Interview with ND Legislator Addressing Accusations of Sexual Harassment and Threats

BISMARCK,ND (trfnews.i234.me) Republican, North Dakota State Representative, Luke Simons of Dickinson responds to allegations of sexual harassment and threats.
republican representative luke simons of dickinson north dakota is in hot water for alleged uh sexual harassment and threats he made uh here’s a news conference he posted on his facebook page and so what happened was as i was in the cafeteria and i was on the east end the two representatives that this incident happened with was with um they were about 10 feet away from me they’re about maybe anywhere from eight to 12 feet away from me in a different line so two line lines you might say and that was my own business talking to a few people and the next thing i knew somebody was calling my name so i looked over at them and when i did um they were going like this i was like what’s happening and uh they said mask put a mask on well the rules are uh jackie is that a half hour before session on the floor or a half hour and a half hour after session you have to wear a mask and that rule is going to change so saying that um i knew i didn’t have to wear a mask there and they didn’t just let it die and they said put a mask on i said no thanks and they said we don’t want your thanks don’t this is a crowded room oil field etc so this is my story there could be another side of this too um they said we don’t want your thanks put a mask on and i told them no i’m not going to the one legislator representative walked across span the difference to me and went like this and showed me the sign that said the mascot well it’s a suggestion it doesn’t mean it’s a rule that you have to because i was not it was a very crowded area in the cafeteria area where we’re getting a lot of food and um there were several people in there with no masks on and there might have been 70 people 80 people getting their food and then there was more than that sitting down in the cafeteria area and um they said put a mask on and i said no and i’m not you know happy that i said what i said next i said every word and i don’t apologize for anything that i said except for saying a word that i said and um i told her to have off i told the representative to have off and um it’s very inappropriate as a christian i don’t condone that kind of language i said i say in front of my daughter’s here my wife it’s wrong um and for that i am sorry and um other things were said she said something else i told her she’s not my effing mother to some to that extent and that is wrong it’s totally wrong i don’t apologize for anything else that i said but i do apologize for saying that word so that’s what i wanted to have a press release about but as you know it’s turned into a little bit more than that and what turn what it’s turned into is a an agenda against my character and these are accusations that have come to me that simply just aren’t true they’ve taken my words and distorted them into very very sick concepts that just aren’t true um you know our president president our own president president trump ran a campaign calling out the swamp that’s what he did he called out the swamp he called out people like john mccain and when he called out john mccain that didn’t make john mccain exactly happy that he did that so when john mccain passed away i don’t think president trump was at all surprised when president or mr john mccain’s family didn’t invite him to his funeral and i have made political enemies because of my very conservative voting record and i do not apologize for my conservative voting record i will not back up off of that one bit but because they can’t beat me in facts and because we are gaining a lot of ground in the united in north dakota capital they have to attack your character and that’s exactly what’s happening so um these accusations that are made against me and i know exactly how judge kavanaugh feels now um that have come against my character um are simply not true and most of these people in here they’re trying to make me sound like some back hills hick that doesn’t know how to talk to people well news flash i’m a barber i talk to people every single day and i believe that i usually can come across pretty straightforward and correct with people however there are bureaucrats out there that are very much against conservative ideals and fighting against conservative ideals this kind of stuff is to be expected the first one happened in march 20 or march 21st 2018. i was surprised as anything to get this kind of stuff i heard politics was tough but i never in a million years thought it would be like this these accusations are not true they have taken my words and distorted them to make them sound sick and demented and i forget any kind of talk like that i am not like that and so they are exactly what they say they are their accusations supposedly these accusations um were not supposed to be anything but peace because there was no proof of any of this no zip zero the only proof that there is is since i think the very first i’d have to ask my wife i’ve been recording my conversations with certain females with my handy little phone and so i have those conversations on tape because our invite our old vice president was very wise in the fact that if you talk to women in a closed room there’s a good chance that things like this will happen and so i recorded those conversations i have those record conversations recorded and if i decide to take this to court and i may there are a few people in bureaucrats that are supposedly supposed to be working for me that i will you will see what my attorney says on this subject that’s another thing that’s a kind of a side note but us as state legislators i act for myself i do not act for anybody else but for myself i act in conservative values that’s what i’m acting the republican party i do not act on their behalf i i ran saying that i want to say that i ran a campaign saying that we have tripled our budget every single legislative session mark 21 said no man’s life liberty or happiness is safe well congress is in session and i for one believe that is true and under a super majority republican party we have growing our budget extra extra dent yeah i can’t say that word today hugely i will say and it is wrong it’s totally wrong and i call this out i put the voting record out every single day um i get republicans that are i would say rhinos i don’t pay attention to their voting record but their constituents sure do and they’re ashamed of their voting record i’m not ashamed of my voting record i’m very conservative and so the republican party i don’t expect any favors from them on this i stand alone because i’ve called out most of these people on these subjects so what i’m