You’re listening to KABC 790 This is Matt Matern, host of Unite and Heal America. My guest today is Brett Winterble. Brett is currently hosting what was the Rush Limbaugh radio show and Brett worked with that show for a number of years has had his own show. And, you know, welcome to the program. Brett.

Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

So tell us a little bit about what you’re doing currently. And you know, it has the the format of Rush Limbaugh show changed at all since you’ve taken over?

Well, I didn’t take over for rush, but the format is, is still got a lot of you know, rushes elements in it. I know Clay and Buck are doing a good job over there on that show. I know them, each of them independently.

And it’s it’s kind of remaining, you know, that same spirit, they say it’s inspired by by rush, I was lucky enough to work with rush from really from 95 Up until 2006. But on a daily basis 99 to 2006. And it was it was a joy and a delight to be a part of of that operation.

So are you are you still part of his radio network? Or how does that work?

No, I’m I am the afternoon drive hosted web team in Charlotte, I was a guide host. So during the transition period after rush passed away, they had a rotation of hosts who were in there, kind of keeping keeping the show moving forward. But also looking back with a lot of best of material, as you might imagine, talking about news of the day and taking phone calls content, you know, contemporary stuff.

But looking back at some of the stuff that that ran for really, you know, we’re talking from I’d say like, March until June the end of June. So it was it was really cool thing to do. I mean sitting in there and talking about audience as massive as it is, was was a remarkable thing. I was lucky in that I was the only alum of the show who got to come back and host the show, which is actually kind of cool. So when

Rush was the live, I believe is audience or at least at what I saw quoted was 30 million people per week, it said about rough estimation. That sounds

Yeah, that sounds about right. He was at his high water, I think he was probably you know, 666 6670 in terms of the affiliates around the country. And you know, what’s interesting to know about him was that he was a person who understood the entertainment component of radio like nobody else that I’ve ever worked with. He was opinionated.

He knew what he believed. He talked about what he believed, but he understood the end of the day. This was about entertaining an audience holding an audience keeping an audience so that as as he was famous for saying, he could charge confiscatory ad rates. And that’s, that’s what what he did. And he was a he was a real radio professional, top to bottom. And it was a remarkable thing to say. I guess, to meI have to admit, I was never a fan of rush.

And I guess I didn’t like the self promoter aspect of it.

Right, as somebody who felt like I was a serious student of politics, and I felt that Rush was more of a, you know, circus ringleader kind of that he was a serious political analyst. And, you know, I just be honest, hey, he rubbed me the wrong way.

And, you know, just coming from a Midwestern background, it was kind of the antithesis of a Midwestern humility or kind of, you know, our shocks type attitude. He didn’t have that he was he was all about Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush and that that just I must say, I didn’t like that at all.

So look, there’s there’s a lot of room for different styles in radio, right? There’s Howard Stern, there was Don Imus. There’s Mancow. There’s there’s Kevin and Bean, there was Rush Limbaugh. But I think when when the when the big story is written, and it’s interesting, because Rush was a Midwestern guy from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and decided rather than following the footsteps of his family to be a lawyer, he decided he was going to go and be a broadcaster, which was, you know, madness as far as they were concerned.

And he pursued that, that dream and that passion in terms of, you know, the impact that he had, the reality is across the spectrum, the reason why talk radio is talk radio today is for a lot of what he did.

No doubt, there is no doubt that he was an impact player. And he definitely moved the needle in the cultural component of this country without a doubt. And I mean, he rode the wave for the Clintons. And, you know, those of us who were Republicans in the 90s certainly were no fans of the Clintons and he was kind of Clinton hater number one.

And, you know, I was I didn’t like the Clintons at all, and probably more than was healthy for anybody. You know, when you get your, your vigor ramped up about something, sometimes it can get overboard, and he kind of was the epitome of that movement, which it just, I think poisoned our politics even more, even though I was no, no Clinton fan. I felt like the way he probably attack them was not healthy for the political debate.

Okay, first of all, Rush is, Rush is doing a radio show. He’s not a politician. He’s probably responsible for the Republican takeover in ‘95. With Newt Gingrich and the kind of I wouldn’t say new, I’d say Newt Gingrich was I would say rush driving that fight was a big help. And that’s why he was basically brought in as a as an honorary member of that class in ‘95.

