tommy lahren joins me to talk about her
future
would you run for office if my country
needs me at some point
we get real on the issues to be honest i
really just love holding
leaders and politicians accountable i
don't feel like you address the question
of whether or not you think there's
systemic
racism in the u.s i would
love to say that i am incredibly
confident that our president will be
reelected
[Music]
hi i'm carlos watson welcome to a
special edition of the carlos watson
show
i think those of you who've been
watching the show know that i'm trying
to bring to you what i think of as the
most important
and many cases the most interesting and
urgent voices at the moment
now some of these conversations with
people you know some of them with people
you don't know
a lot of them tackle very difficult
topics and the one today
with tommy laron the fox news star
commentator
probably is a particularly difficult one
for a lot of people now i had a good
conversation with tommy but it happened
several weeks ago this was before
jacob blake was shot in front of his
three boys in kenosha wisconsin
when we talked in the conversation tommy
and i talked a little bit about george
floyd and about whether what happened
there
was painful and isolated or whether it
was part of a more systemic problem
i clearly thought it was more of a
systemic problem wasn't exactly tommy's
view but i appreciate her sharing what
she shared
i wanted to bring this to you but i also
wanted to give you some context
because in light of all that happened it
can be hard to hear some of these
conversations sometimes
but i think they're important to hear i
think there's a lot to learn and i'd
love to know what you think about it
if you get a chance at the end of this i
hope you'll email me directly and tell
me
you can reach me at carlos r watson
at aussie.com that's ozy.com
enjoy tommy welcome to the show thank
you for having me here in my in my
kitchen
of all places and where are you right
now i am in good old nashville tennessee
music city
i really have enjoyed nashville the
couple times that i've been there what
made you choose nashville
for me i like moving a new place every
few years i think it's great to
meet new people and you get more of a
diverse perspective on the country and
every place that i've been i've learned
a lot from
let me tell you i learned a lot in los
angeles california
but coming to nashville a lot of great
folks here it's a little bit more
conservative but you still have
plenty of liberal thought here so i like
to be around a little bit of everything
[Music]
now tell me did you start life out as a
conservative or did you
end up there uh as time went along i'm
one of those original conservatives
i grew up in a conservative place but
more than anything to me what
conservatism really is
is it's just that hard-working
background people that want as little
government as possible
and they want to maximize freedom that's
how i grew up two
very blue-collar parents both coming
from ranching backgrounds
neither one of my parents went to
college my grandparents i had a
grandfather that
didn't even make it past middle school
before he started ranching so those are
just kind of my roots
now what was young tommy like if i had
met her uh
15 16 years old in uh in in south dakota
was she quiet was she
loud you know my mom always says that
the best way to describe me is
relentless and that's how i've always
been
but i've always had a mouth on me i've
always had an opinion
the left has been crapping on our
country it's traditions
values symbols and basic principles for
years now
but it's never been so bad as it is
right now just remember that when you
guys all of you especially in the
entertainment industry are doing your
blackout tuesday
to reflect on on everything going on in
this country i just hope that you know
that
our officers out there yeah they can't
take a day off to reflect on anything
because they're out there protecting
some have the audacity to blame bar and
business owners for a spike in cases
wow apparently you can only get
coronavirus at places of business and
trump rallies but not at riots or pride
parades
coronavirus is more woke and more
progressive than we thought huh
that's really why i wanted to get into
tv and have a political opinion that was
on a large platform
because i feel like there are not many
people from where i'm from
that are representing the people that i
grew up with in the state that i grew up
in
when in your mind did things really
start to take off i love being part of
something and building something
so i went to one america news and i was
fortunate enough to
do a screen test and the owner felt like
i had some political opinions that might
be kind of fun to put on air and so i
moved to san diego before i even walked
in graduation i never even walked i just
picked up my diploma and headed to san
diego and started that first show
thank you for taking a chance on a 22
year old girl straight out of college
that took guts and i hope i've made you
proud tommy who've been your best
sounding boards and mentors over the
last couple years as you've
built this career in politics and policy
analysis
i have a lot of great colleagues at fox
news of course i love laura ingram i
think that she's a kick-ass
badass woman and coulter although some
people hate her i love people that tell
it like it is so i like ann coulter's
style
michelle malkin i think that she tells
it like it is to me there are so many
conservative women out there
that have such a strong voice
[Music]
talk to me a little bit about some of
the issues that matter most to you
uh what are some of the issues you think
that should be front and center
as the country tries to think about
where we head to from here
i'm one of those very america first type
of gals and that's why i have been an
early supporter of donald trump
so for me immigration is probably my
number one even if
they build a 31-foot ladder it the time
it takes to go up
and then come back down slows them down
that gives my agents a chance to respond
i know it's a complicated issue but but
summarize for me how you think about
what we should do there do you think
there should be is
the late john mccain and others talked
about