saying is is i fully expected something like this to happen at one time or other and if you read what some of the political bloggers are saying which are all geared against conservatives what they’re saying is he’s a republican we’re going to attack him and they’re throwing everything at me except the kitchen sinks so far and i’m expecting that too so anyways that’s what i set out to say originally i was going to apologize for saying the f word which is wrong it’s wrong with my children it’s wrong with my grandmother it’s wrong to my church i publicly apologize to my church after church last night wednesday um [Music] wept like a baby because it’s wrong i don’t condone that kind of language however i said it and i i repented to god and that’s the true one that i screwed up with is i wrote my own constitution to my own lord and savior jesus christ and that is wrong but as for the rest of it i will not apologize for being conservative and i will not apologize for going down there with an agenda to break up the old guard calling for a conservative republican party a ronald reagan type republican party to come back into power into north dakota this time i’d ask any questions i would be happy to answer you sure so with regard to your record you are probably one of if not the most conservative voters um there at capitol hill and at the capitol complex and um that has made you obviously enemies political enemies um on the left but even political enemies within your quote-unquote party uh the republican party and there’s more and more of a division within the republican party between those who are adhering to the old conservative values and those who are essentially republican and name um but have more of a moderate approach to things so with both sides coming after you essentially seeing this as an opportunity to get rid of a thorn in their heel so to speak do you do you deny that every one of these allegations that are being levied here um are are they’re all false they’re saying they’re all false yes they are false um some of them are real conversations but they distorted my words so absolutely james um for example um the eyelash deal um i kind of forgot about this conversation until a political news blogger junkie brought this up which i should have sued right away for this this conversation for these things to happen this is this is truly um a sign of what is it called uh definition yeah exactly um what the eyelash deal i’ll just touch on that because i think it’s on the first page or something like that um this person literally had eyelashes this long and i was like wow that’s like that’s basically what i was thinking and i thought to myself are those your real eyelashes that’s what i said and she said no i said oh they’re alone what else are you supposed to say well i guess that’s not correct behavior but what is in this report is that i said her eyelashes are beautiful and they remind me of my wife which is simply nuts done and by my mind you that conversation wasn’t recorded that’s he said she said whatever and i will say that our legal counsel um i didn’t finish that thought earlier our legal counsel i go to them as a republican and ask for legal counsel on a gun bill in this case it was a gun bill that i was getting legal counsel on and that person might be a democrat some states have it so republicans have legal staff for making legislation and democrats have legal staff for making legislation in north dakota it is well you all share the same staff well is that a little odd that’d be like hiring an attorney i’m a hardcore republican that had made a lot of enemies amongst democrats me hiring a democrat attorney and expecting a fair trial or having a democrat judge well in theory that would work but it this goes without saying so these accusations mean absolutely i hope that answers your question and then the second one i think small little questions i have and then i’ll turn it over to jackie for the interview but so these are all allegations a lot of them stemming back to 2018 and 2019 and 2020 so they appear to be allegations that are part of some sort of record we weren’t able to clarify that so have each one of these been reviewed investigated and determined to be false or some of these simply notes in a book that’s uh in your file so to speak so i didn’t know i had a file until just now um but what happened was is uh we had a this is an attorney that said that um was not happy with i guess our conversation or something and so every one of these conversations um went before john hornerson the head of legislative management and um scott lowser was there and chet [Music] chet the majority leader was there as well that we talked to about and it was addressed and every single time it was said that these are allegations had i known what was happening right now i would have sued for that detriment yeah defamation of character i would have but they told me no no big deal none of this is even officially filed like because there was nothing to officially file and now i find out that there is a so-called file this is one of the files i mean this is um a wrote down scribbled note i believe by john dorenson of a conversation that we have um like i said i just now read these for the first time um we discussed these conversations and every time i said exactly what i’m going to tell you or you know if you guys ask those questions um like this here this this is what the file looks like that’s a legislative note that guess was i guess the big thing is you don’t talk to a journalist without expecting something like this to happen so i have to ask just one more follow-up and then i’ll turn it over to jackie apology um so to be clear none of these allegations have a definitive signature by you saying you were counseled on or about this date at this time and the determination was x y or z these are simply there’s no signatures from you no admission of guilt or innocence no on any of these nothing not one time was that done had that happened i would have sued them and they knew it because i threatened them with a lawsuit because what this is doing is ridiculous we have taken and you can put this on the record we i ran a campaign saying that i would not be politically correct and i won’t i will not i don’t use the n-word i don’t do that why because that could hurt somebody’s feelings but you know what i will say about anything that i need to and you’re not going to have to guess what i’m saying and if i get passionate about it well i’m glad we had a few four founding fathers that were passionate and told great britain they could stick it yeah because that’s exactly what happened um but this concept of we’re not going to hurt anybody’s feelings or beat around the bush um i mean one of these accusations i was