So I’m not saying he had no impact, but I would know he had massive forget no impact. Do you watch football? Rush Rush would be on par with what Brady does. Okay. This is a guy who single handedly revitalized the radio landscape. Am radio was playing beautiful music when he came around and ADA. And he revitalized it single handedly.

And then, what did he do? He built an audience that was the largest going in radio. And by the way, he’s, I think the only host I’ve ever heard that caused Bill Clinton to call into K MOX and St. Louis, and say that rush limbaugh shouldn’t be on the radio. That’s how much he got under the skin of the Clintons. I mean, there was no doubt that he got under the skin. The question is whether or not it was toxic to our political environment.

That’s the question. Well, what’s toxic? MSNBC toxic with MSNBC? And CNN is toxic, right? I mean, we can make that argument this way. Today, contemporaneously?

Yeah, I think that there are multiple factors. And I don’t blame Rush Limbaugh is the sole factor of the toxification of the American political climate. And certainly, there have been people long before Rush Limbaugh, and there’ll be people long after him that are toxic.

I’m just saying that him I’m not a you know, let’s let’s not point fingers at everybody else. I’m saying he was toxic. I’m saying the comments that he made about on race calling Barack Obama or having that song Brock, the magic Negro song, are calling President Obama, the house negro. I mean, that type of stuff, poisons our political environment.

And it has an effect, and the fact that he had a bigger audience, May that effect bigger, so he needed to have more responsibility. And to me, he didn’t take the responsibility of that position. When you’re talking to 30 million people, you have a responsibility as a broadcaster as a citizen. What is the effect on the listener? What are you doing to improve the quality of the discourse? That’s my position is that that’s your job as a broadcaster.

Well, I would say that that would be a good thing. Nobody’s responsible if you’re a responsible broadcaster. Yes, I do think that that’s your job. Okay. If your job your goal is self promotion,let’s see Tto me that was the disingenuous SNESs of Rush like I disagree with, I disagree with this meeting. It was on a meeting um for that he stayed on for the country when it was really I’m for Rush I’m for expanding my audience. I’m for controversy for the country. I’m for Rush to be honest, actually.

Did you ever actually listen to the program it did you ever listen to it and how much did you listen to it?

I listened to it enough where I was ready to get sick.

Yeah, that was about okay.

So this is this is great. You aren’t you are the equivalent. You’re a seminar. Host you’re not just a seminar caller on in that universe. You’re somebody says I love the show, or I like the show. I listen to the show, but man, I hate the show.

So very much. The fact of the matter is the purpose of having a radio program is to what? build an audience. That’s what you’re supposed to Why do you do a TV show to build an audience?

There is a lot of stuff out there that people can consume. He was unbelievably compelling, when you look at what he was able to do, and if if he was if being a self promoter is a is a negative.

Okay, he made a lot of money for a lot of radio stations promoting that the point is, what did he do to improve the quality of discourse in our country did he was bad, he was the balance that was missing. He was the balance that was missing out there. In the in the media, he was the dough.

So you know, coming out, I don’t rock the magic negro.

Gonna, I’m going to reject the premise of this. If you want to go in and you want to pull out a parody song and say that Rush Limbaugh did this, or there’s a phrase over here that he supposedly said, I mean, if you want to show me the transcript with the date and all that, I’ll take a look at it. But the fact of the matter is, you’re casting aspersions, if fairly reckless way I think. I mean, I’m a little underwhelmed right now.

Well, we’re, you’re listening to the KABC 790 Unite and Heal America. My guest, Brent Winterble, we’re talking about his, you know, work with Rush Limbaugh and we’ll be back in just one minute. And, you know, we’re gonna have a healthy dialogue about this stuff.

You’re listening to Unite and Heal America and KABC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host and my guest today is Brett Winterble, who worked on the Rush Limbaugh program for a number of years. And it’s currently a radio host himself.

And we’re kind of discussing the legacy of Rush Limbaugh and, and his effect on the country. And, you know, I don’t believe that these were one off type quotes by Rush Limbaugh about, you know, race relations. I mean, he said for the NBA, don’t call them teams call them gangs or the NFL He said.

Where are you? Where are you getting this, like off of the Media Matters site or something? Where are you getting this?

