Hello, and welcome to the Federalist Radio Hour. My name's Tristanjustice and I'm
the Western correspondent for the Federalist. And joining me today is a Montana radio
host, Aaron Flynn. Aaron, how are you doing? Hey, I'm
doing great. Great to chat with you, Tristan, big fan of your
work at the Federalist. Thank you. Now, are you based in Helena
or Billings or Yeah, I'm based I'm based in Billings, But when we
go stayed wide with our radio show from nine to ten Mountain time, we're
on the air in Helena and yeah, about twenty plus radio signals all across
Montana, so we take callers everything. Wow. So I want to talk
about the stuff that's been going on in Helena. There seems to be quite
a few disruptions going national. But what you have at you know, the
Lettuce Chair of course pass this built to protect minors with genera dysphoria from undergoing
these permanent procedures with hormone treatments and surgeries and all the kinds of stuff that's
going on. But there's a transgender lawmaker up there who's making a fuss about
this and has been encouraging demonstrators to take over the capitol, and we've been
seeing this play out across the country. What have you been seeing happening in
Montana. Well, I think what's really interesting, So the legislature just wrapped
up and the transgender lawmaker drama kind of consumed the final few days of the
legislative session, but nonetheless they still had a lot of work done. But
what I find very interesting, so here in Montana, we have a ninety
day legislative session started back in January, wraps up by the end of April,
first part of May. So and they only meet every other year.
We do not. Our lawmakers do not meet every year, so they have
a biennial session, right, And I think it was very clear since day
one that this representative from Missoula, Montana and Zula, Montana for your listeners,
is like the Berkeley, California of Montana. It's the Boulder, Colorado
of Montana. Rights. It's the liberal hotbed. I went to college there
at a great town, but it's changed a lot because of the college campus
environment. All the radical environmental groups and other left wing activists that have kind
of found a home in Missoula, Montana. So that's where this transgender lawmaker
comes from. And I think it was very clear that very early on that
the Democrats and this Representative Zephyr from Assoula, We're going to try to figure
out a way to become a victim, try to figure out a way to
say, oh, those mean Republicans are being mean to me, right,
you know, the latest the latest victimhood Olympics. And really, I think
the Republicans did an incredible job. They have a supermajority in the Montana Legislature
now because the Democrats have gone so far off the deep end, and so
obviously the Republicans have this supermajority. They're in charge. But I thought they
did a really good job throughout the entirety of the session really being kind and
risk respectful to this representative and the rest of the Democrats, and and and
I think I think they did a very good job because I think from from
day one, you know, we knew that this Representative Zephyr was going to
be demanding access to the women's restrooms and they were going to be playing the
pronoun game. But it's quite remarkable when you think about it that really it
wasn't until the final few days of the legislative session, that it took this
Representative Zephyr breaking House rules, breaking decorum, attacking fellow lawmakers with a bigoted
attack on lawmakers of faith, then refusing to apologize for breaking those rules,
then cheering on this trans insurrection, this transurrection, when these transgender activists ended
up getting arrested for tussling with law enforcement and disrupting the democratic process on the
Montana House floor. So it's quite remarkable that that it took. It took
Presentative Zephyr breaking the rules and then cheering on this mob in order to finally
get the national attention that representatives of Zephyr so desperately wanted from day one.
So I definitely I really want to talk about, you know, the media
treatment of everything going on there, how they've covered this, how they've covered
Representative Zephyr, But I want to first go through some of the legislation that's
been passed up there, because it's my understanding that there's not just one bill
that the legislature passed on on these issues. They passed the bill protecting minors
with genera dysphoria from these permanent life altering interventions, but I understand they've passed
several pieces of legislation addressing this issue. Yeah. The other big one is
what's known as medical rights of conscience, which I'm sure you've been tracking in
other states. Which okay, So, not only did we pass Senate Bill
ninety nine, and a great Vietnam veteran by the name of John Fuller,
a state senator out of Callus Bell, Montana, he was the author of
Senate Bill ninety nine. And so that's the legislation that would protect kids from
these radical transgender surgeries chopping off healthy body parts or giving them life altering drugs
that can lead to lifelong health complications and things like that. But in addition
to that, there was a bill that Montana Governor Gregg and Forte sign into
law that's known as medical Rights of Conscience. I believe it was the bill
carried by Representative Amy Rigear, also at a Callous Spell. And what this
does is this says, hey, so not only has Montana now said,
hey, we're going to protect kids from these radical procedures, but not only
that, but we want to protect nurses and doctors and other healthcare professionals from
being forced into having to take part in these horrific types of procedures as well.
