A Long Government Shutdown? What American Economy Needs to Know Rep. Pat Harrigan
From Washington politics to Main Street impacts, this episode dives deep into the truth behind the headlines — and what America can expect if the government shutdown drags on
Guest: Congressman Pat Harrigan (North Carolina’s 10th District)
Topic: Could This Be a Long Government Shutdown? What Happens Next for the American Economy? 🇺🇸
In this episode of The Crude Truth, host Rey Treviño interviews Congressman Pat Harrigan, a former Green Beret, two-time Bronze Star recipient, and now U.S. Representative North Carolina’s 10th District. Together, they unpack the realities behind the ongoing government shutdown, its impact on American workers, and what’s happening behind closed doors in Washington.
Episode Highlights:
(1:45) Rey voices concern for everyday Americans impacted by the shutdown, from federal employees to the strain on healthcare and immigration systems.
(3:00) Congressman Harrigan shares his perspective on serving during a shutdown, his expectations coming into Congress, and how the stalemate is stalling pro-business progress.
(3:55) Rey spotlights Harrigan’s decorated military background and transition from soldier to lawmaker.
(5:40) Is there really a “radical left”? Harrigan says yes—and describes the growing influence of the new generation of liberal Democrats.
(7:00) The hosts discuss what Rey calls the “Schumer Shutdown,” debating whether Senate Democrats are to blame for the current crisis.
(10:00) Rey and Pat dissect the fear factor in politics, the fading of “Blue Dog Democrats,” and partisan gridlock in the Senate.
(12:00) They highlight how the shutdown ripples across America—750,000 to 1.5 million federal employees furloughed, national parks closed, and local economies strained.
(16:30) Rey presses on the issue of healthcare access for illegal immigrants, asking if it’s truly being added to the federal package.
(18:34) Congressman Harrigan closes with insights on how Republicans are staying united, returning to their districts to keep serving their constituents despite the D.C. stalemate.
(21:00) Is North Carolina a swing state? Congressman Harrigan’s hot take
(23:00) Taxes are too high according to Congressman Harrigan
(24:00) Is our energy at risk due to bad policy?
(26:00) Switching gears, what is going on in Indiana, Chicago and Portland? Is there a real threat where these cities need military support
💬 The Takeaway:
From Washington politics to Main Street impacts, this episode dives deep into the truth behind the headlines — and what America can expect if the government shutdown drags on.
Reach out Pat Harrigan on his Website
Check out StatusJet HERE
We want to thank our sponsors of THE CRUDE TRUTH.
A Long Government Shutdown? What American Economy Needs to Know Rep. Pat Harrigan
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Rey Treviño III [00:00:00] The government has been shut down for about a week now. What’s going to happen to the almost one million government employees that aren’t getting paid? And what is it that the Republican Party is doing to continue to move forward to really boost our economy and grow our economy, not only during this time, but during the next several years? I bring on Congressman Pat Harrigan on this episode of The Crude Truth.
Narrator [00:00:26] In 1901, at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, the future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon Detroit would be cranking out Model Ts by the millions, and America was on the move, thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly change. Sure there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs, and if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.
Narrator [00:01:09] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo, where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions. When everything is on the line, Air Compressed Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue. Elevate your network, elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, fueling our future.
Rey Treviño III [00:01:44] Well, thank you as always for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. I am just so excited. We have a special episode today as the government has been shut down. The real question is who out there is truly feeling it? We have almost a million government workers that are now working or not working, but either way, whether they are or they’re not working they are not getting paid. And this is due to some things that are really interesting that I wanna get some facts on because what I’m hearing is that the Democrat Party is trying to basically have illegal aliens and undocumented aliens receive healthcare for free. While the rest of Americans basically have to pay for not only their own health care, but these undocumented illegal aliens’ health care as well. So today I have a great chance again, as I mentioned in my teaser, to bring on Congressman Pat Harrigan. Congressman, how are you, sir?
Pat Harrigan [00:02:45] Hey Rey, I’m doing great. How are you doing?
Rey Treviño III [00:02:47] I am doing amazing and I cannot thank you enough for the time. You have been on a whirlwind since Congressman Johnson released you to go back home and do a lot of work in your district, is that correct?
