October 3, 2025 • 32 mins
Join The Chicks on the Right as we sit down with Congressman Brandon Gill, the youngest Republican member of Congress from Texas’ 26th District. In this episode, we cover the government shutdown, Democrats’ motivations, and how Republicans plan to stand firm. Brandon shares his personal journey from growing up on a West Texas cattle ranch to becoming a Congressman, the influence of his father-in-law Dinesh D’Souza, and how he stays connected to his constituents while raising a young family.
We also discuss school safety, the “No Sharia” Act, his approach to committee work, and his thoughts on Democrats’ policies and strategies. Plus, we get a glimpse into his daily life and family time.
00:00 Intro
02:00 Government Shutdown Insights
06:10 Republican Stance on Government Spending
11:00 Becoming a Congressman: A Personal Journey
14:10 Maintaining Integrity in Politics
18:00 Democratic Policies and Crime
21:00 Humor in Politics: The Sombrero Meme
23:40 The No Sharia Act Proposal
26:35 School Safety Measures
29:15 A Day in the Life of a Congressman
31:10 Family Life and Personal Interests
We also discuss school safety, the “No Sharia” Act, his approach to committee work, and his thoughts on Democrats’ policies and strategies. Plus, we get a glimpse into his daily life and family time.
00:00 Intro
02:00 Government Shutdown Insights
06:10 Republican Stance on Government Spending
11:00 Becoming a Congressman: A Personal Journey
14:10 Maintaining Integrity in Politics
18:00 Democratic Policies and Crime
21:00 Humor in Politics: The Sombrero Meme
23:40 The No Sharia Act Proposal
26:35 School Safety Measures
29:15 A Day in the Life of a Congressman
31:10 Family Life and Personal Interests
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Very excited because we.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Have the youngest Republican member of Congress with US Representative
Brandon Gill from the twenty six Desk District in Texas,
a guy that folks in our audience probably know from
such things as the awesome interrogations that he does of
liberal weirdos during committee hearings. He is also the son
in law of one of our longtime pals, Danesh Desuza.
(00:26):
We're so glad to have you with us today, especially
in the midst of a government shutdown. So first things first,
before we get to anything else, what is your prediction
on how this is going to play out?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, first all, thanks for having me on and to
talk with you all. You know, there's a lot to
say about the government shutdown. I would say, I think
from here, the American people are quickly realizing and Democrats
realize that they're just shutting the government down because they
want to use our tax dollars to give healthcare subsidies
(00:59):
to illegal alien and that's something that the vast majority
of Americans disagree with, something that most moderate Democrats also
disagree with. So, you know, we'll see how long this lasts.
The ball is in the Democrats court, but I suspect
that it won't last more than about a week. But
we'll see what they do.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Really a week because they're trying to spin it. They're
doing this whole it's healthcare for everything, you know, like
Maxine Waters doesn't want to talk about that it's for illegals.
We know that it's for illegals, and I mean people
with you know, brain cells left in their heads know
it's for illegals. But they're trying to spin it. Congressman,
So I don't know, a week sounds good. I think
(01:36):
that's that's okay. But yeah, they're trying.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
To spin it. I mean, is it is literally in
the bill text of the continuing resolution that Democrats propose,
so we remember we propose our continuing resolution. We passed
it out of the House two weeks ago. It was
an entirely clean CR, meaning it is just a bill
to keep the government open, to keep the lights on
(02:00):
on it. We didn't pack it with conservative priorities, we
didn't put Republican priorities. It's literally biased seven weeks so
that we can run the regular appropriations process in the meantime,
Democrats gave their counterproposal, and page fifty seven of it
references section seventy one one oh nine of the big
beautiful Bill, the Reconciliation Bill, and strips it out. That
(02:23):
was the section that bars funding for paying for medicaid
for illegal aliens. I mean it is right there in
the bill text what they're trying to do. I mean,
it is very black and white here.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And is it the cr that you guys passed in
the House. Didn't they just vote in favor of that
exact same CR like just a few months ago.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Why what are they even doing.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Democrats have voted in favor of crs thirteen times just
in the past few years. So this is something that
we routinely do, unfortunately, But we're doing this here again
to get back to right now gular order, to the
real appropriations process, which is something that we all want
to do. You know, that's the primary job of Congress
(03:08):
is to exercise the power of the purse. But you're right,
Democrats have done this thirteen times. They did it back
in March of this year, the exact same CR they
voted for to keep the government open, and they're not
doing it now. So you ask yourself, why are they
doing that. Why all of the sudden does Chuck Schumer
and the Democrats want to shut the government down. What's
changed since March And the only thing that's changed is
(03:30):
that Chuck Schumer is worried about getting a primary from
his left from AOC, so he's willing to hold the
American people hostage by shutting the government down to make
sure that he can beef up his left wing bona
fides by trying to push health care for illegal aliens.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So you just talked about the fact that you know, ultimately,
when this gets shut down and hopefully the Senate passes
the and everything, the government opens back up again, and
then you talk about needing to go through this appropriations process.
But based on what we've seen with just a simple
clean cr like, is there any hope that you guys
will all agree to anything? And most importantly, will Republicans
(04:11):
stand their ground on this shutdown because we've seen caving
that we have not been happy with in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, I'll take that one first. The first answer is, yes,
we are going to stand our ground. You know, one
of the things that you've seen from House Republicans and
remember We've got a diverse conference, We've got a lot
of different sort of ideological factions in the Republican Party,
and we don't always agree on everything. But every single
House Republican that I have talked to is ready to
stand their ground on this. You know, we worked really
(04:41):
really hard to pass the Reconciliation Bill this past summer
on July fourth, whenever President Trump signed it into law,
and one of the pieces of that was a common
sense welfare reform making sure that people who are receiving
Medicaid who are able bodied in working age are actually
working or seeking work to receive it, so that we
(05:03):
can shore up the viability of these programs. Another big
portion of that was making sure that illegal aliens are
not getting federal tax dollars. You know, this is so
common sense, and we're not going to let Democrats undo
all of that. I mean, that is absurd. And the
reality is that in everybody recognizes this that Republicans are
(05:23):
in the right here. You know, again, this is the
same bill Democrats voted for in March, and now all
of the sudden they want to shut the government down.
This is unambiguously a Democrat shutdown. So we're not going
to allow Democrats to hold the American people hostage like
that and sort of throw big temper tantrums to get
(05:44):
their way. We're not going to let Democrats add another
one and a half trillion dollars in federal spending as
part of a seven week continuing resolution. I mean, that
is wildly irresponsible. So the short answer is, no, we're
not going to back down. We're going to hold our
ground here because we're right and the American people realize
that we're can hold you to it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We're holding you to it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That's right and it's important. You know, again, whenever we
go to Democrats and negotiating good faith right here and
they come back with something that is completely unseerious, it's
a total joke. You know. All we can do is
say we're going to protect the American taxpayer, and that's
(06:28):
what we're doing. Now. You asked about where we go
from here once the government reopens, We'll have to you know,
there is a bit of a negotiating negotiation process that
happens whenever you pass the individual appropriations bills. We passed
three out of the House already. Those are going to conference,
which is a negotiation between the House and the Senate.