So so if you know, like much like we saw from Matt Walsh's
great reporting out of Tennessee where they where you know, they were busted on
camera saying hey, hey, hospitals, you're going to have to force your
nurses and doctors to perform these procedures because you're going to make a lot of
money doing these procedures on these kids. So you're gonna but you're gonna have
to force nurses and doctors to partake in these procedures because they're not going to
want to do this to kids. So I think the Montana legislature and the
governor knew they've got to protect healthcare professionals from being forced into this as well.
So just like we don't want nurses and doctors being forced into having to
perform abortion, uh, we don't also don't want to protect our nurses and
doctors from not being forced into having to take part in some procedure that might
remove healthy body parts off of kids. There's also a you know, a
drag queen story our targeting kids. There's a there's a bill that pass the
legislative session on that front as well. Really these issues really became the I
think, the most in the spotlight types of issues for this legislative session.
Because if we're to look back on this ninety day legislative session here in Montana,
I think it can best be summed up by basically pointing out the fact
that, Okay, here's the Republicans upermajority in Montana that just delivered over a
billion dollars in tax relief, tax reduction in the rates, tax rebate checks
that come out later this summer. So the Republicans delivered over a billion dollars
in tax relief. And what defined the Democrats this legislative session wanting to do
these radical transgender surgeries on kids and dragging drag queens to the capital so that
they can read to kids. What in the world and this is happening nationwide?
I mean, I made a list of all the states suit that where
capitals of legislatures have been passing similar legislation as Montana and where these capitals have
come under attacked by transgender demonstrations Tennessee, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma,
Missouri, Texas. I mean, I remember, for the last two
and a half years, we had every single major media outlet of condemning this
quote insurrection at the capital after January sixth, And I'm reading the Associated Press
last week over what's been going on in Montana that the conservatives are redefining what
an insurrection is to go after transgender people. And so of course there's some
media culpability in all this, but you know, speak about trans transgender issues
at large. Um, you know, they said for years that this wasn't
happening, that these that there was no surgeries for you know, children under
eighteen to permanently alter their bodies. But now we know, we have major
institutions bragging about how profitable these procedures have been for their bottom line. Vanderbilt
University is a great example of this. The news came out last year by
Matt Walsh at the Daily Wire and I was just reading about Snapchat today that
there is this reporter from the Babylon Well I wouldn't say reporter, but pundit
posts on Twitter how they were speaking to snapchats artificial intelligence robot, which is
on every single child's cell phone today. Who's got the Snapchat app? Which
seems like everyone quote, I feel like a boy. She wrote that three
times since napchats artificial intelligence, and just after three times she was being led
to doctors who offered quote, gender firming care, which of course is a
misleading term in and of itself. But so, I mean, this legislation
is warranted, even especially after Democrats were trying to say this wasn't happening,
this wasn't happening. Well, it wasn't happening. A this legislation wouldn't can
be necessary be if it wasn't happening. Why do you care so much that
the legislation is being passed? And see now you're you know, descending hundreds
and hundreds of Approachans demonstrators on capitals across the country, which, according to
their terms, is an insurrection. Yeah, no, exactly, And it's
it's so similar to the twenty twenty BLM riots that we saw on attacks on
law enforcement, burning down police precincts, targeting US marshals at a federal court
house, targeting law enforcement, burning down black owned businesses. And yeah,
they were so dismissive of hundreds of BLM riots. But yet then when it
comes to January sixth, that's all they can talk about. And yeah,
in a similar regard all of a sudden, they don't care about disrupting the
democratic process at a capitol. They don't care about tussling with law enforcement.
Don't call it it's like LLL COOLJ. Don't call it a comeback, but
this is. Don't call it an insurrection. The media lectures us on and
and yet we see these attacks now taking place in state house after state house
after state house. It just once again exposes the hypocrisy of the liberal media
mob. I mean the Associated Press for example. This is going to sound
like Inside Baseball, but you know here in Montana, let's say twenty years
ago, if you were a local radio station in say, you know,
wolf Point, Montana, you'd rip out the AP headlines for the day.
You might have six or seven Associated Press news headlines for the day of Montana
stories that the broadcast editor trimmed down for broadcast form and put it into broadcast
format. Today, you're lucky if there's one thirty second story sitting there waiting
for you, if you were to rip and read off the AP wire.