Pat Harrigan [00:03:02] Yeah, that’s correct. You know, we all anticipated that the last two weeks would have been time spent up in Washington DC continuing to push forward President Trump’s agenda. But because the government has been shut down by Democrats that have decided to bend the knee to the radical side of their party, we’re actually now just using this time as a district work period because the House has actually already done what it was supposed to do, which is pass a clean continuing resolution. That happened about two weeks ago. Uh, so on our side, the house has done its job. Uh, we’re just waiting for the Senate to do its job, obviously it has a little tougher job because it’s got to get across, you know, the 60 vote threshold. Uh, were still waiting on Democrats to figure themselves out and come across the finish line here. But hopefully that ends up happening soon, right?
Rey Treviño III [00:03:49] Well, again, I cannot thank you enough for being here. I just want to highlight you real quick for our viewers out there. You are a congressman from North Carolina representing District 10. You are former military veteran, a Green Beret to be in fact, but also a West Point graduate. And a nuclear engineer. During our post-production, I had to share with you that you’re actually not the first nuclear engineer, but you are the first Green Beret and a two-time Bronze Star recipient during the Afghanistan War. Is that correct, Congressman?
Pat Harrigan [00:04:25] Yeah, thanks for the kind intro, Rey.
Rey Treviño III [00:04:27] Well, thank you, sir, I truly mean, thank you very much for your service and what qualifications to probably be in that congressional hall now, duking it out every day with the Democrats. I bet having a pedigree like that sure comes in handy on some of these days. What do you think?
Pat Harrigan [00:04:47] Well, the most important thing is you just speak the truth and you do what you say you’re going to do. Uh, that gains you a lot of respect over time if you play the slow game. Uh, but, uh, now, you know, look, we’ve, we, we managed to have a really great first nine months in Congress and it has been a whirlwind of a time. I mean, obviously we control the government. President Trump came in. Uh, we got the house, we’d got the Senate, uh we got the reconciliation package done in the first half of this year, which just paved the ground to create a pro growth business environment in our country. Uh, so we’ve got a lot moving, but we got to keep that momentum up. And the shutdown kind of slows us down a little bit.
Rey Treviño III [00:05:22] You know, you mentioned when we first started, you talked about how. A lot of individuals in the Democrat side are really bending to the far left for someone that like myself and others out there just watch the news whether it’s CNN, Fox or just their local news. Is there really a far left group like is what we see from people like AOC or even Jasmine Crockett who’s here from Dallas where I’m recording today are they that way even behind the scenes.
Pat Harrigan [00:05:55] Sometimes they are and sometimes they’re not. It really depends on the person, without going into individual personalities, which I think would kind of betray the trust of, at the end of the day, regardless of how far apart we are policy-wise, we are still colleagues and we’ve got to maintain that ability to get a long, long term, if we want to someday align on policy or at least get enough votes across the finish line. So I just have a blanket policy. I don’t speak negatively about any of my colleagues. But yes, there is a radical left side of the party. It’s very real, it’s socialistic, it’s communistic, it has made tremendous progress for the Democrat party over the last 60 or 70 years of policy. As we have seen, if we’re conservatives, we’re very, very concerned about that liberal creep that we’ve had for decades, you know, really changing the face of our society, changing our principles, changing… The values that we have, and we believe that that has ultimately corroded the quality of life, that we get to enjoy the opportunity that we’re about to hand off to the next generation of Americans. And we’re not okay with that, but yes, there is a very radical left side of the Democrat party, and it is becoming more and more powerful as the older generation of Democrats kind of give way. To the new generation of Democrats who are pretty darn liberal.
Rey Treviño III [00:07:21] You know, what is it that you can share with us that we’re not hearing on the mainstream media as far as this shutdown? Obviously, even on my social medias, I have called it, and this is full disclaimer, the Schumer shutdown. But if you can, and just in your own words, tell us exactly why we are where we are right now with this shutdown.