trying to explain horses a starving horse situation with a constituent of mine and this person is a city person and they couldn’t get it through what i was trying to say they didn’t know between the difference between an arabian horse and a quarter horse quarter horse is tough and rugged and arabian is beautiful yeah but not a whole lot of endurance in the wintertime so i was explaining to them a story and this is what they took from it ridiculous it’s absolutely absurd and i will not back down from the conversations at all but this is what these people are reading are their interpretation of a composite conversation that that just wasn’t so so so you said that you’ve been recording your conversations when you’re with women say like in a you know a room with just you and another woman uh how long have you been doing that i think that i started doing that i’d have to check my my stuff um loosely organized in my phone um all saved in the cloud i guess since probably the first time that this an accusation like this was made what was that 2018 or yes i believe so okay and i would have to find all this stuff in the cloud but if it comes to court i definitely will provide that because at this point i just no excuse me that wouldn’t have been so because it would have been the second time i went up to john morrison’s office is when i started recording these conversations because and the thing was is when i went to the john borenson’s office with the minor are the majority leader excuse me the majority assistant leader when we came out of those offices [Music] uh when we came out of those office jackie is there anything objective okay um we were told problem solved there was nothing there every single time we went there and so my whole thing was is then why are we not firing people making these accusations that was my problem that i had every time i went up there we they said luke this was said no it wasn’t said let me tell you what was said and it’s to the point now where i don’t go up to legislative council i have to go pay for my own attorneys because i’m afraid that somebody’s going to make an accusation saying i’m going to go buy whatever specific underwear for my wife which is absolutely absurd um [Music] you know what if you and i work together i’m going to talk to you as a friend and i will i will definitely talk to you as a friend i don’t stop talking to women any differently than i do a man except i’m just more of a gentleman but other than that you are a co-equal with me and someday we are going to dance on streets of gold side by side together as 100 co-equals and i believe they’re co-equal here on this god’s green earth so if we’re together i will talk to you the same way as i thought we’ll talk to james and some women i’m finding are having a hard time with that kind of concepts and what it is is this is political slander it is political slander is what’s happening and and i never dreamed that politics could be this dirty do you feel like you’re always being attacked and that you have to record those conversations well um you know i made myself a target and until recently my facebook page was one of the largest political facebook pages in north dakota and people are flocking to it because i’m recording what’s going down and it’s very hard we have news media that is not showing what is happening in north dakota’s politics and it’s it’s outrageous it’s it’s horrible and it’s funny to me that we’ve had some of the greatest bills this year pro liberty bills and the same bloggers that are blogging about this aren’t talking about legislative stuff they’re talking about personal character attacks which is really concerning to me um getting back to your question though i’m sorry go ahead what was your question uh do you feel like you’re always being attacked that you have to record those conversations not necessarily um that i’m being attacked but by certain people i am i have several friends that are legislators that are ladies that are just absolute awesome people very conservative people that um i’ve been leading the charge for a long time um no absolutely not do i feel like that all the time only some people with an agenda do i have to worry about and i will be very honest if you are a lady and i don’t know who you are i am very guarded because of what’s happened because of this this i mean these little allegations here that nothing was supposed to come out of this because it wasn’t true they knew that it wasn’t true but now all of a sudden people are doing judge kavanaugh on me and saying oh yeah well you said no i didn’t say that conversation never happened so yeah what would you say to some of your constituents who are calling you sexist and misogynistic well um first of all i would say that um you know i had a person say this to me earlier last night at church actually and they said luke the people that love you will love you still more and the people that hated you will hate you still more i’m not too worried about this to be very honest in fact if this wasn’t so serious i would find it hilarious because this is not true i’ve lived in this town all of my life the people of this community know me and they know that this is not me that is not who i am i’ve been nothing but a gentleman um so that to me is is hope you’re going to have some democrats that are upset with me they’re always upset i always tell them you know there’s a solution throw me out of office and replace me but i told you what i was when you hired me for this position i’m a conservative i won’t back off of it i believe abortion is 100 murder there is no doubt about that if you are pro-life the opposite of dark is light the opposite of go is stop the opposite of life is death so if you vote the other way you’re not pro-choice you’re pro-adapt and that means you have blood on your hands you might see where i make people upset because i will not sugarcoat it it means what it means i don’t play against words when it comes to politics just call it the way it is you tell me you’re conservative well that’s nice let’s see your voting record i’ll tell you if you’re conservative i don’t need to hear a nice speech legislator talks by his voting record or her voting record so you can see i am not apologetically conservative so i would naturally have enemies so when stuff like this happens to me it’s just another day it’s just another day take a number i i tell them take a number yeah you know you talked about the capital and saying explain what happened and you’ve issued an apology but some constituents are saying it’s not enough what is your response to that i would ask them if they voted for president trump because they didn’t they didn’t they’re gonna i’m gonna have constituents you know this whole saying is that you have to represent