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This is later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what

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you here weekday afternoon is on the
Drive, joined now by our good friend

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Senator James Lankford who is in Washington, DC and Senator I wanted to start

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right away with this government shutdown.
You know, it seems three things happen

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this time of the year. The
weather gets a little cool, we go

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back to school, and a threat
of a government shutdown. It is as

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predictable as it getting cooler in the
fall. It is so good to get

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a chance of visit with you again. We should not ever want to get

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a government shut down, to the
chaos of it. I actually have a

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bill that I started working on six
years ago that we have worked on,

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worked on and trying to be able
to build a coalition around this. This

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is a non partisan, not just
bipartisan, nonpartisan bill. I have Democrats,

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have some of the independents in the
Senate on this, I have lots

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of Republicans on it. It's a
very straightforward bill that ends the possible ability

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a government shutdown, but keeps us
actually debating on the budget issues. That's

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the real thing we need to do. There are lots of folks that try

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to use a government shutdown to say, well we need to force a conversation

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on the hard things. Well,
we do need to force a conversation on

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hard things. But when you do
a government shutdown, government employees don't get

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a check during that time period.
They will eventually get paid, but they

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don't get a check time period.
That means a lot of folks that live

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paycheck to paycheck, whether it be
Border patrol, whether it be people working

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for HUD, whether it be people
working for FAA, all those folks,

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if they live paycheck to paycheck,
are suddenly struggling to be able to make

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it because Congress is having a fight. That's a dumb thing, and all

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of the people that are calling the
federal government with a question or a permit,

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need or whatever can't get it.
And every time we do it,

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it actually costs more to do it. So literally shutdowns cost us money,

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cost consternation across the whole fruited plane, and then also cause a lot of

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people that are really serving their neighbors
as federal employees to really struggle during that

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time period. So my simple plan
on this league, we should be able

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to say let's keep the debate going. We'll keep the government open at the

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current levels of what it was last
year. But members of Congress and our

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staff, we're in session seven days
a week. We can't move to bills

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other than the appropriation bills. That's
the only thing that's pending that we can

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actually debate and talk about. And
we can't travel. There is no additional

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funds that are allocated for travel.
So we're stuck here looking at each other

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seven days a week, working on
appropriation bills till we get it done.

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It's the equivalent of if you didn't
finish your homework, you got to stay

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after school. That's all it is. Oh, Senator, what a Chuck

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Schumer gonna do? What is Adam
Schiff going to do? I mean,

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this is their big weapon of the
fall. This is what they threaten Republican.

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They threatened Republicans when Republicans are in
control, and then they hold Republicans

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hostage when when they're in control.
That's one hundred percent years. Remember several

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years Chuck Schumer got mad about immigration
and so he did a government shutdown and

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locked it all up. But you
just ignored that shutdown. So anytime there's

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a shutdown, they always blame republic. It's all one hundred percent. So

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here's the problem. My bill has
wide bipartisan support on it. The reason

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we've not been able to pass it
is because Chuck Schumer doesn't want to put

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on the floor, and quite frankly, Mitch McConnell didn't want to put on

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the floor either. It is a
powerful weapon for leadership to get to the

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edge of a government shutdown, to
try to create a moment to be able

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to say, if you don't vote
for this bad bill, then then we're

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gonna have a government shutdown. So
vote for this bad bill. It's leverage

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for leadership on both sides of the
aisle. We've got to end that,

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and so we're pushing to be able
to find a moment to say this is

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the time where we can actually get
this bill in there and to actually end

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the possibility of government shutdowns and all
the chaos. No one likes to see

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the CNN countdown clock in the corner
screen, like anyone watch the CNN,

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But if you were to happen to
watch that, to be able to watch

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the countdown clock coming for the next
government shutdown, that just doesn't help us

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as an economy. It doesn't help
us in the world stage, and it

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doesn't help us to be able to
hire really good folks to work on the

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federal workforce. If we tell somebody
if they're hired, hey we may or

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may not pay you in October,
that just doesn't work. So we do

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need to solve this. But quite
frankly, we do need to have the

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fights on debt and deficits. So
let's have the fight. Let's just hold

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our bails harmless while we're having the
fight. So can you conceivably get it

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on the floor and voted upon before
this next threatened shut down? Or would

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this have to wait till next year? We are looking for every opportunity to

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get it in that is pending that
it would be what's called germane to be

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able to get in and to be
able to get a vote on that.