Pat Harrigan [00:07:44] Now look, I think if you watch CNN or you watch Fox news, you’ve probably heard the talking point out there, which is, look, this is something the Democrats have voted for 13 different times in the past. Uh, and that’s a true statement, but I want to give maybe a little bit more clarity to that detail. Um, over the last four and a half years for, you know, almost five years now, uh, so since president Biden took office, uh this clean continuing resolution is something. That both Republicans and Democrats have voted for 13 times, 12 times underneath the Biden administration, one time underneath president Trump back in March. Uh, when we needed a continuing resolution to fund the government up until September 30th, where we ended up having the shutdown, right? Just a week ago. Uh, what is really frustrating to Republicans is that the respect that Republicans showed to Democrats during the four years of president Biden by voting for a clean continuing resolution. Is now not being reciprocated now that President Trump is in office by the Democrats. We think that’s incredibly disingenuous and that is why we are labeling this a Schumer shutdown because he’s choosing to do this. He is bending the knee to the radical left side of the party because the alternative is, although perhaps the left side, of his party doesn’t feel great when they vote for a clean continuing resolution that Republicans have passed. Uh, the reality is, is this is just the same respect that Republicans showed to Democrats for four years during president Joe Biden, and now Democrats aren’t showing Republicans that same respect in return. And so I think when you step back and you say, okay, hey, why is he not voting for this now when he’s voted for this 13 times in the last, you know, four years and nine months. Um, I think it becomes a very political answer. And, and when it’s a political answer and not the right answer for the country. People think you’re playing politics and that’s exactly what people think the Democrats are doing right now. It’s playing politics
Rey Treviño III [00:09:42] You know, I want to get back to that plain politics, but first I want ask, in the Senate, which is where it has not passed, is there anybody as radical as the individuals on the left in the Congress? Because you guys there in Congress already passed it, like you mentioned. Who is he afraid of at the Senate level to where Chuck Schumer isn’t able to get this passed?
Pat Harrigan [00:10:05] I think from a political perspective, he’s actually more concerned about AOC than he is anybody in the Senate. I think very clearly you’ve got some very, very radical left senators like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. There’s many others that kind of fly under the radar that aren’t kind of traditional centrist Democrats, blue dog Democrats as you’d call them in the past. But I think that politically, AOC is looking at a Senate run in New York. And that is because Chuck Schumer’s time is coming up. He’s running for reelection here. And so if he just kind of bends the knee, he is very much opening his left flank during his democratic primary to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has the capability, has the fundraising mechanism and definitely has. The influence of the younger generation to come in and potentially knock him out of a Senate primary. I mean, that really is a significant portion of Chuck Schumer’s calculus at this point, given the fact that it has led him to make a political decision, not one that’s in the best interest of the United States of America.
Rey Treviño III [00:11:16] You know, as a citizen and just watching the news, I do remember just whether it was three or six months ago when they passed the continuing resolution last time, you did hear, I guess what you would call the squad giving Chuck Schumer a hard time and saying how he’s bending to the Republicans when they did do the last one, is that correct? Did I hear that right? Yeah.
Pat Harrigan [00:11:40] Yeah, that’s, that that’s exactly right. And so now this is kind of a repeat of what happened in March. He didn’t like the heat, particularly now as we’re closer to a 2026 election for him, uh, you know, I think he ultimately ended up buckling and making, making a really bad decision.
Rey Treviño III [00:11:56] You know, what did they all get back to the playing politics, Congressman? And with the Democrats playing politics right now, they’re actually affecting hardworking American lives that are employed by the government or that do work like through the government, right? Maybe they have jobs that they got to work with government jobs to do the job. I mentioned in my opener that we have about a million people. And if I’m wrong, please let me know. I think it’s about 800,000, but we have significant amount of employees that are affected by this right now, is that correct?
Pat Harrigan [00:12:33] Yeah, that’s right. Kind of depending on the day, it’s going to fluctuate between about 750,000 and 1.5 million. Wow, as the shutdown continues, the effects of it compound. And so you’re gonna start seeing government services slowly start to draw down and close out shop, right? And so the number of the people that are affected the longer this goes on become more and more. But yeah, you’ve got that number of federal employees that are furloughed. You’ve got federal contractors that are getting stop work orders or don’t come to work orders, right, in an individual capacity stop work orders from an enterprise capacity. Uh, you’re also then having a rollback of government services across the country. And that can be, uh, anything from, uh you know, for instance, like our national parks being open or closed, uh but multiply that across the entire country that has very significant effects and shutdowns cause about $15 billion worth of gross domestic product production every single day that they’re happening. And so that then has a kind of a second and third order consequence on broader economy itself. Which ultimately trickles down into every nook and cranny of our country. Everybody’s affected by a shutdown. And I think this is what Republicans have learned, right? And being as honest as I possibly can, Republicans have been responsible for government shutdowns in the past, going all the way back to Newt Gingrich. But I think through that period of time, they’ve learned shutdowns actually don’t help anybody. Nobody actually wins. There isn’t a winning team. There’s only a losing team and that’s the United States of America. If we’ve got policy differences, let’s hash those policy differences out while the government is open. Let’s not play politics, throw a temper tantrum, close down the government. That’s exactly what Democrats have done in this circumstance.