(06:48):
So we'll see where that goes. But to even get
that process going, we have to have the lights on
in the government.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, so like common sense is sort of endangered now,
so I know when you say this, you know what
I mean. Yeah, it's almost extinct. So yeah, we're hoping
that it works out. We hope it does. So about yourself,
I'm very curious how does one become a congressman because
or a congressman, well, a congresswoman, but also really you congressman?
(07:14):
When you are growing up? Do you are you like
eight years old and you're going mom and dad, I
want to be a congressman someday, Like how that? How
that happened for you?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
You know, I've always been interested in politics. I grew
up on a cattle ranch in West Texas. We had
a thousand acre ranch out there, raised angus and brings
angus angus. Yeah, okay, outside of outside of Abilene. And
so I grew up working on the ranch. And that's
a pretty good place to learn conservative values. You learn
(07:45):
the value of a dollar really quickly whenever you do
inter pound and t posts into the ground for a
minimum wage. And so that that was how I grew up.
I grew up working cows, driving tractors and back hose.
But a lot of times whenever I would do work
on the ranch, which I would be listening to talk
radio or something similar. So I grew up listening to
(08:05):
Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity every day
growing up. So I've always been interested in politics, but
never thought that I would be in political office. Definitely
not right now at thirty one, so it was a
long path to get there.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But you know, did you listen to your father in law?
Did you ever listen to him?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
We did occasionally if he were if he was on
one of the shows, or if you know, sometimes we'd
listen to audio books and things like that. That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, And dinner are like family dinners consumed by politics
or do you steer clear? No?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You know, actually I wouldn't say consumed, but I would
say we talk about politics a lot. You know, Denesh
makes he's a very interesting father in law to have.
He's a brilliant guy. Yeah, brilliant, somewhat of a political mentor.
So we we talked about politics very very frequently.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What do you disagree on, if anything.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
It's a good question, you know, I'm not I'm not
sure there's anything that we, you know, materially disagree on.
You know, I think that Denesh, you know, is a
Reaganite Conservative. I would I would say that I am
as well, where both Maga Republicans were totally on board
with President Trump's agenda. But you know, one of the
great things about Densh is that he is a He's
(09:25):
a scholar as well. You know, this is a guy
who is very steeped in history and philosophy in everything
in between. So there's a lot to talk about with him,
and I always learned something.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So going back to Congress for just a second, what
when you first got there and you're you know, you're
obviously the youngest Republican congressman there. I think the youngest
Democrat is Frost, right, Maxwell Frost, If I'm not mistaken,
you guys are around the same age. So when you
got there, I'm sure had to be overwhelming for a
brand new congressman. I mean probably for the first year
(10:00):
you're just like figuring out where the bathrooms are and
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So was there something that you were shocked by?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Because I know We've talked to Congressman Burchett before, for example,
and one of the things that he continues to be
surprised by is just how much corruption he sees in
the halls of Congress. Have you been faced with that
and has it been as much of a surprise to
you as it was to him?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You know, not as much whenever I you know, I
would say there's certainly are a lot of problems in Washington,
and those are the things that we've got to work
on fixing. But you know, I came in at a
time which was I was sworn in January of this year,
where Republicans had President Trump and in the White House
with JD. Vance as Vice President, who's been great. We
(10:45):
control Congress, we have a simple majority in the Senate,
so we really came in hitting the ground running knowing
we've got the ability to pass real, substantial conservative legislation.
So from the beginning, it has been, you know, really
just working non stop. We started working on that tax
reconciliation bill that the President signed into law on day one,
(11:08):
and I know last Congress, the Speaker and other people
were working on it. So it has been NonStop. You know,
it is I'll say, whenever you have a two seats
soon to be one seat majority in Congress, knowing that
Democrats aren't going to do anything at all to help
us out, They're not going to give any votes for
anything that's meaningful on the conservative side, it makes it
(11:30):
pretty difficult to get legislation passed. And that's been a
bit surprising how difficult. With that said, we've got major,
major conservative reforms done just in the past nine months.
So it's been you know, it's definitely a ton of work,
but that's what we're up there to do.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, I was going to ask. I was like, well,
I should ask him about how he stays not corrupt
because we've seen so many people, well we've been doing
this for seventeen years and when we're old, we've been
doing that, and we've seen a lot of people that
we're like, even friends that have gone off to Washington
and then they become completely different people. And I was
going to ask you, like, how you are going to
not do that? But then you talked about being raised
(12:09):
on a cattle ranch, and I'm like, God, he's totally fine.
He's gonna be good.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, you know, you know, the reality is we spend
as much time as we can here in Texas where
I am now. I represent a great district in Texas,
twenty six beautiful, beautiful community, really really good people. I mean,
this is really God's country out here. So I think,
you know, one thing that's really important is just to
make sure that representatives stay very connected to the people
(12:37):
that they represent and not to Washington and the Swamp,
because the Swamp is a very nasty place to be
in a lot of ways, and you know, there are
there are a lot of issues there. But we try
to stay here as much as possible. You know, I'd
spend a lot of time with my wife. She travels
with me a lot of times as well, so she's
(12:58):
involved with the things that we're working on. We bring
our kids in whenever we can. We've got a two
year old and a four month old right now.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
My gosh, were.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You need to have like ten kids? Right?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
We would love to God will will give us.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I love.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So do you have besties? Like, do you have besties
in Congress? And then aside from that, do you ever
like do you ever have to like face any members
of the squad? And like, how hard do you shower
after that.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, who's the worst? We get to know who the
worst is too. I know a lot of questions there, Brandon, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know. I'm in the Freedom Caucus and I spent
a lot of time with with those guys. I think
those are, you know, really the conservative fighters in Washington.
