February 7, 2024 • 30 mins
Discover the insider revelations from political filmmaker extraordinaire, Jason Meath, as he joins us to unravel the emotional and political depth behind creating "King of Bain." This groundbreaking film dissected Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, leaving an indelible mark on the 2012 presidential campaign. Our collaboration unveiled the complexities of narrative crafting and its potent effect on public opinion. With Jason's expertise, we further explore the burgeoning projects that are set to invigorate the political filmmaking landscape.
The dialogue then ventures into the aftershocks of Mitt Romney's campaign and the emergence of Donald Trump. We dissect the seismic shift within the Republican Party, tracing the roots of America's political reawakening and the palpable desire for change that coursed through the nation's veins. Our conversation highlights the powerful documentary 'Switchers,' which encapsulates the sentiments of lifelong Democrats turned Republicans, and we confront the pressing issue of illegal immigration, peeling back the layers of its impact on the fabric of trust in American leadership.
As we wrap up, the spotlight shifts to the tactical battlefield of political campaigning, voter engagement, and the inception of a super PAC aimed at championing pro-freedom candidates. Reflecting on previous campaign tactics and their effectiveness, we underscore the need for innovation to remain at the forefront of political strategy. And to sweeten the pot, Jason Meath not only adds his voice to our Patreon Games community but promises a synergy of ideas, stirring anticipation for fresh, resonant content that speaks directly to the heart of America. Keep your ears perked and your minds open for what's on the horizon in this ever-changing political saga.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
No matter where you are, you are being watched.
In today's world, no one is offthe grid.
Existing in the modern worldhas been forever changed.
What's out there?
Most people don't want to know,but you are about to get clued
(00:26):
in.
This is Patriot Games.
We'll explore differentintelligence techniques,
spycraft and the latestcutting-edge technology that
will blow your mind.
We'll introduce you to proswho've spent careers in the
(00:46):
Intel community With incrediblestories.
We'll expose it all.
Welcome to Patriot Games.
And now your host, gregPhillips.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hey everybody, it's Greg Phillips.
Welcome back to Patriot Games.
I am thrilled today to have notonly a good friend and
colleague, but somebody who'sactually doing great work and
moving the needle in the kind ofthe political film space.
That's probably the least ofthe things that his team
(01:31):
actually does, but as far as I'mconcerned, I've been working
with Jason Meath for gosh since2012, I guess, and so after 13
or 14 years and watching justthe quality of the creations
that Jason and his team puttogether, and then we'll talk a
(01:52):
little bit about not just wherewe are today and some of the
things that he's done in thepast and I'm going to link to a
few videos some of his work thathe's done but we also want to
talk a little bit about wherewe're going and what you can
expect from the team of Greg,catherine, jason and a handful
of others that are gettingtogether to create something, I
(02:13):
think, really meaningful in thespace.
So with that, jason Meath,welcome to Patriot Games.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Thanks, Greg.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Great to be here.
You know, jason, we firststarted this.
Actually, you created a videofor another candidate and we
were kind of starting to crankup in Winning Our Future, which
was Newt Super PAC.
This was late 2011, early 2012.
(02:41):
And we got to a place where theIowa caucuses had already
happened, new Hampshire hadalready happened.
So we had Santorum that won theIowa caucus.
You had Mitt Romney, who won NewHampshire and had all the
momentum, and I think we feltlike at the time that the
(03:03):
biggest thing that we could dowould be to stop the Romney
juggernaut, as it were, in SouthCarolina, and so that's how I
met Jason.
So, jason, you want to talk alittle bit about King of Bane,
one of the at the time, I think,maybe one of the most
(03:24):
significant earned media eventsin the history of presidential
elections.
But tell everybody a little bitabout you, about the company,
and let's jump in and talk alittle bit about what we did
then.
Then maybe move on up to 2016and let's talk a little bit
about 2020 and then kind of easeinto what we're expecting this
year.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That sounds great.
Yeah, it was great working withyou and the team back in 2012,.
Right, 2012 election we'regetting old man.
But it's hard to believe thatMitt Romney became the nominee
of the Republican Party.
I mean contrast that with DonaldTrump and I mean it's almost
(04:08):
like it's not even the sameparty.
But we had put together I puttogether a film with Barry
Bennett called King of Bane itwas called when Mitt Romney came
to town originally and wechanged it to a much snappier
King of Bane and, very simply,we went out to the states and
(04:32):
talked to people that worked forsome of these companies that
Mitt Romney took over during histime as the head of Bane
Capital and we found out thatreally what he had done is he
had shipped everybody's jobsoverseas and made a killing
doing it.
And we had people whose entirelives, generations of their
(04:54):
families, in fact, had worked atsome of these factories, had
worked at some of these millsand whatnot, and to see it all
dry up within a week after hetook over some of these
businesses and shipped them alloverseas.
And it was very emotional filmand it was a very poignant and
moving experience and wecaptured something on camera
(05:19):
that at the time really had notbeen very had not been done.
I mean we released a film outinto the middle of the
Republican primary that ended upgetting run on cable television
almost on a loop every daybecause it was so compelling.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And man were they mad .
The Romney people wereabsolutely insanely mad at us,
right, I mean it turns out wewere right again, right, jason?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, sure, I mean, you know, and you know, a little
addendum to this story is thatI was a former advisor on the
Mitt Romney campaign, the firstcamp, first time he ran against
McCain, and I remember cuttingads they wanted me to cut ads
for him and they kept telling methat he was this great
businessman and he had done allthese wonderful things in the
(06:12):
private sector.
And I kept asking can youplease send me the list of all
the things that he, thesewonderful things that he had
done?
And they were stonewalling.