Rey Treviño III [00:14:25] You know, with this being such a let’s play politics, you’d almost think if President Trump said, breathing is good for you as an American to live, that the other side would almost try to prove their point by not breathing at this point. It’s really such a shame.
Pat Harrigan [00:14:42] Um, yeah, I think president Trump has even said that if he came out with a cure for cancer, they would still ridicule him. He’s probably right.
Rey Treviño III [00:14:50] You know, I’ve never seen this before. And again, we’ve never had a president like President Trump before. This is definitely new territory and it’s definitely 2025 for sure. So when it comes to government shutdowns, like right now basically are like the park rangers at like Yosemite or Yellowstone. Are they not there currently working at this moment in time?
Pat Harrigan [00:15:14] Yeah, that’s right. So across a lot of national parks across the country and each one’s going to be a little bit different. And there’s a lot of different reasons for that. But yeah, some of them are basically completely shuttered and you’re not, like my wife was just in Maine this weekend at Acadia National Park and the front doors were effectively shut, can’t go in, they’re not collecting any money from anybody coming in. There’s nobody to prevent you from going in. So your national parks might actually be your national parks again, depending on your political philosophy. But yeah, so, you know, in all seriousness, right? Government services start to turn off during shutdowns and it does impact both those direct employees of the US government, as well as anybody interacting with them from the public or the private sector. Uh, so, you know, the, the impacts are, are wide ranging. And as I said, it’s kind of like a set of dominoes, right? The longer it goes, the more, the more domino’s this starts affecting and get impacted. And, uh, you, know, the more the more our economy gets impacted as well.
Rey Treviño III [00:16:23] You know, is it true that they’re really trying to add healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants and undocumented immigrants into the new bill or new agreement right now? Is that true?
Pat Harrigan [00:16:39] Yes, that is a completely true statement. And I’ve gone on national news a couple of different times this week and been called a liar, uh, that no Republicans are playing politics with this statement. Look, the fact of the matter is, is you can go to page 57, section, uh 21 71. Uh, if I remember correctly, it’s on page 57 of the Democrats version of their continuing resolution and you can actually read it for yourself. They want to roll back $1.5 trillion worth of fraud, waste and abuse protections that we put on Medicaid through the reconciliation process earlier this year. As part of that rollback, there’s approximately $200 billion of that $1,500,000,000 that would end up going to illegal aliens in this country. That is an absolute non-starter. For conservatives in the House, and I would hope most conservatives in the Senate, which is why effectively we have just taken the position. You know what? We’ve passed a clean continuing resolution. We’re not even going to debate or negotiate on this. If we want to talk about merits of policy and, you know, healthcare subsidies running out for American citizens, we’re willing to potentially have those discussions moving down the road. But we’re only gonna do those as a part of regular order in the traditional appropriations process. We are not gonna do that being held hostage with the government shut down. Open the government, have these discussions, but there’s no future that any way, shape, or form that conservatives, Republicans are gonna come in and green light healthcare for illegal aliens.
Rey Treviño III [00:18:23] Congressman, with you guys, basically looks like y’all are in full agreement or, you know, y’alre in full team mode right now as Republicans, whether it’s the Congress or the Senate, on what needs to happen. It doesn’t even sound like anybody’s even thinking about waffling, let alone buckling. How long are y’ all prepared to be in this mode? And what are yall trying to do to try to get the Democrats back to the negotiation table to drop out this one. Plus trillion dollars that they want Americans like me to spend on these ridiculous additional spending, excuse me, like you were just talking about. But what are y’all doing as a team to get them back to the table?
