Inside Texas Politics — Full Interview on midterms elections with Congressman Pat Fallon

[0:00] Congressman, good to see you again here. [0:02] Absolutely, thanks. [0:02] Let's start with November, less than 80 days away. [0:05] The war with Iran is ongoing. [0:07] Inflation ticked up a little bit the other day. [0:11] How concerned are you this is going to create [0:13] vulnerabilities for Republicans going into November? [0:16] There's no doubt that Iran is going to be [0:19] on the minds of the voters come November. [0:21] I don't really see much change between where we are today [0:24] and November vis-a-vis Iran, [0:26] because it's such a complicated issue. [0:28] Because, and I've been saying this in dozens, [0:30] if not scores of interviews in the last several months, [0:33] is really the only way you're going to break the back [0:35] of the IRGC is you're going to have to have some form [0:38] of boots on the ground. [0:39] And do I want to get involved in a land war in Asia? [0:42] No, but one of the things that so many presidential candidates [0:45] or presidents had in common, and you can go back to the Clinton, [0:49] both, you know, heck, say both Clintons, both Bushes, [0:52] Obama, Biden, Harris, and Trump, they all have one thing [0:54] in common, they said, we're not going to tolerate [0:56] a nuclear Iran. [0:57] And President Trump, Iran was now, you know, [0:59] it's pretty much a public source now that Iran was danger [1:03] close to getting a nuclear weapon, [1:04] and President Trump took action. [1:05] You could make very good arguments back [1:07] before he took action to have him not do it, [1:09] and you could have made very good arguments [1:11] to say that he needed to. [1:12] But once he's done it, and we've bombed the country [1:15] 20,000 times, we have to see it through. [1:17] The best friend that China has in the world [1:20] after Russia is Iran. [1:21] The best friend Russia has after China is Iran. [1:24] This would dramatically change and alter the geopolitical [1:27] landscape if that regime fell and there was actually [1:30] a democratically elected or at least a friendly or neutral [1:35] government in Tehran towards the United States and the West. [1:38] If it's not going to end before November, [1:39] how do you land the plane here? [1:40] I mean, boots on the ground seems like no one wants that. [1:44] How do you land the plane? [1:45] What's the out here? [1:46] Because they haven't been able to reach it so far. [1:49] There's a split in Tehran between the pragmatists [1:52] that see that they don't want their country to reduce [1:54] to say the capabilities and the economy of Afghanistan. [2:02] And then you've got the IRGC and the hardliners [2:04] that really honestly don't care. [2:05] They would prefer not to be reduced to that level, [2:08] but so long as they can rule the ashes, [2:10] they are fine with that. [2:11] So it's very difficult and it's a very complex issue. [2:14] I mean, Iran's enormous. [2:15] It's the size of Spain, France, UK and Germany combined, [2:19] 93 million people. [2:21] And it's got a hardline regime that's been waging [2:23] asymmetrical warfare against the United States for 47 years. [2:26] So as far as seeing anything dramatic change [2:29] between now and election day, I don't think you will. [2:31] But I think just as we discussed, [2:33] we have to be able to tell the American people [2:36] why we're there, why the president took action [2:39] and what's the plan moving forward. [2:41] You've been one of the strongest voices in Congress [2:43] arguing for that military presence in Iran, [2:45] but looking back over what's happened there, [2:48] we killed the Supreme leader, [2:49] his son ascended to the top spot. [2:51] So the same regime is in power. [2:54] The uprising, populist uprising just hasn't happened [2:57] like so many people thought it would happen. [3:00] Iran continues to demonstrate it can attack with missiles. [3:03] What have we really accomplished though [3:05] in the last six months? [3:06] Because there's no guarantee [3:07] that the nuclear stockpile is gone either. [3:10] Well, they're certainly degraded. [3:12] They don't have a Navy. [3:13] Their command and control has been decimated as well. [3:16] Their capability to strike with, [3:19] because of technology, they have some missiles left. [3:21] They have some drones. [3:23] But it's a fraction of what it was in the past. [3:26] They really can't threaten their neighbors [3:28] as they could prior. [3:29] They can certainly harass, [3:31] but they can't significantly damage. [3:34] And then you're also seeing them not being able [3:36] to project power with the Houthis, [3:38] the Hezbollah and with Hamas as well. [3:41] So they're in a world of hurt. [3:43] And I sit on the Intelligence Committee as well, [3:45] so not getting into specifics, but I can tell you, [3:47] they are dramatically, they've been dramatically degraded [3:52] over the past several months. [3:54] But when you're dealing with zealots