Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us on the phone line, not just to talk
about that, but all sorts of different things. Is the
senator from Nebraska in Washington, d C. You know him,
you love him. His name's Senator Pete Ricketts, Senator. Thanks
so much as always for the time today, my.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Pleasure, though I'm having to correction on one thing. I'm
actually in Scott's Bluff today, not Washington DC.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Oh well, there is boem Scott's Bluff. Now, I gotta
tell you, you've been a governor before. What you didn't have
to worry about a hurricane hitting your state while you
were the governor. But I see Ron DeSantis, you know,
he's really doing a lot of hustling ahead of these
storms Helene and now especially Milton, and trying to relay
(00:40):
information to the state and trying to talk about the
federal funding and be kind of in connection with the
federal government as well. What is that like when you're
preparing for something or if there is some sort of
natural disaster in your state and you kind of have
to be that middle person between the federal government and
what's happening in your state.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, first of all, we don't in Nebraska with our disasters,
things like tornadoes or floods. We don't usually get that
much of an advanced warning, you know. Obviously, the most
widespread flooding we've had in our state's history occurred when
I was governor in twenty nineteen, and we had to
work very closely with FEMA to be able to make
sure that we're responding back. The way these emergencies are
done is it's supposed to be federally supported, state managed,
(01:24):
and locally executed. So you want your local people to
be able to actually do the execution. The state kind
of works for local people to kind of manage the
overall effort, and the Feds were just supposed to be
supplying you with that support. And what I've seen out
of the news reports, at least in North Carolina is
the FEDS are way overstepping their authority and getting in
the way of the relief by interfering with individual, you know,
(01:46):
local execution. And that's very concerning because that's the wrong
way to do it. You've got to have the locals
who know the territory be able to do the execution.
They're going to do a better job than anybody in Washington, DC. Now,
you certainly want their support. You want their help, but
they've got to be directed by the local folks. And
that's what I'm concerned about when I read some of
(02:07):
these news reports. Obviously I'm not on the ground there
so stuff to know exactly how widespread that is, but
it is something that seems like there's a mismanagement or
the federal response here.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You talk about also the government. And you know, this
isn't to say Nebraska doesn't, you know, play a huge part,
but Nebraska isn't kind of in the position, let's say
a North Carolina or a Georgia or even in some
ways of Florida the roles that they're playing in this
particular or election. And we're seeing kind of the political
campaign strategic points kind of play out with Kamala Harris
(02:40):
and Ron DeSantis kind of warring with words back and
forth because he wouldn't answer her calls. But then he
says that Joe Biden has been in contact with him,
and why would he need to talk to the Vice president,
And then Joe Biden says that DeSantis is doing a
very good job there. You know, when you're a governor,
I'm sure you just kind of want to stay out
of some of that federal stuff, right, or you know
(03:01):
what would be that chain of command? Would you have
anything ever to do with the vice president.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, you really wouldn't have anything to do with the
vice president because the president's the commander in chief and
the president's the one who's in charge of all the agencies.
The vice president doesn't have any role except what the
president gives the vice president. So if you go again,
look back to another emergency, go back to the COVID emergency.
When President Trump was there, he specifically assigned Mike Pence
(03:27):
to work with the states because of Mike's previous role
as having been a governor. And Mike got universal praise
for both Republicans and Democrats for how he would get
on the phone every week with all the governors across
the country for two hours, if that's what it took
to be able to answer their questions. So, but that
was all set up by the president, you know, and
(03:47):
coordinate together. Where again, it sounds like the federal administration
that we got with Biden Harris is not working together.
You know. They doesn't seem like the left hand nose
what the right hand's doing, and again just makes you
concerned about the level response we're seeing for the people
who really need it in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
We're talking with Senator Pete Ricketts. Senator, I want to
talk about Nebraska trying to play a role in the
stuff that's happening with Helene and now eventually Milton. There's
so many people that are organizing efforts to try to
support those who are in need. We've heard great stories
about people from different states helping out Nebraska's when we've
had need, and now we're seeing Nebraskans and droves trying
(04:27):
to donate supplies, donate funds to try to help the
people that have been devastated by these hurricanes. What can
you say about Nebraska and how special this place is
versus some of the other places that you've kind of
gotten familiar with as a senator in Washington well.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
As always, I feel like Nebraska is the best place
in the world. We've just got a great community spirit,
and you can see that when we have our own disasters,
how neighbors step up to help themselves. We saw it
during our flooding. We had just selfless sacrifice that sometimes
ended in tragedy when we had people who went to
go rescue others in need. We also saw sacrifice from
(05:03):
our law enforcement officers and other first responders who stayed
on duty even though their own homes were being flooded.