more bipartisan work to allow people who
who are here and trying to build a life
here to remain here and
have a path to citizenship do you do you
think that there's something different
for the particularly young people the
so-called dreamers
that we should do so amnesty is a dirty
word to me but i will say this
i think that there are many folks even
like myself that are very hard-line
immigration hawks they would be open to
having conversations about what we do
for the 10 to probably 20 million people
who are in this country illegally
however
in order to even have that conversation
we have to have a secure border we're
here at
again a big beautiful glorious wall but
i want to tell you
apprehensions have gone down
significantly dramatically and that's
all because
of president trump and his policies and
i often look to a lot of the communities
in
los angeles new york and really all
around this country that are
even minority communities that are
already underserved that's a big topic
in this country right now
and i look at how they're being burdened
by the millions of people that are
coming in
who have no legal right to be here and
it's a conversation that needs to be had
how much do you think race is playing a
factor
in this conversation do you think that
if for example we were talking about
people coming in from canada who were
predominantly white
that the conversation would be different
i really don't i don't see illegal
immigration as a race i see it as an
activity
we have a lot of folks that are coming
in from mexico from
central america they are escaping
countries that quite frankly have failed
them
but to just bring them to our country
and put them in the shadows
and tell them that they don't need to
assimilate they don't need to adopt any
type of american customs ways values
language
i think that's putting them at a
disadvantage as well we have to talk
about
putting america and americans first
especially right now that's how we keep
our country strong and make it this
beacon of hope
that so many want to come to now that
radical groups like blm
know what they can get away with in the
name of justice they will use it
weaponize it and up the ante every
single chance they get
what do you think of the black lives
matter uh
movement and the conversation around
ending systemic racism
and reforming the police you know when
we look at the
the blm movement and we talk about
ending systemic racism
i don't think that's what the blm
movement as it stands stands
for i think it stands for defending the
police i think that its leaders have
been very vocal
about the fact that they have marxist
leadings i think that's very concerning
and a lot of things that we're seeing
have not been handled well when you have
an organization that says
you know if we don't see the if we don't
see the changes we want to see
then we're going to burn this country
down and build a new one
that's very concerning to me and i don't
think that that's productive
i don't think that looting and burning
and ravaging cities
where i don't think what happened in
portland what happened in seattle what
happened in minneapolis what happened in
atlanta i mean pick a city it happened
i don't think that's productive in a
conversation about racism or anything
else
so i have to largely discredit the black
lives matter movement because i don't
think that it service
itself or its original mission very well
do you feel like systemic racism
is a fundamental and gnawing moral
problem
i think anytime you talk about racism or
inequalities i think it's a worthwhile
conversation to be had
however i don't believe that americans
are nearly as racist as the mainstream
media
and some of our political leaders would
have us believe i think we are much more
cohesive
i think we are much more tolerant and
loving of each other than
we've been led to believe leave it to
portland to look at seattle's chas and
say
hold my beer or brick or whatever it is
these nut jobs are into these days
now the so-called protest over george
floyd's death
thousands of miles away in minneapolis
have been basically continuous in
portland for over a month now
interesting so what did you see when you
saw
the cop with the knee on the neck of
george floyd or when you saw brianna
taylor
get killed or tamir rice or eric garner
or any of those
you didn't see a clear pattern of of
racism
there's a lot of different cases there
and there's a lot of different variables
in all those cases but speaking about
george boyd specifically because that
really was what ignited everything
i talked about it several times
everybody that watched that video
knows what happened was wrong knows that
that went
far too far and that that officer needs
to be held accountable for his actions
and i believe he will be
what happened to george floyd at the
hands of four horrible officers
is beyond the pale and should be
denounced by every single american
regardless of race
and regardless of political affiliation
period however
i will not sit here and let those four
officers and their abhorrent actions
stain and mar the good work of the
hundreds of thousands of
other officers who stand in the gap and
hold that thin blue line for americans
of every race
religion gender and political
affiliation including those americans
who proudly and outwardly
hate them when we're looking at law
enforcement do i think that
an officer gets up every day and puts
that badge on that uniform to go on and
advance
their demented form of racism no i don't
if you are in the military law
enforcement if you could just raise your
hand if you're comfortable doing so
because none of us would be here if it
weren't for you i don't believe that our
our 700 000 sworn peace officers in this
country
wake up with racism in their hearts
every day i just don't believe it but
is the answer really zero sum is it
either all of the officers are racist or
none of them
isn't it possible that there are good
officers
but that there's enough officers who
have the power of life and death
who are motivated by racism and are
clearly guided by that
and provably so that it's a problem well
carlos i would also ask you this
you named off a bunch of names for me of
those that have died at the hands of
police
but i would challenge you to name one