They wouldn't send me hisrecord and finally I, you know,
I kind of realized that hereally didn't do very good
things in the private sectorwhen it came to the American
(06:35):
people, he sold them down theriver and so that kind of teed
up the entire experience andknowing sort of from the inside
that this guy was was a kind ofa bad actor, especially when it
came to the Republican Party andmore patriotic Americans, he
did really have much Well, verygood, mr Yu, jason and your
production team.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You guys did an amazing job, not just on that,
but we did another one shortlyafter that called Mitt's Blood
Money yeah, About a basically aMedicare fraud scam that he and
one of his companies had beeninvolved in.
I think they ended up payinglike a $70 million fine or
something like that.
And you know people, you knowwhen you have these, these sort
(07:15):
of guys like Mick Romney outthere, you know they, they, they
skate around on the edges oftruth all the time and they just
never can quite get there.
And I think that's one of thethings that you and your team
have been so successful at atleast in my view is is really,
you know, scraping at thoseedges and figuring out where
these people actually are andwhere where the truth is.
(07:37):
And you know it's sadly moreoften than not with people like
Mitt Romney.
You know the truth is, you know, far more ugly than than their
PR team would have you believe.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, you know, in looking back at it in 2012, if
you did not have a Mitt Romneyand people didn't go through
that experience in 2012 and getserved up another four years of
Obama, you never would have hada Donald Trump.
And what happened was is thatthe entire party collapsed after
Mitt Romney's loss and reallyremade itself in a completely
(08:14):
different form.
That was coalesced aroundDonald Trump.
We had never seen anythingquite like that.
What I think many people whowere conservatives, or people
that weren't even conservatives,started doing is they started
looking at these politicians,whether they were Republicans or
Democrats, and they startedthinking are these people really
(08:35):
on our side?
Is Mitt Romney really on myside?
Is Barack Obama really on myside?
I mean, I now have a bronzeplan that isn't worth a piece of
paper it's printed on becauseof Obamacare, and my healthcare
costs have gone up like everyoneelse's healthcare costs have
come up because of Barack Obama.
(08:57):
And then you had, on the otherhand, you had this guy, mitt
Romney, who had sold everybody'sjobs overseas.
Every company he ever touched,he killed it.
I mean, you know, the list is along list of those companies
that were really belovedcompanies, american companies.
So I think people really kindof did a total re-evaluation of
(09:17):
what they wanted in a politician, and when Trump came along, he
was speaking our language, hewas speaking Americans language,
he was saying the things thatpeople wished that their
politicians would say, and hewas doing the things that they
wished their politicians woulddo.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know, it's absolutely amazing.
Now, looking back, I mean,there were so few people that
really had the foresight tounderstand what you just
described, but with your movieSwitchers, can you tell us a
little bit about it?
I mean, you just kind ofdescribed it, but how did it
come to be and, in your view,how important was it to the
(09:57):
process?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I mean.
Switchers in some ways isalmost like a bit of a sequel to
King of Bane, because whereasat King of Bane we found that
people were upset because oftheir jobs being sold overseas
and whatnot, we went back fouryears later and we really only
talked with traditionalDemocrats in swing states and it
(10:23):
didn't matter what color, whatgender or anything they were,
they were all saying the samething.
We were going from state tostate talking to people that
would literally complete thesentences of the people we just
talked to in another state.
I've never seen anything quitelike it.
And they all were saying thatthey needed.
We needed to close our borders,we needed to build a wall, we
(10:45):
needed to revamp our and bringup the middle class again and we
needed to get fentanyl off thestreets.
And we needed to stand for theAmerican Dream.
Because the whole premise of thefilm Switchers was that the
majority of Americans, for thefirst time in 2016, did not
(11:06):
believe in the American Dream.
They did not think that theAmerican Dream existed, at least
for them.
And now here we are in 2024 andwe have tens of millions of
illegal immigrants flooding overthe border and filling our
neighborhoods with fentanyl andfilling our neighborhoods with
crime, and they're not the bestof the best, and they're
(11:29):
literally closing down schoolsin some areas so that they can
house migrants rather than teachour school children.
And we say again are thesepoliticians on our side?
Certainly doesn't seem like it.
They're giving free healthcareto illegal immigrants.
They're not giving me freehealthcare.
They're not giving you freehealthcare.
(11:50):
So, again, I think we've goneright back to that place that we
were in 2016, and even worse,with an American people that are
completely been sold down theriver and disenfranchised by our
leaders, and so that's what wefound in switchers, and I
believe that sentiment has evenblown up since then.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, 100% agree with you.
Everybody knows we put out amovie in 2022, 2000 mules, but
just prior to that you guysreleased almost what felt a
little bit like in retrospect, acompanion piece.
It was produced by your team,obviously, and not by Denash and
(12:33):
his team, but can you talk alittle bit about sort of walking
into that 2022 space and whatyou guys were thinking a little
bit about the movie?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, so I paired with Citizens United.
We did a film called Rigged,and it was all about Mark
Zuckerberg's giant infusion ofhundreds of thousands of dollars
into the political process andtrying to manipulate the outcome
(13:05):
of the vote, rigging theelection, and your piece picked
up on some of the ways they didthat.
But at the helm of the entireoperation was Obama's ex-chief
campaign man, david Pluff, andhe was the head strategist with
Chan Zuckerberg.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And guess what, guys?
Now he's back in gear again.
He just took over the currentBiden campaign, let's say.
And here we go again.
Pluff's involved in what'shappening now.
He's frightening, but anyway,it's just mind-bending.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it really is.
He's back and these people arethe ones that and they get away
with it.
They got away with it Whateverthey did in 2020, whether it was
mules and rigging votes andgoing into neighbor but what
they did is they know, per tothe block in Milwaukee, how many
(14:09):
people are there and how manypeople they can stack ballots in
their names and get them to goout or tell them that they'll go
out and vote for them orwhatever they're doing.