your people well first of all let me explain myself i don’t represent the people i represent the constitution of the united states of america and north dakota so by representing the constitution and the state of north dakota’s constitution i therefore represent everybody but to say that a legislator is supposed to listen to his constituents does that mean i listen to the ones that scream the most what if i had constituents that said you know what we should kill every redheaded steps inside or child what if enough of them said that should i make a law that says that or would i say no so when constituents say that i would say did they vote for president trump because if they did vote for president trump they aren’t going to be naturally happy with me if they’re a liberal socialist they’re probably not going to like me um it’s it’s interesting to me i have people that say i’m conservative in in the city or or in uh county in in several counties that i represent they say they’re conservative they sit on the board but they’re the first people that call me to ask for money from the state well do conservative people ask money for this statement no they don’t so they want me to vote no on why not asking for money you know vote no on fargo and all these other places but when it comes to their own little special budgets then they got their their head in the trough so because i say no and stick to my guns it’s called principles um you’re naturally going to have some enemies so no it doesn’t bother you when you’re doing what’s right you just keep doing what’s right yeah why does that seem like you’ve been in the spotlight of controversy recently and since your time in office because i put myself through jackie i did i put myself out in the open my facebook page has been big almost ever since i’ve been in office and the reason for it is is if somebody does something good i say they did something good if they did something bad i say that they did something bad i’ve called the governor out in ways when he’s back when he does something wrong unconstitutional and i’ve also told him he did a good job when he did something constitutional same with members of my party so when you there’s a saying the saying is say nothing do nothing be nothing but when you are in the spotlight and you’re doing stuff you’re gonna have people that are mad at you you really will that’s just a fact um the reason why most people don’t want to go give you a long answer is no you’re good the reason why most people if you ask them why they don’t want to be they’ll be like oh i don’t want that responsibility you know why they don’t want that responsibility because as the editor you’re going to have fingers pointed at you no matter what you do you’re going to have fingers pointed at you i’ve decided to be a leader not just for my district but for my state and i believe in conservative values that we have not changed on one bid and it is not popular to be conservative in the bismarck capital and when you do that you’re going to make enemies yeah so you know in the past democrats have come after you but now you have some of your own republicans coming after you and there’s talk of censoring you uh what does you know if they expel you what what does that mean well i find it interesting that they would do that it’s interesting really interesting because the same republicans so if you break it up we have 94 in the house okay there’s a 54 or something like that in uh senate i believe it is 54. i think it’s 54. um so in the house only one person voted for me that’s my running name in senate only one person voted for me there that’s the senate so who do i speak for at downward capital district 36. so now they’re saying because i’m calling some people out and and i’ll break you the the pie digraph is like this a quarter of the people down in bismarck so there’s only 15 democrats so a quarter of the people there are i would call rhinos republican and name only a quarter of the republicans are very conservative but maybe are lacking leadership and that’s why they’re not voting exactly conservative that’s not my definition these are third-party uh studies that that show this um the other half a quarter of them love me they’re very much on the same page and know what’s going on the other quarter are pretty much fundamentally with me but just maybe not as radical or outspoken as i so that’s the diagram of it and the democrats there’s 15 of them they’re so who would be my natural enemy democrats that have infiltrated my party so let’s face it to get elected to north dakota you put an r by your name you don’t have to vote correct you don’t have to vote to any standard you just put an r by your name and that’s what happened with the npl npl filtrated our party so that’s exactly the people that are upset with me so am i mad that john mccain’s not inviting me to a funeral or his family no i’m not mad i’m not surprised at all of course they are the people that are going to call me out that’s exactly what it is our governor our uh i i respect him as a person i respect him as a business mind but i do not believe he’s a true republican i don’t because of his policies that tells me the old saying is if you walk like a duck you waddle like a duck you’ll float like a duck you swim like a duck you fly like a duck you quack like a duck you’re a duck and it doesn’t take very long to understand those things there was a gentleman that studied the fbi and cia he’d studied counterfeit money and they asked it once they said i suppose you study a lot of counterfeit money he said no i just study the real thing and when i see a counterfeit i know it when you study the constitution you know perfectly well what those people are standing for and i don’t need to be told a republican that’s doesn’t really matter how did you vote on the issues so those people are calling me out long-winded political answer yeah um now let’s say the house has you know all these allegations coming out what if they say like we’ve had enough your behavior we want to expel you and then it goes through the senate like what would you do i would ask them what was my behavior that i did wrong i have never once in committee been question on the floor one time i made a joke that i apologized because someone took offense to it um he and i are friends to this day i have never once did anything wrong that they would have to censor me on now what they really wanted to censor me on is showing the voting record because they’re ashamed of their voting records that’s what’s happening um to jump in here sorry to interrupt your train of thought sir i’m sorry jackie these allegations have come out how long have you been releasing everyone’s voting records okay day one yeah day one and i go i just so you know the viewers