Last week, they had three stories almost every single day, all on this
radical transgender lawmaker from Massoula. And they were and each story was biased,
and each story was calling him her and shoving the pronouns down people's throats.
And I think you know what I've heard from so many women across Montana is
that you know they're so desperate not to offend a man from Missoula, that
they're offending women from all across Montana. Right. You spoke about drag shows
for kids your earlier Look, I don't have an issue with drag and of
itself. I don't understand the fascination with it. I'm not particularly a fan.
I don't watch True Paul's Drag Race, even though I'm I'm gay,
and all my friends do. I just I don't understand the fascination with it.
But drag shows have absolutely no place for children. And but they all
hate this groom terminology. Okay, if you don't want to be called a
groomer, maybe don't groom children. Why are you? This was the question
that people here in Montana kept asking, why are they? Because they brought
drag queens to the capital and did a drag queen story hour inside our Montana
capital. And it's like, hey, hey, Zoe Zephyr, you got
your surgery as a thirty something year old male to now identify as a female.
Nobody's barring anybody else like you from doing that. Nobody's telling you you
can't do that. Nobody's telling you you can't live your life that way.
Yeah. In a similar regard, I had a guy call in to the
radio show early on in the Drag Queen Story Hour debate when they were when
they did want it a zoo here in the state, and he said,
look, yeah, there there's a drag queen event that goes on at a
bar in Bozeman. He says, I'm a straight white male. I go
to the event. I find it entertaining. He's like, but that's at
a bar. He said, that's not appropriate for kids. So why are
they so desperate to read kids and to talk to our kids? Like it's
just crazy? And then with the surgeris why are they so desperate on targeting
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Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And now you have apps like
Snapchat or an artificial intelligence leading kids to doctors to provide this quote Jennior Firm
and Carey. Now you have legislation and states like like Oregon, I believe
it's Oregon, if that California, Colorado allowing minors to pursue these treatments without
parental consent. And so yeah, there's a real problem here. But back
to to See's effort. So the legislature has been working on this, uh,
this package of transgender legislation for the past few months, and it was
in mid April that the storyline really took off when you had this lawmaker from
Missoula. He's a he's a freshman representative, first term in the House,
first transgender representative in the House start taking this grand stand against this package of
legislation, and mocked Republican prayers, claiming that if this legislation passed, then
Republicans could next time they pray, we'll see put blood on your hands.
And so that demonstrably violated the quorum. House Republicans acted appropriately censured the representative
until he issued an apology. The speaker refused to recognize him, and he,
uh, you know, encouraged this mob of pro chance demonstrators to take
a the capitol. The legislature had to cancel the rest of the session,
canceled an entire session the next day, and then ultimately ban the representative from
the rest of this year's legislative session. And like you said, the legislature
only meets every other year, so he's not allowed back in the chamber for
the rest for the rest of the session. But now it's it's been going
even even further than that, I mean, the entire time, no one
took away the representatives right to vote in the legislature, maintains voting privileges,
just can't participate in floor debate. After builing decorum and encouraging this transurrection,
what else am I missing here. Yeah, no, you're you're hitting the
nail on the head here, and and you shared the full story there.
Most of the left wing media, the legacy media, whatever, however you
want to refer to them, they only give half the story. They say,
well, Zephyr was censured for saying blood on their hands. No,
it's the attack on people of faith. If you attack a specific group of
people, you can't even say another lawmaker's name on the floor of the Montana
House. I had a former representative, John Synrood's his name, and he
said, hey, you know, everybody gets fired up, everybody gets passionate.
He said, one time I used another lawmaker's name during my floor remarks.
Well, that was against the rules. So I apologized and we moved
on. And isn't it interesting that that there's representative Zephyr was so desperate to
pretend to be the victim, so desperate to pretend to be discriminated against,
to look like this fake civil rights hero, that representative Zephyr didn't want to
be treated like everybody else, because everybody else would have followed the rules,
apologized and moved on, But but no, no, no, Zephyr wanted
different treatment. Wanted to be discriminated against, and they didn't discriminate against Zephyr.