So that tends to be my group. But we've got
a great freshman class. Whenever I came in, I was
elected president of the Freshman Class Republicans, and we've got
about thirty five members in our class, and they're they're
(13:54):
there to work. I mean, they're there to to get
real conservative policy across the finish line. And so I
would say I'm in and have a lot of friends
in uh in Congress. We've got a lot of really
good members. But those are those are the areas where
I spend the most amount of time.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
That's awesome. And so that the worst person that you
can think of, like probably if you can give us
an you can't do that, you feel like you can't
do that always the worst in the squad that you've
had to deal with, because you know, we have our worst.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I serve on two committees with our friend Jasmine Crockett
and she's a representative from from the Dallas area. Yeah,
are from my district, and we we go back and
forth quite a bit. We're both on the Judiciary and
Oversight committees, and those are those are the committees that
that tend to have a lot of the more hot
button issues, you know, judiciaries everything from abortion to gun
(14:47):
rights to everything in between. And oversight is where I
serve on the House Doge Subcommittee of Oversight, So we
do a lot of things that are much more hot
button issues.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And do you really run into these people at the
gym and it's awkward?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
We have you know, we try to try to keep
it keep it civil outside, but I'll tell you not
every Democrat is very uh is very friendly even outside
of the committee rooms, uh, out the House.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I know that's such a shock shocked by that.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah, you know, it's uh, we you know, we try
try to keep it civil, but it doesn't doesn't always work.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Do you think that they believe genuinely, like like Jasmine
for example, do you think that she believes all the
stuff that she spews or is it I mean, is
it like for show? Is she just trying to be
the way that she is for show.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You know, I think she probably does believe it. I
think she probably really does believe that, as many Democrats
too do, that we should be using our tax dollars
to give health care to illegal aliens, or that boys
should be in girls' bathrooms. I mean, I don't know
how to justify it if they don't, because the majority
of Americans vehemently disagree with these things. I mean they're insane, yeah,
(16:06):
And they.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Keep defending criminals like that seems to be their target
audience for everything.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Right, their strategy really is, I mean, everything that we
try to do. You know, we had a crime Week
just a few weeks ago where we passed a few
bills out of the House, including one of my own,
that would just help clean up the cities. I mean,
you see everything President Trump is doing to clean up Washington,
d C. It's been wildly successful. I mean, within a
(16:33):
few weeks, the murder rate had dropped in half, carjacking
rate was down eighty seven percent in Washington, d C.
Because of President Trump. And we passed some legislation to
help aid in that effort. And Democrats just consistently, no
matter what we do, side with criminals over innocent citizens.
I mean, it really becomes baffling at some point whenever
(16:56):
you're talking about Washington, d C. A city that has
the fourth highest murder rate in the entire country, the
highest carjacking rate in the entire country. I mean, this
is our capital city, and Democrats are you know, totally
okay with it being run and sort of developed into
this anarcho tyranny that really kind of terrorizes innocent people.
(17:17):
I mean, it is baffling. The only thing I can
think is they do believe this.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, that's a terrible strategy. Given the thing about crime.
I don't a lot of it I think has to
do with the fact that it's just anti Trump. It's
like they have such severe tds they're going to do
whatever the opposite is of what he's doing, which are
really tremendously awesome policies, but they're like what he wants
to fight, cry, we love crime, he wants to fight
He wus to make sure that kids don't have autism.
(17:42):
We love autism. You know. It's like, I mean, they're
I don't and then you know, cancer, all the things
that he wants to try to help. They're like, no, no,
we want the opposite of that just because he said it,
it's it's opposite world, so it's it is kind of weird.
I'm wondering what they're going to do for the next
cycle of elections and cycle of campaigns because he won't
(18:02):
be the guy that's running, and I'm not sure how
they're going to be able to look backwards and sort
of villainize him when other people are running. It's going
to be a very strange campaign cycle, or a couple
of them, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I mean, the American people are with Republicans on just
about every single major political issue, whether it's law and order,
in crime, whether it's the economy, immigration, I mean, the
American people trust Republicans far more than they trust Democrats.
And it's for good reason. I mean, we saw what
Joe Biden did with the border, we sell, we can
see what President Trump has done with the border, and
(18:36):
just I mean, really, in just a few weeks, you
see Democrats siding with criminals, Republicans side with the American people.
You see Republican tax policy and regulatory policy that is
so good for our economy that you know it's really undeniable.
But to your point, Democrats will side against Trump no
matter what he does. And one of the things that
(18:58):
I've really appreciated from the President and is that he
recognizes that he recognizes that no matter how good he is,
no matter how good his policies are, Democrats are going
to be against him. So he says, listen, I'm just
going to you know, put my head down. I'm going
to do what's right, what is good for the American people.
And if Democrats aren't on board, then you know, they
can explain that to voters. But I do think that
(19:20):
that sets us up really well for the midterms in
about a year.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I think, I hope, so I hope that that's right.
We talked this morning on our show about just the
overall administration strategy of leaning into the memes and leaning
into this sombrero thing when it comes to the shutdown.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We love it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I mean, we think it's absolutely brilliant and it's different,
it's a little bit different than Trump's first term, but
it seems to be awfully effective, and it seems to
be a strategy that the Democrats have not perfected at all.
They are terrible at it, which we absolutely love.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah. Well, we never yeah, uh huh, We've never been
good at the pr in the marketing, and I feel
like now we're starting to we are leaning into that
kind of stuff more.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean, the sombrero meme was hilarious. Hilarious, Joe. You know,
any normal person can look at that and laugh and
think it's funny, it's not offensive. And Democrats immediately go
into hyper political correct mode, which most people find, you know,
really insane and repulsive. And you know, it's just it's
(20:23):
hilarious how easy it is for President Trump to get
the Democrats spun up on anything he said or day.
So I love the sombrero means I say, double down
on this because it's working, you know, And they try
to do it and they don't have the humor to
do it. It's not funny, it's not appealing in any way,
and it just shows how disingenuous they are whenever they
(20:45):
try to copy the president.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
These people are no fun at parties. They're no fun.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
One of the things that I know we have loved
about your interrogations, for lack of a better word, that's
what they feel like if I were being questioned by you,
i'd be and it's because like as soon as I
see you do the thing where you like lean forward
on your elbows. I'm like, this is over for whoever
is getting the questions direct I love it, and so
(21:14):
Katherin Maher from NPR was of course the favorite. I
mean that was that was chef's kiss.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It was delicious.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yes, So now that they've been defunded, I'm just curious
if after that moment, that viral moment that you had
with her, do you ever hear from her? Do you
know how NPR is doing? Like, right, do you guys
have dinner together?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I would love to hear from Katherine mar You know,
we haven't heard a word from them. You know, it's
just funny because during that whole fight about defunding them,
which by the way, Democrats are trying to refund NPR
as part of this continuing resolution to keep the government open, which.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We're not going to do insanity.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
But you know, the entire time, the Demmocrats were saying, well,
NPR needs federal funds, otherwise they won't exist, rural radio
stations will go bankrupt. And now as soon as we
strip them away, today's the second day that NPR has
operated without federal funds. You see, people just just a
second ago, I read a tweet from a guy who
works he's at one of the news hosts at NPR
(22:19):
saying that NPR is alive and well they're healthy. They're
doing just fine even without the federal funds. You know,
you got you got to choose which one it's one
way or another.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Own that's a huge self owns what that is.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
If you don't need the money, then great, we will
save taxpayers five hundred million dollars every single year and
you guys can do what you want.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I feel like that's great. We can totally save some money.