officer that's died in the last year
from in the line of duty from anything
americans and the demonization of police
in this country to me quite frankly is
disgusting
and i think we need to take each case
case by case and those officers that
face their day in court and it's proven
that they have done something wrong they
need to be held accountable for that and
a fair and free trial
tell me let me ask you what would it
take for you to say that there are
enough
police that are acting badly we got to
do something meaningfully different here
i think the bad apples again need to
face and be held accountable for their
actions however
i would also say to those that are a fan
of blm defund the police platform
that if you want police officers to be
better equipped and better trained
the answer is not to defund them the
answer is to fund their training and
make sure that they are equipped with
the things that they need
to be able to handle situations in a
better way if that's a conversation that
needs to be had
let's have it if someone were to say to
you
i don't feel like she's ultimately
open-minded not that she has to agree
with one side
but that she's not open-minded she's got
a track and she's sticking to it well i
wouldn't be sitting here with you if i
was
close-minded i wouldn't talk to many
liberals who were obviously
far to the left of me if i was
close-minded i think what needs to
happen in this country is a dialogue and
a conversation but when the dialogue
leads down the road of
police officer bad white people bad um
anything that goes against blm racists
the the cancer culture the labeling
the demonization of people who don't
agree with the left
i i think that that leads to a lot of
people saying oh well they're
closed-minded
no i'm just not going to tell you that i
think police officers and and those that
protect and serve our communities
are inherently racist i'm just not going
to say it
[Music]
tell me how do you think the president
is doing i'm a big supporter and a big
fan of this president
and not because of who he is or what he
says but because what he's done for this
country and of course
we know our economy was doing so well
now we're in the midst of a pandemic i
still think that he is working hard to
make sure americans get back on their
feet
i love what he's done in terms of
immigration i wish more could have been
done
i don't think he's been given the fair
shake that he deserves
i don't think that he's been given the
media coverage that he deserves i love
him i hate him for it
i do think he's done great things in
leading this country how have you
thought about what's happened with kovid
uh do you feel like he's he's handled
the response to that well
it's going to disappear one day it's
like a miracle it will disappear
and then i said supposing you brought
the light inside the body you can which
you can do either through the skin or
in some other way and then i see the
disinfectant
where it knocks it out in a minute one
minute
and is there a way we can do something
like that any president facing what this
president
has been facing this summer when it
comes to cove when it comes to race
relations when it comes to
an economy that was up here and it's now
gone down here
i think he's handled it very well
americans want to get back to work and i
believe they can do it safely
and responsibly but i believe having
these continuous
lockdowns and shutdowns that have been
imposed on us by our democratic mayors
is going to cripple people beyond the
point of repair in some cases
why do you say democratic mayors when it
feels like we're at a moment now where
we're clearly seeing
across the country a bipartisan set of
leaders saying
that we've got too many deaths too many
infections
and we've got to close down why do you
why do you say democratic mayors i say
democratic mayors specifically i'll talk
about nashville
we've got a governor here who
implemented a 10 pm curfew
for restaurants and has closed bars and
i look at that and i say that seems
quite arbitrary to me because you can
get coronavirus any time of the day
you're not more susceptible to it after
10 pm but what you are doing is you're
crippling a lot of these bars
restaurants musicians employees
who want to get back to work of course
california we're seeing that with a
democratic governor but we're also
seeing it with a democratic
mayor in los angeles who's saying he's
going to cut power to businesses
if they're not complying i mean those
are the things that i'm seeing of course
we've got republicans doing it as well
but i see a lot of the problem coming
from a lot of the democrats that are
really enjoying the power they have
right now tommy can i push you a little
bit when i hear you say that if i'm 100
honest that sounds like talking points
like it feels to me that a reasonable
person looking at the situation
will say the thing has only gotten worse
everyone who tried to open up early has
had to retreat
you have situations like herman cain in
oklahoma where he goes to a rally
and clearly he and lots of other people
get sick and even died like it doesn't
even feel like it's partisan anymore
when we're talking about something as
sensitive as people's health and their
safety
it's an important conversation and
chronovirus has to be taken seriously
obviously we're not hearing as much
about the survival rate which is very
high
but we are not also not hearing about
the toll this is going to take
on people's mental health on their
financial health on their futures
on the children that aren't going to be
able to go back to school the children
that are not going to be able to go and
play sports which
in some cases was a lifesaver for them
was an outlet for them
i think this is a multi-dimensional
conversation and i i don't want to push
talking points
there are lots of things to consider as
you said from mental health to
school and quality education to economic
livelihood
but it's hard for me to think that an
open
and fair person could look at what the
president's done here and say
that that's a good job do you really
genuinely in your heart think he's done
a good job managing the response to
to this pandemic i do and if you'll
recall back when we knew that this was
coming from wuhan this was coming from
china
