he needs to invoke the constitutional amendment that gives
him and the rest of the cabinet the authority to
declare that there is not no longer fit to hold office.
(22:02):
Either he has the mental state to commit the crime,
or he doesn't have the mental capacity to be president.
But Merrek Garland can't have it both ways on that issue,
and right now, that's the needle he's trying to thrive.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Real quick before we go. I can't believe I almost
forgot to ask you about this the Supreme Court is
going to be hearing Missouri versus Biden on March eighteenth.
What should people know about that? What should we be
looking out for? If you can just kind of break
that down with us or for us before we go.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, a, Lisa, and again, this is the most important
free speech case in this nation's history. We've uncovered through
this lawsuit or relationship of both coercion and collusion between
the Biden administration across a spectrum of bureaucratic agencies with
big tech social media platforms to silence American voices in
violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. The
remedy for disfavored speech in this country has always been
(22:52):
counter speech, not government censorship. The President has again he
has rejected that approach. The President, his staff, his army
of bureaucrats have now developed a vast censorship enterprise, and
it's going to be up to us in this lawsuit
to root out that censorship enterprise, to restore the proper
constitutional order to the freefare and open marketplace of ideas.
It is a sign of cowardice and weakness that the
(23:14):
President and his left wing bureaucrats can't win an argument
on the merits, so they feel the need to silence
any voice and opposition. We have the evidence to prove it.
We've won in court three times now. We're going to
the super Bowl on March eighteenth. We'll be arguing that
case at the United States Court Supreme Court, the highest
court in the land, and we're going to bring home
a win.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I can't believe you've only been there for a little
free years. We just went through so much stuff and
I feel like I'm going to look back and have
missed some things to have discussed.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
We hope we'll be talking again soon. We're going to
update you.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
With well, obviously I will. It'll be two months from now,
and it will be fifty things we have to cover.
Where where can people learn more about you? You know,
help you out? I know you've got a campaign race
right now. Where can people learn more about you and
help out?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah? Check us out at AGO dot MO dot gov.
That's the official website where you can see all the
work we're doing to fight back against the enemies of freedom, safety,
and prosperity, and certainly for people in the state of Missouri.
If you feel like you've been aggrieved by a fraudulent
business practice. We've got a consumer Protection division for standing
by to assist you, and the complaint forms are available
there on the website. We want to serve the people
(24:23):
of the state of Missouri and fight for freedom across
the nation.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Attorney General Andrew Bailey appreciate you taking the time to
join the show. Loved having you. Would love to have
you back.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Hey, Thanks Lisa, great talking. Do you hope we can
talk again soon?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
That was Missouri. Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Appreciate him taking
so much time to join the show. Obviously he's already
done a lot and he's barely been there, so we'll
keep a look out for him. Thank you at home
for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen
throughout the week. I want to think John Cass you
and my producer for putting the show together. Until next time.
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