I think that's fantastic. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So I know Amy Joe wants to ask you about
I did hardening schools, But just before that, I wanted
to ask you one thing about your this no Sharia
Act that you're that you are proposing, and then she's
going to have a conversation with you from a lot
of Texans and then.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
No Sharia stuff. I am all about. I am all
about shame with Texas. Man, we're losing, like we're losing
some places in Texas which we got of like we
got to handle on that, Congressman.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, we do. And this is a bill that Representative
Randy Fine, another freshman Republican good friend of mine, introduced
and it's basic common sense. It's a recognition that sharia
law is completely incompatible with Western civilization and with our
constitutional republic, and it has no place here anywhere in
(23:32):
the United States. You know, there's been an issue with
mass migration into the country, with people from all over
the world coming in either legally or illegally, either way
and bringing cultures that are incompatible with our civilization. And
that's a problem and it's something we have to deal
with directly and very seriously in Congress. I think through
(23:54):
immigration policy, because you've seen certain areas in the United States,
like in you know, ilhan Omar's district for instance, that
really look looks more like Somalia than it looks like
anything in the United States. That is wrong. You know,
we've we've long had the principle of immigration in the
United States that if you come here, you must assimilate
(24:16):
into our culture. Now you can bring you know, you know,
we love it whenever we can eat great Italian food
and great Chinese food and have all of you know,
these sort of tertiary small benefits from immigration. But you
have to become fully American, not a hyphenated American, fully American,
and adopt our customs and the values of our civilization.
(24:38):
And we've we've moved away from that, and that's a
huge problem.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Right, It's an and Mariam is such a perfect example
of that because her parents are both Polish and they
came here and they I mean they I just because
they melted. They always talk about how they melted into
the American melting pot and they made their girls melt
and they still have such reverence and love for everything Polish.
(25:01):
But they are Americans. They're American girls, and I love
I love that. I love everything that you just said.
I think that is spot on. We've got to get
back to that. We really do. Okay, So Texas schools,
schools in general. So I've actually written Ted Cruz and
Pete Sessions about this, but they've ignored me. So now
that I have you here and I have your full
undivided attention, maybe you won't ignore me. But I have
(25:24):
a hund sheel at least, you know, maybe just listen
for half a second. But I have a fifteen year
old daughter, she's a sophomore in high school here and
I've noticed as we've lived here in Texas that I'll
walk into schools and you know, I love the school
resource officers. I love the idea of SROs. I think
that's fantastic. We should have those, even if they're volunteer,
they're paid whatever however we want to do that. But
(25:46):
I think that every school, at least I'm talking about Texas,
should have metal detectors. I don't know why we don't
have metal detectors at our schools. I think we should
have them because if politicians have them at their government
buildings that we pay for as American tax payers, I
don't think that politicians are any more important than my
child or anybody else's children. And I just believe that
(26:06):
we should have those at every single school. And I
don't know why we don't have those. I think that
we should do that, and that should be something that
Texas politicians and Republican politicians in general should be proposing
and thinking about. What are your.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Thoughts on You know that that seems to make a
lot of sense to me to help protect children. And
you know, I look at the high school that I
went to. It's a very small, rural school and there's
a sign out front basically saying be warned that we
have teachers and principals who are armed on this campus. Yeah,
now that is a great thing. That is what we
(26:43):
need in our schools, or people who are ready to
protect teachers and children and anybody who's on the campus.
I think that that's a really interesting idea. That that
kind of policy is typically done at the state level
rather than the federal level because it has to do
with state education. But you know, it seems to make
sense to me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, I just I think it would be a nice
deterrent if we did that, And I don't know, I
don't I don't think it's hugely expensive. I think every
school could could stand to have that, and I think
it would be at least a frontline deterrent for somebody
that's coming in with some sort of a weapon. If
a kid had to walk in and know I have
to get past this, maybe they would think twice about
(27:23):
bringing in a weapon, a firearm or a knife or whatever.
So it's just something to think about.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So we know our time with you is coming to
a close. Before we let you go, can you describe
a day in the life of like what it is
what's a typical day in the life of Brandon Gill
as a congressman right now?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Like when you show up at the Capitol.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
On a day like today, even where there's a shutdown
or where there's what does it look like to be
a member of Congress on the daily?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yep? So today I am in I'm in district today.
We go back on Monday again. The ball is in
Democrats court to get us out of this shutdown. They're
the ones who brought us into this position. So I'm
meeting with constituents. I just had a meeting earlier today
where I spoke to local business leaders in one of
the towns here. We've got a few things to do
(28:14):
this afternoon, several meetings with other local leaders, with local
community groups. I spoke last night at a local Republicans club. So,
you know, the important thing whenever we're in Texas, Oftentimes
there's an assumption that whenever Congress isn't in session, we're
just on vacation and not doing any work. The reality
is whenever we're here. I mean today, I had a
(28:36):
five thirty am media hit on Newsmax this morning, and
I will be doing meetings all day until I have
a dinner this evening, and I'll probably be home by
eight or nine o'clock. So we are going NonStop, meeting
with as many people and hearing from constituents what they're
focused on, what their concerns are, particularly with the government shutdown.
(28:58):
But that's what we do whenever home is meeting with people,
making sure we hear get feedback from the district, see
what we can do to help the district, and make
sure that I that I know so that I can
represent them well in Washington well hopefully.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And then when you're there at the Capitol, like I mean,
and could you be called back at any time, like
if there's some change to whatever the Senate passes or whatever.
I mean when you get there. We did see when
we were talking to Congressman Burchett, like the alarm bells
go off when it was time to vote, which was
super interesting to us.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
We were like, what that happened? Is that alarm? What's
going on? Yeah? It was so strange.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So if you're in your office, you know when you've
got to show up on the House floor.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Oh yeah, every office in Washington and probably just about
every room has a clock in it, and the clock
has these alarms that go off when the House floor opens,
when it closes, when votes are open, when boats are closing.
It kind of lets you know, sort of the cadence
of the floor activity. But whenever we're not on the
floor voting, I'm again meeting with constituents who are in town.
(30:05):
I'm doing committee work in committee, doing the interrogations or
preparing for them. We do legislative work a lot, reading
through bills, working on crafting legislation, and then we spend
a lot of time trying to talk to our constituents
through the media, just like we're doing right now, so
that they know what's going on in Washington and so
(30:25):
we can be communicative and make sure that they're following.