They held Zephyr to the same rules that they held everybody else. To
another former lawmaker, his name is Roger Coopman. He was on our Public
Service Commission here in Montana as well, and he told a story there was,
you know, the teachers Union activists showed up in the House gallery one
session and they started getting a little raucous, They started getting a little routy,
they were starting to get out of hand, and the Democrat lawmakers on
the floor at the time saw what was happening in the gallery above, and
they started calming the mob down. They said, hey, you know,
because they knew, like, if this crowd didn't calm down, in violation
of the rules, law enforcement was going to have them removed. The Sergeant
at of Arms was going to remove these people from the gallery and it was
going to make the Democrats look very bad. And so the Democrats on the
floor quieted down the mob. Zephyr, on the other hand, stood there
on the floor. Well, everybody else was ordered to clear the flour because
remember these transgender activists were throwing things at the lawmakers and the young pages that
are there helping with the legislature as well. So the sergeant at arms for
People's Safety cleared the floor of the house, Zephyr stayed on the floor and
raised up the microphone like some rage against the machine, want to be right
from some throwback nineteen nineties concert, raised the microphone in the air, raised
the fist in the air, and urged the mob on. Could you imagine
if on January sixth, the Republican had stayed back and was hanging next to
mister Buffalo head guy and was raising a microphone and cheering on the crowd at
January six Oh man, they'd be in shackles right now. Who had also
remind listeners went to the Senate chambers and asked to pray for the officers.
So pretty remarkable contrast. But you know one thing about this whole thing.
This is not Selma nineteen sixty five. This isn't I feel like these demonstrators
are treating this as this is morally righteous crusade for transgender rights to do these
procedures on track, And even if it was, they were on the wrong
side of the bridge. They're they're fighting to take away women's rights they're fighting
to take away hard fought for women's and girls opportunities in sports Title nine.
They're on the wrong side of the bridge, even if they think they're in
Selma. You're absolutely right. And you especially saw that play out in Tennessee
when you had these representatives begin to claim Republicans were being racist because to the
three lawmakers centured who are expelled from the legislature are black. And so they
did this massive march parade through Nashville with this massive crowd behind them as if
this is Selma nineteen sixty five. Well, and and oh Man one of
us. So you went to George Washington University right in Washington, DC,
is at right, Tristan, That's where you went to college, right.
So I started college at Howard University in Washington, DC, you know,
and I was one of like six white guys there my freshman year, I
think. And I lived in the all male dorm, the all guys dorm,
Carver Hall. And you know, when I would get done waiting tables
at night because I had to wait tables on Pennsylvania Avenue to pay for college.
So when i'd get back late at night, I'd end up bs and
then having a good time, oh you know, you know, chatting it
up with the guys in the dorm. I'll guarantee you that that lawmaker in
Tennessee, the guy you know with the afro that pretended to be Hillary Clinton
at a black Southern church. But I'll guarantee if I was back at that
dorm, those guys would be laughing hysterically mocking that guy because he's such a
phony. I mean, he goes from being Carlton on the Fresh Prince of
bel Air, you know, when he was at that that very ritsty college
in New Hampshire running for student body president, to all of a sudden,
now he's like some some fake wanna be Al Sharpton. I mean, it's
just like, what a phony. I love that transformation because I think it
says so much about how they approach these issues. I mean, it's it's
it's like they're it's like they're LARPing the civil rights movement from and that's actually
pretty offensive when you get down to it, uh, treating these issues as
this you know, worthy righteous crusade for civil rights. Um. And it's
not just I don't know if it's Justin Jenes, Justin Pearson who that massive
transformation, but you're seeing it across Democratic politicians, across the entire party.
I love watching anytime Alexandrocazio Cortez talks about identity politics. She talks like she's
a preacher at a Baptist church. I don't know if you've seen this.
When I remember when she did that town hall meeting and all of a sudden,
she's like, it's like, whoa what all of a sudden am I
watching Scarface here? Where did that accent come from? I mean, are
you stealing money from a boiler down in Puerto Rico? Again? What the
hecks going on here? It's absolutely LARPing the movement from the sixties. But
I want to get into how the media has been been treating all of this.
They pretended there was some big backlash against Republicans in Tennessee, as if
they're an electoral jeopardy for maintained a quorum and the legislature down there. They're
doing a similar thing in Montana. There's one wallmaker in particular, who's uh,
you know, born the brunt of this attack from the media's I think
she's from Billings Representive Carrie Sekum's wrote a column about her this week, NBC
News went back and found a clip of her speaking on the flour from several
months ago about the mental health issues at her family has phased and claimed right
in the headline something long lines of Montana lawmaker would rather have a dead daughter
than a transgender daughter. Which is this ridiculous talking point in the left about
transgenderism, even though there's multiple studies now showing that easier access to these actually
raises the risk of suicide. But this lawmaker, she wasn't even her her
daughter wasn't even transgender. She said nothing about her daughter struggling with transgenderism.