Pat Harrigan [00:19:10] Well, I would say that we’re acting as a team and we’re moving forward as a team. That is actually why we’re not in Washington, D.C. Right now. We’ve extended our district work periods. We’re working inside of our districts day in and day out. And what that does is that continues to put pressure on the Democrats up to the point where the American people just say enough is enough. Democrats, you’ve got to just vote for this thing. Have these policy discussions through the regular order process. Uh, but what you’re doing right now is effectively, you know, being a child in a high chair, throwing your peas and carrots all over the table, uh, because you guys want attention right now. Uh, this, this healthcare debate that we have is not germane to a clean continuing resolution. I think that’s what people, uh need to understand is that this is, uh like come into play baseball and we’re all going to play baseball. This is the time of year where we play baseball Uh, but we’re showing up and we’re playing basketball instead because the Democrats want to play basketball. Like it just, it doesn’t make sense. And so, uh, I think ultimately the longer this goes, that pressure continues to build on Democrats. And when Republicans stick together as we are right now, we have a very cohesive message across the entire conference, uh Democrats don’t, right? You’ve already had three defectors come out and vote. For the clean continuing resolution that Republicans passed through the House. The Democrats are disunified. Their message is not straightforward to the American people, nor is it clear. And so I think that we’ve got kind of all the balls on our side of the court right now, which portends well long-term for, I think, resolving this with Democrats coming to the realization that we need to open the government back up or we’re just gonna take too much heat.
Rey Treviño III [00:20:58] With this resolution that they’re not seeing right now, you’re in North Carolina, and please correct me if I’m wrong, you guys are considered a swing state. Is that correct?
Pat Harrigan [00:21:09] We are a, very much a swing state. We are one of the seven swing states across the country. And, you know, many would argue that we’re one of the most pivotal, if not the most.
Rey Treviño III [00:21:21] Well, with that being said, obviously as you know, I’m here in Texas and we’re not very much of a swing state these days. But with you guys there, what are you hearing from your constituents that may not have voted for you right now in regards to this government shutdown right now?
Pat Harrigan [00:21:39] What’s actually kind of interesting is that, you know, we normally get about 300 calls, emails, communications a day between my district office here in North Carolina and my Washington DC office. And those calls are way down right now. And I think just kind of empirically, I could share, you know normally even those that don’t vote for us are the ones that are calling us with the greatest. Trying to change the opinion and trajectory of the office. And look, like I just baseline my representation on what does the majority of the people in my district want? We’re a Republican plus 19 point differential over Democrat district, like not hard for me to figure out, especially when we talk to people, which we do as often as we possibly can. And so they’re not gonna get us to move, but they always try to get us move. They’re not making those phone calls right now because I actually think that they’re making phone calls to Democrats and saying, Hey, uh, we’re about to start having, you know, our services impacted. Um, you guys don’t need to shut the government down. Don’t, don’t keep doing this for too long. I’m talking to my democratic colleagues, like their, their call volume is up. And so empirically, I actually do think that the American people bottom line are holding Democrats accountable for the shutdown, uh how, how that continues to out. The longer this goes, I think there’s some uncertainty there, right? But I think a lot of it depends on how tight and how unified Republicans actually stay together working as a team. But I think if the messaging stays the way that it is right now, I I think we’re in a pretty good spot.
Rey Treviño III [00:23:18] Well, I, for some reason, again, outside looking in, you guys truly do seem so unified right now in this cause. And again, I know that I don’t want my money going towards individuals, especially my tax dollars. And God knows we could do a whole series on just, you know, are we being taxed too much, right? This wouldn’t be an energy show without- Oh, I’m sorry?
Pat Harrigan [00:23:42] But the answer is yes
Rey Treviño III [00:23:48] Well, I’m glad we agree on that. If I was a Democrat, I’d be voting for you from Texas in the next election. So I’m joking, both sides, I am sorry, that was terrible. But this wouldn’t be an energy show without me asking, hey, is the strategic petroleum reserve or is our energy security at risk at this time during this government shutdown?
