INTRO MUSIC : “Come On, Come on” by Cheap Trick
Philip Blumel: Half the politicians didn’t even show up, but the American people are. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, The Official Podcast of the Term Limits Movement for the week of July 15th, 2019.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: When US Term Limits Executive Director, Nick Tomboulides addressed the US Senate subcommittee last month in the first hearings on a term limits amendment bill in two decades, half of the committee’s members didn’t even show up. But since then, it’s come to our attention that the video of Nick’s appearance has gone viral, as the citizens of this country are watching it and sharing it with their Facebook friends. Let’s talk to Nick about this and other fallout from his historic appearance. Hey, Nick.
Nick Tomboulides: Hey, Phil.
Philip Blumel: How many people I’ve seen you give those introductory remarks so far on YouTube or Facebook or wherever it is?
Nick Tomboulides: Well, a few days ago, we had actually commemorating the video hitting 1 million views, which was consequential. But that might have been a premature celebration because the video is now at 1.7 million views. It looks like it may get over 2 million. We’ve done very limited advertising for the video. We haven’t really spent any money on it. This is all organic reach. This is people who are responding to the video because they feel that we’re speaking for them. Its just been tremendous, it really is going viral at this point.
Philip Blumel: That’s what I keep hearing. In fact, I’ve had it forwarded back to me several times saying, “This is great. This is just what I wanted to say.”
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, its been getting record numbers. Although we have some indication Facebook might be cracking down on it. Its slowed down a little bit because Facebook is labeling it like hate speech or something. I’ve heard about censorship on social media, but this is the first time I’m really seeing it firsthand. It’s very unfortunate-
Philip Blumel: Hate speech?
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah. What likely happened is anti-term limits groups told their followers to flag it as like inappropriate or offensive and it got the Facebook algorithm in a tizzy. It’s a shame that when you tell the truth, that violates the terms and conditions on Facebook. But that didn’t stop 1.7 million people from seeing it. Let me tell you what the best part has been. The best part has been the people who have just come out of the woodwork calling and emailing me out of the blue after they watch the video about just to talk about it.
Nick Tomboulides: I’ve been contacted by amazing people. I’ve been contacted by teachers and nurses and doctors and engineers, by retirees. I’ve been contacted by CEOs and founders of Fortune 500 companies. People who are male, female, black, white, rich, poor, Christian, Jew, atheist, Democrat, Republican, Independent, doesn’t matter. We’re all in this together. They all say the same thing, thank you for what you said. We need term limits.
Nick Tomboulides: I got a message yesterday from a union member in Indiana. She said she’s printing out the speech and distributing it at her next union meeting to 130 members. Another gentleman, a Republican from California, said he’s distributing the message to 9,000 people on his email list. It’s amazing. It’s just uplifting to know, Phil, that we’re not alone in this fight. We’re bigger, we’re more determined than the political machine in DC, and we’re on the cusp of doing something so great. I can really feel it.
Philip Blumel: Oh, I did too.
Nick Tomboulides: There’s a new electricity now in the movement. There’s a new vibrancy to the movement. We have the politicians on the ropes.
Philip Blumel: You can see this on all of our various platforms. Everything that we use to try to reach people are exploding; Twitter and Facebook and everything like that. Our YouTube channel, our podcast listenership, everything is just going off the charts all at once.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, you make a great point about the YouTube channel. That video, the YouTube version of this is getting shared exponentially as well. We had Kevin Sorbo, the actor from Hercules, the TV series and also from God’s Not Dead, the movie. He actually shared the video on his Twitter, the YouTube version. If you go on YouTube and you look for US term limits, this is the first video that can come up.
Nick Tomboulides: The YouTube video does not have to follow these silly Facebook regulations. If you’re going to share it, go on YouTube, grab that YouTube video, email it to your friends and family. Let’s get this thing circulating again because truthfully, every American needs to see this video.
Philip Blumel: Right.