Her daughter, she bravely shared this out in the house for her daughter had
a three year period where she was struggling mentally and had some suicidal ideation.
And that was that speech was manipulated by NBC News, which was then,
you know, rippled across the media. Salon picked it up. Game media
such as The Advocate picked it up to clean that you would rather have a
dead daughter than transgender daughter. Yeah, it was so outrageous, and you
know, and it's crazy too because just like you pointed out here, we
know that that when it comes to these these radical transgender surgeries where they're going
to chop healthy body parts off of kids or given these puberty blockers, you
know, you start hindering bone development. What's that going to do to somebody
down the road. And so you think about it, even if somebody did
have a kid that was struggling with gender dysphoria. Here you've got these folks
on the left and these greedy folks from some of these associations that want to
profit off of off of these challenges that these kids are facing. And they
say, oh, that's it, you just need you need to chop off
their body parts or they're going to commit suicide. When what we've seen in
Sweden, even Elon Musk pointed this out. What we've seen in Sweden is
that is that actual suicides, not just suicidal ideation, actual suicides went up
in a big way after the surgery, after the surgeries took place. And
now, now if they want to counter that and say, well, that's
because they still faced a lot of societal blowback and pressure. No, this
was in Europe where they fully embrace this, where the society embraced this type
of this type of culture, and yet it still happened, So maybe there's
something else at play there and so so yeah, they and so. But
here's the other big picture thing I think that we can take away from that.
So, so are these activists in as NBC News and these others are
they are they telling, you know, parents all across America, now,
well, if your kid, if your kid says they want something, you
just have to give it to them. I mean, you, you as
the parent, you don't know what's best for your kid. That's six year
old knows what's best for that six year old. If that six year old
wants a smartphone and and a TikTok account and a tender account or what are
you just got to give that kid a smartphone? Because if you don't give
that kids smartphone, I mean, you don't know what it's going to do
to them. If that little kid likes playing cops and robbers and wants to
walk around the neighborhood with a loaded gun, you have to let them do
it. Otherwise you're a bad parent. Is that what they're really suggesting here?
The other thing, Jeremy carl is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute,
and he made a really fascinating point this bully campaign that Zephyr has engaged
with from the floor of the Montana House. You lawmakers, you'll have blood
on your hands because he's suggesting that, well, if you pass this bill,
there's gender dysphoric kids out there that are going to kill themselves. Almost
every single LGBTQ organization out there, there were several that Carl named in this
piece that we had on our Montana Talks website, have specifically said, do
not say that, do not do that, because you are promoting suicide.
You are encouraging suicide. And when you look at what these left wing activists
are doing, think about it. What is the message they are sending to
these kids that are struggling at these issues out there? All these people hate
you, they dislike you, they're trying to erase you off the face of
the earth. No, we're just saying you better wait till you're eighteen because
you might decide to identify in a different way ten years from now. So
maybe you don't want to chop that body part off yet, right, But
they are literally promoting suicide. They are promoting suicidal ideation amongst all these kids.
They want these kids to be angry. They want these kids to hate
these Republicans or these parents who are simply trying to protect them. That has
got to be one of the most sinister, disgusting and evil things. So
they claim to be LGBTQ, yet at the same time they're promoting talking points
and legs and policies that would actually be very harmful and lead to more suicide
amongst the very groups they claim to be protecting. I mean, there's it's
just a crazy story all around, right This ll near about about, you
know, kids being denied access to purity blockers being more suicidal is such a
deeply dishonest a talking point to exploit that, you know, this pain that
families are struggling with these issues. I don't think it's any it's any secret
that kids today are facing an unprecedented amount of stress. I think technology has
really become a poison in the classroom more than it's helping us at this point.
In a lot of ways. It's like, I can't imagine going through
elementary, middle and high school with the level of access to social media that
kids have now today, and you have on across these platforms, these elite
institutions telling kids that they can change their sex and gender willy nilly without fear
of consequence and so and I also think, you know, especially with the
delay of puberty as testosteron levels front, you know, there's there's one,
there's there's one, there's one data point I would love to find out there.