Are you saying that these are inaccurate quotes?

No, but you’re reading me, you’re reading me suppose the words that he supposedly, are you reading this off of Media Matters? Like, can you tell me the date the show when it was said can you give me like, I mean, I’m just It’s curious to me, where do you is documented on multiple documented?

Oh, no, no, no. Where? Where’s the document? Do you go to like, did you go to Wikipedia? I mean, seriously, did you just type in Rush Limbaugh negative quotes? Is this your show? Prep? Matthew? Is this your show prep? Because this is embarrassing. I’m not gonna lie.

So you’re telling me that he didn’t say these things? Is that really where we are, then I will go in and we’ll drill down and we’ll play those clips. The next you have them. So I will do it. Do you have the code?

No, I’m an attorney. I will I will have the evidence and pull all the clips and we will do a best dog. You have. They’re saying if you’re realistically saying he didn’t say these things we weren’t asking you back on. And we’ll parse through all the clips, you don’t have the clips. Okay. Well, you know, because I didn’t deny it. But now I would like to hear, give me another chance to replay the whole best dog. Let’s do it.

Matt, this is this is not the way to go about this kind of a conversation. You know, you’re trying to heal the country feels to me like you’re trying to settle hash with a man who passed away. And I think it’s kind of talk about what his legacy is. And I’m saying that if we don’t do reading the quotes, and I’m asking you, or I haven’t said one, I’m not saying an insulting word about what’s the source. What is the source? Word get this media matters, right?

Where we go Media Matters. Wikipedia, hold on. Let me go and look, this is see, this is the problem. This is the problem with poor with poor show prep pitch. And again, so you’re saying that you didn’t say this stuff. I don’t know what you’re reading me finding the magic negro. So

I’m reading me, you’re reading me quotes off of a piece of paper. Are you denying that he said this?

It’s not my job to affirm or deny it’s your job to prove that he said it or played it or whatever. I mean, if you want to hit it off, that was my job as a radio host.

Well, if you’re making an argument, it’s your burden of proof. You’re an attorney. Right? It’s your burden of proof in a court of law, we’re in the courtroom. Hold on, hold on. So we have a lower standard. And on one side you say Rush is an entertainer. He’s held the no standards. He can say anything you want to Absolutely, absolutely. Everybody wants without evidence. And now you want me to come on no evidence?

Well, yes. I’m asking you for the evidence. Yes. All the evidence you can ask. I’m asking you for the evidence. Okay.

You ,no rush, you can deny this are accepted. And I’m not just saying give me a piece when we hear it. It’s between left and right. And that with conservative voters were, quote, trending towards succession is that uniting and healing our country?

Is that helping the discourse in our country to say, hey, we’re going to have a simple the reason, the reason why you need to hear what is said, Is there could be sarcasm, inflection, it could be mockery, it could be any number of things.

If I say, go jump in a lake, right? Do I mean it literally go jump in a lake? Am I just saying it in a figurative fashion, you know, as an attorney, you know, that words mean things. And they mean things within context, you know, a text without a pre aid without a context as a pretext. And this is what we’re having right here.

This is this is incredible, if you want to, like, you know, settle it with Rush. I mean, go go right ahead. It’s incredible that even from the grave, he still pesters people. It’s, it’s remarkable to me.

No, I well, I, I think that it has an effect. And I think going forward, we can we can continue that kind of discourse, or we could shift to a different kind of discourse, which will be based upon evidence and not insults.

Because that was his stock and trade, which let’s look at this. I asked you for evidence. You told me we have to have evidence we shouldn’t do insults and that’s his stock and trade. So okay, get Rush, Rush has passed. I don’t know I don’t think is, I don’t think his stock and trade was in salt. Well, he called the Georgetown student a slight because she said that she wanted to get birth control.

Again. Again, here’s the question I have for you, Matt, where are these clips, you’re not playing the clips. I’m going to do another show Brett, where I’ll invite you on and we will go clip by clip. If you won’t come on, I will do it without you. But yeah, we’ll do the clip by clip because that’s, that’s what you want. I will do it.

Well, I’m just asking you for I just would like to have.

I’m gonna do it. I guarantee you they will be done. But you know, you’re because you’re you’re impugning my credibility, not impugning your credibility, are you?