So we just have just the most wonderful people in
the world here. And of course when we see other
people going to the types of disasters that we've been
through before, we feel for them, we empathize for them,
and we want to help. And that's where I would
recommend to Nebraskans. One of the best things you can
(05:25):
do is find a nonprofit that you like and send
them money. It may only be ten or twenty five bucks,
but that'll help. And you know, obviously if you're one
of these training responds by Task Force one and you're
going to go down there and help out, that's always
great too, But that generally that preparation has to be
done ahead of time and not done once the disasters happened.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and that's a good point too. You know, like
how much quicker I think that us knowing that Milton is,
you know, three four days before it actually hit, how
big of an issue was going to be down there
in Florida, gave people time to mobilize for this I wonder,
you know, Senator, when we talk about this election season,
you're going to have the politicization of basically anything possible,
(06:06):
and you're kind of seeing the way that the two
sides are trying to politicize maybe this mother nature in
a way with Helene and then of course and with
Milton down there in Florida, and it doesn't help. I
don't think that Georgia and North Carolina were the hardest
hit by Helene, and they're kind of toss up states
for this year's general election. So you know, what is
(06:29):
or is it off limits? And have you taken any
is there any part of the way that the two
political candidates have kind of talked about or approached this
stuff that has been you know, a step too far
or across the line in the situation where I think
universally we're all kind of devastated by what we're seeing
down there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
A disaster, and so we should stay focused on the
people who need our help. And if you look again,
if you talk about whether it's the Vice president or
President Trump who's not in office, they neither one of
them have direct role in this response, and so we
should focus on how can we make sure the people
who are in need are getting help and are getting
the best supports they can from the federal governments. And
(07:09):
of course we certainly want the private sector people to
be able to help out. You know, Usmurdi's Purse has
been doing wonderful work in North Carolina, so we want
that as well, and that's a great way to be
able to help support it. But we should really stick to,
you know, what can we do to make sure that
the people who need help are getting what they need.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Senator p Ricketts joining us on the phone line, your
colleague in Nebraska, Deb Fisher, got a growingly contentious race here,
seeing in like an influx of advertising on television and
social media for the independent candidate Dan Osborne. And certainly
there are a lot of people with their own opinions
about how independent maybe Dan Osborne is. But I've seen
(07:48):
an influx of now kind of a step up in
deb Fisher's advertising in response this race. You know, I'm
not sure how competitive it is, but it seems like
a lot of people are still talking about it. What
make you what do you make of this particular race,
and knowing how important it is for the Republicans to
try to maintain their current seats so they can try
to get that majority.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
With regard to any race, you got to work every time, right,
you got to You never can take it for granted.
That's what I'm doing. I'm actually on a four day
swing in western Nebraska right now. I know Fisher's not
taking for granted. She's out working hard. In fact, I
was with her in North Platte and Broken Bow yesterday.
So you got to work hard every time and you go,
you know, you got to get out there and earn votes.
We also need to recognize that, you know, her opponent,
(08:32):
he is saying he's an independent, but you really just
he just scratch below the surface here and you see
that he's really on the Democrat side. You know, he's
he actually supports amnesty. He wants to give illegal immigrants benefits.
That's not something most Nebraskan's I think is right. And
he also supports legislation to allow men into girls sports
(08:54):
and locker rooms. Again not something that your mainstream Nebraskan
agrees with. So even though he's got click ads and
he's out there staying he's the Independence, and you know
he's gonna he doesn't know what he's going to caucus
with you know, the Democrats are the one supporting him.
He's got Soros money backing him up. He was out
in Hollywood at least I heard he was out Hollywood
last week. Rais him money. He's gotten money from Act Blue,
(09:14):
which is the Democrats big online fundraising thing. Communions are
supporting him. So, I mean, you know, we need to
remember where this guy's money's coming from. You know, the mills,
the same thing as file the money here. You know
who's supporting him. You know he's going to caucus there,
and you know what kind of leadership is going to
get us the Democrats retain the Senate. Chuck Schumer has
not brought up hardly anything. He's certainly not brought up
(09:37):
our National Defense Authorization Act so we can defend our country.