I would love to see the Tystosteran levels in men today who claim to
identify as women as as Tasha, and levels drop off a cliff, which
is an issue that nobody's talking about. I think you have, you know,
this generation of people who are going through puberty later and it's confusing them.
And when you have all these institutions saying, well, maybe it's it's
maybe you're not depressed, maybe you're just transgender, and you plant that seat
in their mind and then they convince themselves that they're transgender, and then it
creates this saga into an ray or of confusion, and then they become lifelong
medical patients. And so I think, you know, this whole narrative of
well as person might kill themselves if you don't let them do what they want
to do here is so deeply dishonest. And the fact that they regurgitated that
to go after this Republican lawmaker just because she supported legislation to protect kids from
these life changing procedures. Is it really speaks so much to how our media
operates in this country and relieve what their motives are. And so when we
talked about NBC, you talked about an associated press trying to redefine insurrection,
to go after Republicans and protect these these approachans demonstrations. I want to know,
you know, as a as a as a local radio host up there,
you're really you have such a better pulse than I do on how the
local media has been covering the saga. How has the local media been treating
this all? The local media is an absolute train wreck. And even the
good local journalists that want to do journalism and want to be fair and want
to be unbiased, that their outlets won't allow them to be to be real
journalists anymore. You better use the pronouns, You better use the pronot.
You know, I can do a full radio show talking about Representative Zoe Zephyr
from Missoula without using any pronouns whatsoever. Ud David Dewhurst is his name.
He was Montana's solicitor general. He spoke at a Montana Family Foundation banquet once
and he made a really great point. I think, by the way,
I think he's Wow. I bet better not say where he's at now because
I can't remember which state he's in now. But anyway, incredible guy,
very entertaining guy. But he gave a speech at the Montana Family Foundation banquet
a few years ago and he said, he said, you know, as
lawyers, and I think this could could, or at least should apply to
journalists as well. He says, we swear an oath to tell the truth.
When we get admitted to the bar, we take an oath to tell
the truth, and you could you could also say this as journalists. I
mean, I don't think any journalists are you know, putting their hand on
the Bible or even the Quran for that matter, to swear to tell the
truth, right, but they should be committed to telling the truth. And
he raised this question, well, how does that work when it comes to
gender pronouns. I mean, if somebody's a key but identifies as as she,
Well, if I'm you know, sworn oath to tell the truth,
what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say? So
I don't go out of my way, you know, to poke a transgender
lawmaker in the eye, I just treat it more, you know. But
but but I'm also not gonna lie and call a he a she for example,
right, so instead I why do I need to use pronouns at all?
And he talked about doing that in legal documents, where you just refer
to the lawmaker by name or whatever. Right, And that's kind of a
roundabout way of coming back to the liberal media and how you're not even allowed
to be a journalist anymore in most places other than places like the Federalist or
talk radio. But they've been biased for years there. They're constantly in the
back pocket of the Montana Democrat Party. What's been kind of funny to watch
is because of all the national attention with this Zoe Zephyr story, you can
tell all of these pr firms are descending on the Capitol and Helena. They're
invading the Montana Politics hashtag on Twitter, and so a lot of tweets are
getting a lot more eyeballs than they used to get, and you're seeing a
lot more nasty rhetoric from the bots from the left and the liberal media descended
on this story and it's just like the era and it's just like the era
of COVID nineteen when we had a Democrat governor who was issuing statewide mandates and
there were lockdowns taken place. We the people of Montana very quickly pushed back
against that nonsense, and that governor got basically got his butt kicked in the
United States Senate race in twenty twenty as a result of it. But if
you were to just read Twitter, or if you were to just see what
the TV stations are reporting or what the newspapers are reporting, you would think,
oh, yeah, these mandates and these mask mandates and these lockdowns.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's the right thing to do. It's backed
by the public. But if you actually saw reality and got out there and
talk to real people or listen to talk radio, you would quickly realize,
oh, man, no, this is very unpopular and so in much the
same way, if you were to just look at Twitter and look at local
media and national media, you would think, oh, yeah, the public
is a gas at the fact that this that the rules were being enforced on
this lawmaker from Assoula, when in reality people think that it is nuts what
the Democrat party is pushing here and and and they think real women should get
should get a microphone, and should get the attention. And they're sick and
tired of this man from Missoula hog and all this attention, right, And
I want to get that to that point about pronouns. You know, I
mean, I love compassion. I have the most compassion for people who are
who are struggling with these issues. I will call to their you know,
in person, when I've seen them face to face. I will call someone
whatever they want to be called. It's like someone whose name is Robert,
but they go by Bob whatever. But any paper of record, UM,
when you are you know, paid to tell a story truthfully, UM,
you're supposed to use the accurate pronouns in align with one's biology. But instead
we've kind of created this culture where people are just making stuff up and so
and to get to same zephyr. It's my understanding that, you know,
none of the lawmakers were rude to this person. Um, I think they
were very kind. I think there, especially the Republican women, were just
you know, when you'd have you know, just off air conversations with them.