are see this uh i post my how i vote every single day i work for my my constituents i want them to know i told him i was running on a conservative base that’s exactly what i’m doing the day that i’m not james you need to run against me jackie you need to run against me i’m serious i’m dead serious i’m more serious than a heart attack and you need to run against me if that’s the case that’s why i will put my voting record out so that i’m accountable to the people and that’s exactly what i’m doing with them yeah so before or earlier in your previous statements you said you act for yourself but yet you know you’re representing a district that you know voted over 70 percent to get you in office um moving forward how are you going to address perhaps your inappropriate behavior that’s maybe been taken out of context well i probably will sue um i will probably sue legal counsels what i will do um there is somebody there that obviously needs to be relieved of their duties um and i will sue probably i should have sued it uh the beginning but to be very honest i’ve never had any kind of accusations like this ever against me before in my life so i was kind of taken aback when this would happen um you know this this last one that happened here um took us all back um i went and um it says right here you know uh pollard and louser i took their advice i went and talked to them and said hey you know this this came up did i offend you in any way shape or form the answer was no not at all i don’t know what you’re talking about well that’s odd who’s talking about it both of those people by the way that’s a recorded conversation who’s talking about that somebody’s talking about it it came to somebody’s attention who said that well that’s interesting those people have a political agenda against me perhaps so so that’s what i’m saying here um and i will see what my attorney says about that i’m a barber you know um and i’m gonna talk straight up i’ll i’ll give you an example of how i talk jackie i’m a big burly guy i have cattle i’m i’m big and i’m a barber so i could notice your hair from across the room and know exactly probably what kind of product you’re using in your hair why because i work on hair all day long and i do consultations on hair which cost you about 60 bucks for half an hour but i can tell you exactly what to use in your hand nothing wrong with your hair by the way but the point is and i’m on facebook live here now that may have made you uncomf uh uncomfortable right now um but if you sat in my chair in my barber chair and i did a consultation you wouldn’t be talking about that conversation at all because you’re paying me for my time to give you my professional opinion about your hair that being said in my current attire you might think that’s odd but if i was wearing skinny jeans and i had thin care and i talked you know more of a soprano voice you wouldn’t have any problems with that at all because you would think oh what the heck correct naturally so that’s exactly what happened with this last allegation this young intern i don’t know how young 26 i have no idea um i don’t i wouldn’t say her name if i did know it but i’ve said four words to her probably no words before that conversation and the conversation was um you’re talking about hair and this person has metallic dye in their hair now you’re talking to somebody that’s been in the trade since 2000 so i’ve been in this trade for 22 years it’s dry season which means everybody’s skin is dry right now sure so when i see this my instant instant concept is is your split ends i was like what are you using you need to switch uh conditioners with a crowded room because mind you i don’t like talking to women in only one position uh you know one situation and the conversation was exactly that and they thanked me i said just take real good conditioner that is for heavy dying and let it sit in your hair for a good half the day and that’s sound advice it’ll make your split ends all but go away very quickly if you do maybe two times of that and i said you know if you were in my cup chair i would do a consultation and i would show you your hair follicle of what it looks like um elaxivity you know how where you’re at anyways that supposedly made somebody feel uncomfortable however once leadership came and said hey you know this this conversation happened 2 1 21 um right here um i went and took their advice and asked them are we good did i say anything inappropriate and both of them on tape said we didn’t take any offensive they didn’t know i was recording i record every conversation between that stuff like that they said uh not at all in fact the one person the other representative said um no i didn’t take anything of that at all i don’t so who’s making these accusations these accusations are coming from somewhere and they’re coming from somewhere within a political agenda and you know i i don’t expect a fair hearing from my democrat friends across the aisle they are going to want to use this however they want to i don’t expect any fair hearing from um my republican rivals who are republicans but they would know that by their voting record there’s literally democrats that vote more conservative than they do um so i know i wouldn’t take offense to that answer yeah now you’re good one more question i’ll turn it back over have you ever in your time in the office made any inappropriate gestures with you know regards to like massaging shoulders or anything like that that would be come across as sexual harassment i don’t rub my own sister-in-law’s shoulders i don’t touch women these little people right here are the only ladies in my life even my daughter-in-law i don’t touch her why because it’s not right to touch a woman no that is not true i didn’t massage anybody’s shoulders what i am saying is is these are a big fat lie big fat lie i never knew that politics could go down to this level ever in a million years so no it didn’t happen that’s an accusation and i will see that person in court i i don’t know what the statute of limitations are um i tried to call my attorney earlier today and we’ll take care of this but this is this is completely driven all of those in there are completely taken out of context and distorted absolutely the conversations um my wife told me earlier today who’s in the room who said um she said she said luke reading through this i can see exactly what you said your facial expressions she goes this is you talking on a normal basis i literally have i mean a huge clientele in my barber shop these are women that come into my barber shop i was just at a homeschool conference there was hundreds of people there these are people that i trust i know a lot of people in this state not just my own district that this this these just does not match