Podcast Transcript
Tom Schultz
we’re talking about the, as you guys know, Ryan Zinke and Aaron Flynt in studio today. We’re talking about the future of this Western Montana district, but really it’s the future of Congress and the future of our country because it’s such a tight margin in Washington, D.C. right now. And so when you’re thinking about what kind of policies are working for you and your family, those things are on the plate as we talk here today. And it’s, I mean, there’s energy, right? There’s the economy, public lands. We’re hearing all kinds of things and it’s hard to know what’s truth about this. Well, that’s one of the things we try to do here as well. We’re going to have just a few minutes. We’ve got 24 minutes. The clock is already running. Aaron Flint and Commander Ryan Zinke today. Let’s get right to it here in studio. Commander Western Montana’s representative Ryan Zinke. How are you, sir?
Ryan Zinke
You know, great. We got the Army Navy team here today.
Tom Schultz
I love that. You’re representing the Navy, obviously.
Ryan Zinke
Well, I am in District One, but we talked about before we were on the air about it is, what’s at risk? Really, it’s our Montana is at risk. I sit in the seat, even battleships have to occasionally go into port for repairs. But one thing I know about being in leadership is you never leave your post unless properly relieved. That means you look at the younger leadership and people ask me, well, why Aaron? Well, I’ll tell you about Aaron. One, he’s a lieutenant colonel. He’s 2 Bronze Stars. He fought in Romana. I fought in the same ground. He understands what’s going on in the Middle East personally. And secondly, as a radio host, just like you, are current on every issue across Montana daily, from Kim trails to cattle prices, right? And you listen to everyone. And a former military officer, you’re red, white, and blue. And being red, white, and blue, I can tell you, it means that you listen to everyone. And who do you work for? You work for Montana. Because in my judgment, in the last year in Congress, we saw a threat on public lands. So it’s important to have someone who’s from Montana that homesteaded in Whitefish, born in Glasgow. His dad was a bartender at the beer stew. But he understands how important public lands us are. Now, we need to manage him better, but he understands the issue. He also says, understands egg. And so it’s great to have someone who’s one of us. that will defend us in Washington.
Tom Schultz
Aaron Flint, welcome back to your studio here for years and years.
Aaron Flint
This is incredible. Tom Schultz, it’s so good to see you. It’s so fun being here in the studio. And you know, Tom and I, for those who don’t know, I’ve known Tom since I was a college kid at the University of Montana. My wife, Jessica, worked in the Missoula office for Congressman Denny Reberg with Tom. She says to say hi, by the way.
Tom Schultz
I love her.
Aaron Flint
She should be the one running for Congress. We all love her more.
Tom Schultz
Yeah, that’s right.
Aaron Flint
But she covered, she covered Sanders County Mineral. We were married in Sanders County. She covered all those northwestern counties. And so as I travel all across western Montana, I still run into some great county commissioners and everybody who’s like, wow, tell Jessica we say hi, because they remember her work on the ground in western Montana as well.
Tom Schultz
Thank you for running here as well. You know, and we only got X amount of time because I know how busy the schedule is and you guys got to fly out here. So I’m going to just like turn the thing over for you guys to tell us about the things that are important, the things that matter, the policy decisions that need to be made and the ones that should be shoveled. But I wanted to thank you both for your service, public service as well as your military service. And I know that it’s a sacrifice. And I think nowadays that sacrifice takes even a higher toll on people, emotionally and physically and things like that. So it’s not a decision that you make cavalierly, by any means. So thank you both for that.
Aaron Flint
Mr. Secretary, could I say one thing right out the gates, if you don’t mind?
Tom Schultz
You want to brag on him a little bit?
Aaron Flint
Well, I do, but I also, I want to put out, I want to put, I want to dispel some of the fake news that’s out there right now. There are people out there saying that they don’t have a vote this June. Folks, get out and vote for this June primary election. I am so glad that we have a Republican primary in this U.S. House race because I am more than excited to get out there and prove who the real Montana AF America First freedom fighter is. So we’ve got several candidates in the race. I’m glad we do. I am the only candidate in this race endorsed by President Donald J. Trump and other folks like my friend, Senator Tim Sheehy, Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and so many other incredible endorsements.