So it is a non stop pack schedule whenever we're
in DC, I mean is it is a very full calendar.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
That's awesome. I'm actually good. I have one last question, Brandon,
what do you do for fun, like in your spare
time when you do actually have spare time, which I
know is not a lot, what do you what does
Brandon like to do for fun.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
When I do have spare time, I spend every second
of it with my wife and kids. We've got a
little two year old Marigold, and like I said, a
fourteen month or four month old son went and it
is going in there, playing hide and seek with Marigold,
which is one of her favorite games to play in
the house, trying to get Winston, helping him learn how
(31:09):
to stand up, reading books. To Marigold, it is it
is family time whenever we're not not working.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Is she liking being a big sister.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
She loves being a big sister, a little brother.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The futest thing that is that gorgeous, gorgeous kids, and
you need to have a zillion more of them.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yes, get on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
We are sure appreciate you being with us today and
giving us the lowdown on the shutdown. Hopefully it won't
be as long as a week or longer. We hope
that the Democrats come around. Really appreciate your time today,
especially in the midst of the government crisis like.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
This today, you're busy. We really appreciate your time. It's
so lovely to meet you.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Finally, y'all as well, and thanks for a and me on.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, so hopefully we'll do it again soon. Thank you.
Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Very excited because we.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Have the youngest Republican member of Congress with US Representative
Brandon Gill from the twenty six Desk District in Texas,
a guy that folks in our audience probably know from
such things as the awesome interrogations that he does of
liberal weirdos during committee hearings. He is also the son
in law of one of our longtime pals, Danesh Desuza.
(00:26):
We're so glad to have you with us today, especially
in the midst of a government shutdown. So first things first,
before we get to anything else, what is your prediction
on how this is going to play out?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, first all, thanks for having me on and to
talk with you all. You know, there's a lot to
say about the government shutdown. I would say, I think
from here, the American people are quickly realizing and Democrats
realize that they're just shutting the government down because they
want to use our tax dollars to give healthcare subsidies
(00:59):
to illegal alien and that's something that the vast majority
of Americans disagree with, something that most moderate Democrats also
disagree with. So, you know, we'll see how long this lasts.
The ball is in the Democrats court, but I suspect
that it won't last more than about a week. But
we'll see what they do.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Really a week because they're trying to spin it. They're
doing this whole it's healthcare for everything, you know, like
Maxine Waters doesn't want to talk about that it's for illegals.
We know that it's for illegals, and I mean people
with you know, brain cells left in their heads know
it's for illegals. But they're trying to spin it. Congressman,
So I don't know, a week sounds good. I think
(01:36):
that's that's okay. But yeah, they're trying.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
To spin it. I mean, is it is literally in
the bill text of the continuing resolution that Democrats propose,
so we remember we propose our continuing resolution. We passed
it out of the House two weeks ago. It was
an entirely clean CR, meaning it is just a bill
to keep the government open, to keep the lights on
(02:00):
on it. We didn't pack it with conservative priorities, we
didn't put Republican priorities. It's literally biased seven weeks so
that we can run the regular appropriations process in the meantime,
Democrats gave their counterproposal, and page fifty seven of it
references section seventy one one oh nine of the big
beautiful Bill, the Reconciliation Bill, and strips it out. That
(02:23):
was the section that bars funding for paying for medicaid
for illegal aliens. I mean it is right there in
the bill text what they're trying to do. I mean,
it is very black and white here.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And is it the cr that you guys passed in
the House. Didn't they just vote in favor of that
exact same CR like just a few months ago.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Why what are they even doing.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Democrats have voted in favor of crs thirteen times just
in the past few years. So this is something that
we routinely do, unfortunately, But we're doing this here again
to get back to right now gular order, to the
real appropriations process, which is something that we all want
to do. You know, that's the primary job of Congress
(03:08):
is to exercise the power of the purse. But you're right,
Democrats have done this thirteen times. They did it back
in March of this year, the exact same CR they
voted for to keep the government open, and they're not
doing it now. So you ask yourself, why are they
doing that. Why all of the sudden does Chuck Schumer
and the Democrats want to shut the government down. What's
changed since March And the only thing that's changed is
(03:30):
that Chuck Schumer is worried about getting a primary from
his left from AOC, so he's willing to hold the
American people hostage by shutting the government down to make
sure that he can beef up his left wing bona
fides by trying to push health care for illegal aliens.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So you just talked about the fact that you know, ultimately,
when this gets shut down and hopefully the Senate passes
the and everything, the government opens back up again, and
then you talk about needing to go through this appropriations process.
But based on what we've seen with just a simple
clean cr like, is there any hope that you guys
will all agree to anything? And most importantly, will Republicans
(04:11):
stand their ground on this shutdown because we've seen caving
that we have not been happy with in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, I'll take that one first. The first answer is, yes,
we are going to stand our ground. You know, one
of the things that you've seen from House Republicans and
remember We've got a diverse conference, We've got a lot
of different sort of ideological factions in the Republican Party,
and we don't always agree on everything. But every single
House Republican that I have talked to is ready to
stand their ground on this. You know, we worked really
(04:41):
really hard to pass the Reconciliation Bill this past summer
on July fourth, whenever President Trump signed it into law,
and one of the pieces of that was a common
sense welfare reform making sure that people who are receiving
Medicaid who are able bodied in working age are actually
working or seeking work to receive it, so that we
(05:03):
can shore up the viability of these programs. Another big
portion of that was making sure that illegal aliens are
not getting federal tax dollars. You know, this is so
common sense, and we're not going to let Democrats undo
all of that. I mean, that is absurd. And the
reality is that in everybody recognizes this that Republicans are
(05:23):
in the right here. You know, again, this is the
same bill Democrats voted for in March, and now all
of the sudden they want to shut the government down.
This is unambiguously a Democrat shutdown. So we're not going
to allow Democrats to hold the American people hostage like
that and sort of throw big temper tantrums to get
(05:44):
their way. We're not going to let Democrats add another
one and a half trillion dollars in federal spending as
part of a seven week continuing resolution. I mean, that
is wildly irresponsible. So the short answer is, no, we're
not going to back down. We're going to hold our
ground here because we're right and the American people realize
that we're can hold you to it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We're holding you to it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That's right and it's important. You know, again, whenever we
go to Democrats and negotiating good faith right here and
they come back with something that is completely unseerious, it's
a total joke. You know. All we can do is
say we're going to protect the American taxpayer, and that's
(06:28):
what we're doing. Now. You asked about where we go
from here once the government reopens, We'll have to you know,
there is a bit of a negotiating negotiation process that
happens whenever you pass the individual appropriations bills. We passed
three out of the House already. Those are going to conference,
which is a negotiation between the House and the Senate.
(06:48):
So we'll see where that goes. But to even get
that process going, we have to have the lights on
in the government.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, so like common sense is sort of endangered now,
so I know when you say this, you know what
I mean. Yeah, it's almost extinct. So yeah, we're hoping
that it works out. We hope it does. So about yourself,
I'm very curious how does one become a congressman because
or a congressman, well, a congresswoman, but also really you congressman?