and hardliners, [3:57] they don't care. [3:58] They think that they've got a red phone to God. [4:01] That's a very difficult adversary to deal with. [4:03] And that's why I had always said, [4:05] if you take action, you have to see it through. [4:07] You either take the action or you don't, [4:08] but you can't do it. [4:09] You can't get half pregnant. [4:10] How does this end? [4:11] And it's messy. [4:12] That's a, I might be President of the United States myself [4:15] if I knew that answer. [4:16] It's gonna be difficult. [4:17] But here's some of the things that we have [4:20] in our column, as if it were, or if it were. [4:25] 80% of the people in Iran hate their own regime. [4:28] They just don't have the guns. [4:30] The, our allies in the region have been hit [4:33] and attacked by Iran. [4:34] That's not, that's something that Iran, [4:36] I think they were trying to do it to intimidate them. [4:38] It didn't work. [4:39] It just hardened their resolve to say, [4:41] we wanna see a change in Tehran as well. [4:43] So with allies, with special forces, [4:45] with the capabilities we have in the air, [4:47] and with their own people, [4:49] there could be a way in which to, [4:52] if we can get them involved, [4:53] you've got the Kurds on the ground in the north, [4:55] and there's a, it's a lot of moving parts, [4:57] but there is a way to break the back of the regime. [5:00] And in doing so, you have to break the back of the IRGC. [5:03] I mean, but that was the original plan, [5:05] is to hopefully we knock off the, you know, [5:07] top of the government and then the populist uprising happens [5:11] and they take the country back, right? [5:12] But I mean, that hasn't happened. [5:13] Because they don't have the guns [5:15] and the IRGC, you know, is willing to commit murder [5:18] on the drop of a hat. [5:19] They are very good at mayhem, mischief and murder. [5:22] Let me ask you about something the president said [5:24] the other day with regards to Iran. [5:25] He said that he might walk away without a nuclear deal. [5:29] On the surface here, [5:30] the U.S. used to have a nuclear deal. [5:32] That just sounds remarkable [5:33] that the country might walk away [5:35] from what we've gone through here with Iran [5:38] without a deal like that. [5:39] Is that acceptable to you? [5:41] And should it be acceptable to the allies in the region [5:44] who do depend on the U.S. for some of this defense? [5:48] To be fair, the deal that had existed before was awful [5:53] and did nothing to prevent Iran [5:54] from producing a nuclear weapon. [5:56] Iran could have produced a nuclear weapon. [5:58] They had all the ingredients to. [6:00] It just didn't put the, if you will, [6:01] put the cake in the oven. [6:03] They were danger close to doing so. [6:05] But we had monitors there at the time too. [6:07] There were international monitors at the time too. [6:10] But then they had to give them a 24 hours notice, [6:12] 48 hours notice, and they weren't given access, et cetera. [6:14] That deal didn't work because Iran was in effect nuclear. [6:17] There's no nation state ever that enriched uranium [6:20] to 60% that didn't become nuclear, [6:23] didn't have a nuclear weapon. [6:24] Iran is right now the only one in their super, [6:26] you know, they're danger thin close to doing so. [6:30] So the president says a lot of things. [6:32] I'm not so concerned about what the president says [6:33] as to what he does. [6:35] He throws adversaries and allies off with some of his words, [6:39] but I look at his actions, [6:41] and his actions have been towards resolve. [6:43] Do you think that we should walk away [6:45] without a nuclear deal from this? [6:46] I don't think we can. [6:47] I mean, let's be honest, I'll be very candid with you. [6:49] If, let's just say for sake of argument, [6:51] we just walked away and said, we're done, good luck to you. [6:55] It's only made it worse because then I think Iran's resolve [6:58] to produce a nuclear weapon is they're going to do anything [7:03] and everything they can because they're going to point to this [7:05] and say, look, we just bombed 20,000 times. [7:07] We need this deterrent. [7:08] So you have to break the back of the regime at some point. [7:11] And again, not to keep belaboring the point, [7:13] but how do you do that? [7:14] I mean, it seems like if we wanted to expend our military there [7:19] with all its might and force, we could do that, [7:22] but we just haven't done that. [7:24] There's a way and you're going to have to commit, [7:26] you know, more resources. [7:27] And I don't want to give it away to give any adversary a, [7:30] you know, a heads up, but there's a way to do it. [7:32] But why aren't we doing it? [7:35] Well, I'm not president of the United States, I don't know. [7:36] All right. [7:37] It's tricky. [7:38] Fair enough, fair enough. [7:40] A couple more questions about November here. [7:41] I already covered Iran, but I want to add, [7:44] I want to burrow in here just a moment [7:46] on the state of the economy. [7:47] When the president took office in 2025, [7:49] inflation was at 3%. [7:51] Today, it's a little higher, 3.4%. [7:54] The gallon of gas when he took office, $3.08. [7:56] I just passed it a few minutes ago at the racetrack [7:59] around the corner, $3.85. [8:01] The national average is $4.06. [8:03] Will Republicans face political consequences [8:06] for inflation, gas prices, and the like? [8:09] Yeah, I think one of the things we have to do [8:11] as Republicans is remind them that under Joe Biden, [8:13] inflation was at 9%. [8:15] And what drives inflation at the end of the day? [8:18] It's government spending. [8:19] And who do you trust to reduce government spending? [8:23] The Republicans or the Democrats? [8:24] We're both bad at it, by the way. [8:26] I'm a budget hawk and I'm not happy with the spending [8:29] that we see in Washington. [8:30] Republicans had almost $4 trillion to the debt [8:31] since the president returned to office. [8:33] And Joe Biden did $9 trillion. [8:35] He did? [8:36] Yeah, and Barack Obama was way worse than George Bush. [8:39] So yeah, relatively speaking, [8:40] it's about debt to GDP ratio as well. [8:42] The debt GDP ratio last year was 126, now it's 125. [8:47] So it did go down a point, yay. [8:50] It's a teeny step in the right direction, [8:52] but we need to reduce it to like where Germany's at, [8:54] which in the 60s, like 64%, something like those lines. [8:57] We're not fiscally responsible in Washington. [9:00] We haven't been in decades. [9:01] So who's the most fiscally responsible party? [9:05] Clearly the Republicans are better than the Democrats, [9:08] but we're not nearly as good as we need to be moving forward. [9:11] Because if you asked members of Congress, [9:13] I think this is a fair question you could ask them, [9:16] are you for a balanced budget amendment? [9:18] Damn near every Republican, if not every one of us, [9:20] is gonna say yes. [9:21] And the Democrats are, you know what they're gonna tell you? [9:23] Habita, habita, hoobita, habita. [9:24] They're not gonna wanna talk about it [9:25] or they're just gonna say no, [9:27] because they're addicted to the spending. [9:28] And in some ways we all are to a smaller degree. [9:31] But that's not a good message going into November [9:34] that hey, we're not as bad as the other guys, is it? [9:36] No, this is what I would say. [9:38] I would say Joe Biden was 9%. [9:41] Donald Trump, his policies, [9:43] where actually if we didn't get down now, [9:45] granted you could say because he gave the order, [9:47] but if we weren't involved with Iran right now, [9:49] I think inflation would be much lower. [9:51] So 3.4, better than nine, [9:54] but it is gonna be a binary choice. [9:57] And I think you could say, [9:58] I can give you an answer within 30 to 60 seconds [10:01] that I think would be an effective message. [10:04] Couple last things here too. [10:05] I wanna ask you about the U.S. Senate race. [10:08] We've seen four polls now, [10:10] including one from Fox News showing Tallarico [10:12] ahead of Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race. [10:14] What do you make of that? [10:16] I think it's gonna be a tight race, I really do. [10:18] And I'm gonna put my political analyst hat on. [10:21] I'm a very close friend of Ken Paxton's. [10:24] I work with Tallarico and him in the legislature. [10:26] I don't usually like to use nicknames and things, [10:30] but Tallarico, I can't help but say Telafrico, [10:34] because he's a weird cat. [10:36] He likes that, he loves that. [10:37] Well, he's freaky, yeah, he's freaky left. [10:39] He's freaky left, he's freaky woke, he's freaky liberal. [10:41] He's perfect for Austin and he's terrible for Texas. [10:44] That's the message of I work in Paxton, I would say. [10:47] And I would also say, don't ever vote for somebody [10:49] that you wouldn't hire to work for you in the private sector. [10:51] I don't know what James Tallarico has done with his life [10:54] other than I knew he was involved in education. [10:56] He says he was a teacher, I don't know if he was [10:58] a classroom teacher or what have you, [10:59] and I know it was for a very limited amount of time. [11:01] My parents were teachers for their entire careers. [11:05] What have you done other than that, James Tallarico, [11:07] other than spew occupied Democrat talking points from Austin? [11:11] I think his policies are dangerous. [11:13] I wanna keep Texas Texas. [11:15] I don't wanna California my Texas. [11:17] And I can give you specific examples, chapter and verse, [11:20] as to why James Tallarico would be [11:21] a horrible United States Senator. [11:23] At the end of the day, I do think Tallarico will lose. [11:25] I think it will be tight. [11:27] I think Ken will win between one and four percentage points, [11:30] because at the end of the day, when you look at [11:32] the binary choice that you have, which you have, [11:36] Ken Paxton will reflect the values and priorities [11:40] of more Texans than Tallarico will. [11:43] Why is Tallarico resonating with Texans, do you think? [11:47] Well, they don't know him yet, [11:49] and wait until the right of center spends 50 to 100 million [11:54] dollars to explain to Texans who James Tallarico is. [11:57] They just don't know who he is yet. [11:59] They know who Ken Paxton is for the last 12 years. [12:02] And Ken's, you know, let's be honest. [12:04] I mean, Ken's got some baggage. [12:04] He was impeached by the House, not good. [12:07] You know, he had those indictments. [12:09] Nothing really came of those. [12:11] But there's always gonna be some smoke, [12:13] and some people react to that. [12:14] Now, it could be nothing. [12:15] I don't think it was anything significant at all. [12:18] But some people go, well, there was just a lot. [12:20] So I don't know about this guy. [12:22] I think that's what the issue is. [12:25] Let me ask you about Oversight Chairman here. [12:27] You announced back in April you're running to chair [12:29] the Oversight Committee, the chief investigator [12:32] for the House of Representatives. [12:35] If elected to this, and Republicans maintain [12:37] majority in Congress, what's priority one for you? [12:40] Priority one is fraud, because it is rampant. [12:42] It is not even in the billions. [12:44] It's really in the trillions of dollars. [12:46] And what the Democrats will say is, first of all, [12:48] they don't want to look into it. [12:49] And then they'll say it's not that significant. [12:50] It's just minor. [12:51] It's not an issue that we need to really discuss. [12:53] Fraud where is, though, Connors? [12:55] Fraud all over the federal government, within Medicaid, [12:57] Medicare, there's so many of the entitlement programs. [13:00] Then you've got waste and abuse, too, [13:02] within the federal government, because the spending, [13:05] you've got a couple million, over a couple million [13:07] employees outside the military, civilian employees [13:09] in the federal government. [13:10] And you want to make sure that the taxpayers [13:13] are going to get bang for their buck. [13:14] And I'm talking about every single employee there as well. [13:17] It's unfortunate that we have one major party [13:20] that doesn't want to work with us hand in hand in that, [13:22] because that should be something that should be nonpartisan, [13:24] bipartisan, not something that only one party [13:27] wants to look into. [13:28] That would be one thing. [13:29] And then, you know, just the woke priorities. [13:31] Gutter, there was a report that Gutter had spent [13:34] over the last 30-plus years into the hundreds of billions [13:37] of dollars in soft power to influence universities, [13:41] educations, institutions of higher learning, [13:44] not just in the United States, but across the West. [13:46] That's a concern. [13:47] I want to see what China and Russia are doing as well, [13:49] because certainly China loves nothing more than they think [13:52] that they're going to be the preeminent power in the world [13:55] within decades. [13:56] And they don't want a hot war with the United States [13:58] because with a war, you never know what can happen. [13:59] The outcome is uncertain. [14:01] What they're looking for is our malaise. [14:02] They want us to internally divide. [14:04] That's why they pit us against each other by class, [14:07] by race, by religion. [14:09] And we as Americans have to push back [14:10] because we are the multi-ethnic republic that can show [14:15] that humanity has grown, and China's rather homogenous. [14:20] Who's the bigger threat now, Russia or China? [14:22] Oh, China, I think by no doubt, [14:25] because their economy is very close to ours. [14:30] They have four times the population. [14:32] Russia, 5,000 nuclear weapons, makes them a massive threat. [14:35] You take that away, which you can't, [14:36] so they are a threat for sure, but their economy is tiny. [14:40] It's like $2 trillion GDP. [14:42] Texas has a larger economy than Russia, [14:44] which makes you and me more powerful than Putin. [14:47] Last thing here, [14:48] if Republicans don't keep the majority in Congress, [14:51] what happens to your plans for oversight, Chair? [14:54] If we don't keep the majority, [14:55] I'll be the ranking member, hopefully. [14:56] And if I am the ranking member, I wanna battle. [14:58] I think what the Democrats will do if they take charge, [15:02] they're gonna start impeaching everybody [15:03] and open investigations into every Trump family member, [15:07] every single agency and cabinet post. [15:10] And we're gonna have to battle against that [15:11] and tell the American people the truth [15:13] and not let them use their gavels [15:21] and their bully pulpits to mislead the American people. [15:24] And really, we just wanna expose truth. [15:26] And as a good journalist would know, [15:28] truth in context is more important. [15:30] Congressman, good to see you. [15:31] I appreciate the time. [15:31] Thanks, sir.