October 28, 2024 • 33 mins
In this episode, Tudor discusses election integrity and the issues surrounding voter rolls in Michigan with former Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. They delve into the partisan politics affecting election administration, the deceptive nature of political advertising, and the implications of corporate welfare on education and public services in the state. The conversation highlights the need for transparency and accountability in governance, as well as the importance of citizen engagement in the political process. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I know you all have been watching a lot of
these interviews about elections, and you know that on the
Republican side, all of these mainstream media outlets will ask
consistently will you accept the results of the election. And
we've been wondering exactly what Democrats are doing in these
states where we have Democrats secretaries of state and they're
(00:24):
changing the rules. In Michigan, you know you've all heard
me talk about Jocelyn Benson, who has changed the rules
multiple times. Multiple times, she has lost lawsuits. She has
had to go back to the actual way that you
have to do it by law.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now I have our former.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Secretary of state with me because I wanted to kind
of break this down and understand it. It's as she said,
it's wonky, it's in the weeds. But I think we
need to understand as we go into election day what
these secretary secretaries of state are doing. They have said
they're coordinating. So there's seven different sects terriers of state
(01:01):
across the country who have said that they are coordinating
on the twenty twenty four election. It's a very interesting
wording to use in the political world and that's why
I wanted to bring Ruth Johnson.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And Ruth Johnson right now.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
She is a current state Senator in Michigan, but she
is also the former Secretary of State.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So Ruth, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Tutor. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I'm looking at all of this stuff and I see, Well,
first of all, I think a lot of people have
questions about different states and why they may have more
people on their voter roles than necessary. And in Michigan
we have seven point nine million people of voting age
and we have eight point four million on the roles,
So people are questioning, how does that happen?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, Well, first I want to address that because Joslyn
Benson changes things last minute, often doesn't follow the law,
and even gave one of the Supreme Court justices eighty
two five hundred dollars after she'd lost in two lower
courts when she had things appearing there. It's it's difficult
(02:07):
now to find good clerks, and we had some of
the best elections. One thy five hundred and twenty five
local clerks who conducted the elections more than any other
state in the nation. You can hold your local clerk accountable.
It's really hard to hold somebody accountable in the Ivory
Tower and Lansing, especially when they're so partisan.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I've just never seen anything like it. But I think
are bloated.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Voter rolls are really one of the key problems that
we see right now. As of today, we have one
hundred and six point five percent of the eligible electric
registered to vote. Like I'm not a mathematician, but one
hundred and six point five is not good, not crazy.
(02:55):
And then she goes on to criticize Elon Musk for
getting people registered to vote, But she did the same
exact thing with Rock the Vote, and she actually did
it right out of her state office, and she said
that she let them help write the program. So these
double standards and deceptions and I would say lies are
(03:15):
going to make people wonder at the end whether it's
a Democrat or Republican that wins. You have to have
rules and you have to be like a fair umpire.
We have that even in high school football and basketball.
We certainly should have it in elections. And she just
does not want to clean the roles. She had one
hundred and seventy seven thousand people she was supposed to
(03:37):
take off in twenty twenty, but she didn't until she
got sued, and after that she had already sent them
these invitations to vote. These are what she sent out,
millions of them, over eight hundred thousand to non qualified voters,
pre filled out action and tee ballot requests. If she
(03:57):
really wanted to clean up the roles at all, she
would have made sure that she had returned service requested
and it one had an absentee ballot request in it
that went to people that she already knew shouldn't get them.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So it's very frustrating for me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
When I was there, I took off one point three
million people off our qualified voter file, and that was
six hundred and forty two thousand dead people, one hundred
and forty nine thousand people in youth, and I did
find three thousand, five hundred and five non citizens. So
it's very concerning to me that we have a secretary
state that's so partisan.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So why has she come out and said, well, actually
the law states that you clean the voter roles every
two years, and therefore I can't actually clean the voter role.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Well, I don't know, my countess. She's been there five years,
so she would have to explain that she's had an
ample opportunity to clean the roles and also help with
a law that I actually worked with Kansas Miller, previous
Secretary State, wonderful person in Congress, and now Lisa McLain,
Congressman McLean.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Has a bill.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's Hr two five six six, and that would just
mean that when you move, when you surrender your driver's
license at those DMV or branch offices run by Secretary's
of State and Alaska it's actually a lieutenant governor, you
would surrender your voter registration card too, and that would
really help, I think, but it doesn't help when you
(05:24):
add people back on that had been taken off. You
don't take off the people that you're supposed to do
until you get sued. And she's lost so many lawsuits.
And then again I'm very concerned about her donating money,
money that she got from California, by the way, six
hundred thousand dollars. She's only had three donors and they're
all from California, and then she used that money to
(05:45):
donate to the Supreme Court, where she had.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So she's an Alex Soros Secretary of state. She is
part of this group that's getting money from outside of
the state of Michigan and these big donors who are
very interested in taking over blue states. You hear about
the Blue Wall states all the time, and let me
tell you from our perspective here on the ground, there
is a massive amount of money coming into the state.
(06:09):
It's not Michigan money. This is not Michigan donors. These
are not people who are backing them because they like
what they see in the state. What these people have done.
There are people from outside of the state who know
if they win Michigan, they can take power in DC.
That to me is incredibly dangerous that she accepts that
and then she uses that money to play politics herself
(06:31):
inside of the state. And I would say, to your
point about giving money to the Secretary of or to
this Supreme Court justice candidate, that is even more nefarious
than most people could understand. Because she went out. She
was challenged on taking RFK off the ballot. He wanted
(06:52):
off the ballot. She said no. She took it to
the Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals said,
you know what, he can come off the ballot. Have
the time they're not printed take him off the ballot. Now,
if you're in her position, I just want to ask
you this, Senator, because if you're in her position and
the Court of Appeals comes back to you and says,
you know what, it's okay take them off. At that point,
(07:15):
are you playing a legal battle game or are you just,
as Secretary of State saying I have the legal opinion
I need, I'm good, I can take them off. Because
she then elevated that to the Michigan Supreme Court, the
Michigan Supreme Court said no, no, you can leave him on,
which benefits the Democrats we all know, and then she
paid them after the fact.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yes, you're exactly right. I did turn her into the
Attorney Graeveance Commission because in fact, the deadline had already passed,
It had already been certified with the lower courts, and
you know, she uses that for one way, but then
all of a sudden, it's not important for others. And
you know, I think people want a non part of
Secretary State. I was very proud of the people that
(07:57):
I hired and worked with, we were very non part
of and that Michigan now has what I would call
an operative for the far left. She doesn't follow laws.