Pat Harrigan [00:24:12] I think that our energy reserve and our energy interests have always been at risk due to bad policy, right? And you can’t just fix that policy overnight. I mean, it seems like every week that we go into Congress, we are voting on some sort of appeal, uh, whether it’s some EPA regulation, whether it’s, some other, you know, midnight rule, uh that came out of one of the Biden administration’s agencies and their war on energy, um, I, I just think that we continually find. Problems that exist out there in America that have structurally impacted our national security with respect to our energy surety. And so, no, look, we’ve got a lot more work to do. I think that anytime that you have a government shut down, the government is not operating at capacity the way that it’s intended to operate. I think a lot of us are frustrated when it does operate at capacity and still not the way that it is intended to to operate, but nonetheless, that- quality of service is degraded even further than it is on a normal day to day basis. And so, um, yeah, you know, we, we want, certainly Republicans want the government back open as quickly as possible. As I said earlier, right. A government shutdown actually helps. Nobody. Things just don’t get done and services don’t come across the finish line for people. And it puts people in a position where they’ve got a lot of uncertainty and that’s never good for the stability and confidence in the market and the economy and those sorts of things. And so we definitely want to get the government back open as quickly as we possible.
Rey Treviño III [00:25:46] Well, I think we need to get like a certain price and just go ahead and just get a resolution pass to fill up the strategic petroleum reserve. What do you say?
Pat Harrigan [00:25:54] Yeah, I’ve got absolutely no problem with that. And I’ll tell you why, you know, it got drawn down by the Biden administration so much and for political reasons too, right? Like, look, this is supposed to be a strategic petroleum reserve for a reason. It is supposed be there for times of a national emergency and used for times of national emergency not to artificially deflate. Gasoline prices for political purposes as we run up to an election. You know, I think that was very short-sighted. I think it was very unwise move by the Biden administration. And I just, I hope we can get past that and not do that again.
Rey Treviño III [00:26:31] You know, Congressman, I want to kind of totally switch gears here and talk about something that we didn’t talk about or even mention is what’s going on in Indiana and Chicago and in Oregon there in Portland. We have literally half of, you know, one side saying that there is no need for national troops. Maybe you see some things that are going on that we don’t, you having a military background again, maybe you’re seeing organized crime show up and you recognize that. Is there a real concern and threat that we do need to have military action in these cities right now?
Pat Harrigan [00:27:11] Well, look, I think every city is different at the end of the day. And we do have constitutional guard rails, uh, that, that prohibit our national guard from being used as traditional law enforcement assets, unless you have the cooperation of, uh the state’s government, right? Specifically the governor, the, so the state governor and the president of the United States would have to be in lockstep there. And certainly in Illinois and Chicago and in Oregon and Portland, There is not lockstep between… The governor and the president of the United States. And so there’s also a difference that we need to parse out between what’s actually happening in Portland, Oregon versus what’s happening in Chicago. And you’ve got to look at it from a government facility and government services perspective, particularly with respect to immigration and custom enforcement, right? ICE, we know that those folks have been targeted. We know that they are ridiculed day in and day out. They are assaulted, violently attacked. Uh, by protesters day in and day out all across this country. That is happening. That’s very real. Uh, and, and separate from that, you have a crime issue and the crime issue in Portland, Oregon is not quite the same level as it is in Chicago, Illinois, uh, which Chicago is one of the most dangerous cities that we have in our country, right? I mean, you routinely have around 10 people a weekend murdered, uh you know, dozens and dozens and thousands of shootings. Uh, every single weekend, it’s just not a safe place. And so you’ve got to kind of parse out what, what are we doing here? What are the authorities that we have based on the constitution and without the cooperation of those governors, you know, what, are we able to do? President Trump is very clearly constitutionally allowed to send federal troops into Chicago, into Portland to secure federal facilities or maintain safe federal operations. Uh, they cannot be used. In a traditional law enforcement capacity, unless there’s cooperation with those governors, which there’s not going to be. These are liberal governors. They do not care about law and order in their cities. They’re saying everything is fine. Clearly it’s not. But there are left and right limits of what we can do and what’s appropriate to do with our National Guard troops. Down here in Charlotte, in North Carolina, we just kind of had a giant spotlight shined. Uh, on, on the law and order fight here locally with the killing of Irena Zyrutska. She was that poor Ukrainian girl who had immigrated into this country and was killed on a train, uh, by a repeat violent criminal who had been arrested 14 prior times in his life and continually let out on his own own recognizance, cashless bail. You know, all the deal that all the struggles that big cities have dealt with because of really poor policy and judges and magistrates actually not enforcing the law, choosing to be nice to criminals instead of actually punishing them and having consequences for criminal conduct. We’ve got to be very clear-eyed about this. We have to have moral clarity and we’ve got understand that the law needs to be enforced period. If the national guard can provide some breathing room for local law enforcement across the country. To actually get back over the hump of providing law and order in their localities, I think that’s a great use for them.