our president made the decisive move to
stop travel and then again he did that
with europe he did that with italy and
he was criticized up
and down left and right for being
intolerant for being bigoted for being
xenophobic
and he made those moves so what he knew
needed to be done to protect our country
tommy talk to me a little bit about what
you think is going to happen in the
election do you think
um you know most of our modern
presidents have won re-election
uh there have been a couple of of
outliers whether it was uh papa bush or
or jimmy carter what do you expect to
happen come november
you know i would love to say that i am
incredibly confident that our president
will be re-elected
i have a great concern about the mail-in
voting
and the fraud that comes along with it
this election for president is different
everything that's made america america
is at stake
i think that if democrats are honest
with themselves they know that joe biden
is not a viable
candidate couldn't be a viable president
which is why democrats are doing
their damnedest to make sure that he
stays hidden we always do better
we act as one america i mean the man
i don't believe is inherently racist but
he says some things that i don't know
how the dnc or the democrats or any
american voter can get around and i hope
that they will see everything that
donald trump did to bolster
our economy before the pandemic hope
they'll remember that
they'll remember the man that puts
america first and i hope that the silent
majority will come out
in numbers like they did in 2016 and
give him a decisive victory and if you
would have asked me pre-coronavirus i
would have confidently
bet on it now there's a lot of things
surrounding the pandemic that concerned
me
but i'm still very hopeful and confident
in our president give me a percentage
chance what percent
do you think that the president wins
reelection i think 75 percent chance he
wins
you think that high you you think you
think three out of four chance that he
wins
i do and the only reason that it to me
it's not higher is because i do worry
about voter fraud
would you run for office i guess i'll
pull a donald trump there and say if my
country needs me at some point but to be
honest i really just love holding
leaders and politicians accountable and
i feel like i have a great voice to do
that so
i'm going to be in media for as long as
i can be i do think that's such a
critical role
of holding people in power accountable
what do you say to the criticism of
people who will say
you might be too young to do that well
for me it's about giving my perspective
on things that are happening
and at age 27 i feel like i might offer
a different perspective on what's going
on
than some of the people in the industry
that are older and have more experience
and on my age group right now i mean
we're going to surpass the baby boomers
we're going to be the largest voting
bloc
and we need to have a voice there's a
lot of voices on the liberal
side there are not so many on the
conservative side so i think i fill that
void
tommy look ahead for me uh 10 years from
now what would you love to be true where
would you love to be
what would excite you to be true i hope
this country comes back together the way
we did on september 12 2001
i would hope that liberals and
conservatives can agree to disagree
and be friendly with one another and we
don't have our political beliefs be the
litmus test for friendship
tommy i want to finish up uh with a
couple of rapid fire questions if you
don't mind and
would love just the first thing that
kind of comes to your mind i may go all
over the map a little bit
um first question uh how did you get the
name tommy and spelled as it is t-o-m-i
my parents love boys names for girls and
they wanted me to have a different name
i used to hate it i used to hate it more
than anything i would tell people that
my name was tammy but now it makes me
different and so i love it
what would surprise people even those
who think they know you
what would surprise them the most to
learn about you that i don't talk about
politics all the time and i'm actually a
very relaxed person to be around
the democrat who you admire or like the
most which may be one in the same or
maybe it's different
i've actually developed somewhat of a
friendship with van jones
and i'm i'm really happy about that i've
had a great conversation with chelsea
handler
so there are folks that are far far to
the left of me that i count as great
people
final question if you could have dinner
with anyone alive or dead
who would you love to have dinner with
hillary clinton hands down
say more i think that she's incredibly
interesting
obviously we disagree on a lot and i
think that there's a lot
that i'd like to ask her so i think it
would be very interesting
to have dinner with hillary clinton of
all the republicans i could choose all
the celebrities i would choose
she's one of those people to me that's
an enigma and i'd love to unravel it
tommy uh absolutely uh uh interesting
conversation i
really appreciate you uh taking the time
and uh promise me that you'll come back
and do this again
i'd love to i always love these
conversations i think the dialogue is so
important in this country right now
thank you thank you so much look forward
to seeing you soon
[Music]
it's an interesting conversation i just
had with tommy i really like her as a
person she seems like good people
smart clearly talented uh i think she is
gonna run for office one day and in fact
i think if she could run for the senate
right now you've got to be 30 years old
she's about to turn 28.
i think she probably would have won
already i think there's that level of
political talent
having said all that i didn't love the
way that she talked about the issues i
didn't feel like she really answered the
questions in many cases
and i thought that a lot of times she
kind of moved towards kind of a straw
man or kind of a boogeyman
on issues of race or immigration or what
have you having said all that she came
here
she engaged i think she's one of the
voices that we all have to hear from
and i hope you found that valuable uh
please go ahead and subscribe
comment even and tell a friend if you're
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