And they know, street by street,block by block, of every major
city, corrupt city likePhiladelphia and Atlanta now,
(14:31):
where they can mine those namesand those votes and those
ballots and those checkmarks andwhatever else.
There are mail-in ballots andvotes and so they're back and
they're up to their old tricksand we got to.
You know, the only hope is tocontinue to expose what they're
(14:52):
doing, continue to go out thereand shake the tree and tell
people that they ought to beenraged and fuel them to go out
and use their voice, becausethey're not necessarily
canceling our voters.
They're not necessarilycanceling many American voters.
What they're doing is they'rerigging and stacking votes to
(15:16):
diminish our voices, and it justtakes every single person to go
out there and fight.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think everybody can now see, after spending a few
minutes with Jason, you know whyI'm About to say what I'm about
to say.
But we are putting together asuper PAC.
The paperwork's already beenfiled, we're ready to go, we're
starting to raise money herepretty quick.
But, most importantly,underpinning all of that, we're
(15:43):
bringing back some of Our oldteammates, some fighters and
some people that really know howto do this, and we've got a, I
think, probably the bestmessaging Person on the planet
gonna join us in the new pack.
Me, katherine, jason and yourteam were so excited to have you
guys coming back into the mixon this.
As we sort of Launch into alittle bit of unknown here,
(16:07):
first of all, just a reminder toeveryone there is no path for
Nikki Haley.
She's not even in on the caucusballot in in Nevada, for
example.
She's gonna get killed in inSouth Carolina if she stays
there, and even if she doesn't,florida's gonna kill her and
then super Tuesday will wouldwrap it all up.
There is no path to Nikki Haleybeing in this thing.
(16:30):
So, that said, and we start nowthinking about where, where are
we going and and how do we?
How do we do this?
I think one of the challengesthat that Sort of normal people
face in these instances, jason,is, is really Understanding how
to put the pieces and partstogether, then raising the money
and then being willing to playboth offense and defense and and
(16:55):
I think that the aggressivenessof our repro is really what
what separates teams like oursfrom Maybe others.
I understand that DeSantisspent something like a hundred
fifty million dollars orsomething like that of donors
money and you know and gotabsolutely nowhere.
(17:16):
I would venture to say that oneof the reasons they got nowhere
and one of the reasons wefailed other than the fact he
you know he wasn't very, youknow likeable candidate is the,
the staff, rather than you knowtaking the time to.
You know if they're gonna attackTrump, you don't just do it on
social media, right?
You don't just go out and sayyou know, log in to true social
(17:38):
and tell all the maga peoplethat you know we hate you and
you know Trump's going down andwhatever.
You know all that was going onon social media.
I think that the tacticalmistake was certainly there, but
but it goes beyond that.
I think that that that manypeople in this space still think
kind of old school, in thesense that we're just gonna
(18:00):
we're gonna raise a bunch ofmoney, we're gonna spend a bunch
of money on ads and ourcandidate will go out and he'll
go to all 99 Counties and we'lldo it this way and all the while
, I'm gonna have a whole team ofpeople that are just banging on
the Trump people on socialmedia.
It may be one of the single mostdumb strategies in the history
(18:20):
of modern elections To bang onTrump people on social media.
I mean, these people are notjust fighters but experts and
entangling in this kind of messa little bit like President
Trump.
And and I think that you knowas a, as a point of reference to
us as we start up this new pack, jason, we need to be prepared,
(18:42):
you know, to to fight likeDonald Trump does.
We need to prepare to to Beaggressive in both explaining to
when we're doing thepresidential side, you know, not
just explaining to people.
You know why he's the best,which is one side of that but
but also kind of what's wrong onthe other side.
We're gonna be supportingPro-freedom candidates and we're
(19:05):
going to be potentiallyattacking anti-freedom efforts
and anti-freedom people, and itisn't just gonna be in the
presidential race, we're gonnabe looking into Senate races,
we're gonna be looking intocongressional races and we're
gonna be looking into issues.
All of these things will rollup into what I think is a a
monumental Momentum buildingcapability, and we're just gonna
(19:30):
be part of it, obviously.
But I'm really excited aboutthis.
Do you can you sort of share it?
I mean, I know we haven't beentalking about this pack for long
, but can you just share someideas with folks on where, where
you think, as you know, I thinkprobably one of the best, maybe
the best creator on our side,we're where?
Do you think we should go withthat as sort of a framework?
(19:51):
I mean, what can the peoplelook forward to in terms of your
creative ideas and your team'sideas?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well, you know, trump is someone that we've never
seen in politics before in mylifetime.
He's somebody who went outthere and almost read the minds
of people in Michigan, in Ohio,in Pennsylvania, and cracked
some of the states that no otherRepublican nominee candidate
(20:21):
had ever been able to do.
And it's because he has thiskind of connection with the
American voter in ways that youand I have never seen.
And what at least I have done,and what you have done, I think,
very, very well, is you havefollowed in that same tradition
(20:45):
the reason why we don't make ourfilms in Washington DC, we
don't make our films in New YorkCity, we don't make our films
in Los Angeles.
We make our films in Indiana,we make our films in Ohio, we
make our films in America.
We go to Texas, we go to placeswhere real people are, to find
(21:05):
out what it is that's on theirminds, what it is that drives
them, what it is that is movingthem.
And we hear their stories andwe listen.
You know we don't dictate, welisten.
And what we find out in telling,then that's how we can tell
their stories.
You can't tell somebody'sstories from sitting in a
(21:26):
building in Washington DC or LosAngeles, and that's where many
people just kind of go wrongwith this whole approach.
When you have the ad makers andthe DeSantis folks that
controlled everything out of DCand whatever, there's no way
they could know that the entirepremise of the DeSantis campaign
was flawed.