Scott Tillman: Hi, this is Scott Tillman, the National Field Director with US Term Limits. This past week we were at Netroots in Philadelphia. Two congressional candidates signed the pledge to support a constitutional amendment for term limits. Russ Cirincione in New Jersey six, and Ian Todd in Minnesota six. This week, we will be at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, Young Democrats National Convention in Indianapolis and Young Americans For Liberty in San Jose. If you have access to a candidate, please ask them to sign our pledge. Pledges are available at termlimits.com.
Philip Blumel: Well, this has been quite a couple of weeks for us. The other reason why that might have aided the explosion of this too is that we had FreedomWorks come on board. That’s a big grassroots platform and group that have been pushing our bill in the aftermath of the hearings. So, that’s been helpful too. You’ve been meeting with presidential candidates. I got word that you had met with Andrew Yang this week. I want to hear about that for sure.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, I met with Andrew Yang on Wednesday, in New York City. He’s Democrat candidate, outsider, venture capital guy trying to get some traction in the Democratic primary. He’s a regular guy. He’s a very nice guy, great listener. He sat down with me for about an hour to discuss term limits. I think Andrew’s desire to fix Congress is a genuine one.
Nick Tomboulides: He’s an entrepreneur, he’s got little patience for the way things are going now. He even mentioned to me a few times the study on power causing brain damage. We’ve cited that on the podcast before. He said that’s one of the major reasons he loves term limits. Right now, Andrew has a plan for a 12 year term limit in each chamber. That is not what US Term Limits recommends. We favor shorter limits, six years in the house, not 12. But still, I think Andrew Yang’s a person who fundamentally gets it. I am hoping he decides to be the voice of Term Limits on the Democratic side.
Nick Tomboulides: It would be amazing to have Trump and the Democratic nominee arguing over who can deliver term limits the fastest. That would be great for America if that becomes the debate in 2020.
Philip Blumel: That’s great. Now, we had mentioned before the Andrew Yang had come out in favor of term limits, and of course, that’s why you did meet with him. But we got another Democratic candidate smoked out this week. This is again, the work of our great Ken Quinn. He was in New Hampshire, and he caught Marianne Williamson on the trail and this is what she had to say.
Marianne Williamson: This is how I feel. there was not that much evil any government could do, as long as the people remain vigilant. What he was referring to was the fact that every two years, Congress people have to run again. Theoretically, you could throw all of them out every two years. In a perfect world, term limits are elections.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, she’s quite literally smoked out I think in Williamson’s case. Ken Quinn asked Marianne about term limits and ethereal darkness swept across the room, and then a mysterious blue smoke appeared as Marianne began chanting to the Wiccan priestess. After Marianne tapped … She tapped into the fourth realm of spiritual oneness. She reported that the goddess did not in fact favorite term limits, and neither does she. Long story short, Marianne Williamson is against term limits, which is terribly unfortunate but, maybe she can cure that with some essential oils.
Philip Blumel: Right? If there’s any listeners that don’t know who Marianne Williamson is, you just got a glimpse of who she is from that story. But she’s a New York Times bestselling author. She writes basically New Agey self-help stuff and frankly, can be quite spooky. Too bad she’s not on our team, but I don’t know how much it would help us if she were.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah.
Philip Blumel: Duncan Hunter has become the hunted. For the last 38 years, someone named Duncan Hunter has represented North and Inland San Diego in Congress. From 1981 to 2009, it was Duncan Lee Hunter, and from 2009 to the present day, it has been his son Duncan Dwayne Hunter. Apparently, in the hunter household politics is the family business.
Philip Blumel: From a very early age, Duncan the elder taught Duncan the younger the fine arts of shaking down the rich for campaign cash, slandering your opponents to get reelected and climbing the ladder of seniority in DC. So, it came as no surprise when father passed this torch to son in January 2009. Duncan the younger’s first 10 years in Congress went by without controversy until a Thursday in August of 2018. On that day, Hunter and his wife were indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally spending more than a quarter million dollars in campaign funds to live a lavish lifestyle then concealing it all from federal authorities.
Philip Blumel: Hunter’s spending binge included a $14,000 vacation to Italy, over 1,300 dollars on video games, thousands more on beach trips, golf trips, and ski trips. $600 for the family’s pet rabbit to fly across the country in style. He was spending money even faster than he could raise it. At one point, Hunter’s wife, Margaret, had to call the campaign treasurer and complain that $1,000 a day was too low for the Hunter family. She needed 4000 or 5000 a day, minimum.