my character this is a lie from somebody that has a political agenda against me that is standing up against what i believe in which is america but and that makes me a terrorist these days so you know our vice president our ex-vice president he had a stand and his stance was he will not talk to a woman behind closed doors without somebody else there he got a lot of flack for that but i’m telling you if anybody is watching this or going to hear this mind yourself because if they’re your good friends that’s okay and i have a lot of good friends i just had a really good friend and lobbyist a former legislator call me as i was walking in what the heck is going on like you of all people to have accusations like this made against you it’s a lie this is a lie thank you thank you all right i got a couple questions for you can we like take a real quick second i just want to change this battery a little bit sure and we’ll just close with these kind of force yeah i got four questions i have way more but i have one [Music] from my district okay and as a correction as well when i said i represent myself what i mean by that is i’m not speaking for the republican party i represent the people of district 36 because they voted for me sure and to the few democrats that have a problem with me i’ll remind them that i accidentally won by i think 3 000 or 4 000 votes if republicans don’t like me they can throw me out of office in this district otherwise i’m going to stick to my guns and i will not change one aorta not one bit will i change so it’s um good we’re good okay um oh i’m sorry your name my name is right um good meet you as well um when you talk about wearing masks and things like that he talks about that whole comment and all that jazz um you talked about as a christian you know you don’t say those kinds of things well doesn’t um saint paul as a christian myself you know doesn’t say paul mentioned becoming like a jew to win the jews you know why could you put on a match to win your apology baby to win this woman over what can you do to keep the peace sure sure oh that’s not a bad question um it’s a good question there comes a time when jesus made a whip and he walked into the tabernacle and that was premeditated by the washer and the bible says that he overturned the money tables and went after them sure now you know a lot of people think jesus was like mr rogers with a beard sure but that wasn’t the case right it was the lion of judah so when somebody tells me to put a mask on if it’s private property i have two options one i can leave or i can put a mask on which i’ve done both but if that person asks me to put a mask on on public private uh public property what next well i mean you represent i mean technically you mean you represent the public and i mean it seems to me as though like as though it’s like an insistence of kind of your own way in a way and it seems as though you’re not like yeah i mean it just seems like you’re not doing it to keep the peace it seems like you’re more interested in standing out than actually winning people and forgive me if i’m wrong for that but that’s just kind of the impression i get you know a lot of people say that and it comes off yeah um but also it would be said that a lot of the founding fathers came off that way when they told king george they could come over and kiss his royal behind right and so there comes a time that a man like martin luther king they said the same thing about martin luther king the martin luther king said no i will not get off this bus oh you’re just standing up for yourself there was a lot of black people that weren’t supportive of martin luther king because he wouldn’t do the social norm um gandhi same thing there comes a time when a person is morally obligated to stand up this is more than masks this is a lot more than masks why is the why but it seems as though they were standing up for like basic constitutional rights like it seems to me that a mask is like no equivalent to in any way to getting being on a public boss or anything like that it seems to me to be something very simple so why why such a big issue well caleb there might be just a fundamental difference if you go to walmart in dickinson how many people wear masks not many so i represent my district pretty well um what i’m saying is is my district is loud and clear that we aren’t you can ask as many as you like as long as it’s okay with them um what i’m saying is that i feel like i’m representing about 95 of my district because we’re not buying this plan okay um in an article by the grand forks herald you’re cool here to say i get threatened so much it’s not even funny i can get pretty testy at times because i’m just so tired of people harassing me and threatening my family on social media when that man called me a liar which just it just was not sitting well with me at all is that a reason do you think that’s a reason for lashing out at someone in that way who opposed to in themselves pose no threat to your family what did i say you said and i quote that i get threatened so much it’s not even when you talk to that man why don’t you come to my office and we’ll meet face-to-face yeah yeah do you think that’s a reason for lashing out someone who didn’t consult post no threat to your family there was no friend or comment or anything so you think that was threatening what i said i say come to my office i think that’s quite threatening but you said that you get you’ve snapped you you said what you said to that man because you said quote i get threatened so much it’s not even funny and such and such and he said when that man called me a liar it just was not sitting well with me at all sure and i’m asking you is that a reason to say to that man come meet me at my office and then turn around and say well i was just saying why don’t we just resolve our differences yeah that’s exactly what was saying um caleb i’m from the west sure if you and i are having a problem we’re going to meet in person that doesn’t mean we have to be violent and i will say as well this is probably another reason why maybe some of the press or the republicans get mad at me i don’t back down i’ve been a fighter ever since day one sure if you want to talk big behind your little screen that’s fine but when you get called out and you’re told to let’s just talk man to man face to face we can have a real conversation face to face saying that saying out west big mouth that talk big usually get taught a physical lesson i don’t think that that’s do you think that that’s coming and talking about differences or do you think that’s a little bit more violent i would say that’s a little more violent you think if it’s violent or not it probably wouldn’t you know back when duels were done and i’m not saying duels are good right