He's not brought brought up any appropriations bills so we
can control spending. We haven't got a farm bill yet,
So I mean, we need we know what kind of
leadership will be there if Chuck Schumer is still in charge.
And that's why we need to make sure that everybody
knows that the real conservative here is deb Fisher. She
has worked on behalf of our state for the last
dozen years in important areas like transportation, passing infrastructure bills,
(10:02):
making sure we're getting development of Interstate eighty. Actually, also
with the airport in North Platte yesterday she helped get
a federal grant from that. She's also supported our blue
you know, recruit and retain acts. She understands how important
it is to equip law enforcement with the right resources
they need to hire and retain officers. She's been with
(10:23):
me to help push back on these ev mandates. She's
been Lee advocate for stopping the Chinese companies party from
spying on Americans, taking their communications out of our country,
you know, the communication systems, and stopping them from buying
our farmland. So she's done a lot. And then of
course she's a big avacac agriculture, which is our state's
number one industry. She helped get a USA research center
(10:45):
at the University of Nebraska. So devis we're working very
very hard behalf of Nebraska's And she's the real conservativeness race,
not this guy who is claiming to be an independent.
But if you look to where his money coming from,
you know who's really supporting him. Because George Soros does that. Uh,
you know, go doesn't try to support middle of the
road people.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
No, it makes sense, and you know, we have to
remind ourselves sometimes Bernie Sanders himself is an independent in
that same chamber. So you know, if you could well to.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
That point, dan Osbourn says Bernie Sanders is a hero
or something like that. He was praising Bernie Sanders, who's
a socialist, right, Bernie's a self proclaimed socialist. He doesn't
try to.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Hide it, right right, Well, it's it's it's interesting. Uh,
just less than a month away. We're going to continue
to follow it every step of the way. Senator Pete Ricketts,
thanks so much for giving us some time while you're
making the rounds here in Nebraska. We thank you so much,
as always for the information. We'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Great, thanks a lot. Ivery appreciate having me on
Joining us on the phone line, not just to talk
about that, but all sorts of different things. Is the
senator from Nebraska in Washington, d C. You know him,
you love him. His name's Senator Pete Ricketts, Senator. Thanks
so much as always for the time today, my.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Pleasure, though I'm having to correction on one thing. I'm
actually in Scott's Bluff today, not Washington DC.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Oh well, there is boem Scott's Bluff. Now, I gotta
tell you, you've been a governor before. What you didn't have
to worry about a hurricane hitting your state while you
were the governor. But I see Ron DeSantis, you know,
he's really doing a lot of hustling ahead of these
storms Helene and now especially Milton, and trying to relay
(00:40):
information to the state and trying to talk about the
federal funding and be kind of in connection with the
federal government as well. What is that like when you're
preparing for something or if there is some sort of
natural disaster in your state and you kind of have
to be that middle person between the federal government and
what's happening in your state.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, first of all, we don't in Nebraska with our disasters,
things like tornadoes or floods. We don't usually get that
much of an advanced warning, you know. Obviously, the most
widespread flooding we've had in our state's history occurred when
I was governor in twenty nineteen, and we had to
work very closely with FEMA to be able to make
sure that we're responding back. The way these emergencies are
done is it's supposed to be federally supported, state managed,
(01:24):
and locally executed. So you want your local people to
be able to actually do the execution. The state kind
of works for local people to kind of manage the
overall effort, and the Feds were just supposed to be
supplying you with that support. And what I've seen out
of the news reports, at least in North Carolina is
the FEDS are way overstepping their authority and getting in
the way of the relief by interfering with individual, you know,
(01:46):
local execution. And that's very concerning because that's the wrong
way to do it. You've got to have the locals
who know the territory be able to do the execution.