I mean he thought that peoplewere upset with Donald Trump and
(21:49):
looking for a replacement.
They were not.
That was very, very clear.
It finally became clear to himafter one contest.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Iowa, that was it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
It's all took.
He was just like okay, I getthe message, you know.
So I mean, but we knew that, wealready knew that we could have
told him that on day one, buthe had to find out the hard way
and $150 million later there heis.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
And I think you know there's been a tone of
conciliation and reconciliationjust in the last 24 hours
between the guys and betweenPresident Trump and DeSantis,
and hopefully that'll bleed down.
I know there's a lot of bitterbitterness out there about all
of this.
I mean, the Trump team had tospend a bunch of money they
(22:33):
shouldn't have had to have spentduring this situation, but you
know it is what it is.
This is a primary and this ispolitics, and politics is, you
know, rarely pretty.
This time it wasn't, you know,but I don't think anybody really
believes that this party andthese players are not ultimately
(22:54):
going to be able to come backtogether.
I mean, the fact of the matteris, biden is trying to destroy
the country from within with hisborder policies.
He's trying to start anotherwar, he's destroyed the economy.
He's done all these things thatare just almost breathtaking
but also are perfect issues forall of our side.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
You know, I know they're going to try to Remember
when they used to say thatDonald Trump was going to start
World War Three.
Who's saying that Biden isstarting World War Three?
You know we don't hear themsaying that, but he is.
I mean, you know the entireworld is far less safe today
than it was under Donald Trump.
It was at peace.
We have four years of peace.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
That's exactly right, and American soldiers are being
lost.
We lost a couple of Navy SEALshere a few weeks ago with, you
know, with a ship from Iran thatwas trying to gun run a little
bit.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and Biden has said nothing about it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Nothing, not a word, zero, Nothing.
And it's really it's knowing somany of those team guys that,
like I do it just, I mean theyall feel it and I mean they
really are a team or set ofteams, and when one is lost, I
mean the guys really take ithard.
In this case, Unfortunately,they lost two of the guys.
And you know, it's just, it'sjust heartbreaking.
(24:12):
And then I pick up the paper,or I picked up the, or turned on
the news the other night Ithink it was Saturday night, and
the Iranians are shootingmissiles into Iraq and killing a
bunch of Americans again.
And here we go, Right, I meanit's like this, oh my gosh, this
is.
You know, everybody's saying it, but now we're like living it.
Our friend, Michael Yon, hasbeen sending me some videos.
(24:34):
He's back in, back in down nearthe Darien Gap and working a
project in Panama right now andand Michael was sending me all
these videos and all thesephotos and stuff and it's, it's
really mind blowing at threeo'clock in the morning.
It's something that's sort ofeuphemistically called the China
camp, which, which, by the way,my orcas and others.
We have video of them.
(24:56):
Actually, in these camps,10,000 fighting age Chinese in
one week passed through what iswhat's euphemistically called
the China camp and are makingtheir way up here.
You've got places likeNicaragua that are clamping down
on Christians and taking thechurches and and, at the same
(25:17):
time, taking $5 billion from theChinese to build an
international airport.
So they don't even have to goto Columbia and then come up, or
Venezuela and come up throughthe Darien Gap, one of the most
dangerous places on earth.
They just want to be able toship them directly into Central
America.
Hop a train, hop a plane, findsome other way to get into
America, but they're comingacross these, board this border
(25:38):
in waves and it's not, it's not,it's not possible for me to
believe that that bothRepublicans and Democrats alike
forget just the fact that theRepublicans are a little
splintered right now because ofthe primary, assuming they all
come back together.
I find it hard to believe thatthat there aren't, you know,
(25:58):
maybe half the Democrats who, ifthey knew, believe this is okay
.
You know, we're watching thingshappen on the border and it's
like wait, that can't be America.
Is this really happening?
Is this really happening?
But that obvius skates thereality that thousands, tens of
thousands of terrorists, tens ofthousands of Chinese fighting
(26:20):
people have been coming acrossthis border and filtering in.
You know, thank goodness forthe Second Amendment because you
know it feels like everybody'sgoing to need their guns,
they're going to need ammo,they're going to need to be able
to fight back, and it's goingto all happen at some point who
knows, but during an electionyear for them not to even be
trying to stop it.
So I'm going to start a war andthen I'm going to try to start
(26:43):
a civil war internally, becausewith all of this and oh, by the
way, Chinese, we're going to bereally mad at you if you attack
Taiwan I just don't believe thatthe geopolitical sensibilities
of all Americans, whether theyunderstand it all or are aware
of it all or not, really supportthis kind of thing that they're
(27:06):
trying to, you know, kind ofcram down our throat.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Well, you've got to think that the record that I've
never seen a president that hasa well, maybe Jimmy Carter, but
not even Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter looks goodcompared to Joe Biden.
At least Jimmy Carter couldcomplete a sentence.
You know, it's the economiesand shambles.
The inflation is something veryreal to most Americans, even
(27:32):
though the president continuesto say that it's not a problem.
Everybody knows that inflationand the cost of living is a huge
problem.
Nobody can afford to buy ahouse.
If Biden gets back in foranother four years, I think it's
very safe to assume China willmake a move on Taiwan.
Then you'll have a war withRussia and Ukraine, You'll have
(27:58):
total instability and war in theMiddle East and you'll have
China at war.
So this is what he's leaving us.
This is what we're getting fromhim.
I just don't see how in theworld you vote for that.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, the legacy of the nonverbal.
It's just, it's really, reallyunfortunate that we find
ourselves here.
Well, Jason, I can't thank youenough.
I'm beyond excited about thisyear working with you again on
some of these projects.
Everybody, we're going to postthe trailer for Switchers.
(28:31):
We'll post that with thisepisode, but we'll also find a
place and figure out a way topost the actual movie Switchers
so you can kind of get areorient yourself with who Jason
is and who his team is and howthey go about telling the
stories.