I came from a little teeny cinder black house, and
I know you follow the constitution right and our state laws.
But here you have a Harvard lagred that just doesn't
seem to get it. She pushed for early counting, and
(08:19):
I raised objections because you know who is watching those
ballots every night, who's opened them? And how do you
find poll challengers that will take vacation time or time
off work for a week that you have to have
citizens that can tell you, yes, it was done right
for people to know and feel and they deserve to
(08:40):
know that we have integrity in our elections, win or loose.
And so we're lessening the security of counting. And how
she has the audacity to say that we won't even
have the results now when she said we would, that
they would take longer. So she pushed for this. They
pushed for these ballot initiatives that again lots of money
from Autus State. And when you watched it on TV
(09:03):
and I talked about it at a Republican event, people
started clapping because they said, this will enshrine voter id
into our constitution. But I didn't tell you in the
thousands of words and we get nine less than one hundred.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I think it was ninety seven on the ballot.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That it enshrines no, no photo ID, none, And so
who can read down those thousands of words to figure
that out when you have one side pushing with this
out of state money that's telling you this will enshrine
voter ID in to our constitution. And I find it
very disturbing because it also enables people to register during
(09:43):
the fourteen days prior to the election day and they
can register without showing any ID. We had over twenty
thousand people that did last time, but we have no
real time system to check to see if their eligibed
bolts vote or if they've already voted another location that
includes in our state, and we nothing systemically to tell
us whether they voted out of state. I've got all
(10:04):
these complaints because people are getting their ballots sent down
to Florida or another state, and I have big box
of them here, over four hundred, but over eight hundred
thousand people got them that they shouldn't. And then she
told the clerks, oh, you don't have to verify the signature.
She's lost in every court and she keeps doing it.
It is against our misiegun constitution.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
It is we're still not verifying the signatures.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Oh, she keeps saying that, But it finally went to
the top and she but all the way through she
did not follow what the lower court said.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
So now we have a final on that you must.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Verify the signatures. And she's the one that when she
ran said that that is the gold standards to verify signatures.
I think it's you know, photo ID too. But she
said one thing and does another, And that's my concern.
I don't mind if somebody feels differently, but be honest
about it. People know what they're voting for voting. She
(11:03):
says she helped with these Proposal two of twenty twenty two,
which is, you know, the early voting for nine days
and also except overseas ballots that have been postmarked after
election day, and it prohibits requiring photo ID for voting.
Those ads were so deceptive and the voters can fall
(11:25):
out one absentee ballot at location and receive ballots automatically
and all future elections for up to six years.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
That's just not right. There's no common sense here.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And when she eats the other side is not going
to stand idly by.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It's just not right.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. When you say the ads were deceptive,
I mean it's not even deceptive, is like too nice
of a word. It was just out and out live.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I mean, that's what blows my mind in these political ads.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
They can just post, they can just publish.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Brutal out and out lies, and it just blows my mind.
You brought up eight hundred thousand, and I just want
to say it's an interesting number because from twenty fourteen
to twenty eighteen, suddenly the Democrats consistently had eight hundred
thousand more votes than they'd ever had in the past,
and that has stayed. They have always continued to have
(12:30):
this sudden bump in four years time of eight hundred
thousand more voters than they'd had in the past. That
seems like such a giant number, especially when you look
at I mean, we're getting like five million people voting.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Eight hundred thousand is a lot.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Oh, and you know what, it's not just about national elections.
When I was the Oakland County Clerk Register Needs for
Oakland County for six years, we had two times we
had ties. We had many votes that within one or two.
Every vote is so important we used to have to
flip a coin or pull one or not one out
of a box they couldn't see to figure out who won.
(13:09):
It's so important every vote counts, and you're talking about
a massive amount of votes that really people that got
invitations to vote that they shouldn't have. And then I
just found it interesting. You know, at first you deny,
then you minimize, and then you blame.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
That's a common.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Political thing, I guess, but she's very talented at that.
She denied, and I got gabbled down over and over,
and I just kept talking. And committee I serve on
the Elections Committee. I think there's like seven Democrats and
two Republicans. But I kept when they got up to
one hundred and three. Now we're up to one hundred
(13:49):
and six point five. But I kept asking, she does
not show up to the committee meetings anymore? She, I
guess told somebody. I was mean, I guess, asking why
at the time we had one hundred and three point
five percent sensitive of her? Pardon me, how sensitive of her?
I mean, patheticict I know she doesn't show up, can't
ask her questions.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Not even her stat's their style.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Presentations, and so then she minimizes and say, oh, that's
not that big of a problem. And there's an article
now that said bloated voter files don't hurt anything. Well,
when you do this layer of taking off, we don't
have to see a warm body once like we used
to to register. We just needed to see you once
before you voted, whether registration or voting your first time.
That that's gone, voter id's gone, no photo ID. And
(14:34):
then all these other things that are really wonkey within
the legislature that have been taken out, and then these
horrible ballot proposals, horrible because they were deceptive, and you're right,
my mama would have said those are big lies because
they're made to make you think something in a way
that's really without any integrity in my opinion. And there
(14:57):
is a group that is working very very hard that's
ultra left. They are the operatives, the extremists, and they're
leading us down the wrong path because what people think counts.
Did you know eighty three percent of the people want
photo ID.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That includes every.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Demographic, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. That's why they made those,
you know, million dollar ads and sent out flyers. This
will enshrine voter id into our constitution.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So do you trust the way she's run elections.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well, I'm really thankful that the local clerks conduct the elections.
She's trying to bring everything up to the counties rather
than our local clerks, who have been known to be
some of the best in the United States of America.
We can hold our local clerks accountable. We had you
had to have a precinct for every two ninety nine people.
(15:56):
That's been now made bigger because of so many people
voting absentee. But she is the Harvard wonk of legal
language and deception. That's my biggest problem. She gets people
to buy in based on things that are just absolutely
not true, and that's tricking people. I've always thought, if
(16:20):
you don't agree with me, I'll try to explain to
you why I think it's important. And if I can't
get most of the people to agree with me, then
I need to stop.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's not her.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
When you have eighty three percent of the people, including
all demographics, on all political parties and non parties, and
you have these commercials that you support. I asked her
in committee when she said, oh, we're going to have
somebody that looks over whether people are telling the truth
or not. I said, well, what about those ads on
shrine voter id in to our constitution. She goes, well,
(16:50):
we're not going to look at that, and that was
their last time she showed up.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So well, okay, So that's interesting because I do believe
I mean, she ran on being nonpartisan, and I think
this is something that nationally we need.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
To look at.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
You've got these secretaries of state who are running on
being nonpartisan and then running their own elections to higher office.