They're going to do a better job than anybody in Washington, DC. Now,
you certainly want their support. You want their help, but
they've got to be directed by the local folks. And
that's what I'm concerned about when I read some of
(02:07):
these news reports. Obviously I'm not on the ground there
so stuff to know exactly how widespread that is, but
it is something that seems like there's a mismanagement or
the federal response here.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You talk about also the government. And you know, this
isn't to say Nebraska doesn't, you know, play a huge part,
but Nebraska isn't kind of in the position, let's say
a North Carolina or a Georgia or even in some
ways of Florida the roles that they're playing in this
particular or election. And we're seeing kind of the political
campaign strategic points kind of play out with Kamala Harris
(02:40):
and Ron DeSantis kind of warring with words back and
forth because he wouldn't answer her calls. But then he
says that Joe Biden has been in contact with him,
and why would he need to talk to the Vice president,
And then Joe Biden says that DeSantis is doing a
very good job there. You know, when you're a governor,
I'm sure you just kind of want to stay out
of some of that federal stuff, right, or you know
(03:01):
what would be that chain of command? Would you have
anything ever to do with the vice president.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, you really wouldn't have anything to do with the
vice president because the president's the commander in chief and
the president's the one who's in charge of all the agencies.
The vice president doesn't have any role except what the
president gives the vice president. So if you go again,
look back to another emergency, go back to the COVID emergency.
When President Trump was there, he specifically assigned Mike Pence
(03:27):
to work with the states because of Mike's previous role
as having been a governor. And Mike got universal praise
for both Republicans and Democrats for how he would get
on the phone every week with all the governors across
the country for two hours, if that's what it took
to be able to answer their questions. So, but that
was all set up by the president, you know, and
(03:47):
coordinate together. Where again, it sounds like the federal administration
that we got with Biden Harris is not working together.
You know. They doesn't seem like the left hand nose
what the right hand's doing, and again just makes you
concerned about the level response we're seeing for the people
who really need it in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
We're talking with Senator Pete Ricketts. Senator, I want to
talk about Nebraska trying to play a role in the
stuff that's happening with Helene and now eventually Milton. There's
so many people that are organizing efforts to try to
support those who are in need. We've heard great stories
about people from different states helping out Nebraska's when we've
had need, and now we're seeing Nebraskans and droves trying
(04:27):
to donate supplies, donate funds to try to help the
people that have been devastated by these hurricanes. What can
you say about Nebraska and how special this place is
versus some of the other places that you've kind of
gotten familiar with as a senator in Washington well.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
As always, I feel like Nebraska is the best place
in the world. We've just got a great community spirit,
and you can see that when we have our own disasters,
how neighbors step up to help themselves. We saw it
during our flooding. We had just selfless sacrifice that sometimes
ended in tragedy when we had people who went to
go rescue others in need. We also saw sacrifice from
(05:03):
our law enforcement officers and other first responders who stayed
on duty even though their own homes were being flooded.
So we just have just the most wonderful people in
the world here. And of course when we see other
people going to the types of disasters that we've been
through before, we feel for them, we empathize for them,
and we want to help. And that's where I would
recommend to Nebraskans. One of the best things you can
(05:25):
do is find a nonprofit that you like and send
them money. It may only be ten or twenty five bucks,
but that'll help. And you know, obviously if you're one
of these training responds by Task Force one and you're
going to go down there and help out, that's always
great too, But that generally that preparation has to be
done ahead of time and not done once the disasters happened.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and that's a good point too. You know, like
how much quicker I think that us knowing that Milton is,
you know, three four days before it actually hit, how
big of an issue was going to be down there
in Florida, gave people time to mobilize for this I wonder,
you know, Senator, when we talk about this election season,
you're going to have the politicization of basically anything possible,
(06:06):
and you're kind of seeing the way that the two
sides are trying to politicize maybe this mother nature in
a way with Helene and then of course and with
Milton down there in Florida, and it doesn't help. I
don't think that Georgia and North Carolina were the hardest
hit by Helene, and they're kind of toss up states
for this year's general election. So you know, what is
(06:29):
or is it off limits? And have you taken any
is there any part of the way that the two
political candidates have kind of talked about or approached this
stuff that has been you know, a step too far
or across the line in the situation where I think
universally we're all kind of devastated by what we're seeing
down there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
A disaster, and so we should stay focused on the
people who need our help. And if you look again,
if you talk about whether it's the Vice president or
President Trump who's not in office, they neither one of
them have direct role in this response, and so we
should focus on how can we make sure the people
who are in need are getting help and are getting
the best supports they can from the federal governments. And
(07:09):
of course we certainly want the private sector people to
be able to help out. You know, Usmurdi's Purse has
been doing wonderful work in North Carolina, so we want
that as well, and that's a great way to be
able to help support it. But we should really stick to,
you know, what can we do to make sure that
the people who need help are getting what they need.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Senator p Ricketts joining us on the phone line, your
colleague in Nebraska, Deb Fisher, got a growingly contentious race here,
seeing in like an influx of advertising on television and
social media for the independent candidate Dan Osborne. And certainly
there are a lot of people with their own opinions
about how independent maybe Dan Osborne is. But I've seen
(07:48):
an influx of now kind of a step up in
deb Fisher's advertising in response this race. You know, I'm
not sure how competitive it is, but it seems like
a lot of people are still talking about it. What
make you what do you make of this particular race,
and knowing how important it is for the Republicans to
try to maintain their current seats so they can try
to get that majority.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
With regard to any race, you got to work every time, right,
you got to You never can take it for granted.