Not I’m asking for evidence.

Okay, so when Rush said when a gay person turns their back on you? It’s anything but an insult. It’s an invitation. I mean, Was that helpful?

I again, I don’t know. I don’t know where these quotes are from. I don’t know what you’re okay.

You’re denying it. Okay, fine. Where do you stand on climate change? Do you believe that climate change is real?

Yeah, I think the climate is changing. Okay. And is it caused in large part by human behavior?

I don’t know, I’m not a scientist, but I’m certainly open to addressing the challenge of climate change if we can find a good way to do it.

So, you know, to me, that’s one of the things that people like Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump, you know, really led our country in the wrong direction, because they didn’t have an open mind. They didn’t look at scientific evidence. They brashley stated things like climate change is a hoax, when they had read none of the science or certainly, as far as I know, Trump in so, you disagree. Right. So you disagree with them on climate? I got it. Right.

So I think that scientific sources are important. Yeah, I want a serious discussion. I don’t I don’t want a bunch of people who haven’t read the science, spouting opinions to 30 million people saying things that are not founded because a lot of those people listen and have a certain degree of credit, you know, they weigh so you want to you so you’re arguing for a prior restraint of speech?

No, I’m I’m you know, it should be self censorship. But if I don’t know anything about something, I should probably shouldn’t talk about it as if I do know.

Well, once upon a time, Galileo was put on trial because of the theory that the sun was at the center of the of the of the solar system. But then that evidence turned out to be different later on. I think it’s fascinating.

By and large, I’m gonna be I’m gonna I’m gonna hyper generalize the way you’ve hyper generalized for the last 25 minutes it’s interesting to me that the left and I think you’re a good example of this. You believe that the Constitution has room not from the left, because you are from, you’re from the left? Oh, trust me. Your written me Media Matters for life up until Donald Trump.

Yeah. Okay. That’s fine. That’s wonderful. You It’s wonderful, romantic, laughed and hypoallergenic. I’m gonna know what my political views are, believes you do, you probably voted for our city and never listen to my program. And you probably haven’t read what I’ve written. But now you’re going to tell me what I think.

Here’s what here’s what you think you think that despite the fact that the Constitution is written down on parchment on purpose with specific wording, you think that’s a living, breathing document, but you think climate should be static?

No, I think that we should study the climate, we don’t have the the final answer on the climate. But we do have a fair amount of scientific evidence that it seems to support that our climate is changing. I mean, you don’t have 19 of the 20 hottest years in a row. That’s kind of that’s not a freak accident. That’s a statistically significant fact.

And something we shouldn’t just dismiss out of hand. And we should take serious actions to prevent our climate from getting worse, because quite frankly, we only have one planet, and we can’t afford to screw it up. And if we cared, you know, if we take the position that we care about what God has given us, I think that that would be a high priority to take care of what God has given us, which is the planet Earth.

Well, I think I think people by and large, I don’t know anybody, whether they’re Republican or conservative, who are throwing car batteries into rivers and lakes, I think people that understand that they have to be stewards of the land or people who are among the most reviled by people on the left.

I think, the way they look at farmers the way they look at ranchers, the way they look at people that actually know how to be good stewards of the earth are condemned usually by coastal elites that sit in Los Angeles and San Francisco and Greenwich Village.

Holy overgeneralization Batman, I think, you know, you should look at the oil companies, and we should we should put them I think you’re right. Those are the primary culprits, like your friend Tom Steyer, about those.

Yeah, like your friend Tom Steyer, right, who made all his money. No, no, that was money exploiting the earth and then became a born again, anti-capitalist.

I got it. So no, no, I’m asking for your opinion about the fossil fuel companies, not somebody else’s.

Well, we, I mean, what should we do? Put them out of business? What are you paying out there right now? $5.35 a gallon?

I use hydrogen in my car.

So Boy, am I. Wow, that’s outstanding. It must be great. How does a single mother living in Compton get an engine powered by hydrogen?

Actually, the last model was $330 a month and they threw in the fuel for freight. So yeah, they could they could afford it.

Man I love I love I love coastal elites, you guys are, you know, virtue signaling all the way.