Like if you look at Arizona, Katie Hobbs, who was
Secretary of State, ran her own election to become governor.
We know that that's Jocelyn Benson's plan too. She has
made it clear that she will run for governor. As
for the rest of the Secretary of State's office, from
what I've heard from people on the ground, she has
(17:24):
totally destroyed the organization and the process that car dealerships
struggle with the Secretary of State's office that they have
had terrible reaction from the Secretary of State's office. In fact,
even driving schools, the driver's head schools have said they're
not going to expand in the state of Michigan because
she has hindered their progress or shut them down because
(17:45):
she is so inept at her job as Secretary of State.
She's so obsessed with the partisan part of elections that
the rest of the office has fallen into complete mayhem.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I get so many complaints on them. I get so
many people. People when I walked through Costco, they're quite nice.
Usually they'll tap me on the shoulder and say, well,
she were a Secretary of State and they'd keep them going.
And people I've gotten so because I still am elected
and I want to help people, whether they live in
my district or not. But this craziness of having to
(18:18):
make appointments. I had good friends that he took some
time off work and drove to our local branch office
and they said, do you have an appointment?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
And he said I don't, and they said.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Well, you'll have to come back, you know, in three hours.
But there was only two people in there, and for staff,
you know, it doesn't make sense. So yes, I think
her whole thing was get in to be an operative
for elections. I don't think the other things mattered to her,
and then I hired Democrats and Republicans because I hired
the best of the best. She went through her executive
(18:50):
team and I think ninety percent in the first year,
and she's hired people that I believe, by and large
feel the same way she does. Rather than let's have
a decent discussion and why am I wrong? And how
is this best for people? That's really the question. But
she really thinks in her brain that this is what's
best for people is having government tell us what to do,
(19:12):
how to do it, when to do it, and no
transparency and a lack of checks and balances. I've never
seen anything like it. And I've been elected since nineteen
eighty nine, so I've seen a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I've never actually I want to ask you about that.
I was talking about this earlier with someone. This new
cult of personality that we have around elections is almost
like we are obsessed with government. We've never been obsessed
with government. That's not the American way. It's not that
you want government, you want less government. The American way
is we the people, right. But whether it's Obama or
(19:45):
Trump or now Gretchen Whitmer, it becomes this cult of
personality like this psychotic group that is obsessed with the
Gretchen Whitmers of the world. And she's out there doing
the social media and Jocelyn Benson's doing the social media now,
and they want to become more about it's more about
them that it is about serving people. Do you think
(20:06):
that that settles down or do you think once? I mean,
I'm thinking, gosh, you know, Grutchen Whitmer has taken this
to such a bizarre extreme when you look at this
dorito video and all the stuff, the potato video, a
lot of food videos now that I'm thinking about it,
but when you look at all of these weird things
she's done. Now, Jocelyn Benson is out there with Hillary Clinton,
she's doing the.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Social media videos too.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Are they going to continue to try to make this
this cult of personality follow us, We're the cool mom,
We're going to be great for the state or is
that going to go away?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah? I don't know.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I think we as citizens need to not be drawn
to that. For people that lead our communities, our school districts,
our state, in our country, it's our responsibility. It's very entertaining, right,
you know, I did something entertaining to get people to
go online to use our services that we did russos
(21:00):
dot com. Not to get reelected, not for any of
this stuff. But we have to look at why are
people using this kind of television personality rather than the
hard work. It's hard work to clean up the qualified
voter file. I actually took off one point two million
people when I was Secretary of State. One out of
(21:21):
six I took off. It was hard work. I went
to Washington and sat in Homeland Security with Janis Napolitanto's deputy,
and they were very hard to talk without to call it.
But I finally found a way and left with the
legislature got them to pass something that said you must
clean your files to get the dead people off with
(21:43):
so Security administration. I did it twice a month. I
thought we'll make a law once. If somebody wants to
do it twice, that's fine. These are the kinds of
things you need to look at. I also went to
the Middle East. Benghazi broke out, actually and I have
she's twenty five now. She was very worried for me.
But I got a bill passed that said that she
(22:07):
needed to set up a portal so that those are
serving when you're in fox holes, and I went to
three countries and ships and bases, and it is hard
to vote. I didn't go to the fox bolls, but
everything else, And so we came up with a bipartisan plan.
There were five of us that the Secretary of State
National Secretary of State Association had us go there, and
(22:30):
they have very low voting percentages and they're very impacted.
So we all came up with, if you have a
secure portal that they use with their common Access card
that's double authenticated and the highest military secrets go over,
we need to set up a portal so they can vote.
She fought me from day one to get that bill
through and I finally got it through and she just
(22:54):
won't do it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
She just was it was due for the selection and
it's still not done. That might not.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Be glitchy, it might not be something on TV that's fun,
but that matters.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It matters if you're saying Benson is fighting that.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
She was fighting it all the way for years and
I finally got it passed because she said, well, other
people overseas should be able to vote online too. Were like, no,
they don't have a military portal, they don't have a
common Access card.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I think that is the problem here, and when they
are getting these people who wouldn't typically vote, who are overseas,
they're not living in the country, They've chosen to go elsewhere.
I think people mistakenly believe overseas voters are all military.
The military folks have a secure path to vote. When
they're talking about getting those other ballots in, those are
people who wouldn't necessarily vote. They're not interested in the country,
(23:47):
they don't live here anymore, they're not service members.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
This is a difference.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
How many years has Benson been working on this, because
you say you've been working on this, but this was
before she was Secretary of State.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Then it was.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
And it's interestingly, when I got in the legislature, I
had a little more polland could get it done. But
then I had a Secretary of State that was undermining
me all the time because she wanted everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And here's the problem.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
We can't tell in the last days of the election
because you don't have to have ID we'd never have
to see a warm body. We can't tell if you're
voting Holly and Clarkston, much less overseas. Who's going to
fly to Germany or Japan? To see who voted and
if it was correct, or wherever somebody might be.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It doesn't make sense. You're not looking all around. And
you must have.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Integrity for both sides because half of us are not
going to be very happy at the end of the election,
so having integrity and security. But there is this long
term and it started when I was Secretary of State
of this far left group trying to strip out the
integrity little piece by little piece, the transparency, the checks
(25:01):
and balances, and a lot of them are wonky, like
one of them is when the Secretary of State makes
new administrative rules, they have to go through a committee
called JKAR, which is a bipartisan group of legislators, and
give the citizens a chance to comment on them. I
don't like that pesky law. She got found in violation
of it when she said you don't have to verify signatures,
(25:22):
and so.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
These are the kinds of things that she does.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
So they got rid of the legislature because we're in
a Democrat ball stately rate ball and umpires, and so
she got rid of that pesky law.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
No more j CAR.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
So as citizens and as elected officials, we don't even
know what her rules are going to be.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
The thing I think that you said that has really
disturbed me is that she's been working against our rules,
our laws for years, years before. She's been planning this
takeover of the secretary of State's office for years. If
this is if this dates back to when you were
secretary of state and she was fighting you, then who
(26:15):
is funding her?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yes, you know it's ironically ran against each other years ago.