Ryan Zinke
And on issues that are important, the SAVE Act. And I’ve heard this criticism, somehow it’s anti-woman. So this is what you have to do. When you register to vote, you have to show you’re a US citizen. All right, to suggest that a female can’t show she’s a U.S. citizen, I think that’s insulting. My wife was insulted. You have a social security number, all the name changed because I’ve been divorced. Do you have divorce papers? So you should show, all of this should show you’re a U.S. citizen. Secondly, you should have an ID to vote. You have to have an ID to go into Costco. Okay? And just because you have a real ID doesn’t mean you’re a U.S. citizen. That’s in fact not what it means at all. It just says you are who you are and you live in the address. So having an ID and being registered as a U.S. citizen, and lastly, only one vote per person. If you’re in Minnesota, you can vouch for eight same day. You show up, you can bring eight other people and you can vouch for them. That’s exactly why we have fraud, waste, and abuse in the system. Look, your vote is as important as mine. And when you go down to vote, I want to make sure that my vote counts just like you. If it doesn’t count, then why do you vote? So, this is an American experience. We all got to do our part, but SAVE Act, I think, is probably the number one priority piece of legislation in this Congress.
Tom Schultz
You guys got it out of the House. It’s in the Senate. Do you think that they should make that move, the filibuster buster?
Ryan Zinke
Yeah, that’s a tough question. At this point, look, America wants it. So it’s being held up by a few, right? And I think there are procedures, they’ll go through it long, but I think they’ll, I think the Senate will go through. I don’t pretend to judge the Senate. They’re a different body. I like the House. The House you fight every day. It’s like, I always get a kid, you know, the House is a two-year sentence. The Senate is 6 to life.
Aaron Flint
Well, and the House has been getting the job done. The House has been getting the job done. It’s getting bogged down in the Senate. The day after the Turning Point USA event at Montana State University, which was shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I was talking with a young man named Finley. Warden. And we had this conversation and it said, look, if if the Republicans don’t deliver right now, this year, these younger voters, they showed up in a major way for for President Trump and the Republicans in 2024, a big part of Senator Tim Sheehy’s massive victory over Jon Tester. If the Republicans don’t deliver for those young younger generations right now, those younger generations may may never vote for the Republican Party ever again. So they’ve got to deliver. And so whether it’s going back, so I’ve been saying for a long time, they need to go back to how the filibuster is traditionally supposed to be done, because we can’t just have a handful of weak-kneed Republicans and leftist Democrats, they currently shut down the Department of Homeland Security, stopping progress from happening because our country is at a turning point right now. I truly believe that’s why this election is so important, Tom. This election is so important, especially in the Western Congressional District, because the Democrats are foaming at the mouth. They think they can pick up a win and look what they will do. I mean, look what they will do. Flood the borders with illegal alien games, drive up the cost of everything again. But we’re at a turning point. I think we’re at a turning point where we’re going to decide Whether our country remains a free republic for another 250 years or not. And so that’s why we have to deliver for these young generations, because these young generations are going to be the ones who preserve this free republic.
Tom Schultz
This is what, go ahead, go ahead, Commander.
Ryan Zinke
Well, I was going to say, you know, on delivery. Aaron makes a great point. So what does delivery look like? One is the economy. Things are struggling. Now we see an elevated gas price, but I can tell you…
Tom Schultz
Spending’s still out of control.
Ryan Zinke
Spending’s still out of control, and that’s why interest rates are so high. And if you want to get in details, I think the 10-year bond is probably the litmus test of where we are. But when we have $38 trillion of debt, And you got to look at why. So I think spending, but also tone, and it matters what’s on the ground. A lot of it is just get the government out of the way so you can have a business. Making sure we have fair trade involved. And there’s a lot of issues out there, but I think three things have to happen. I think the economy has to feel better. GDP was up, inflation was down prior to energy. Everyone wasn’t get hit with the largest tax bill. So it takes a little while, but the economy is moving forward. I think interest rates got to go down. So things are more affordable on your credit card or your mortgage. Yeah, it’d be nice. If this 30-year mortgage around 5 and a half, I think that’d be great. I think gas to pump, it was at 225, I think that’s a good price point. on there, but in the war, and we can talk about the war. Look, for 47 years, we watched Iran say death to America. And as a former Navy SEAL commander at six, I can tell you there’s a lot of my friends that aren’t here today because of Iran. They provided weapons, intelligence, targeting, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They’re also the sponsor of Hezbollah, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. and the number one sponsor of worldwide terror. By the way, the greatest population of Hezbollah and Hamas outside the Middle East is in Venezuela. But the president made the decision, it was the right decision to take down the regime, because the deal was this, you are not going to have a nuclear weapon. And when they say death to America, they mean it. So don’t think for an instant, if they had a nuclear weapon, it wouldn’t be on some shipping container coming into Houston or DC or LA.
Aaron Flint
Ryan mentioned a 30-year mortgage. I don’t know if a lot of your listeners know this, but 30% of the cost of a home is because of regulations alone. It’s because of big government regulations alone. I think they’re saying that… It’s $100,000 before you even dig the hole in the ground to build a house. So if we want to deliver affordable housing, we’ve got to deal with regulations. We’ve got to make our timber industry great again and get domestic supply up and running again here. We’ve got to mine and manufacture in America again. And really, that’s why my message is we’re going to make the Montana Dream affordable again. And go to flintformontana.com if you want to help make that happen. But we’re going to make the Montana Dream affordable again. Tom, I know you’ve spent a lot of time in Missoula. All three of my kids were born in Missoula. I was the student body president. We took you. At the University of Montana. At the University of Montana.