(07:14):
When you are growing up? Do you are you like
eight years old and you're going mom and dad, I
want to be a congressman someday, Like how that? How
that happened for you?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
You know, I've always been interested in politics. I grew
up on a cattle ranch in West Texas. We had
a thousand acre ranch out there, raised angus and brings
angus angus. Yeah, okay, outside of outside of Abilene. And
so I grew up working on the ranch. And that's
a pretty good place to learn conservative values. You learn
(07:45):
the value of a dollar really quickly whenever you do
inter pound and t posts into the ground for a
minimum wage. And so that that was how I grew up.
I grew up working cows, driving tractors and back hose.
But a lot of times whenever I would do work
on the ranch, which I would be listening to talk
radio or something similar. So I grew up listening to
(08:05):
Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity every day
growing up. So I've always been interested in politics, but
never thought that I would be in political office. Definitely
not right now at thirty one, so it was a
long path to get there.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But you know, did you listen to your father in law?
Did you ever listen to him?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
We did occasionally if he were if he was on
one of the shows, or if you know, sometimes we'd
listen to audio books and things like that. That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, And dinner are like family dinners consumed by politics
or do you steer clear? No?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You know, actually I wouldn't say consumed, but I would
say we talk about politics a lot. You know, Denesh
makes he's a very interesting father in law to have.
He's a brilliant guy. Yeah, brilliant, somewhat of a political mentor.
So we we talked about politics very very frequently.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What do you disagree on, if anything.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
It's a good question, you know, I'm not I'm not
sure there's anything that we, you know, materially disagree on.
You know, I think that Denesh, you know, is a
Reaganite Conservative. I would I would say that I am
as well, where both Maga Republicans were totally on board
with President Trump's agenda. But you know, one of the
great things about Densh is that he is a He's
(09:25):
a scholar as well. You know, this is a guy
who is very steeped in history and philosophy in everything
in between. So there's a lot to talk about with him,
and I always learned something.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So going back to Congress for just a second, what
when you first got there and you're you know, you're
obviously the youngest Republican congressman there. I think the youngest
Democrat is Frost, right, Maxwell Frost, If I'm not mistaken,
you guys are around the same age. So when you
got there, I'm sure had to be overwhelming for a
brand new congressman. I mean probably for the first year
(10:00):
you're just like figuring out where the bathrooms are and
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So was there something that you were shocked by?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Because I know We've talked to Congressman Burchett before, for example,
and one of the things that he continues to be
surprised by is just how much corruption he sees in
the halls of Congress. Have you been faced with that
and has it been as much of a surprise to
you as it was to him?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You know, not as much whenever I you know, I
would say there's certainly are a lot of problems in Washington,
and those are the things that we've got to work
on fixing. But you know, I came in at a
time which was I was sworn in January of this year,
where Republicans had President Trump and in the White House
with JD. Vance as Vice President, who's been great. We
(10:45):
control Congress, we have a simple majority in the Senate,
so we really came in hitting the ground running knowing
we've got the ability to pass real, substantial conservative legislation.
So from the beginning, it has been, you know, really
just working non stop. We started working on that tax
reconciliation bill that the President signed into law on day one,
(11:08):
and I know last Congress, the Speaker and other people
were working on it. So it has been NonStop. You know,
it is I'll say, whenever you have a two seats
soon to be one seat majority in Congress, knowing that
Democrats aren't going to do anything at all to help
us out, They're not going to give any votes for
anything that's meaningful on the conservative side, it makes it
(11:30):
pretty difficult to get legislation passed. And that's been a
bit surprising how difficult. With that said, we've got major,
major conservative reforms done just in the past nine months.
So it's been you know, it's definitely a ton of work,
but that's what we're up there to do.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, I was going to ask. I was like, well,
I should ask him about how he stays not corrupt
because we've seen so many people, well we've been doing
this for seventeen years and when we're old, we've been
doing that, and we've seen a lot of people that
we're like, even friends that have gone off to Washington
and then they become completely different people. And I was
going to ask you, like, how you are going to
not do that? But then you talked about being raised
(12:09):
on a cattle ranch, and I'm like, God, he's totally fine.
He's gonna be good.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, you know, you know, the reality is we spend
as much time as we can here in Texas where
I am now. I represent a great district in Texas,
twenty six beautiful, beautiful community, really really good people. I mean,
this is really God's country out here. So I think,
you know, one thing that's really important is just to
make sure that representatives stay very connected to the people
(12:37):
that they represent and not to Washington and the Swamp,
because the Swamp is a very nasty place to be
in a lot of ways, and you know, there are
there are a lot of issues there. But we try
to stay here as much as possible. You know, I'd
spend a lot of time with my wife. She travels
with me a lot of times as well, so she's
(12:58):
involved with the things that we're working on. We bring
our kids in whenever we can. We've got a two
year old and a four month old right now.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
My gosh, were.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You need to have like ten kids? Right?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
We would love to God will will give us.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I love.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So do you have besties? Like, do you have besties
in Congress? And then aside from that, do you ever
like do you ever have to like face any members
of the squad? And like, how hard do you shower
after that.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, who's the worst? We get to know who the
worst is too. I know a lot of questions there, Brandon, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know. I'm in the Freedom Caucus and I spent
a lot of time with with those guys. I think
those are, you know, really the conservative fighters in Washington.
So that tends to be my group. But we've got
a great freshman class. Whenever I came in, I was
elected president of the Freshman Class Republicans, and we've got
about thirty five members in our class, and they're they're
(13:54):
there to work. I mean, they're there to to get
real conservative policy across the finish line. And so I
would say I'm in and have a lot of friends
in uh in Congress. We've got a lot of really
good members. But those are those are the areas where
I spend the most amount of time.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
That's awesome. And so that the worst person that you
can think of, like probably if you can give us
an you can't do that, you feel like you can't
do that always the worst in the squad that you've
had to deal with, because you know, we have our worst.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I serve on two committees with our friend Jasmine Crockett
and she's a representative from from the Dallas area. Yeah,
are from my district, and we we go back and
forth quite a bit. We're both on the Judiciary and
Oversight committees, and those are those are the committees that
that tend to have a lot of the more hot
button issues, you know, judiciaries everything from abortion to gun
(14:47):
rights to everything in between. And oversight is where I
serve on the House Doge Subcommittee of Oversight, So we
do a lot of things that are much more hot
button issues.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And do you really run into these people at the
gym and it's awkward?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
We have you know, we try to try to keep
it keep it civil outside, but I'll tell you not
every Democrat is very uh is very friendly even outside
of the committee rooms, uh, out the House.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I know that's such a shock shocked by that.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah, you know, it's uh, we you know, we try
try to keep it civil, but it doesn't doesn't always work.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Do you think that they believe genuinely, like like Jasmine
for example, do you think that she believes all the
stuff that she spews or is it I mean, is
it like for show? Is she just trying to be
the way that she is for show.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You know, I think she probably does believe it. I
think she probably really does believe that, as many Democrats
too do, that we should be using our tax dollars
to give health care to illegal aliens, or that boys
should be in girls' bathrooms. I mean, I don't know
how to justify it if they don't, because the majority
of Americans vehemently disagree with these things. I mean they're insane, yeah,
(16:06):
And they.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Keep defending criminals like that seems to be their target
audience for everything.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Right, their strategy really is, I mean, everything that we
try to do. You know, we had a crime Week
just a few weeks ago where we passed a few
bills out of the House, including one of my own,
that would just help clean up the cities. I mean,
you see everything President Trump is doing to clean up Washington,
d C. It's been wildly successful. I mean, within a
(16:33):
few weeks, the murder rate had dropped in half, carjacking
rate was down eighty seven percent in Washington, d C.