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But yes, we are actually I
actually had a meeting on that just earlier

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today to be able to talk through
what are the ways that we could actually

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get this on the floor, because
again, we've got the support to get

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it. If it gets on the
floor, it's going to be hard for

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people to say no, I want
more government shutdowns. People will vote and

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say let's stop this. But we've
got to be able to get it actually

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to the floor and find a method
to get it there. Senator, I

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didn't know Germans had anything to do
with it, but okay, whatever it

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takes. Let's shift gears for just
a minute. We recently caught this Brazilian

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national that was fulfilling his own version
of the fugitive but he was here across

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our border, presumably fleeing charges in
Brazil. And I can't help but think

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of this as more evidence of how
porous our border is. What can we

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do about this? Yeah, Ultimately, Biden administration has got to actually enforce

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American law. And the second thing
we've got to do is Congress has to

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create a better definition for the word
asylum. Right now we have this is

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a crazy stat on this, but
as of last week, we have over

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six million people that have illegally crossed
into our country just during the less than

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three years of the Biden administration.
To put that in context, six million

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people equals the same number is both
terms of the Obama administration and the Trump

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administration combined. We've had as many
people illegally crossed into our country in less

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than three years than the previous twelve
years combined. That puts in context just

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how bad this is. So my
focus is getting the Biden administration to enforce

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the law, and they have capabilities
to do that, but also to get

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a change in the asylum definition.
Right now, we've got this year,

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for instance, ten thousand people from
Mauritania have come illegally across our border.

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They've been released into the country under
the quote unquote asylum definition. Folks from

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Mauritania probably across through eight different countries
before they get here and then demand asylum.

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That's not what asylum is supposed to
be. Asylum is supposed to be

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you move to the next safe country. Most Americans wouldn't even be able to

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find Mauritania on a map. On
it Yeah, it's West Africa, but

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it's also that area is the hotbed
for al Qaida. Now Moli Mauritania,

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all that area, that's where al
Qaida is quickly growing. We've got ten

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some people that crossed our border that
we have no idea of their background.

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There's no criminal record for them,
we have no relationship to be able to

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get criminal records with Mauritania, and
so they were just released in the country,

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and we have no idea if their
terrorists or not. And they just

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gave them asylum request and release them
in the country. When they release them

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in the country, they sign up
for when their hearing date's going to be,

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and often that hearing date is seven
to ten years in the future.

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But we have no tracking on those
individuals. We don't know where they are,

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we have no idea. It's just
a huge mess that the Biden team

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is created for this. So my
focus is solve the asylum definition. That's

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going to involve talking on both sides
of the aisle. And I know I

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have some of my conservative brethren say
don't talk to the people on the other

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side of the aisle. If you're
going to pass legislation, I've got to

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have sixty on legislation to be able
to pass it. So that involves talking

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through, trying to solve hard problems, sitting down and working through the issues.

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And so I've spent months sitting down
with some of my colleagues, have

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found some Democrat colleagues that are willing
to have a serious conversation about solving the

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asylum issue. Because this doesn't get
better just by ignoring it. It gets

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worse and they know it. Senator
James Lankford. I've had that argument with

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a listener earlier this week about what
I call polite discourse, and it's something

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we have to restore. We have
to. We can't. The biggest weaknesses

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in American history have always been when
we were unable to come to a polite

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discord on an issue. Yeah,
just nasally. Yeah, it is one

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of our biggest issues right now.
And I have people that catch me all

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the time and say that people in
Washington, DC are so angry. Everybody's

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yelling at each other. And I
usually laugh and say, tell me what

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Thanksgiving was like at your house last
year, And a lot of folks we

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don't even get together for Thanksgiving anymore
because everybody's yelling at everybody. And I

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was like, that's exactly right,
because it's not just a DC issue,

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it's the national issues right now.
For me, I'm a follower Jesus Christ,

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and as a Christian, there's some
basic principles that Jesus laid down.