They'd be fourteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh right, because she she ran and lost years ago.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yes, And I did not want to run. It was
a huge pay cut. I had a little one and
a mom that was aging, and I didn't want to
be away from home. And I kind of got talked
into it. I was making thirty thousand dollars more as
a county clerk register.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I liked it there.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
But they did a poll and I was the only
one that showed that could beat her, and I still
was not convinced. And then they showed me all the
sorrows information and then I decided to run. And then
three days later I said I don't think.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I should run.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I got all these Republicans made because there's been four
others worked on of the year. But I did, and
I was very fortunate. People were very kind to me
and thoughtful, and I did get voted in, and I
did come from a little teeny center black house. It's
not like I have a lot of friends with big money.
But my mom had the best moral compass of anybody
ever saw. And I don't care, and I don't care
(27:21):
what part you are. A good moral compass is so
important and people first. It's like this thought has been
somewhat moved up, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
But think about what you just said.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You really, truly this is a time when you could
actually be the average citizen and you could run for
a position and you ran that office. Well, you ran
it for the people. This situation that we have with
Jocelyn Benson, who has this big money coming from out
of state, who has been after this office for years, she's.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Had her eye on it.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Now she has her eye on the governor's seat. This
is a long term plan on the Democrat side to
turn purple states blue. But I think it's more nefarious
than that. I think that what they're plotting is truly
to I mean, just if you look at the way
she's run the office. This is not the American way.
(28:16):
This is to get their way to gain power for
their people. And then you, I mean, gosh, I know
you know what the bills are that you guys have
been looking at in the Michigan legislature for the past
two years. It's gone completely sideways. It's bizarre. And it's
also a piggybank for the billionaires. I think that's the
most disturbing part about what I've seen in Michigan in
(28:38):
the last two years is the money. The money that
has just gone to the billionaire class for them to
have their pet projects, and the people still pay their
income tax every year.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Oh, it's really bad. In regard to Joslyn Benson, when
we were running fourteen years ago, she told one of
my friends, I'm running for Secretary States. I'll have a
podium to run for governor. So you're right, this has
been a long term. I was a reluctant but worked
sixteen hours a day. But I was reluctant candidate at
(29:10):
the time because I was the only one that could
probably win in a race that was so important. Only
because of her extremism and her not following rules or
laws and being part of this ultra left. But I
think the loopholes that we have in Michigan were rated
an F for transparency. And I did serve with Governor
(29:32):
grand Home for six years. Not grand Home.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I did serve with grand Home too, but Governor.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Whitmer and we were both in the house. I think
we're there for four years together. Anyway, she said she
didn't believe in dark money. No, we can't reach the
governor got twenty million dollars in dark money. One person,
a Long, gave her eight hundred and fifty seven thousand
(30:00):
dollars and we'll never know as citizens who got it.
But you can bet that comes with strings. Nobody just
gives eight hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars of dark money.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And so I think that's one of our biggest problems.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You got four hundred thousand from another anonymous downer. Michigan
needs to beef up our loss for both sides of
the aisle. We as citizens deserve to know who are
you getting your money from. And yes, corporate welfare has
become a wonderful way to get rid of money that
doesn't really work, doesn't help, and you can bet the
(30:34):
people that vote on it, they they probably do pretty
good one way or another.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
And if you look at.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Our state budget, we went from fifty seven billion when
I started in the Senate to eighty two billion in
five years, and we blew.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Through a nine sim serpor and half of it.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Went to corporate welfare, and it really didn't create the.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Jobs that they said it would. So why not roads?
Why not? Education? Education were forty third in the nation.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Why people don't want to come to your job providers
were forty third? Kids deserve better. That's one of our
most important jobs. And public safety that should be another
one too.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I mean, I just saw that Joe Biden is going
to have a public apology to the kids that were
in the Native American boarding schools, and I said, well,
when's he going to have a public apology for the
kids in Detroit? Because we've robbed them, robbed them. They
are not getting educated there. They can't even read when
they come out of school. It's sick that that is
(31:36):
not a priority for these Democrats to make sure that
kids have the skills to have an actual life when
they get out of school. The fact that they can't
read means that they're they're that much more likely to
end up in prison.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I think it's a terrible catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
And I will tell you when I was running for governor,
we had multiple companies that came to us and said,
are you going to give us corporate well? Are you
going to give us corporate welfare? And I always said,
I have to be able to know what the deal is.
I can't read any of your deals. They're all private.
You've got NDAs across everything. So you guys know, a
(32:12):
few legislators know, the governor knows. But you're using our money,
and so I don't believe that you should have NDAs
if you're going to use if you're going to use
the taxpayer money. All they just went bananas about that.
How could you possibly say that we have proprietary information,
we have to have these NDAs. And I'm like, Senator,
are you right? They're not bringing jobs? I mean, we
(32:33):
haven't had any, don't. We have not gained a headquarters,
We have not gained jobs. We are as a state dying,
I mean forty third in education, no new headquarters. Energy
constantly going out, we have people that have blackouts for
two weeks at a time.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
It's a mess, and we've got to do something about it.