That I think really have thebest opportunity for us to be
(28:52):
able to move the needle as wemove into the balance of 2024.
Jason Meath, thank you so muchfor joining us here on Patreon
Games.
I look forward to seeing yousoon with a whole new set of
videos.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I can't wait to work together, greg.
I mean, there's no better twopeople to work with, especially
at a time like this, than youand Catherine, and I'll just
tell your listeners to staytuned, yeah big things are
coming, absolutely, jason.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thank you so much.
Hang with us here for a secondand everybody will see you next
week on Patreon Games.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
That and to stay up to date, visit the website at
Patreon Gamescom.
Until next time, keep your eyesopen.
No matter where you are, you are being watched.
In today's world, no one is offthe grid.
Existing in the modern worldhas been forever changed.
What's out there?
Most people don't want to know,but you are about to get clued
(00:26):
in.
This is Patriot Games.
We'll explore differentintelligence techniques,
spycraft and the latestcutting-edge technology that
will blow your mind.
We'll introduce you to proswho've spent careers in the
(00:46):
Intel community With incrediblestories.
We'll expose it all.
Welcome to Patriot Games.
And now your host, gregPhillips.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hey everybody, it's Greg Phillips.
Welcome back to Patriot Games.
I am thrilled today to have notonly a good friend and
colleague, but somebody who'sactually doing great work and
moving the needle in the kind ofthe political film space.
That's probably the least ofthe things that his team
(01:31):
actually does, but as far as I'mconcerned, I've been working
with Jason Meath for gosh since2012, I guess, and so after 13
or 14 years and watching justthe quality of the creations
that Jason and his team puttogether, and then we'll talk a
(01:52):
little bit about not just wherewe are today and some of the
things that he's done in thepast and I'm going to link to a
few videos some of his work thathe's done but we also want to
talk a little bit about wherewe're going and what you can
expect from the team of Greg,catherine, jason and a handful
of others that are gettingtogether to create something, I
(02:13):
think, really meaningful in thespace.
So with that, jason Meath,welcome to Patriot Games.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Thanks, Greg.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Great to be here.
You know, jason, we firststarted this.
Actually, you created a videofor another candidate and we
were kind of starting to crankup in Winning Our Future, which
was Newt Super PAC.
This was late 2011, early 2012.
(02:41):
And we got to a place where theIowa caucuses had already
happened, new Hampshire hadalready happened.
So we had Santorum that won theIowa caucus.
You had Mitt Romney, who won NewHampshire and had all the
momentum, and I think we feltlike at the time that the
(03:03):
biggest thing that we could dowould be to stop the Romney
juggernaut, as it were, in SouthCarolina, and so that's how I
met Jason.
So, jason, you want to talk alittle bit about King of Bane,
one of the at the time, I think,maybe one of the most
(03:24):
significant earned media eventsin the history of presidential
elections.
But tell everybody a little bitabout you, about the company,
and let's jump in and talk alittle bit about what we did
then.
Then maybe move on up to 2016and let's talk a little bit
about 2020 and then kind of easeinto what we're expecting this
year.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That sounds great.
Yeah, it was great working withyou and the team back in 2012,.
Right, 2012 election we'regetting old man.
But it's hard to believe thatMitt Romney became the nominee
of the Republican Party.
I mean contrast that with DonaldTrump and I mean it's almost
(04:08):
like it's not even the sameparty.
But we had put together I puttogether a film with Barry
Bennett called King of Bane itwas called when Mitt Romney came
to town originally and wechanged it to a much snappier
King of Bane and, very simply,we went out to the states and
(04:32):
talked to people that worked forsome of these companies that
Mitt Romney took over during histime as the head of Bane
Capital and we found out thatreally what he had done is he
had shipped everybody's jobsoverseas and made a killing
doing it.
And we had people whose entirelives, generations of their
(04:54):
families, in fact, had worked atsome of these factories, had
worked at some of these millsand whatnot, and to see it all
dry up within a week after hetook over some of these
businesses and shipped them alloverseas.
And it was very emotional filmand it was a very poignant and
moving experience and wecaptured something on camera
(05:19):
that at the time really had notbeen very had not been done.
I mean we released a film outinto the middle of the
Republican primary that ended upgetting run on cable television
almost on a loop every daybecause it was so compelling.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And man were they mad .
The Romney people wereabsolutely insanely mad at us,
right, I mean it turns out wewere right again, right, jason?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, sure, I mean, you know, and you know, a little
addendum to this story is thatI was a former advisor on the
Mitt Romney campaign, the firstcamp, first time he ran against
McCain, and I remember cuttingads they wanted me to cut ads
for him and they kept telling methat he was this great
businessman and he had done allthese wonderful things in the
(06:12):
private sector.
And I kept asking can youplease send me the list of all
the things that he, thesewonderful things that he had
done?
And they were stonewalling.
They wouldn't send me hisrecord and finally I, you know,
I kind of realized that hereally didn't do very good
things in the private sectorwhen it came to the American
(06:35):
people, he sold them down theriver and so that kind of teed
up the entire experience andknowing sort of from the inside
that this guy was was a kind ofa bad actor, especially when it
came to the Republican Party andmore patriotic Americans, he
did really have much Well, verygood, mr Yu, jason and your
production team.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You guys did an amazing job, not just on that,
but we did another one shortlyafter that called Mitt's Blood
Money yeah, About a basically aMedicare fraud scam that he and
one of his companies had beeninvolved in.
I think they ended up payinglike a $70 million fine or
something like that.
And you know people, you knowwhen you have these, these sort
(07:15):
of guys like Mick Romney outthere, you know they, they, they
skate around on the edges oftruth all the time and they just
never can quite get there.