That's what I'm doing. I'm actually on a four day
swing in western Nebraska right now. I know Fisher's not
taking for granted. She's out working hard. In fact, I
was with her in North Platte and Broken Bow yesterday.
So you got to work hard every time and you go,
you know, you got to get out there and earn votes.
We also need to recognize that, you know, her opponent,
(08:32):
he is saying he's an independent, but you really just
he just scratch below the surface here and you see
that he's really on the Democrat side. You know, he's
he actually supports amnesty. He wants to give illegal immigrants benefits.
That's not something most Nebraskan's I think is right. And
he also supports legislation to allow men into girls sports
(08:54):
and locker rooms. Again not something that your mainstream Nebraskan
agrees with. So even though he's got click ads and
he's out there staying he's the Independence, and you know
he's gonna he doesn't know what he's going to caucus
with you know, the Democrats are the one supporting him.
He's got Soros money backing him up. He was out
in Hollywood at least I heard he was out Hollywood
last week. Rais him money. He's gotten money from Act Blue,
(09:14):
which is the Democrats big online fundraising thing. Communions are
supporting him. So, I mean, you know, we need to
remember where this guy's money's coming from. You know, the mills,
the same thing as file the money here. You know
who's supporting him. You know he's going to caucus there,
and you know what kind of leadership is going to
get us the Democrats retain the Senate. Chuck Schumer has
not brought up hardly anything. He's certainly not brought up
(09:37):
our National Defense Authorization Act so we can defend our country.
He's not brought brought up any appropriations bills so we
can control spending. We haven't got a farm bill yet,
So I mean, we need we know what kind of
leadership will be there if Chuck Schumer is still in charge.
And that's why we need to make sure that everybody
knows that the real conservative here is deb Fisher. She
has worked on behalf of our state for the last
dozen years in important areas like transportation, passing infrastructure bills,
(10:02):
making sure we're getting development of Interstate eighty. Actually, also
with the airport in North Platte yesterday she helped get
a federal grant from that. She's also supported our blue
you know, recruit and retain acts. She understands how important
it is to equip law enforcement with the right resources
they need to hire and retain officers. She's been with
(10:23):
me to help push back on these ev mandates. She's
been Lee advocate for stopping the Chinese companies party from
spying on Americans, taking their communications out of our country,
you know, the communication systems, and stopping them from buying
our farmland. So she's done a lot. And then of
course she's a big avacac agriculture, which is our state's
number one industry. She helped get a USA research center
(10:45):
at the University of Nebraska. So devis we're working very
very hard behalf of Nebraska's And she's the real conservativeness race,
not this guy who is claiming to be an independent.
But if you look to where his money coming from,
you know who's really supporting him. Because George Soros does that. Uh,
you know, go doesn't try to support middle of the
road people.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
No, it makes sense, and you know, we have to
remind ourselves sometimes Bernie Sanders himself is an independent in
that same chamber. So you know, if you could well to.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
That point, dan Osbourn says Bernie Sanders is a hero
or something like that. He was praising Bernie Sanders, who's
a socialist, right, Bernie's a self proclaimed socialist. He doesn't
try to.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Hide it, right right, Well, it's it's it's interesting. Uh,
just less than a month away. We're going to continue
to follow it every step of the way. Senator Pete Ricketts,
thanks so much for giving us some time while you're
making the rounds here in Nebraska. We thank you so much,
as always for the information. We'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Great, thanks a lot. Ivery appreciate having me on
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.