We can go in that direction. And we we certainly subsidize the fossil fuel companies for 100 plus years. Now it would be a reasonable thing to subsidize alternative energy clean fuels, because that is going to be healthy for our planet.

So you’re listening to KABC 790. Unite and Heal America. This is Matt Matern, my guest Brett Winterble, and we will be back in just one minute.

You’re listening to KABC 790. Unite and Heal America. This is Matt Matern, my guest again, Brett Winterble of the Rush Limbaugh program for many years, we’re talking about a lot of different issues facing the country. What actions do you think we should take in the US to stop global warming?

You know, it’s a it’s a complicated answer. I think my answer to it would be stuff rooted in in free market economics. I don’t think government coming in with subsidies is going to get anything done if you’re concerned. And I don’t mean use personally. I mean, the general use the wheat, if we are concerned about climate change, why do we have to send money to Washington DC to fix it?

That’s that’s what I understand like green, you got the green new deal for $70 trillion, whatever it’s going to be? How does how does sending crooked Bernie Sanders and AOC? You know, trillions of dollars? How does that how does that reduce temperature at all on the planet?

Well, let I ask you a question of what you would do. Well, right.

So so what I’m saying is, I believe it was free market economics.

Well, you drive you drive a hydrogen car. How does free market economics stop global warming? You drive a hydrogen car, right? Did the government make that call? Oh, no, it was made by a colored company.

Okay. So companies know a little something about developing products that the consumer wants. They know it way better than Biden and Harris and Schumer and McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi. Politicians don’t know how markets work, they know how to warp markets.

And that’s why you’re seeing the inflation problem you have right now, I believe that if, if you create a market if businesses are able to do it, Elon Musk is doing it with Tesla, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are doing it with with Richard Branson and private space, you know, sending space craft up, you know, they are much more efficiently able to pull that kind of stuff off. I’m not, I’m not an automotive engineer.

Okay. I do know, though, that the potential for human beings is endless in terms of creativity. And that I think that’s, that’s probably the way to go versus, you know, doing lock downs, whatever we’re going to do in terms of sequestering CO2, or whatever it is, the Chinese, the chai coms are going to cheat. The Russians are going to cheat, the Iranians are going to cheat.

We are the only country that seems to want to hobble ourselves. So that we look like we’re nice and kind and soft and lovely. While we put while we put people out of their homes and getting an inability to even feed their kids, because of the runaway inflation we’ve got right now.

Okay, energy should be cheap and plentiful?

Well, let me take, take those one at a time. First, Tesla gets a lot of subsidies by from the government for their clean energy vehicles, which I don’t disagree with, I think that could be helping spur the market in that area. And that’s what the government can do is a it can incentivize good behavior. And that’s what a good tax system will do is it will incentivize good behavior, hydrogen, got subsidies essentially by the State of California to get it off the ground.

And that’s why we have it and Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he was governor set the groundwork for hydrogen, the rollout of hydrogen in California, it took a long time to get that in place, and most other states don’t have that infrastructure. And it requires the government is a necessary actor in all of this. I mean, you have to go back 200 years, we had government involvement in roads, canals, things of that nature bridges, going back 200 years, and it helped develop country.

I mean, you look at air quality, air quality is not going to be addressed by the free market, because no company has an incentive to clean the air on their own. They have an incentive only because the government tells them they have to do it. And that’s what clean up the air in Los Angeles, it was very polluted in the 1950s.

Because there were no regulations. So you have to have a regulated market, you can’t have a market that has no regulations, or else you have chaos. We have an effective stock market, because we have regulations, we have the SEC, which protects investors. Sure, we have the EPA, which protects people who consume air right now.

And that’s, that’s a regulatory function that, so that’s part of government and, and quite frankly, the Republican Party in the 70s recognize that and every single Republican voted for the EPA, and clean air and clean water, and that’s where the party was, and, and that’s why, you know, I was proud to be a Republican when George HW Bush signed into law, Clean Air Act Two, which saves the lives of 230,000 Americans every year, for the last 30 years.

You know, so that’s what the role of the government has in in stopping global warming. And it isn’t just free market economics. That’s not going to work. The free market on its own is chaos. It’s selfish. I mean, that’s the West.