Ryan Zinke
But the most important thing, his dad was a bartender at the beer center. There we go. There we go.
Tom Schultz
All right. I’d like to meet that guy.
Ryan Zinke
He’s been a great bartender. His mom worked in Glasgow.
Aaron Flint
Having lunch in Superior, what a week or so ago, and… we’re driving to Missoula and okay, I need coffee, right? Coffee first before anything else. Well, I get a text from Josh Smith at the Montana Knife Company. You’re probably familiar with the Montana Knife Company. And anyway, and I was like, hey, man, we’re actually passing, we’re actually passing MKC right now. He’s got a brand new coffee shop in there. It’s incredible. So, we’re like, so we go in, get a good cup of coffee. Well, he just walks me out on the manufacturing floor there. I think he’s got 120 employees now at his brand new facility there. Tom, this was so cool. He was telling me about a kid he hired a high school kid in Missoula who just graduated a few years ago. He hired this kid as a high schooler. That kid never got a college degree. The kid’s making six figures right now. So if we want to make the Montana Dream affordable again, we’re going to support trades education and we’re going to support our manufacturers like Josh and so many others out there, because that’s what we want. I got a college degree. It worked for me, but there are so many kids that are acquiring debt and we want our kids to be making high wage jobs and be able to stay here in Montana.
Tom Schultz
I appreciate that because you identify a problem, then you have to identify a path towards solutions and identifying the regulations is one of those. Actually, it’s low-hanging fruit if we are all honest about it and get after it. I’ve got a couple of phone calls and I only got like now 10 minutes. The clock’s still ticking. It is Commander Ryan Z.
Ryan Zinke
Yeah, but yeah, we’ll come back.
Tom Schultz
Oh, that’s really good. I appreciate that. Western District candidate is Aaron Flint. Aaron, I appreciate it is Flint for Montana. That’s a great URL, by the way.
Aaron Flint
We’ll get you a Montana AF t-shirt here one of these days. Montana America First t-shirt.
Tom Schultz
I might even wear it in public. There you go. Let’s go to the phones here real quick because I know people like to talk and you guys and you’ve done really good radio for years here. And I want to thank you for that and being a part of this.
Aaron Flint
You too, Tom.
Tom Schultz
Holy cow. Okay, so Nancy, you’re listening in Roundup. Let’s go, Nancy. Thank you so much. You’re on the air here. Good to have you.
Ryan Zinke
Good morning, Nancy.
Speaker 4
Hi. Thank you, Tom, and good morning. Good morning, guys. You’re a blessing. I’m telling you, I love both of you. But I got to tell you, I got a couple of real quick questions. OK. We’ve got our war department asking for $260 billion more to fight the war in Iran. Do you think that this is going to have an impact on the midterm elections for the Republicans? You mentioned the SAVE Act. My second question, 23 illegal aliens were recently found registered to vote in our state. And it looks like there was 159 votes that they cast between the 23 of them. What kind of severe, I mean severe, punishment should these illegals receive? And thank you so much, Aaron. I got a yard sign. I’m putting it up on my barn for you.
Aaron Flint
We love you, Nancy. It’s so great to hear your voice again.
Ryan Zinke
And real quickly, there is a supplement by, I haven’t read it through, but it’s probably going to be in the $200 billion range for missiles and restock, you know, when you deplete it. You got to restock it. To me, you got to find an offset. Let’s find out where we’re going to get the money. And the first rung is fraud, waste, and abuse. All right, before, we need to do this anyway, but that’s fine, fraud, waste, and abuse. I’ve seen estimates as much as $1 trillion of fraud, waste, and abuse. As an example, Minnesota, when you have daycare centers with no kids, you have services delivering and seniors with no seniors, you have fake hospitals and fake diagnostics, they’re all living off the federal dollars, you know what? We got to go after that. Get rid of the fraud, waste, and abuse first.
Tom Schultz
And that should be something that everybody is getting on board about.
Ryan Zinke
I’m pro-defense, but defense is also sitting on 800,000 DOD employees. So how much is that? Well, when you add up pension, you add up healthcare, and salary, it’s about $200 billion. These are civilian employees. Many of them are absolutely essential. Absolutely. But we got to also reorganize and look at the battle that we’re fighting today and tomorrow rather than fighting World War II. So streamline it and look at the savings part, but we need a supplemental. When we put our troops in harm’s way, you got to make sure they have the right equipment, right training to win decisively on the field of battle. Absolutely. It costs money, but that’s fine and offset.