Because of President Trump. And we passed some legislation to
help aid in that effort. And Democrats just consistently, no
matter what we do, side with criminals over innocent citizens.
I mean, it really becomes baffling at some point whenever
(16:56):
you're talking about Washington, d C. A city that has
the fourth highest murder rate in the entire country, the
highest carjacking rate in the entire country. I mean, this
is our capital city, and Democrats are you know, totally
okay with it being run and sort of developed into
this anarcho tyranny that really kind of terrorizes innocent people.
(17:17):
I mean, it is baffling. The only thing I can
think is they do believe this.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, that's a terrible strategy. Given the thing about crime.
I don't a lot of it I think has to
do with the fact that it's just anti Trump. It's
like they have such severe tds they're going to do
whatever the opposite is of what he's doing, which are
really tremendously awesome policies, but they're like what he wants
to fight, cry, we love crime, he wants to fight
He wus to make sure that kids don't have autism.
(17:42):
We love autism. You know. It's like, I mean, they're
I don't and then you know, cancer, all the things
that he wants to try to help. They're like, no, no,
we want the opposite of that just because he said it,
it's it's opposite world, so it's it is kind of weird.
I'm wondering what they're going to do for the next
cycle of elections and cycle of campaigns because he won't
(18:02):
be the guy that's running, and I'm not sure how
they're going to be able to look backwards and sort
of villainize him when other people are running. It's going
to be a very strange campaign cycle, or a couple
of them, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I mean, the American people are with Republicans on just
about every single major political issue, whether it's law and order,
in crime, whether it's the economy, immigration, I mean, the
American people trust Republicans far more than they trust Democrats.
And it's for good reason. I mean, we saw what
Joe Biden did with the border, we sell, we can
see what President Trump has done with the border, and
(18:36):
just I mean, really, in just a few weeks, you
see Democrats siding with criminals, Republicans side with the American people.
You see Republican tax policy and regulatory policy that is
so good for our economy that you know it's really undeniable.
But to your point, Democrats will side against Trump no
matter what he does. And one of the things that
(18:58):
I've really appreciated from the President and is that he
recognizes that he recognizes that no matter how good he is,
no matter how good his policies are, Democrats are going
to be against him. So he says, listen, I'm just
going to you know, put my head down. I'm going
to do what's right, what is good for the American people.
And if Democrats aren't on board, then you know, they
can explain that to voters. But I do think that
(19:20):
that sets us up really well for the midterms in
about a year.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I think, I hope, so I hope that that's right.
We talked this morning on our show about just the
overall administration strategy of leaning into the memes and leaning
into this sombrero thing when it comes to the shutdown.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We love it.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I mean, we think it's absolutely brilliant and it's different,
it's a little bit different than Trump's first term, but
it seems to be awfully effective, and it seems to
be a strategy that the Democrats have not perfected at all.
They are terrible at it, which we absolutely love.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah. Well, we never yeah, uh huh, We've never been
good at the pr in the marketing, and I feel
like now we're starting to we are leaning into that
kind of stuff more.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean, the sombrero meme was hilarious. Hilarious, Joe. You know,
any normal person can look at that and laugh and
think it's funny, it's not offensive. And Democrats immediately go
into hyper political correct mode, which most people find, you know,
really insane and repulsive. And you know, it's just it's
(20:23):
hilarious how easy it is for President Trump to get
the Democrats spun up on anything he said or day.
So I love the sombrero means I say, double down
on this because it's working, you know, And they try
to do it and they don't have the humor to
do it. It's not funny, it's not appealing in any way,
and it just shows how disingenuous they are whenever they
(20:45):
try to copy the president.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
These people are no fun at parties. They're no fun.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
One of the things that I know we have loved
about your interrogations, for lack of a better word, that's
what they feel like if I were being questioned by you,
i'd be and it's because like as soon as I
see you do the thing where you like lean forward
on your elbows. I'm like, this is over for whoever
is getting the questions direct I love it, and so
(21:14):
Katherin Maher from NPR was of course the favorite. I
mean that was that was chef's kiss.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It was delicious.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yes, So now that they've been defunded, I'm just curious
if after that moment, that viral moment that you had
with her, do you ever hear from her? Do you
know how NPR is doing? Like, right, do you guys
have dinner together?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I would love to hear from Katherine mar You know,
we haven't heard a word from them. You know, it's
just funny because during that whole fight about defunding them,
which by the way, Democrats are trying to refund NPR
as part of this continuing resolution to keep the government open, which.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We're not going to do insanity.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
But you know, the entire time, the Demmocrats were saying, well,
NPR needs federal funds, otherwise they won't exist, rural radio
stations will go bankrupt. And now as soon as we
strip them away, today's the second day that NPR has
operated without federal funds. You see, people just just a
second ago, I read a tweet from a guy who
works he's at one of the news hosts at NPR
(22:19):
saying that NPR is alive and well they're healthy. They're
doing just fine even without the federal funds. You know,
you got you got to choose which one it's one
way or another.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Own that's a huge self owns what that is.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
If you don't need the money, then great, we will
save taxpayers five hundred million dollars every single year and
you guys can do what you want.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I feel like that's great. We can totally save some money.
I think that's fantastic. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So I know Amy Joe wants to ask you about
I did hardening schools, But just before that, I wanted
to ask you one thing about your this no Sharia
Act that you're that you are proposing, and then she's
going to have a conversation with you from a lot
of Texans and then.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
No Sharia stuff. I am all about. I am all
about shame with Texas. Man, we're losing, like we're losing
some places in Texas which we got of like we
got to handle on that, Congressman.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, we do. And this is a bill that Representative
Randy Fine, another freshman Republican good friend of mine, introduced
and it's basic common sense. It's a recognition that sharia
law is completely incompatible with Western civilization and with our
constitutional republic, and it has no place here anywhere in
(23:32):
the United States. You know, there's been an issue with
mass migration into the country, with people from all over
the world coming in either legally or illegally, either way
and bringing cultures that are incompatible with our civilization. And
that's a problem and it's something we have to deal
with directly and very seriously in Congress. I think through
(23:54):
immigration policy, because you've seen certain areas in the United States,
like in you know, ilhan Omar's district for instance, that
really look looks more like Somalia than it looks like
anything in the United States. That is wrong. You know,
we've we've long had the principle of immigration in the
United States that if you come here, you must assimilate
(24:16):
into our culture. Now you can bring you know, you know,
we love it whenever we can eat great Italian food
and great Chinese food and have all of you know,
these sort of tertiary small benefits from immigration. But you
have to become fully American, not a hyphenated American, fully American,
and adopt our customs and the values of our civilization.