Philip Blumel: Remember where all this money came from, political donors who wanted favors from the congressman. How could he ever turn them down when his luxury lifestyle depended on them? In terms of influence, how could his constituents, offering nothing but honesty and feedback ever compete with these mega donors who could offer him the Ritz Carlton?
Philip Blumel: The irony is, Hunter didn’t need the money for reelection. He was reelected four times while squandering it away. He was reelected in 2018 while under indictment. As an incumbent, he could coast back into office with no real opposition. Just like 98% of congressional incumbents do every election cycle due to a lack of term limits. But what has emerged in the last week about Hunter is the most disturbing revelation of all. He wasn’t just spending campaign funds to wine and dine his wife, he was also carrying on sexual affairs with five different individuals, including staffers from his congressional office. He was also accused by a sixth staffer of groping her.
Philip Blumel: Hunter claims these charges are all a trumped up political witch hunt. Sighting his evidence that the prosecutor in the case is an admirer of Hillary Clinton. Really? I’m pretty sure that describes 90% of lawyers, big whoop. Duncan, you committed the crime, now, you’ve got to do the time. His trial begins November 24th. Despite this, despite all the mountains of evidence suggesting he is one of the most corrupt Congress critters of all time, Duncan Hunter Jr. is still an eight point favorite for reelection.
Philip Blumel: Still don’t think we need term limits? Hey, maybe after he gets out of prison, Hunter could publish one of those crappy political biographies we always see at the airport bookstores. He could call it, The Art Of The Steal, or maybe even The Audacity Of Grope. Possibilities like the terms for congressmen are endless.
Philip Blumel: More news this week, Ross Perot, a billionaire businessman, founder of Electronic Data Systems, and also Perot Systems sold out to GM for billions back in the ’80s. American success story, really is. Also, known as a politician at the end of his career.
Nick Tomboulides: I always liked Ross Perot. I always thought he was really patriotic. He was a little bit of eccentric for sure. He shook up that 1992 race. I think at the time, when people were watching that 1992 presidential election, we really didn’t realize how rare it was to see a viable third party candidate. We now know since we’ve had several presidential elections since, and no one has come even as close as Perot did to winning in 1992. I think maybe had he handled the campaign a little differently, he really could have won.
Philip Blumel: His 1992 campaign was actually the strongest showing by a third party or Independent candidate in US history.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah. I think he wound up with 18%, 19% of the vote, but before he had suspended his campaign, he was actually leading in the polls for a while back then. The Perot fans were some of the most diehard term limits backers we had in the 1990s, because they really wanted to shake things up. Perot favored term limits and we have a neat clip of him actually talking about it during a 1992 debate. Can we play that clip?
Philip Blumel: Let’s see it right now.
Speaker 6: Mr. Perot, would you like to address term limitation?
Ross Perot: Yes. Let me do it on first on a personal level. If the American people send me up to do this job, I intend to be there one term. I do not intend to spend one minute of one day thinking about reelection. As a matter of principle, and my situation is unique and I understand it, I would take absolutely no compensation. I go as their servant.
Ross Perot: Now, I have set as strong an example as I can that at that point when we sit down over at Capitol Hill, tomorrow night I’m going to be talking about government reform. It’s a long subject, you wouldn’t let me finish tonight. If you won’t hear it, you get it tomorrow night. But the point is … Sorry, just a little selling … You’ll hear it tomorrow night. But we have got to reform government. If you put term limits in and don’t reform government, you won’t get the benefit you thought, it takes both.
Ross Perot: So, we need to do the reforms and the term limits and after we reform it, it won’t be a lifetime career opportunity. Good people will go serve and then go back to their homes, and not become foreign lobbyists and cash in at 30,000 bucks a month and then take time off to run some President’s campaign.
Philip Blumel: Awesome. We had us term limits, no uncertain terms bid a fond farewell to Ross Perot. He was a genuine outsider. He was a talented businessman and from all accounts, he was a genuinely good human being. He was involved in helping veterans often behind the scenes because he never wanted nor needed the credit. So, he will be missed.