But honestly, I think that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I've listened to what you said today, and I want
people to think about what you said, because that young
at home right now who was you, is saying, is
this God's plan for me? Because it's supposed to be
we the people. Am I supposed to step up? And
that was God's plan for you. You stepped up to
(33:14):
the plate. It's hard, It is hard to sacrifice this
and run and do all of this, but we so
appreciate the fact that you did and you have and
you continue to do so, and I hope your story
inspires other people. So I just want to say thank
you Senator Ruth Johnson for coming on today.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Thank you, Tutor, have a great eavening.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Thank you, Thank you you too, and thank you all
for joining us on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this
episode and others, go to Tutor disonpodcast dot com. You
can subscribe right there, or head over to the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and join
us next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Have a blessing,
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I know you all have been watching a lot of
these interviews about elections, and you know that on the
Republican side, all of these mainstream media outlets will ask
consistently will you accept the results of the election. And
we've been wondering exactly what Democrats are doing in these
states where we have Democrats secretaries of state and they're
(00:24):
changing the rules. In Michigan, you know you've all heard
me talk about Jocelyn Benson, who has changed the rules
multiple times. Multiple times, she has lost lawsuits. She has
had to go back to the actual way that you
have to do it by law.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now I have our former.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Secretary of state with me because I wanted to kind
of break this down and understand it. It's as she said,
it's wonky, it's in the weeds. But I think we
need to understand as we go into election day what
these secretary secretaries of state are doing. They have said
they're coordinating. So there's seven different sects terriers of state
(01:01):
across the country who have said that they are coordinating
on the twenty twenty four election. It's a very interesting
wording to use in the political world and that's why
I wanted to bring Ruth Johnson.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And Ruth Johnson right now.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
She is a current state Senator in Michigan, but she
is also the former Secretary of State.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So Ruth, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Tutor. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I'm looking at all of this stuff and I see, Well,
first of all, I think a lot of people have
questions about different states and why they may have more
people on their voter roles than necessary. And in Michigan
we have seven point nine million people of voting age
and we have eight point four million on the roles,
So people are questioning, how does that happen?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, Well, first I want to address that because Joslyn
Benson changes things last minute, often doesn't follow the law,
and even gave one of the Supreme Court justices eighty
two five hundred dollars after she'd lost in two lower
courts when she had things appearing there. It's it's difficult
(02:07):
now to find good clerks, and we had some of
the best elections. One thy five hundred and twenty five
local clerks who conducted the elections more than any other
state in the nation. You can hold your local clerk accountable.
It's really hard to hold somebody accountable in the Ivory
Tower and Lansing, especially when they're so partisan.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I've just never seen anything like it. But I think
are bloated.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Voter rolls are really one of the key problems that
we see right now. As of today, we have one
hundred and six point five percent of the eligible electric
registered to vote. Like I'm not a mathematician, but one
hundred and six point five is not good, not crazy.
(02:55):
And then she goes on to criticize Elon Musk for
getting people registered to vote, But she did the same
exact thing with Rock the Vote, and she actually did
it right out of her state office, and she said
that she let them help write the program. So these
double standards and deceptions and I would say lies are
(03:15):
going to make people wonder at the end whether it's
a Democrat or Republican that wins. You have to have
rules and you have to be like a fair umpire.
We have that even in high school football and basketball.
We certainly should have it in elections. And she just
does not want to clean the roles. She had one
hundred and seventy seven thousand people she was supposed to
(03:37):
take off in twenty twenty, but she didn't until she
got sued, and after that she had already sent them
these invitations to vote. These are what she sent out,
millions of them, over eight hundred thousand to non qualified voters,
pre filled out action and tee ballot requests. If she
(03:57):
really wanted to clean up the roles at all, she
would have made sure that she had returned service requested
and it one had an absentee ballot request in it
that went to people that she already knew shouldn't get them.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So it's very frustrating for me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
When I was there, I took off one point three
million people off our qualified voter file, and that was
six hundred and forty two thousand dead people, one hundred
and forty nine thousand people in youth, and I did
find three thousand, five hundred and five non citizens. So
it's very concerning to me that we have a secretary
state that's so partisan.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So why has she come out and said, well, actually
the law states that you clean the voter roles every
two years, and therefore I can't actually clean the voter role.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Well, I don't know, my countess. She's been there five years,
so she would have to explain that she's had an
ample opportunity to clean the roles and also help with
a law that I actually worked with Kansas Miller, previous
Secretary State, wonderful person in Congress, and now Lisa McLain,
Congressman McLean.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Has a bill.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's Hr two five six six, and that would just
mean that when you move, when you surrender your driver's
license at those DMV or branch offices run by Secretary's
of State and Alaska it's actually a lieutenant governor, you
would surrender your voter registration card too, and that would
really help, I think, but it doesn't help when you
(05:24):
add people back on that had been taken off. You
don't take off the people that you're supposed to do
until you get sued. And she's lost so many lawsuits.
And then again I'm very concerned about her donating money,
money that she got from California, by the way, six
hundred thousand dollars. She's only had three donors and they're
all from California, and then she used that money to
(05:45):
donate to the Supreme Court, where she had.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So she's an Alex Soros Secretary of state. She is
part of this group that's getting money from outside of
the state of Michigan and these big donors who are
very interested in taking over blue states. You hear about
the Blue Wall states all the time, and let me
tell you from our perspective here on the ground, there
is a massive amount of money coming into the state.
(06:09):
It's not Michigan money. This is not Michigan donors. These
are not people who are backing them because they like
what they see in the state. What these people have done.
There are people from outside of the state who know
if they win Michigan, they can take power in DC.
That to me is incredibly dangerous that she accepts that
and then she uses that money to play politics herself
(06:31):
inside of the state. And I would say, to your
point about giving money to the Secretary of or to
this Supreme Court justice candidate, that is even more nefarious
than most people could understand. Because she went out. She
was challenged on taking RFK off the ballot. He wanted
(06:52):
off the ballot. She said no. She took it to
the Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals said,
you know what, he can come off the ballot. Have
the time they're not printed take him off the ballot. Now,
if you're in her position, I just want to ask
you this, Senator, because if you're in her position and
the Court of Appeals comes back to you and says,
you know what, it's okay take them off. At that point,
(07:15):
are you playing a legal battle game or are you just,
as Secretary of State saying I have the legal opinion
I need, I'm good, I can take them off. Because
she then elevated that to the Michigan Supreme Court, the
Michigan Supreme Court said no, no, you can leave him on,
which benefits the Democrats we all know, and then she
paid them after the fact.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yes, you're exactly right. I did turn her into the
Attorney Graeveance Commission because in fact, the deadline had already passed,
It had already been certified with the lower courts, and
you know, she uses that for one way, but then
all of a sudden, it's not important for others. And
you know, I think people want a non part of
Secretary State. I was very proud of the people that
(07:57):
I hired and worked with, we were very non part
of and that Michigan now has what I would call
an operative for the far left. She doesn't follow laws.
I came from a little teeny cinder black house, and
I know you follow the constitution right and our state laws.