That’s it’s right. That’s and that’s good. Sometimes pure selfishness leads to destruction, which is global warming writ large. Exxon knew 30 years ago, they did a study that carbon dioxide will get up to 400 and some parts per million in the 2020.

And it will have very bad effects on the environment. And they went ahead and continue to produce it. And more and more of it, and because they didn’t care they cared about shareholder maximization of value, not the community and our planet. That’s what happens when a market is unregulated.

Brett, you know, it’s fascinating that you that you bring this up, given the fact that you’re in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles happened to have a terrible problem with MTBE didn’t pay the additive that went into gasoline that was mandated by the government. You ended up with kids with birth defects and illnesses people died.

You had lost leaking underground storage tanks getting into the water table. Government did that government gave you the catalytic converter, which is a bust out waste. You’ve got you got derelicts climate under cars, cutting them out of people’s cars throughout the western United States regulation. Absolutely. But here’s the here’s the lane have catalytic converters that we should have. What What would take their place?

I mean, I don’t know. But what pumps you up in the air and see this is this is the problem. This is the problem. This is the problem with you guys on the left. This is your solution.

No, you’re missing the point. Here’s the point you’re missing. Government doesn’t always get it right, Brett.

Yes, I know that we need to watch the government diligently because the government many times gets it wrong. But quite frankly, they did get it right. In cleaning up the air quality in Los Angeles.

God bless Richard Nixon, and you guys wanted him out. God bless Richard Nixon and you guys wanted him out of office. He gave you Earth Day. He gave you the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act EPA. That was Richard Milhouse Nixon of California in the last two he does he signed it. He signed it, but he signed it because well, mainly supported by the Congress. I mean, it’s not like he was jumping up and down for it. Don’t act as if he was the dictator who gave it to you.

No, come on. People, we the people, you liberals, house decks that Nixon, the dictator gave it to us. People were out there marching in the streets, because of Love Canal and all the other toxic sites around the country that people had had enough of it. They couldn’t see through the smog in Los Angeles. And so they said no, yeah.

Yeah, that’s right. That’s what governments happen. Because Richard Milhouse, you’re right. I take it back. I take it back. I take it back. You’re right, George HW Bush hero for signing Clean Air Act to Richard Nixon incidental contact with the Clean Air Act.

And I’m just saying neither of them was guy. They supported it, though. That was the Republican Party that were supporting environmental matters. And a kudos to Nixon for that. Kudos to Nixon. Good move.

I agree. But, and that’s where the Republican Party was in 1970. And the the Endangered Species Act, was authored by a Republican. Things like that. I mean, we we were a party, which cared about the environment. And then somehow that changed over time. And while

I still cared I care about you, do you care? Do you still care about the environment, I care about the environment?

Unfortunately, we don’t care enough to stop the the fossil fuel companies, and we didn’t care enough to slow down global warming. Bush turned a blind eye to it. He’d said, when he got into office in 2000, that he was going to limit emissions. And then I don’t know Dick Cheney got to him or whatever. And then that didn’t that ever happen.

Well the list of boogey men is just endless?

Well, no, it’s not endless. I mean, how many of my name I don’t know, five, maybe. But yeah, I don’t think Dick Cheney was good for the country. Certainly post-2000. I think he did a lot of things. I mean, he led us into he and NW led us into two pretty disastrous wars. Would you agree with that? Are you you think Afghanistan and Iraq were days in the park?

No, I don’t think anybody thinks that. I think that’s a foolish assessment. No, I mean, hey, and I, I backed those when we were going into them, and foolishly and stupidly, and I admit that that was a mistake. And, you know, I thought that Afghanistan was a danger at seeing what happened to Alexander the Great the British Empire and then the Russian Empire.

I was like, I don’t know if that’s such a great idea. But it looked like hey, we we make quick work of the Taliban. Okay, well, this, this might not be so. So bad, but I didn’t necessarily think we should put 100,000 troops on the ground that that wasn’t my idea.

But anyway, we you’re listening to Unite and Heal America on KABC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host and Bret Winterble is our guest today and we will be back in just one minute.

KABC 790, Unite and Heal America. My guest today is Brent Winterble. Brett, kind of want to switch gears a little bit and talk about well, the vaccine and what what you think about it that you’re supportive of it? Or do you think that the government is pushing it too hard?