(24:38):
And we've we've moved away from that, and that's a
huge problem.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Right, It's an and Mariam is such a perfect example
of that because her parents are both Polish and they
came here and they I mean they I just because
they melted. They always talk about how they melted into
the American melting pot and they made their girls melt
and they still have such reverence and love for everything Polish.
(25:01):
But they are Americans. They're American girls, and I love
I love that. I love everything that you just said.
I think that is spot on. We've got to get
back to that. We really do. Okay, So Texas schools,
schools in general. So I've actually written Ted Cruz and
Pete Sessions about this, but they've ignored me. So now
that I have you here and I have your full
undivided attention, maybe you won't ignore me. But I have
(25:24):
a hund sheel at least, you know, maybe just listen
for half a second. But I have a fifteen year
old daughter, she's a sophomore in high school here and
I've noticed as we've lived here in Texas that I'll
walk into schools and you know, I love the school
resource officers. I love the idea of SROs. I think
that's fantastic. We should have those, even if they're volunteer,
they're paid whatever however we want to do that. But
(25:46):
I think that every school, at least I'm talking about Texas,
should have metal detectors. I don't know why we don't
have metal detectors at our schools. I think we should
have them because if politicians have them at their government
buildings that we pay for as American tax payers, I
don't think that politicians are any more important than my
child or anybody else's children. And I just believe that
(26:06):
we should have those at every single school. And I
don't know why we don't have those. I think that
we should do that, and that should be something that
Texas politicians and Republican politicians in general should be proposing
and thinking about. What are your.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Thoughts on You know that that seems to make a
lot of sense to me to help protect children. And
you know, I look at the high school that I
went to. It's a very small, rural school and there's
a sign out front basically saying be warned that we
have teachers and principals who are armed on this campus. Yeah,
now that is a great thing. That is what we
(26:43):
need in our schools, or people who are ready to
protect teachers and children and anybody who's on the campus.
I think that that's a really interesting idea. That that
kind of policy is typically done at the state level
rather than the federal level because it has to do
with state education. But you know, it seems to make
sense to me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, I just I think it would be a nice
deterrent if we did that, And I don't know, I
don't I don't think it's hugely expensive. I think every
school could could stand to have that, and I think
it would be at least a frontline deterrent for somebody
that's coming in with some sort of a weapon. If
a kid had to walk in and know I have
to get past this, maybe they would think twice about
(27:23):
bringing in a weapon, a firearm or a knife or whatever.
So it's just something to think about.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So we know our time with you is coming to
a close. Before we let you go, can you describe
a day in the life of like what it is
what's a typical day in the life of Brandon Gill
as a congressman right now?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Like when you show up at the Capitol.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
On a day like today, even where there's a shutdown
or where there's what does it look like to be
a member of Congress on the daily?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yep? So today I am in I'm in district today.
We go back on Monday again. The ball is in
Democrats court to get us out of this shutdown. They're
the ones who brought us into this position. So I'm
meeting with constituents. I just had a meeting earlier today
where I spoke to local business leaders in one of
the towns here. We've got a few things to do
(28:14):
this afternoon, several meetings with other local leaders, with local
community groups. I spoke last night at a local Republicans club. So,
you know, the important thing whenever we're in Texas, Oftentimes
there's an assumption that whenever Congress isn't in session, we're
just on vacation and not doing any work. The reality
is whenever we're here. I mean today, I had a
(28:36):
five thirty am media hit on Newsmax this morning, and
I will be doing meetings all day until I have
a dinner this evening, and I'll probably be home by
eight or nine o'clock. So we are going NonStop, meeting
with as many people and hearing from constituents what they're
focused on, what their concerns are, particularly with the government shutdown.
(28:58):
But that's what we do whenever home is meeting with people,
making sure we hear get feedback from the district, see
what we can do to help the district, and make
sure that I that I know so that I can
represent them well in Washington well hopefully.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And then when you're there at the Capitol, like I mean,
and could you be called back at any time, like
if there's some change to whatever the Senate passes or whatever.
I mean when you get there. We did see when
we were talking to Congressman Burchett, like the alarm bells
go off when it was time to vote, which was
super interesting to us.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
We were like, what that happened? Is that alarm? What's
going on? Yeah? It was so strange.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So if you're in your office, you know when you've
got to show up on the House floor.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Oh yeah, every office in Washington and probably just about
every room has a clock in it, and the clock
has these alarms that go off when the House floor opens,
when it closes, when votes are open, when boats are closing.
It kind of lets you know, sort of the cadence
of the floor activity. But whenever we're not on the
floor voting, I'm again meeting with constituents who are in town.
(30:05):
I'm doing committee work in committee, doing the interrogations or
preparing for them. We do legislative work a lot, reading
through bills, working on crafting legislation, and then we spend
a lot of time trying to talk to our constituents
through the media, just like we're doing right now, so
that they know what's going on in Washington and so
(30:25):
we can be communicative and make sure that they're following.
So it is a non stop pack schedule whenever we're
in DC, I mean is it is a very full calendar.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
That's awesome. I'm actually good. I have one last question, Brandon,
what do you do for fun, like in your spare
time when you do actually have spare time, which I
know is not a lot, what do you what does
Brandon like to do for fun.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
When I do have spare time, I spend every second
of it with my wife and kids. We've got a
little two year old Marigold, and like I said, a
fourteen month or four month old son went and it
is going in there, playing hide and seek with Marigold,
which is one of her favorite games to play in
the house, trying to get Winston, helping him learn how
(31:09):
to stand up, reading books. To Marigold, it is it
is family time whenever we're not not working.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Is she liking being a big sister.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
She loves being a big sister, a little brother.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The futest thing that is that gorgeous, gorgeous kids, and
you need to have a zillion more of them.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yes, get on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
We are sure appreciate you being with us today and
giving us the lowdown on the shutdown. Hopefully it won't
be as long as a week or longer. We hope
that the Democrats come around. Really appreciate your time today,
especially in the midst of the government crisis like.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
This today, you're busy. We really appreciate your time. It's
so lovely to meet you.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Finally, y'all as well, and thanks for a and me on.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, so hopefully we'll do it again soon. Thank you.
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