But here you have a Harvard lagred that just doesn't
seem to get it. She pushed for early counting, and
(08:19):
I raised objections because you know who is watching those
ballots every night, who's opened them? And how do you
find poll challengers that will take vacation time or time
off work for a week that you have to have
citizens that can tell you, yes, it was done right
for people to know and feel and they deserve to
(08:40):
know that we have integrity in our elections, win or loose.
And so we're lessening the security of counting. And how
she has the audacity to say that we won't even
have the results now when she said we would, that
they would take longer. So she pushed for this. They
pushed for these ballot initiatives that again lots of money
from Autus State. And when you watched it on TV
(09:03):
and I talked about it at a Republican event, people
started clapping because they said, this will enshrine voter id
into our constitution. But I didn't tell you in the
thousands of words and we get nine less than one hundred.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I think it was ninety seven on the ballot.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That it enshrines no, no photo ID, none, And so
who can read down those thousands of words to figure
that out when you have one side pushing with this
out of state money that's telling you this will enshrine
voter ID in to our constitution. And I find it
very disturbing because it also enables people to register during
(09:43):
the fourteen days prior to the election day and they
can register without showing any ID. We had over twenty
thousand people that did last time, but we have no
real time system to check to see if their eligibed
bolts vote or if they've already voted another location that
includes in our state, and we nothing systemically to tell
us whether they voted out of state. I've got all
(10:04):
these complaints because people are getting their ballots sent down
to Florida or another state, and I have big box
of them here, over four hundred, but over eight hundred
thousand people got them that they shouldn't. And then she
told the clerks, oh, you don't have to verify the signature.
She's lost in every court and she keeps doing it.
It is against our misiegun constitution.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
It is we're still not verifying the signatures.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Oh, she keeps saying that, But it finally went to
the top and she but all the way through she
did not follow what the lower court said.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
So now we have a final on that you must.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Verify the signatures. And she's the one that when she
ran said that that is the gold standards to verify signatures.
I think it's you know, photo ID too. But she
said one thing and does another, And that's my concern.
I don't mind if somebody feels differently, but be honest
about it. People know what they're voting for voting. She
(11:03):
says she helped with these Proposal two of twenty twenty two,
which is, you know, the early voting for nine days
and also except overseas ballots that have been postmarked after
election day, and it prohibits requiring photo ID for voting.
Those ads were so deceptive and the voters can fall
(11:25):
out one absentee ballot at location and receive ballots automatically
and all future elections for up to six years.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
That's just not right. There's no common sense here.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And when she eats the other side is not going
to stand idly by.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It's just not right.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. When you say the ads were deceptive,
I mean it's not even deceptive, is like too nice
of a word. It was just out and out live.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I mean, that's what blows my mind in these political ads.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
They can just post, they can just publish.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Brutal out and out lies, and it just blows my mind.
You brought up eight hundred thousand, and I just want
to say it's an interesting number because from twenty fourteen
to twenty eighteen, suddenly the Democrats consistently had eight hundred
thousand more votes than they'd ever had in the past,
and that has stayed. They have always continued to have
(12:30):
this sudden bump in four years time of eight hundred
thousand more voters than they'd had in the past. That
seems like such a giant number, especially when you look
at I mean, we're getting like five million people voting.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Eight hundred thousand is a lot.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Oh, and you know what, it's not just about national elections.
When I was the Oakland County Clerk Register Needs for
Oakland County for six years, we had two times we
had ties. We had many votes that within one or two.
Every vote is so important we used to have to
flip a coin or pull one or not one out
of a box they couldn't see to figure out who won.
(13:09):
It's so important every vote counts, and you're talking about
a massive amount of votes that really people that got
invitations to vote that they shouldn't have. And then I
just found it interesting. You know, at first you deny,
then you minimize, and then you blame.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
That's a common.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Political thing, I guess, but she's very talented at that.
She denied, and I got gabbled down over and over,
and I just kept talking. And committee I serve on
the Elections Committee. I think there's like seven Democrats and
two Republicans. But I kept when they got up to
one hundred and three. Now we're up to one hundred
(13:49):
and six point five. But I kept asking, she does
not show up to the committee meetings anymore? She, I
guess told somebody. I was mean, I guess, asking why
at the time we had one hundred and three point
five percent sensitive of her? Pardon me, how sensitive of her?
I mean, patheticict I know she doesn't show up, can't
ask her questions.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Not even her stat's their style.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Presentations, and so then she minimizes and say, oh, that's
not that big of a problem. And there's an article
now that said bloated voter files don't hurt anything. Well,
when you do this layer of taking off, we don't
have to see a warm body once like we used
to to register. We just needed to see you once
before you voted, whether registration or voting your first time.
That that's gone, voter id's gone, no photo ID. And
(14:34):
then all these other things that are really wonkey within
the legislature that have been taken out, and then these
horrible ballot proposals, horrible because they were deceptive, and you're right,
my mama would have said those are big lies because
they're made to make you think something in a way
that's really without any integrity in my opinion. And there
(14:57):
is a group that is working very very hard that's
ultra left. They are the operatives, the extremists, and they're
leading us down the wrong path because what people think counts.
Did you know eighty three percent of the people want
photo ID.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That includes every.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Demographic, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. That's why they made those,
you know, million dollar ads and sent out flyers. This
will enshrine voter id into our constitution.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So do you trust the way she's run elections.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well, I'm really thankful that the local clerks conduct the elections.
She's trying to bring everything up to the counties rather
than our local clerks, who have been known to be
some of the best in the United States of America.
We can hold our local clerks accountable. We had you
had to have a precinct for every two ninety nine people.
(15:56):
That's been now made bigger because of so many people
voting absentee. But she is the Harvard wonk of legal
language and deception. That's my biggest problem. She gets people
to buy in based on things that are just absolutely
not true, and that's tricking people. I've always thought, if
(16:20):
you don't agree with me, I'll try to explain to
you why I think it's important. And if I can't
get most of the people to agree with me, then
I need to stop.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's not her.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
When you have eighty three percent of the people, including
all demographics, on all political parties and non parties, and
you have these commercials that you support. I asked her
in committee when she said, oh, we're going to have
somebody that looks over whether people are telling the truth
or not. I said, well, what about those ads on
shrine voter id in to our constitution. She goes, well,
(16:50):
we're not going to look at that, and that was
their last time she showed up.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So well, okay, So that's interesting because I do believe
I mean, she ran on being nonpartisan, and I think
this is something that nationally we need.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
To look at.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
You've got these secretaries of state who are running on
being nonpartisan and then running their own elections to higher office.