I will, I’m vaccinated. I have the I have the j&j shot. My wife is a teacher, she’s vaccinated and my kids are vaccinated. You know, I, the position I’ve taken on the vaccine is, you know, talk to your doctor, make sure it works for you make sure you’re you know, you’re able to take it and then, you know, make the right decision. And that’s, that’s what it comes down to.

I think the I think the mandates have been atrocious. I think we have seen more damage done to the fabric of this country in the last two and a half years than I could have ever imagined. I think we’ll come back from it. But man have we we have empowered some just vicious dictators and unelected officials that are just it’s a remarkable thing to watch.

Why do you think vaccine mandates are atrocious when we have vaccine mandates for measles and polio and all kinds of other diseases?

So if you’re if you’re 25 years old, who mandates that you have to take a polio vaccine?

Well, if you’re going on a trip to certain countries, I think they may want for you to have certain.

Right, right. Well, so the point is, the point is, the mandates that we’re watching rollout are are not being particularly helpful to restoring confidence in in the role of government. I think this has been an enormous power grab, that has gone on for the for, you know, since 2019, when the giant when the when the Chinese government decided they weren’t going to warn everybody in the world about what was coming out, you know, yet you have crazy Adam Schiff, pushing the Ukrainian impeachment stuff completely distracts us getting into 2020.

To deal with the with the COVID-19 such situation, there’s never been an intelligence hearing in Washington DC on this, I have called publicly for reparations and a settlement conference with the Chinese Communist Party, they need to pay for what they did to the rest of the world by sitting on this information. They probably owe the rest of the world 5060 $70 trillion in damage in killing and all of that sort of stuff.

And you know, you’ve got a country that is suffering, you’ve got a country, addiction has never been higher. You’ve got millions of children that have disappeared from the schools, alcoholism, mental illness, I mean, it’s all exploded. And I think when you come out as a president or as a public official and say that the people are the problem. That’s that’s just I think, a bridge too far.

Well, isn’t it? I mean, given the situation that we’re facing, isn’t it the most prudent thing to mandate vaccines so that we can get this COVID 19 under control, so that our country can go back to some new degree of normality? Yeah,

I don’t think we’re ever going to go back to normalcy. Because why wouldn’t we mandate vaccines so that we get a high enough percentage of people vaccinated, so that it actually works? Because if we don’t mandate it, and a high percentage of people don’t get the vaccine, then it seems as though and this is true and other vaccine campaigns.

So this isn’t just COVID? This is very, I mean, there’s a lot of evidence out there that shows that vaccine campaigns don’t work unless you reach a certain level of coverage, right?

Yeah, you got to try to get to herd immunity. Absolutely. But the problem is the goalposts have moved consistently for the better part of a year, right? Because what were you told, we were told, just get the vaccine, if you get, you know, whatever it is, 75% of the country gets the vaccine. We’ve got the herd immunity, we’re all good. But then all of a sudden, now it shifts to, you know, you need boosters.

So, who is the mandating authority when it comes to to making people get the shot? I mean, who is that mandating authority? The President doesn’t have the authority to order Matthew or Brett in our respective states to get the shot unless we’re federal employees right, are governed by an executive order. Governor Newsom doesn’t have the power to mandate you to get a shot against your will and the governor here doesn’t have that to do with me right?

Can’t do it. So what do we do? We go to companies and tell them, you have to mandate that your employees get the shot. Now companies can make whatever decision they want to make, right? So for example, what happens if a president came in and said, I’m sorry, I mean, him, I said, a president came out and said,

Okay, here’s a deal of XYZ company, you need to, you need to tell all the Republicans that work for your company to register as Democrats, or they’re going to be fired? What would you say to that? Well, that would obviously be unconstitutional.

Why would it be?

What would it be accustomed to be? Well, at a mandate from a company, I mean, it would be an illegal mandate. So it would be okay. So why would you call Southwest Airlines them to wrongful termination suits?

And I, my phone lines would be lighting up, and they would make me a lot of cases, right.

So that would happen. If the president calls Southwest Airlines and leans on the CEO and says, You need to make sure all your people get the shot, or punish them or firearm or whatever, it’s going to be it. Okay, so in one case, it’s a shot and another case, it’s political identity.