there was a lot less big talk sure but were you referring to something in a physical altercation i don’t believe in violence but you know what i’ve seen this is that that person never came to my office yeah so no no because they were afraid to say what they had to say to my face i’ve noticed that people don’t say things as mean as they do on facebook do you [ __ ] notice speaking of like calling people out and things like that i mean and caleb i appreciate your hard questions yeah at least keep on no problem um speaking of calling people out like when you call people out like do you feel like that unnecessarily puts a target on your pack maybe so you know when when you’re when president trump called people out do you think he did that on purpose yes yes very much why did he do that just throw him up get him riled up absolutely same exact thing but why because that’s american politics since day one but should that be american political absolute question why absolutely why this go on to get along has done nothing for us as a country and i’ll give you an instance i’m a barber and as a barber it used to be that if a baptist walked in a southern baptist walked in and a lutheran walked in everybody sat back and was ready for one heck of a showdown you know what because there was going to be an awesome conversation happening and so when a republican and a democrat would walk in everyone knew there was going to be a showdown and that’s called real conversation it’s called just let me finish my concept so what we have done is told people don’t talk about religion don’t talk about politics don’t talk about any hard-hitting issues and what we’ve done is showed or made a bunch of people that don’t know how to have real conversations sure and so when i call things out for example president trump i’ll bring him up again president trump um called elizabeth warren what oh goddess pocahontas you knew that why because it was in the music most people didn’t know that she lied and said she was native american sure so he called it out in a non polite way and continued to call her pocahontas because she was a liar and she used that to have an advantage over them the way i’m talking to you right now is exactly why they’re making accusations like this sure by the way um because of that they can’t these people that are doing stuff like this can’t come after me because i’m right and they know it so if you’re right and they can’t come after you because of that or policy they come after you if they can’t discredit your facts they come after policy if they can’t ask all the questions you want and if they don’t come after your policy they come after um your character sure and so when i make these kind of conversations happen i’m serious about it number one okay okay i see your point however let’s say you’re you’re a family man good kid it’s your house okay let’s say they spoke to you the way that you called and said they called you out the way that you call out other people would you consider that acceptable what do you mean well the the tone the way that you speak the the the look i’m going to show you and that kind of thing do you think that that would be appropriate even in your own home and if it wouldn’t be why do you do it on the public stage when you’re not only representing them but you’re representing all of us i guess um not exactly sure what you’re referring to when you kind of like okay i have a better question i say like do you find you’re like it’s almost like you feel like you’re like this litmus test for conservatism where if they don’t align with you then they are like a rhino or like a purist yeah do you feel and do you feel it is your place to do so do you feel that it is honestly your place to do so absolutely why because the people of district 6 36 put me in the office after i said that’s exactly what i would do okay and um you know i’m not making this stuff up sure so where would the guidelines be for being a republican no but oh yes very much so what for republican bylaws the party bylaws they’re there in black and white so if it says in black and white that i am a republican and this is what i stand for and you’re voting differently then all of a sudden you’re walking like a duck i know you’re a duck it’s pretty simple so there is something to be said there also i didn’t swear to district 36 i didn’t swear to the republican party i swore to pull what constitution in the united states i did so now it’s not loose for interpretation correct sure okay so if it’s not loose for interpretation i’m going to have to stand up on hard principles the standing of bahar principles requires such brazenness well um i would say that patrick henry was a little bit brazen i would say that in 1806 when there was a cane on the u.s capitol grounds when they went after each other and clubbed each other almost to death that was probably a little brazen i would say that um you know historically it’s been brazen all the way through and thomas jefferson and john adams bought each other from the very beginning um i would say that you know us declaring independence against great britain and having a war in 1776 era was a little brazen i would say that we’ve gotten soft but are we but are we really in that kind of a situation absolutely explain most republicans believe that we are within any time there could be a civil war we have a president that is coming against our second amendment he is 100 with h.r 127 and his uh presidential executive orders coming against our guns our god-given right to protect ourselves against foreign and domestic terrorists domestic being government that’s what it meant so yes these are high times my question is is most republicans that are informed feel the same way as i do these are serious times i mean i’m sure they might but they don’t communicate probably i guess i would say the way that you do i think i think it it’s like that old saying it’s not what you say it’s the way you say it awesome and i think like don’t you think that could be the reason why you actually end up offending so many people is because of the way that you carry yourself possibly so and you know i will say that um you know rush limbaugh who just recently sure died um you know people certainly said that you know fighting the liberals with half my brain tied behind my back i suppose that was offensive to them too um you know several things that he did so my my thing is is i’m taking it on in the only way i know how to and teddy roosevelt necessarily wasn’t um the most poetic person but he did it in a western way that people still talk about his western ways was he right no he was wrong a lot of times sure so could i be more poetic yes i could i certainly probably could be more poetic but this is who god made me to be and this is