I think they have such a heart for this lawmaker from a zola where
they just you know, they feel bad for the struggles that that lawmaker has
faced, and you know why they're in this position that they're in. And
so these are compassionate people who, yeah, they bent over backwards. They
they installed bathroom locks so that the women can still feel safe that are using
the women's room. And you know, they men on the floor of the
house. They're supposed to wear suits, but they didn't force this biological male
to wear a suit. They gave an exception there. So you know,
they were bending over backwards to be kind. But this this lawmaker was was
determined to be a martyr, was determined to become a national celebrity and get
rewarded by NBC and MSNBC and CNN. Well, one thing I wanted to
mention, like what you were saying, Tristan, which is, hey,
look, however you live your life, you do you this is America,
right right. I interviewed Rob O'Neill. He's the Navy seal who killed Osama
bin Laden. He's from Butte, Montana, and I interviewed him because he
basically, you know, he was talking about the Navy having this drag Queen
in their recruiting video and how it's a bunch of bs and and and he
made the point like he's like, look, whatever you do in your off
duty hours, hey, that'sk you. You do your thing. I got
nothing against you. If you want to go be a drag queen, you
go, do you, he said. But you know, but when it
comes to the military, the first thing you do when when you join,
they shave your head and they put you in a uniform because it's about the
team. And I thought that was such a great point. And and you
know, because i served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I've served with people
of all all sorts of backgrounds and you know, different lifestyles, and I
love every single one of them in credible people. So but but this is
about protecting kids, and this is about and this is also about protecting our
freedoms and not being forced into compelled speech and a violation of our constitutional rights.
And it's also about basic basic truth here at some point, right and
I can say for a listeners as Western correspond you know, I've I've traveled
the entire region talking to voters and and you know, people out there and
the press. This this what I've learned is that there's this kind of small
el libertarianism that is so present out in the Mountain West. Um, they
don't care what other people do, just as long as you don't beat them
alone, let them do whatever they want. Yeah, And it's kind of
like the marijuana thing. You know. Even Montana legalized uh recreational marijuana,
right, And I think that's because, you know, a lot of us
are kind of like, hey, gol, I I'm not happy necessarily about
the drug culture. I'm not happy about the marijuana stuff that's going on.
I think it's fueling the fentel and the merril and the meth increase that we're
seeing once again, just like it did in Denver, Colorado. But I
think at the end of the day, we're kind of like, hey,
man, you know, we've also got friends that that do marijuana, that
do the gummy thing, and you know what, again, you do you
But with the transgender the angry transgender activists worse in here saying hey, yeah,
you guys, go do your thing. You go do the marijuana gummies,
you go smoke marijuana. That's you. Hey, I don't want to
smoke it, but but you got you guys, do your thing, these
radical transgender activists like you will eat the gummy, you will use the pronouns,
you will smoke the joint. And it's like, guys, what happened
to live and let live? Or I guess I shouldn't say guys, right,
And you have this lawmaker who is capitalizing on this um, this,
this caricature that legacy media has painted of any any dissident to this kind of
trans gender ideology. Who is there? Is us? You know? It
comes to mind when I think about all these state lawmakers grant standing on the
trans issue, is that that woman in Texas and I can't I'm blanking on
her name, but she made this, uh she did this filibuster in the
Texas Senate over abortion a number of years ago. And I think a number
of state lawmakers are starting to realize that they can capitalize on this depiction of
of conservatives the media is painted to build their own profiles. And so I
imagine that's that's a big part of the agenda here. Even though no one's
denying, uh, this lawmaker to pursue whatever treatment they won. No one's
design denying in the Mountaina adults to pursue due treatments and yet their grandstanding as
if this is uh, you know, the modern civil rights movement. And
you know, I was reading the New York Times this morning, Like you
said, the lawmakers in the Chamber have been extremely courteous, have gone out
of their way to be courteous to this, to this representative um in not
spreading the New York Times that the House Speaker Matt right, I'm not sure
if I'm gonna say this correctly. We're here, yeah, we're here.