And another case, it could be based on some other some other issue that you have control over, right? Because you have control over shot, you have control over your political identity. I mean, so we would be furious. I’m not I know, it’s an absurd example. But the point is, nobody has the authority to mandate these things.

They just don’t know. I mean, say if the kids go to school, they get mandated, right?

Yeah. Without a doubt, my kids are all vaccinated. Okay, my kids are in school. I, they’ve gotten all the shots up through from birth to to teenage years, right. And so I understand that I’m not an anti Vax guy, I’ve never been an anti Vax guy. So what I’m looking at is sort of the way you’re delivering the message, I think it’s a mistake to look at the country and say, You are the problem, you know, to say, it’s not you are the problem, but you shouldn’t be the solution. And maybe there should be more characteristics. And for sure, here are the carrots if you if you get your vaccine, you get x, you know,

I but but the thing is government doesn’t do carrot really well companies do, right? Companies do great, hey, if you work the Christmas holiday, I’m going to give you an extra week of vacation in the summer, you know, something like that. That’s an inducement to work during the holidays, or something like that. All government does this force.

You know, just to go back to the environment thing for a quick second. Because I think it’s a fair analogue. You go to the environment issue, and you say, Okay, you have to get rid of the oil refineries. Well, I have to be compensated to get rid of them, right?

I mean, I have to do, I have to get something in kind, I can’t, those shareholders are going to sue me if I just dump all my energy, assets. So government can come in and just erect punishments, but they can’t do anything in terms of really in terms of inducements, because we saw they can give tax breaks, that’s what they did to Tesla, and to all the people who bought very fair, very fair, yeah, that’s very fair. And you could do that. And you could do that with a shot, right?

You could say, if you get the shot, you can write $15,000 off your tax return, or whatever, I mean, some some magic thing, you could do that, sure. But they don’t.

Well, that’s what they should be considering doing. So that’s, that’s, uh, that’s the point of the show. And it took us 40 minutes to get there, but which is, you know, we should be looking at solutions to solve our problems versus shouting at each other, and, you know, demonizing each other because this is what our country needs our children could use, future generations are going to need is to solve our problems not to just engage in name calling.

And I that’s unfortunately, what a lot, a lot of what I see going on in Washington and Sacramento, you know, you pick the Capitol and and you can see it going on.

Yeah, listen, I’m sure Rush Limbaugh forgives you for for the assault on him for two segments. And other than that, you know, it was good conversation.

Well, I’m not asking for Rush’s forgiveness. And actually, I’m not asking you know, I don’t I really don’t you know, I meant everything that I said about what his legacy was, and I personally believe it to be a fairly toxic one, and one that was not good for the country.

And I think that you see a continuation of it with the social in social media in in, it kind of encourages outrageous behavior, and it does not encourage it authentic, honest dialogue that gets drowned out. Whereas sometimes the most salacious things get writ large.

So I think that we’ve got to work on encouraging better behavior, because that will Unite and Heal America, encouraging more salacious, outrageous, toxic conversations or is not going to heal this country.

Yeah, I’m a big believer in discussion and debate. And I think with heat comes light. And, you know, it’s the nature of this business that we are all in. And I think, I think it’s important that we’re talking to each other and not throwing rocks and bricks and being physical, because that’s, that’s gonna get us absolutely nowhere.

Well, absolutely, and, you know, I, and I appreciate you coming on the show. Brad, and I appreciate the dialogue. And, you know, I, I, I certainly don’t mean to, you know, make this a personal attack on you, I really was going after Rush because I really had that disagreement with him.

And that’s, and that’s the things he said not the things that you said, but, you know, obviously you were close to him, so you feel some loyalty to him.

And, you know, that’s, that’s your position. But, you know, you know, at some point in time, we can continue this discussion, and I would like to have you on the show to give you that opportunity.

But thank you for being here. It’s KABC 790. United and Heal America. This is Matt Matern with the heavy back, listening to this show next week.

As you may know, your host Matt Matern of Unite and Heal America is also the founder of Matern Law Group, their team of experienced employment consumer and environmental attorneys are dedicated to leveling the playing field by giving everyone access to the highest quality legal representation contact 844 MLG for you, that’s 844 MLG for you or 8446544968446544968.