how i am and so right now i represent district 36 the rural people of district 36 and i’m not a very good politician why because i’ll probably tell you exactly where the bear took it down to the park when you go to bismarck when you talk about your western like when you go to bismarck you know i mean you’re not necessarily in the west it would be like it would be like me going to japan and and knock up they’re not abiding by their social norms it’s almost like you go as a westerner and instead of blending in with you instead of at least trying to mesh with the easterners it’s like you’re just insisting on the westerness that kind of western way despite absolutely so it comes across as as obstinate as almost like you want your way or no way and what would you say to people who think that way you know that’s that’s part of the reason i that some people think that trump didn’t get reelected it’s because of that sure so how do you don’t you think that will also damage your your future for re-election possibly we’ll cross that bridge when we get there okay but this is exactly who i said i was when i ran okay this is exactly the direction i’m going to continue to go i believe fargo and bismarck with their you know fargo still has a mass mandate does any of the places you represent with the news do they have mass mandates that i’m aware of so my thing is civil liberties um you know if i imagine you did read the constitution but the constitution strictly says that you can’t tell people how that they have to put a mask on you have the right to travel unmolested it says now if we take the constitution literally and i score to uphold the constitution at that point i’m probably going to fight on the error of people’s personal rights sure and so because of that don’t tell me in a capitol building that i paid the heat bill and the lights that i have to wear a mask the truth is is we know there is no zip zero kill um information anywhere that says kick masks are good at keeping a chronovirus away from you sure so if that’s the case and if one of these people that was at the capitol that said that they had a issue you know compromised which by the way i am very compromised um then they shouldn’t be in a room that is very crowded with 70 people with multiple people not wearing masks yeah they should be gone but i don’t want to okay but at the same time like what about you talk about individual rights but but some might say okay individual rights are great that’s great and but there’s also this thing called the necessary proper clause in the constitution isn’t there in the constitution it all fits in my breast pocket the constitution but what about okay what about you talk about individual rights but what about personal responsibility sure what about social responsibility absolutely personal responsibility so um like yelling fire in a movie sure example that’s one everybody uses right sure so um that’s wrong you shouldn’t yell fire around um crowded uh movie theater i agree so how does that tie in with masks like for instance like people i mean even remotely even the least possible way of keeping people safe from social businessing and things like that but just i mean even yeah abiding by those things at least at least even if people if people would like to do that if people would like to do if it’s just asked of you to do so at least doing so just out of respect for them and for their space you know because it’s not just yours on their private property i would say you’re a hundred percent legitimately correct but about public that’s that’s our account public they shouldn’t go there if they don’t want to have to handle that situation we’re fundamentally talking about something here that is uh is the problem and i forgot who said it but they said what we have here is a failure to communicate and the failure to communicate is this you are running around with a mascot for a disease that if you catch it you have a 98 or excuse me a 99.8 of survival sure that’s a fact so if you’re scared of that you’ve got bigger problems that’s better and so i should not have to wear a mask for mind you this is facts average age of a man 79 years old are 78 years old excuse me average age of a code victim is how old oh no like you’re the press you should be talking about this 85 85 years old well where’s the press why aren’t you talking about that well i’m not trying to put you on the spot what i’m saying is you’re the press fair and balanced sure so why aren’t we upsetting the governor because that’s a fact average age of the um the people in that are dying of coping for in some cases supposedly of course i could have coveted right now go down and chop down a tree and falls on me they’re going to say i died kobe yeah that’s true so the problem is is um if they do that uh they talk about it um oh they say this a lot of the 400 some cases how many of those people die in the nursing home a lot yeah they wear masks there don’t they they don’t let people in from the outside how is kobe getting them again exactly my point is is i am fundamentally against what we’re being told to believe true and because of that i am aggressive and i am talking about things that are very strong and you can see exactly how i am this is how i am this is who they elected and the district 36 that’s who they voted in if they don’t like it they can they can throw me out of office next time around but the republicans can’t say this guy is a little bit too much john wayne for me because uh that’s exactly what i remember and that’s exactly what i ran under so i think that pretty much pies her up in what i’m trying to say well we appreciate it you know thank you first we appreciate you taking uh you know all of our questions thank you our hard-hitting ones our softball ones and and our pieces that we’re gonna do here we definitely appreciate you taking the time answering some of these questions is there anything last thing that you want to add um any questions or anything we didn’t touch on any topics uh that you think are important related to these accusations or or a potential lawsuit um well i think there probably will be a potential lawsuit but this is obviously an attack against conservative ideals in north dakota um there’s no doubt about that my other thing would be my last request would be run for office if you’re a conservative i need all the help i can get down there and obviously you can see our hands are tied and just expect that things like this will happen and you will get better because it will if you’re if you’re going to stand up against something look what they did to president trump they did the exact same thing and i’m not president trump but they came after him because he single-handedly was coming after swamp thank you thank you for your time