Nick Tomboulides: Quite a guy.
Philip Blumel: Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks, a grassroots service center for millions of activists who support smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, personal liberty and rule of law. Adam joined FreedomWorks in 2005, starting in the press department, gradually moving into a management role, and today sets the priorities for the entire organization and its affiliates. Recently, the group embraced the US Term Limits amendment legislation. We spoke to Adam last week. How are you doing, Adam?
Adam Brandon: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.
Philip Blumel: Sure. To set the stage for our discussion, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what FreedomWorks is and when did you guys get started?
Adam Brandon: Okay. Well, we do grassroots. I always compare, if you look at the left and how the left and the progressives just seem to always be slowly on the advanced, I think it’s because they invest in their grassroots activists. That’s what we try and do but do it from a conservative perspective. We at FreedomWorks here focus primarily on economic issues, and a couple of other, that we consider part of keep the constitutional freedom of government intact.
Adam Brandon: That’s through citizen activism because the only way you drain the swamp, the only way that you can actually make change is by putting pressure on the politicians.
Philip Blumel: Okay. FreedomWorks is an organization that is primarily, I guess, grassroots oriented. What kind of membership do you have and what are your primary tools that you use to try to affect policy?
Adam Brandon: A few years ago, we would say that our email list was our main tool, but now we have actually over 5 million fans, active fans on Facebook, 300,000 on Twitter. I point to those numbers as the reach, but we’re getting active on all platforms, Instagram. We have a large social media imprint, but we also do fly ins and regional events. Just about every week we do things to make sure that we’re coming in face to face contact with activists, and we get them to do the shoe leather work of politics; door to door, phone calls, visiting congressional offices.
Philip Blumel: Okay, great. Now, how does Term Limits fit your overall mission?
Adam Brandon: It is a perennial issue for us. We love term limits. I mentioned that we work on tax issues and all, but if you look at why spending is so out of control, it’s the entrenched interests here in Washington, the swamp. I look at one of the easiest and best ways you could actually take a strike at the swamp, is breaking up the centers of power. The way you do that, one of the most effective tools is term limits.
Philip Blumel: Okay. I noticed, I saw on your blog, and I saw some of your posts that you’re specifically advocating right now, the Senator Cruz Bill, SGR one, and Francis Rooney Bill in the House, HR Resolution 20. What specifically attracted you to this legislation? I know that you’ve done things generically for term limits, but you’ve narrowed down to this.
Adam Brandon: It’s a standard bill that I think most people support term limits. This is senators, we get to six years terms. That’s a dozen years in the Senate. You can’t accomplish what you want to accomplish in 12 years in the Senate, I don’t know.
Philip Blumel: Yeah. What are you running for office for?
Adam Brandon: Yeah, come on. Let’s turn it over here. Then the House of Representatives, the three two year terms, so that’s six years in the people’s house. That’s more than enough time to get what you need to get done. I think what this would make a move to do is, the way that that is set up, you have plenty of time to do what you need to do. At the same time, it prevents people from becoming career politicians.
Philip Blumel: Right. The timing of FreedomWorks pushing of this particular legislation is perfect. SGR One, Cruz’s bill just got his first hearing in the Senate on June 18th, just recently. This is the first hearing that a Term Limits bill, a serious Term Limits bill has gotten in over 20 years.
Adam Brandon: Well, every poll that I’ve seen, term limits poll between 70%, 80%, overwhelmingly popular with Conservatives, with Liberals, with people who are not politically inclined. It’s just one of these common sense things. Can you imagine if we were going to remove term limits from the presidency, people will be talking about it, Caesar, we’re moving to a dictatorship.
Adam Brandon: Well, if we feel that way about one federal office, why can’t we feel that way about the house in the Senate? This is the issue that unifies Americans because it gets to the heart of the matter. Washington is broken. One of the reasons is because you have these close networks here that outsiders have a hard time penetrating, so you blow the system up with term limits and you return it to the founders’ vision. People come, they serve, they do their best and then they go back to their farms.