And I think that's one of thethings that you and your team
have been so successful at atleast in my view is is really,
you know, scraping at thoseedges and figuring out where
these people actually are andwhere where the truth is.
(07:37):
And you know it's sadly moreoften than not with people like
Mitt Romney.
You know the truth is, you know, far more ugly than than their
PR team would have you believe.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, you know, in looking back at it in 2012, if
you did not have a Mitt Romneyand people didn't go through
that experience in 2012 and getserved up another four years of
Obama, you never would have hada Donald Trump.
And what happened was is thatthe entire party collapsed after
Mitt Romney's loss and reallyremade itself in a completely
(08:14):
different form.
That was coalesced aroundDonald Trump.
We had never seen anythingquite like that.
What I think many people whowere conservatives, or people
that weren't even conservatives,started doing is they started
looking at these politicians,whether they were Republicans or
Democrats, and they startedthinking are these people really
(08:35):
on our side?
Is Mitt Romney really on myside?
Is Barack Obama really on myside?
I mean, I now have a bronzeplan that isn't worth a piece of
paper it's printed on becauseof Obamacare, and my healthcare
costs have gone up like everyoneelse's healthcare costs have
come up because of Barack Obama.
(08:57):
And then you had, on the otherhand, you had this guy, mitt
Romney, who had sold everybody'sjobs overseas.
Every company he ever touched,he killed it.
I mean, you know, the list is along list of those companies
that were really belovedcompanies, american companies.
So I think people really kindof did a total re-evaluation of
(09:17):
what they wanted in a politician, and when Trump came along, he
was speaking our language, hewas speaking Americans language,
he was saying the things thatpeople wished that their
politicians would say, and hewas doing the things that they
wished their politicians woulddo.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know, it's absolutely amazing.
Now, looking back, I mean,there were so few people that
really had the foresight tounderstand what you just
described, but with your movieSwitchers, can you tell us a
little bit about it?
I mean, you just kind ofdescribed it, but how did it
come to be and, in your view,how important was it to the
(09:57):
process?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I mean.
Switchers in some ways isalmost like a bit of a sequel to
King of Bane, because whereasat King of Bane we found that
people were upset because oftheir jobs being sold overseas
and whatnot, we went back fouryears later and we really only
talked with traditionalDemocrats in swing states and it
(10:23):
didn't matter what color, whatgender or anything they were,
they were all saying the samething.
We were going from state tostate talking to people that
would literally complete thesentences of the people we just
talked to in another state.
I've never seen anything quitelike it.
And they all were saying thatthey needed.
We needed to close our borders,we needed to build a wall, we
(10:45):
needed to revamp our and bringup the middle class again and we
needed to get fentanyl off thestreets.
And we needed to stand for theAmerican Dream.
Because the whole premise of thefilm Switchers was that the
majority of Americans, for thefirst time in 2016, did not
(11:06):
believe in the American Dream.
They did not think that theAmerican Dream existed, at least
for them.
And now here we are in 2024 andwe have tens of millions of
illegal immigrants flooding overthe border and filling our
neighborhoods with fentanyl andfilling our neighborhoods with
crime, and they're not the bestof the best, and they're
(11:29):
literally closing down schoolsin some areas so that they can
house migrants rather than teachour school children.
And we say again are thesepoliticians on our side?
Certainly doesn't seem like it.
They're giving free healthcareto illegal immigrants.
They're not giving me freehealthcare.
They're not giving you freehealthcare.
(11:50):
So, again, I think we've goneright back to that place that we
were in 2016, and even worse,with an American people that are
completely been sold down theriver and disenfranchised by our
leaders, and so that's what wefound in switchers, and I
believe that sentiment has evenblown up since then.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, 100% agree with you.
Everybody knows we put out amovie in 2022, 2000 mules, but
just prior to that you guysreleased almost what felt a
little bit like in retrospect, acompanion piece.
It was produced by your team,obviously, and not by Denash and
(12:33):
his team, but can you talk alittle bit about sort of walking
into that 2022 space and whatyou guys were thinking a little
bit about the movie?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, so I paired with Citizens United.
We did a film called Rigged,and it was all about Mark
Zuckerberg's giant infusion ofhundreds of thousands of dollars
into the political process andtrying to manipulate the outcome
(13:05):
of the vote, rigging theelection, and your piece picked
up on some of the ways they didthat.
But at the helm of the entireoperation was Obama's ex-chief
campaign man, david Pluff, andhe was the head strategist with
Chan Zuckerberg.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And guess what, guys?
Now he's back in gear again.
He just took over the currentBiden campaign, let's say.
And here we go again.
Pluff's involved in what'shappening now.
He's frightening, but anyway,it's just mind-bending.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it really is.
He's back and these people arethe ones that and they get away
with it.
They got away with it Whateverthey did in 2020, whether it was
mules and rigging votes andgoing into neighbor but what
they did is they know, per tothe block in Milwaukee, how many
(14:09):
people are there and how manypeople they can stack ballots in
their names and get them to goout or tell them that they'll go
out and vote for them orwhatever they're doing.
And they know, street by street,block by block, of every major
city, corrupt city likePhiladelphia and Atlanta now,
(14:31):
where they can mine those namesand those votes and those
ballots and those checkmarks andwhatever else.
There are mail-in ballots andvotes and so they're back and
they're up to their old tricksand we got to.
You know, the only hope is tocontinue to expose what they're
(14:52):
doing, continue to go out thereand shake the tree and tell
people that they ought to beenraged and fuel them to go out
and use their voice, becausethey're not necessarily
canceling our voters.
They're not necessarilycanceling many American voters.
What they're doing is they'rerigging and stacking votes to
(15:16):
diminish our voices, and it justtakes every single person to go
out there and fight.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think everybody can now see, after spending a few
minutes with Jason, you know whyI'm About to say what I'm about
to say.