Yeah. One of the first things he did was ensure adequate and safe in
private bathroom axis um right away. And somehow the New York Times made that
out to sound like a bad thing. And yeah, you know, yeah,
the New York Times article, we love the headline. Here in Montana,
I know the New York Times meant it to be a hit piece on
the Rigear family because Speaker Matt Rigear is the son the father State Senator Keith
Rigear, Chair of Senate Judiciary. Speaker Matt Rigear's sister, Amy is the
Representative Rigear. She is the Chair of House Judiciary. And they're just a
rock solid family. And so the New York Times headline was something to the
effect of this family is why Montana is unflinchingly conservative, and Matt was like,
man, I love that headline, but but then you read the article
and you can tell all typical New York Times they're trying to make get a
hit piece here, and you know what's fascinating about this. So just like
the legacy media, the liberal mob media, the Twitter verse is trying to
attack Speaker the House Matt rigear as some sort of anti trans or oh he
was so awful the way he treated Zoe's effort. The closing remarks when they
right before they did signy dye or Senada, however you want to pronounce it.
The House Minority leader Kim Abbott took to the floor and in her closing
remarks, she said, mister Speaker, you have been the biggest surprise of
this session. I have enjoyed working with you. Whenever I needed to talk,
you were available. It's like, Wow, how come that didn't make
the New York Times piece. I guess that didn't fit the narrative for the
New York Times. I guess that didn't fit the Zoe zeph For narrative either.
Absolutely, so I just want to wrap up with this question. You
know, the saga has been going on Montana for number weeks now. It
seems to have died down this week after Zephyr sued to regain four access but
a judge denied, spelling out how the Constitution explicitly states that the House can
do stuff like that, so the separation of powers. What do you think
this entire three weeks saga has exposed about how media, and more broadly,
the left operates. Yeah, I think mob tactics, and I forget who
first started using this media mob and o'hannity uses it a lot, but mob
tactics, bullies, drive by media is how the Great Rush Limball always referred
to it. So so the media just did their drive by attack on representative
carry Seekins Crow. They did their drive by attack on Speaker of the House
Matt Riggear. Thankfully the Federalist you did a great piece exposing NBC and telling
the real story. There another drive by attack. I think it just once
again shows that journalism is dead with these legacy media outlets, that not only
will they not tell the truth, but but they're being forced to tell a
lie and do cheerlead that lie. But you know, like you said,
yeah, they've packed up their camera bags and moved on to the next state
house facing a transurrection. The other the other thing that I just wanted to
share that I find really interesting about all of this on the radio. And
uh and I think in the Federalist piece that I wrote earlier this week,
I tried not to use specific body parts, but I think since we're on
this is a podcast, so can I use specific body parts? Is that
okay? Would offend some of your listeners, do you think, Tristan?
I don't know. I haven't asked that question. Matter is okay always you
can edit it out or I'll give you a second version. But basically this
is not me saying this. So this whole Zoey Zephyr story comes out.
Then we share a background piece on Zoey Zephyr. Who is Zoey Zephyr And
it turns out as Zoey Zephyr didn't really even transition until twenty nineteen, went
through the surgery last year. So basically in twenty twenty two, Zoey Zeffer,
who had the birth name Zachary Rash, who was a high school wrestler
apparently anyway, so this, So think about it this way. So Zoey
Zephyr in twenty twenty one had a penis, and then in twenty twenty two,
zoe Zephyr has the vaginal plasti and this female body part created. Right.
So this ranch woman, a ranch mom in northeastern Montana, she read
this story that we had on our Montana Talks website and her response was this,
she says, She says, Wait a minute, this guy just got
his vagina last year. I have bottles of ketchup and my refrigerator that are
older than his vagina. But now he's the expert on women and what it
means to be a woman. I mean. And that's the type of reaction.
And I was shocked that, you know, ranch women are pretty tough
anyway, but I was shocked that this specific ranch mom outright said it the
way she said it, but it really puts it in perspective. Well,
on that note, Aaron, thank you for joining me as a pleasure.
All right, Tristan hey great reporting. Has always enjoyed reading your coverage in
The Federalist. Thank you