Philip Blumel: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yep. With this bill receiving this attention right now, it’s also been furthered by the fact that, like you said, we have the polling, but we’ve always had the polling on term limits. We have you guys jumping in the fray, we get the first hearing in decades. We also have something else moving at the state level, because as you probably know, three states have called for an Article Five Amendment Writing Convention, limited to the subject of congressional term limits. Then 15 additional states have called for a minute writing convention on multiple subjects explicitly, including congressional term limits. We’re starting to see some pressure come up from the states on-
Adam Brandon: That’s how change gets done.
Philip Blumel: Yeah.
Adam Brandon: That’s how eventually when you get term limits, I actually don’t think it ultimately be through a constitutional amendment, but it will be because of the process. When enough states put pressure on Washington right before they move, you’ll see the politicians snap it back and then they will all be four term limits. But you need that pressure of this process-
Philip Blumel: That leverage.
Adam Brandon: To prove that this issue … Yeah, this is what gives us leverage to move on it. I think we’re eventually going to get there because again, this is a will of the people issue. The people here in Washington don’t want you to talk about it. But that’s why it’s important for outside groups, what you guys are working on, what we’re doing, supporting people like Senator Cruz for leading on this issue. Eventually, we’ll be able to prevail on it, this is when America beats Washington.
Philip Blumel: Yep. Any specific plans going forward to advocate this bill?
Adam Brandon: I saw today we have a live stream going here at our office, Congressman, Matt Gaetz and Congressman Thomas Massie were going to join us. I mentioned we work on a variety of issues, and it is always the most popular campaign that we’re working on. I think that’s significant. Whether it’s repeal of Obamacare or its fundamental tax reform, the issue that people keep coming back to is term limits. It just shows you that staying power of the issue.
Philip Blumel: Excellent. Well, we definitely appreciate your efforts on behalf of the American people on this issue. Thank you very much, Adam.
Adam Brandon: We’ll keep plugging away. We’ll get there eventually. Thanks very much.
Philip Blumel: You bet. This next one is a something close to home for Nick and I because we both live in Florida. Representative Frederica Wilson brought her portable podium and her portable, customized backdrop, plopped it outside the homestead immigrant facility and started speaking. Let’s just hear quickly what she had to say.
Frederica Wilson.: People who are online making fun of members of Congress are a disgrace, and there is no need for anyone to think that is unacceptable. We’re going to shut them down and work with whoever it is that shut them down, and they should be prosecuted.
Philip Blumel: Nick, I think she was talking about us.
Nick Tomboulides: She might be. She might be. I actually have some Frederica Wilson trivia for you.
Philip Blumel: Oh, yeah.
Nick Tomboulides: Here’s what I want you to do. Guess the average percentage of the vote she has gotten in her last three primaries?
Philip Blumel: I don’t know.
Nick Tomboulides: It’s 81%.
Philip Blumel: Oh, geez.
Nick Tomboulides: She’s is that much of an entrenched incumbency? I won’t let anyone tell me that that degree of entrenchment, that belief that you are invincible is not connected to these ridiculous and arrogant statements that she’s making. It’s a race to the bottom. This comment is the latest evidence of that. It’s appalling, but it’s not surprising. By the way, if making fun of Congress really work right, the entire US Term Limit staff would go on death row.
Philip Blumel: Oh, there’s no question. Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. If you haven’t seen the YouTube video of Nick’s appearance on Capitol Hill, please seek it out at termlimits.com/senatehearing, no space there. After watching it, please comment and most importantly, share it. Most likely the people you share it with, are going to share it also. We can’t let the politicians get away with ignoring this historic hearing on the US Term Limits Amendment Bill. Thanks for your help. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: The revolution isn’t being televised. Fortunately, you have No Uncertain Terms Podcast.
Frederica Wilson: You cannot intimidate members of congress.
Everyone : Hahahahahahahahaa…..
MUSIC CREDITS – Full versions of the music sampled during this podcast may be purchased via iTunes at the following links : “Come On, Come On” by Cheap Trick, “Rockin In The Free World” by Neil Young
The “No Uncertain Terms” podcast is produced by Kenn Decter for U.S. Term Limits
Executive Producer Philip Blumel (President, U.S. Term Limits)