But we are putting together asuper PAC.
The paperwork's already beenfiled, we're ready to go, we're
starting to raise money herepretty quick.
But, most importantly,underpinning all of that, we're
(15:43):
bringing back some of Our oldteammates, some fighters and
some people that really know howto do this, and we've got a, I
think, probably the bestmessaging Person on the planet
gonna join us in the new pack.
Me, katherine, jason and yourteam were so excited to have you
guys coming back into the mixon this.
As we sort of Launch into alittle bit of unknown here,
(16:07):
first of all, just a reminder toeveryone there is no path for
Nikki Haley.
She's not even in on the caucusballot in in Nevada, for
example.
She's gonna get killed in inSouth Carolina if she stays
there, and even if she doesn't,florida's gonna kill her and
then super Tuesday will wouldwrap it all up.
There is no path to Nikki Haleybeing in this thing.
(16:30):
So, that said, and we start nowthinking about where, where are
we going and and how do we?
How do we do this?
I think one of the challengesthat that Sort of normal people
face in these instances, jason,is, is really Understanding how
to put the pieces and partstogether, then raising the money
and then being willing to playboth offense and defense and and
(16:55):
I think that the aggressivenessof our repro is really what
what separates teams like oursfrom Maybe others.
I understand that DeSantisspent something like a hundred
fifty million dollars orsomething like that of donors
money and you know and gotabsolutely nowhere.
(17:16):
I would venture to say that oneof the reasons they got nowhere
and one of the reasons wefailed other than the fact he
you know he wasn't very, youknow likeable candidate is the,
the staff, rather than you knowtaking the time to.
You know if they're gonna attackTrump, you don't just do it on
social media, right?
You don't just go out and sayyou know, log in to true social
(17:38):
and tell all the maga peoplethat you know we hate you and
you know Trump's going down andwhatever.
You know all that was going onon social media.
I think that the tacticalmistake was certainly there, but
but it goes beyond that.
I think that that that manypeople in this space still think
kind of old school, in thesense that we're just gonna
(18:00):
we're gonna raise a bunch ofmoney, we're gonna spend a bunch
of money on ads and ourcandidate will go out and he'll
go to all 99 Counties and we'lldo it this way and all the while
, I'm gonna have a whole team ofpeople that are just banging on
the Trump people on socialmedia.
It may be one of the single mostdumb strategies in the history
(18:20):
of modern elections To bang onTrump people on social media.
I mean, these people are notjust fighters but experts and
entangling in this kind of messa little bit like President
Trump.
And and I think that you knowas a, as a point of reference to
us as we start up this new pack, jason, we need to be prepared,
(18:42):
you know, to to fight likeDonald Trump does.
We need to prepare to to Beaggressive in both explaining to
when we're doing thepresidential side, you know, not
just explaining to people.
You know why he's the best,which is one side of that but
but also kind of what's wrong onthe other side.
We're gonna be supportingPro-freedom candidates and we're
(19:05):
going to be potentiallyattacking anti-freedom efforts
and anti-freedom people, and itisn't just gonna be in the
presidential race, we're gonnabe looking into Senate races,
we're gonna be looking intocongressional races and we're
gonna be looking into issues.
All of these things will rollup into what I think is a a
monumental Momentum buildingcapability, and we're just gonna
(19:30):
be part of it, obviously.
But I'm really excited aboutthis.
Do you can you sort of share it?
I mean, I know we haven't beentalking about this pack for long
, but can you just share someideas with folks on where, where
you think, as you know, I thinkprobably one of the best, maybe
the best creator on our side,we're where?
Do you think we should go withthat as sort of a framework?
(19:51):
I mean, what can the peoplelook forward to in terms of your
creative ideas and your team'sideas?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well, you know, trump is someone that we've never
seen in politics before in mylifetime.
He's somebody who went outthere and almost read the minds
of people in Michigan, in Ohio,in Pennsylvania, and cracked
some of the states that no otherRepublican nominee candidate
(20:21):
had ever been able to do.
And it's because he has thiskind of connection with the
American voter in ways that youand I have never seen.
And what at least I have done,and what you have done, I think,
very, very well, is you havefollowed in that same tradition
(20:45):
the reason why we don't make ourfilms in Washington DC, we
don't make our films in New YorkCity, we don't make our films
in Los Angeles.
We make our films in Indiana,we make our films in Ohio, we
make our films in America.
We go to Texas, we go to placeswhere real people are, to find
(21:05):
out what it is that's on theirminds, what it is that drives
them, what it is that is movingthem.
And we hear their stories andwe listen.
You know we don't dictate, welisten.
And what we find out in telling,then that's how we can tell
their stories.
You can't tell somebody'sstories from sitting in a
(21:26):
building in Washington DC or LosAngeles, and that's where many
people just kind of go wrongwith this whole approach.
When you have the ad makers andthe DeSantis folks that
controlled everything out of DCand whatever, there's no way
they could know that the entirepremise of the DeSantis campaign
was flawed.
I mean he thought that peoplewere upset with Donald Trump and
(21:49):
looking for a replacement.
They were not.
That was very, very clear.
It finally became clear to himafter one contest.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Iowa, that was it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
It's all took.
He was just like okay, I getthe message, you know.
So I mean, but we knew that, wealready knew that we could have
told him that on day one, buthe had to find out the hard way
and $150 million later there heis.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
And I think you know there's been a tone of
conciliation and reconciliationjust in the last 24 hours
between the guys and betweenPresident Trump and DeSantis,
and hopefully that'll bleed down.
I know there's a lot of bitterbitterness out there about all
of this.
I mean, the Trump team had tospend a bunch of money they
(22:33):
shouldn't have had to have spentduring this situation, but you
know it is what it is.