Rey Treviño III [00:30:37] Um, you know, as, as we wrap up here for all our listeners after, and thank you for that statement, by the way, before I, before, I say that, uh, I had totally already forgotten, unfortunately about that horrific incident in North Carolina uh, with that innocent lady being stabbed by that individual. And again, the fact that I forgot we’re it’s getting almost too common in today’s world. And I’m thankful that there’s individuals like you out there that have a backbone, that have the experience to stand up and be proud. It’s like your pin right there. I asked about it before the episode. And for our viewers out there, can you talk about your lapel pin real quick?
Pat Harrigan [00:31:20] Yeah, so I was telling Rey, I don’t wear my congressional pin. I always wear the special forces crest up here. The oppressor libera, the free, the oppressed. And that’s just something that has always resonated with me. The mission of the special force is something that’s truly special. It’s something that still near and dear to my heart. And at the end of the day, because of really poor policy and failed leaders who have led us down the road to failed outcomes in our country, a lot of times you could search inwards and say, you know what? We as American citizens are the ones kind of being oppressed here right now. We wanna flip that script. And we wanna make sure that we’ve got freedom, that we have safety and security, that we got law and order in our country. If we can’t do it here, we can have a hope that that is the circumstance that’s gonna play out across the rest of the world that unleashes. Freedom and free markets and religious freedom and democracy and all those great things that enable a steady world, one that has created and allowed us, the breathing room, to be the most powerful nation in the history of the world. It’s something very, very special, but it’s also something that takes a very steady hand to curate and make sure that we can continue to enjoy it, continue to perpetuate it, and pass it on to the next generation.
Rey Treviño III [00:32:45] Thank you so much Congressman. As we wrap up, I would like to give you the floor for a minute or so, sir, to talk to our viewers out there that happen to be in your district and or any Americans that you want to just reach out to and talk to here as we wrap-up, sir. I want to give the floor here just for a minute if that’s all right.
Pat Harrigan [00:33:06] Sure, Rey, that sounds great. I appreciate it. Look, the most important thing to me in terms of what I do as a representative in Congress, aside from representing the, uh, will of the 760,000 people that live in the 10th district in North Carolina that I’m charged with representing is providing world-class constituent services to them and regardless of whether they’re Republican, Democrat, independent, uh what, what, whatever they may be, uh if you have a problem with our government. And you’ve got an issue, whether it’s social security, you’re a veteran and you need help with the Veterans Administration. If you’ve an IRS issue, if you’ve a passport problem, I have folks around the clock standing by, both in my Washington DC office and in our district office back here in North Carolina that truly provide world-class constituent services. They’re the reason that our office has been as successful as we are. And look, as I say, a representative is only as successful and capable as the capability and success that his staff actually works for and provides as a team. And so I just encourage you reach out to my staff. If you have a problem, we would love to help you better interface with the United States government. That is a key role that we provide here as a member of Congress. And so, I very much appreciate the time, Rey. Uh, it’s always great connecting with you and, uh, energy matters. Let’s just leave it at that. We’ve, uh we’ve got to be energy dominant in this country and each and every day we’re working towards that goal.
Rey Treviño III [00:34:44] Amen, you just dropped the mic right there. No, Congressman, I wanna thank you very much for your time. Again, you being back in district, you don’t play around. You are out there, you’re meeting with your people, you’re listening to them. So for you to take a few minutes to visit with me, I truly appreciate that. And so thank you, sir. Keep up the good fight and I’m looking forward to seeing you do more here, I think, in the future. So I’m very excited, Congressman. Thank you so much.
Pat Harrigan [00:35:15] Thanks for having me, Rey.
Rey Treviño III [00:35:17] And to all our viewers out there, if you’ve got to try to get in contact, if you would like to get into contact with his office, if you have any questions for me, please let me know. Or if you got questions you want me to ask them, let me now. And as always, thank you for tuning in for another episode of The Crude Truth. We’ll see you next time.
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