Like if you look at Arizona, Katie Hobbs, who was
Secretary of State, ran her own election to become governor.
We know that that's Jocelyn Benson's plan too. She has
made it clear that she will run for governor. As
for the rest of the Secretary of State's office, from
what I've heard from people on the ground, she has
(17:24):
totally destroyed the organization and the process that car dealerships
struggle with the Secretary of State's office that they have
had terrible reaction from the Secretary of State's office. In fact,
even driving schools, the driver's head schools have said they're
not going to expand in the state of Michigan because
she has hindered their progress or shut them down because
(17:45):
she is so inept at her job as Secretary of State.
She's so obsessed with the partisan part of elections that
the rest of the office has fallen into complete mayhem.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I get so many complaints on them. I get so
many people. People when I walked through Costco, they're quite nice.
Usually they'll tap me on the shoulder and say, well,
she were a Secretary of State and they'd keep them going.
And people I've gotten so because I still am elected
and I want to help people, whether they live in
my district or not. But this craziness of having to
(18:18):
make appointments. I had good friends that he took some
time off work and drove to our local branch office
and they said, do you have an appointment?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
And he said I don't, and they said.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Well, you'll have to come back, you know, in three hours.
But there was only two people in there, and for staff,
you know, it doesn't make sense. So yes, I think
her whole thing was get in to be an operative
for elections. I don't think the other things mattered to her,
and then I hired Democrats and Republicans because I hired
the best of the best. She went through her executive
(18:50):
team and I think ninety percent in the first year,
and she's hired people that I believe, by and large
feel the same way she does. Rather than let's have
a decent discussion and why am I wrong? And how
is this best for people? That's really the question. But
she really thinks in her brain that this is what's
best for people is having government tell us what to do,
(19:12):
how to do it, when to do it, and no
transparency and a lack of checks and balances. I've never
seen anything like it. And I've been elected since nineteen
eighty nine, so I've seen a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I've never actually I want to ask you about that.
I was talking about this earlier with someone. This new
cult of personality that we have around elections is almost
like we are obsessed with government. We've never been obsessed
with government. That's not the American way. It's not that
you want government, you want less government. The American way
is we the people, right. But whether it's Obama or
(19:45):
Trump or now Gretchen Whitmer, it becomes this cult of
personality like this psychotic group that is obsessed with the
Gretchen Whitmers of the world. And she's out there doing
the social media and Jocelyn Benson's doing the social media now,
and they want to become more about it's more about
them that it is about serving people. Do you think
(20:06):
that that settles down or do you think once? I mean,
I'm thinking, gosh, you know, Grutchen Whitmer has taken this
to such a bizarre extreme when you look at this
dorito video and all the stuff, the potato video, a
lot of food videos now that I'm thinking about it,
but when you look at all of these weird things
she's done. Now, Jocelyn Benson is out there with Hillary Clinton,
she's doing the.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Social media videos too.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Are they going to continue to try to make this
this cult of personality follow us, We're the cool mom,
We're going to be great for the state or is
that going to go away?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah? I don't know.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I think we as citizens need to not be drawn
to that. For people that lead our communities, our school districts,
our state, in our country, it's our responsibility. It's very entertaining, right,
you know, I did something entertaining to get people to
go online to use our services that we did russos
(21:00):
dot com. Not to get reelected, not for any of
this stuff. But we have to look at why are
people using this kind of television personality rather than the
hard work. It's hard work to clean up the qualified
voter file. I actually took off one point two million
people when I was Secretary of State. One out of
(21:21):
six I took off. It was hard work. I went
to Washington and sat in Homeland Security with Janis Napolitanto's deputy,
and they were very hard to talk without to call it.
But I finally found a way and left with the
legislature got them to pass something that said you must
clean your files to get the dead people off with
(21:43):
so Security administration. I did it twice a month. I
thought we'll make a law once. If somebody wants to
do it twice, that's fine. These are the kinds of
things you need to look at. I also went to
the Middle East. Benghazi broke out, actually and I have
she's twenty five now. She was very worried for me.
But I got a bill passed that said that she
(22:07):
needed to set up a portal so that those are
serving when you're in fox holes, and I went to
three countries and ships and bases, and it is hard
to vote. I didn't go to the fox bolls, but
everything else, And so we came up with a bipartisan plan.
There were five of us that the Secretary of State
National Secretary of State Association had us go there, and
(22:30):
they have very low voting percentages and they're very impacted.
So we all came up with, if you have a
secure portal that they use with their common Access card
that's double authenticated and the highest military secrets go over,
we need to set up a portal so they can vote.
She fought me from day one to get that bill
through and I finally got it through and she just
(22:54):
won't do it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
She just was it was due for the selection and
it's still not done. That might not.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Be glitchy, it might not be something on TV that's fun,
but that matters.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It matters if you're saying Benson is fighting that.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
She was fighting it all the way for years and
I finally got it passed because she said, well, other
people overseas should be able to vote online too. Were like, no,
they don't have a military portal, they don't have a
common Access card.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I think that is the problem here, and when they
are getting these people who wouldn't typically vote, who are overseas,
they're not living in the country, They've chosen to go elsewhere.
I think people mistakenly believe overseas voters are all military.
The military folks have a secure path to vote. When
they're talking about getting those other ballots in, those are
people who wouldn't necessarily vote. They're not interested in the country,
(23:47):
they don't live here anymore, they're not service members.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
This is a difference.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
How many years has Benson been working on this, because
you say you've been working on this, but this was
before she was Secretary of State.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Then it was.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
And it's interestingly, when I got in the legislature, I
had a little more polland could get it done. But
then I had a Secretary of State that was undermining
me all the time because she wanted everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And here's the problem.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
We can't tell in the last days of the election
because you don't have to have ID we'd never have
to see a warm body. We can't tell if you're
voting Holly and Clarkston, much less overseas. Who's going to
fly to Germany or Japan? To see who voted and
if it was correct, or wherever somebody might be.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It doesn't make sense. You're not looking all around. And
you must have.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Integrity for both sides because half of us are not
going to be very happy at the end of the election,
so having integrity and security. But there is this long
term and it started when I was Secretary of State
of this far left group trying to strip out the
integrity little piece by little piece, the transparency, the checks
(25:01):
and balances, and a lot of them are wonky, like
one of them is when the Secretary of State makes
new administrative rules, they have to go through a committee
called JKAR, which is a bipartisan group of legislators, and
give the citizens a chance to comment on them. I
don't like that pesky law. She got found in violation
of it when she said you don't have to verify signatures,
(25:22):
and so.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
These are the kinds of things that she does.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
So they got rid of the legislature because we're in
a Democrat ball stately rate ball and umpires, and so
she got rid of that pesky law.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
No more j CAR.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
So as citizens and as elected officials, we don't even
know what her rules are going to be.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
The thing I think that you said that has really
disturbed me is that she's been working against our rules,
our laws for years, years before. She's been planning this
takeover of the secretary of State's office for years. If
this is if this dates back to when you were
secretary of state and she was fighting you, then who
(26:15):
is funding her?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yes, you know it's ironically ran against each other years ago.