This is a primary and this ispolitics, and politics is, you
know, rarely pretty.
This time it wasn't, you know,but I don't think anybody really
believes that this party andthese players are not ultimately
(22:54):
going to be able to come backtogether.
I mean, the fact of the matteris, biden is trying to destroy
the country from within with hisborder policies.
He's trying to start anotherwar, he's destroyed the economy.
He's done all these things thatare just almost breathtaking
but also are perfect issues forall of our side.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
You know, I know they're going to try to Remember
when they used to say thatDonald Trump was going to start
World War Three.
Who's saying that Biden isstarting World War Three?
You know we don't hear themsaying that, but he is.
I mean, you know the entireworld is far less safe today
than it was under Donald Trump.
It was at peace.
We have four years of peace.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
That's exactly right, and American soldiers are being
lost.
We lost a couple of Navy SEALshere a few weeks ago with, you
know, with a ship from Iran thatwas trying to gun run a little
bit.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and Biden has said nothing about it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Nothing, not a word, zero, Nothing.
And it's really it's knowing somany of those team guys that,
like I do it just, I mean theyall feel it and I mean they
really are a team or set ofteams, and when one is lost, I
mean the guys really take ithard.
In this case, Unfortunately,they lost two of the guys.
And you know, it's just, it'sjust heartbreaking.
(24:12):
And then I pick up the paper,or I picked up the, or turned on
the news the other night Ithink it was Saturday night, and
the Iranians are shootingmissiles into Iraq and killing a
bunch of Americans again.
And here we go, Right, I meanit's like this, oh my gosh, this
is.
You know, everybody's saying it, but now we're like living it.
Our friend, Michael Yon, hasbeen sending me some videos.
(24:34):
He's back in, back in down nearthe Darien Gap and working a
project in Panama right now andand Michael was sending me all
these videos and all thesephotos and stuff and it's, it's
really mind blowing at threeo'clock in the morning.
It's something that's sort ofeuphemistically called the China
camp, which, which, by the way,my orcas and others.
We have video of them.
(24:56):
Actually, in these camps,10,000 fighting age Chinese in
one week passed through what iswhat's euphemistically called
the China camp and are makingtheir way up here.
You've got places likeNicaragua that are clamping down
on Christians and taking thechurches and and, at the same
(25:17):
time, taking $5 billion from theChinese to build an
international airport.
So they don't even have to goto Columbia and then come up, or
Venezuela and come up throughthe Darien Gap, one of the most
dangerous places on earth.
They just want to be able toship them directly into Central
America.
Hop a train, hop a plane, findsome other way to get into
America, but they're comingacross these, board this border
(25:38):
in waves and it's not, it's not,it's not possible for me to
believe that that bothRepublicans and Democrats alike
forget just the fact that theRepublicans are a little
splintered right now because ofthe primary, assuming they all
come back together.
I find it hard to believe thatthat there aren't, you know,
(25:58):
maybe half the Democrats who, ifthey knew, believe this is okay
.
You know, we're watching thingshappen on the border and it's
like wait, that can't be America.
Is this really happening?
Is this really happening?
But that obvius skates thereality that thousands, tens of
thousands of terrorists, tens ofthousands of Chinese fighting
(26:20):
people have been coming acrossthis border and filtering in.
You know, thank goodness forthe Second Amendment because you
know it feels like everybody'sgoing to need their guns,
they're going to need ammo,they're going to need to be able
to fight back, and it's goingto all happen at some point who
knows, but during an electionyear for them not to even be
trying to stop it.
So I'm going to start a war andthen I'm going to try to start
(26:43):
a civil war internally, becausewith all of this and oh, by the
way, Chinese, we're going to bereally mad at you if you attack
Taiwan I just don't believe thatthe geopolitical sensibilities
of all Americans, whether theyunderstand it all or are aware
of it all or not, really supportthis kind of thing that they're
(27:06):
trying to, you know, kind ofcram down our throat.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Well, you've got to think that the record that I've
never seen a president that hasa well, maybe Jimmy Carter, but
not even Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter looks goodcompared to Joe Biden.
At least Jimmy Carter couldcomplete a sentence.
You know, it's the economiesand shambles.
The inflation is something veryreal to most Americans, even
(27:32):
though the president continuesto say that it's not a problem.
Everybody knows that inflationand the cost of living is a huge
problem.
Nobody can afford to buy ahouse.
If Biden gets back in foranother four years, I think it's
very safe to assume China willmake a move on Taiwan.
Then you'll have a war withRussia and Ukraine, You'll have
(27:58):
total instability and war in theMiddle East and you'll have
China at war.
So this is what he's leaving us.
This is what we're getting fromhim.
I just don't see how in theworld you vote for that.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, the legacy of the nonverbal.
It's just, it's really, reallyunfortunate that we find
ourselves here.
Well, Jason, I can't thank youenough.
I'm beyond excited about thisyear working with you again on
some of these projects.
Everybody, we're going to postthe trailer for Switchers.
(28:31):
We'll post that with thisepisode, but we'll also find a
place and figure out a way topost the actual movie Switchers
so you can kind of get areorient yourself with who Jason
is and who his team is and howthey go about telling the
stories.
That I think really have thebest opportunity for us to be
(28:52):
able to move the needle as wemove into the balance of 2024.
Jason Meath, thank you so muchfor joining us here on Patreon
Games.
I look forward to seeing yousoon with a whole new set of
videos.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I can't wait to work together, greg.
I mean, there's no better twopeople to work with, especially
at a time like this, than youand Catherine, and I'll just
tell your listeners to staytuned, yeah big things are
coming, absolutely, jason.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thank you so much.
Hang with us here for a secondand everybody will see you next
week on Patreon Games.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
That and to stay up to date, visit the website at
Patreon Gamescom.
Until next time, keep your eyesopen.
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