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They're pretty radical, like love your
enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

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Tied us. Chapter three challenges people
in their relationship with government to set

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an example and to do what is
good even at that time, and he's

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writing about the Caesars who were murdering
Christians to be able to say set the

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example for them and do it a
very different way on that it's a radical

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concept, but quite frankly, I
really believe that Jesus method works in engaging

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on difficult, hard issues. Is
I'm not going to win an argument by

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out screaming somebody. That may make
somebody feel good that I yelled loud,

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but it doesn't solve the problem.
At the end of the day, I've

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got to sit down with someone understand
that person's also created the image of God.

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They have value and worth. They're
wrong on an issue, but they

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have value and worth, and we're
going to sit down and talk about an

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issue and try to be able to
figure out a way to be able to

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resolve it, because at the end
of the day, that's what we have

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to do, is we have to
solve issues, not just yell about him.

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Senator James Lankford, I know you're
pressed for time, but I did

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want to ask you about seeming infiltration
of Chinese both into ownership of our land

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and they too are coming across the
southern border, so the two related.

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The two issues are related. They've
infiltrated our Oklahoma marijuana industry and they've infiltrated

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other industries as well. Absolutely one
percent have. When I talked to the

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Oklahoma Beer of Narcotics, one of
the key statements they'll say is most of

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these folks that are working these illegal
marijuana grow operations all across the state,

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many of them are Chinese. They
crossed the border illegally. They were trafficked

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into this area. They're working off
some debt for some family member or some

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individual to the cartels that they're doing. So there's a partnership between Mexican cartels

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Chinese criminal organizations. These individuals are
literally moved around from place to place.

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They don't even know what city or
community they're in. They're just moved around

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to be able to work these marijuana
farms constantly. There's lots of criminal activity

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that's going on around it. That's
Chinese criminal organizations with Chinese government that's also

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looking the other way when fintonol precursors
are being shipped over to Mexico or to

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the United States, and they know
full well what that's doing to American citizens.

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We've also got Chinese individuals are there
connect to the Chinese government that are

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driving on the military basis now and
just saying hey, I was trying to

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get to the McDonald's on this base, and what they're really doing is testing

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out the security perimeter and trying to
be able to track that. And then

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we have these confucious institutes in our
schools. We have Chinese outreach right now

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to a lot of communities saying hey, we want to do sister cities and

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we want to send some people over
to your community and just develop relationships on

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this. The Chinese Communist Party is
being very active right now and trying to

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gather intelligence, gather information and data, trying to probe the United States for

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weaknesses, and this is something we
should just pay attention to. I'm not

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a conspiracy theory guy, but I
am on the Intelligence Committee, and I

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would tell you the Chinese are active
right now trying to find areas to be

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able to exploit the United States our
intellectual property and to be able to find

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vulnerable ways to be able to attack
us. So we should just pay attention

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on that. I do think our
kids in our communities should learn about China,

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but we should also learn about the
communism that's in China, the human

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rights violations, and be attentive to
what they are trying to do the United

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States. Well, Senator Langford,
Yeah, I too feel the same way.

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In the rep portage that I have
read, it's not a conspiracy.

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It's out there in black and white, and the Chinese are all but curling

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about it. Thank you for joining
us, And I'm going to keep track

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of the of the Act that you're
working on right now, the Government Shutdowns

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Act. Remember that. Yeah,
yep, we'll hopefully get that solved,

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and that would be nice to take
that off the table. Then we can

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have the fight over the real issue, not whether we're gonna have a shutdown,

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but how we're going to solve our
debt and deficit. Senator Langford,

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thank you for joining us. You
bad. Thanks Thanks for listening to Later

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with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The

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