They'd be fourteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh right, because she she ran and lost years ago.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yes, And I did not want to run. It was
a huge pay cut. I had a little one and
a mom that was aging, and I didn't want to
be away from home. And I kind of got talked
into it. I was making thirty thousand dollars more as
a county clerk register.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I liked it there.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
But they did a poll and I was the only
one that showed that could beat her, and I still
was not convinced. And then they showed me all the
sorrows information and then I decided to run. And then
three days later I said I don't think.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I should run.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I got all these Republicans made because there's been four
others worked on of the year. But I did, and
I was very fortunate. People were very kind to me
and thoughtful, and I did get voted in, and I
did come from a little teeny center black house. It's
not like I have a lot of friends with big money.
But my mom had the best moral compass of anybody
ever saw. And I don't care, and I don't care
(27:21):
what part you are. A good moral compass is so
important and people first. It's like this thought has been
somewhat moved up, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
But think about what you just said.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You really, truly this is a time when you could
actually be the average citizen and you could run for
a position and you ran that office. Well, you ran
it for the people. This situation that we have with
Jocelyn Benson, who has this big money coming from out
of state, who has been after this office for years, she's.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Had her eye on it.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Now she has her eye on the governor's seat. This
is a long term plan on the Democrat side to
turn purple states blue. But I think it's more nefarious
than that. I think that what they're plotting is truly
to I mean, just if you look at the way
she's run the office. This is not the American way.
(28:16):
This is to get their way to gain power for
their people. And then you, I mean, gosh, I know
you know what the bills are that you guys have
been looking at in the Michigan legislature for the past
two years. It's gone completely sideways. It's bizarre. And it's
also a piggybank for the billionaires. I think that's the
most disturbing part about what I've seen in Michigan in
(28:38):
the last two years is the money. The money that
has just gone to the billionaire class for them to
have their pet projects, and the people still pay their
income tax every year.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Oh, it's really bad. In regard to Joslyn Benson, when
we were running fourteen years ago, she told one of
my friends, I'm running for Secretary States. I'll have a
podium to run for governor. So you're right, this has
been a long term. I was a reluctant but worked
sixteen hours a day. But I was reluctant candidate at
(29:10):
the time because I was the only one that could
probably win in a race that was so important. Only
because of her extremism and her not following rules or
laws and being part of this ultra left. But I
think the loopholes that we have in Michigan were rated
an F for transparency. And I did serve with Governor
(29:32):
grand Home for six years. Not grand Home.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I did serve with grand Home too, but Governor.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Whitmer and we were both in the house. I think
we're there for four years together. Anyway, she said she
didn't believe in dark money. No, we can't reach the
governor got twenty million dollars in dark money. One person,
a Long, gave her eight hundred and fifty seven thousand
(30:00):
dollars and we'll never know as citizens who got it.
But you can bet that comes with strings. Nobody just
gives eight hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars of dark money.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And so I think that's one of our biggest problems.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You got four hundred thousand from another anonymous downer. Michigan
needs to beef up our loss for both sides of
the aisle. We as citizens deserve to know who are
you getting your money from. And yes, corporate welfare has
become a wonderful way to get rid of money that
doesn't really work, doesn't help, and you can bet the
(30:34):
people that vote on it, they they probably do pretty
good one way or another.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
And if you look at.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Our state budget, we went from fifty seven billion when
I started in the Senate to eighty two billion in
five years, and we blew.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Through a nine sim serpor and half of it.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Went to corporate welfare, and it really didn't create the.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Jobs that they said it would. So why not roads?
Why not? Education? Education were forty third in the nation.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Why people don't want to come to your job providers
were forty third? Kids deserve better. That's one of our
most important jobs. And public safety that should be another
one too.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I mean, I just saw that Joe Biden is going
to have a public apology to the kids that were
in the Native American boarding schools, and I said, well,
when's he going to have a public apology for the
kids in Detroit? Because we've robbed them, robbed them. They
are not getting educated there. They can't even read when
they come out of school. It's sick that that is
(31:36):
not a priority for these Democrats to make sure that
kids have the skills to have an actual life when
they get out of school. The fact that they can't
read means that they're they're that much more likely to
end up in prison.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I think it's a terrible catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
And I will tell you when I was running for governor,
we had multiple companies that came to us and said,
are you going to give us corporate well? Are you
going to give us corporate welfare? And I always said,
I have to be able to know what the deal is.
I can't read any of your deals. They're all private.
You've got NDAs across everything. So you guys know, a
(32:12):
few legislators know, the governor knows. But you're using our money,
and so I don't believe that you should have NDAs
if you're going to use if you're going to use
the taxpayer money. All they just went bananas about that.
How could you possibly say that we have proprietary information,
we have to have these NDAs. And I'm like, Senator,
are you right? They're not bringing jobs? I mean, we
(32:33):
haven't had any, don't. We have not gained a headquarters,
We have not gained jobs. We are as a state dying,
I mean forty third in education, no new headquarters. Energy
constantly going out, we have people that have blackouts for
two weeks at a time.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
It's a mess, and we've got to do something about it.
But honestly, I think that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I've listened to what you said today, and I want
people to think about what you said, because that young
at home right now who was you, is saying, is
this God's plan for me? Because it's supposed to be
we the people. Am I supposed to step up? And
that was God's plan for you. You stepped up to
(33:14):
the plate. It's hard, It is hard to sacrifice this
and run and do all of this, but we so
appreciate the fact that you did and you have and
you continue to do so, and I hope your story
inspires other people. So I just want to say thank
you Senator Ruth Johnson for coming on today.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Thank you, Tutor, have a great eavening.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Thank you, Thank you you too, and thank you all
for joining us on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this
episode and others, go to Tutor disonpodcast dot com. You
can subscribe right there, or head over to the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and join
us next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Have a blessing,
Host
Tudor Dixon
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