Tom Schultz
I love listening to this guy, Aaron. I really do. You know, you couldn’t have a better mentor, I think.
Aaron Flint
Well, I’ll tell you what, I got to say.
Ryan Zinke
Team.
Tom Schultz
Army, Navy team. All right, got you. Navy, Army team.
Aaron Flint
I do have to say, though, a big thanks to Ryan Zinke and his wife, Lola, and their family. I mean, over 35 years of service to this country as a Navy SEAL, state legislator, congressman, member of Trump’s cabinet, congressman, again. And so we just got to thank them for that incredible sacrifice and service over all those years. Let me say to the families out there, my friend Johnny, our friend Johnny downstairs, I said this downstairs, I don’t want Johnny’s kids to have to go on the same Middle East deployments that I had to go on. And for longer than I’ve been alive, we’ve had a troop presence over there. And I don’t think people realize how big that troop presence truly is. So bottom line up front is, President Trump didn’t start a war with Iran. President Trump is fighting to end a war with Iran. Frankly, that’s been going on longer than I’ve been alive even. And so that’s point #1. Point #2 is this. None of us want to see, and I would never support a boots on the ground, Iraq style, nation-building exercise. We don’t want to have any of that. So I hope this gets wrapped up. And when I’m sworn in to be your member of Congress, we focus on making the Montana dream affordable again. That’s what I’m focused on.
Tom Schultz
Aaron Flint, once again, it’s Flint for Montana.com. And Ryan Zinke, Zinke.house.gov. We got 5 minutes and we’ll take a real quick phone call here from a voter in your district. It’s Skip listening in Hamilton on KLYQ. Good morning, Skip. You’re on the air with the Commander and Lieutenant Colonel.
Speaker 5
Good morning, Skip. Good morning, sir, and good morning, Aaron.
Aaron Flint
Good morning.
Speaker 5
I just saw you last week, and it was a pleasure to meet you finally, ’cause I talked to you many times on your previous show. And so I wanted to know, all these different Lincoln Legates that you’re going to be going to, I wanted to know, and I’m sure a lot of voters want to know, Can you, what do you think is going to be the separator that people are going to hear from you when you speak for a few minutes? Each one of you have a chance to speak yourself, Al Oschewski, and Christie.
Tom Schultz
Yep.
Speaker 5
What do you think will be the separator that’ll make them go, yep, that’s the guy, because they’re going to hear you through a few minutes, and it’ll be the first time they saw you?
Aaron Flint
Well, what do you think, Skip? Because, you know, you’ve gotten to listen to me on the radio. We got to see you in Stevensville last week. What would you think would be the separator?
Speaker 5
In Ravalli County at the Lincoln Reagan dinner two weeks from tomorrow.
Aaron Flint
We’ll be there.
Speaker 5
They’re gonna wanna do your, especially about natural resources and mining and things like that. And I mean, I’m sure you’ll have many different PowerPoints. And I was wondering if you knew of one in particular.
Aaron Flint
Well, yeah, no, I’d love to. Well, here’s what I hope will happen. I’m planning on being there. I hope the other candidates are there. They haven’t been showing up to a lot of these events, but I hope they’re all there. I’ve actually called for a debate at every single Lincoln-Reagan-Trump dinner in the Western Congressional District. Why haven’t these other candidates committed to a debate in every single county in the Western Congressional District? I don’t want to just see one separator. I want to point out a whole slate of separators in this race. That’s why I’ve been calling for debates. And that’s why I’m so happy, again, that there is a primary. There’s people out there pretending to be victims. Conservatives are not victims. We are fighters, not victims. So step into the debate arena, not just once, but in every county in this state, because I’m more than excited to get out there and prove who the real Montana America First freedom fighter is. But let’s have a debate. Instead of me giving some speech and the other candidates giving some speech at that Lincoln Reagan, let’s have a debate right then and there. Will these other candidates commit to having that debate? Because I’ll tell you what, I’m ready for it.
Tom Schultz
Aaron Flint, once again, and Ryan Zinke is in studio. We only got like 2 minutes here. And how do you wrap up what you’ve just begun, so to speak, in two minutes? But why don’t you tell us, Aaron, your call to this? Because what brought you to this point in your life and what are you going to do after this?
Aaron Flint
You know, thanks so much, Tom, for that question. It’s… I think back to 9-11 and the 9-11 terror attacks. I never thought I would join the military. I remember being in my grandpa’s house right there in Summers, Montana, and seeing his Navy World War II pictures. And I had so much admiration. My great-grandpa went to World War I out of Whitefish. My grandpa went to World War II out of Whitefish. My dad was a wild man bartender who performed at the Bigfork Summer Theater. There’s a Flint Avenue in Whitefish where they lived. shortest St. in all of Whitefish, I think. But I never thought I would serve in the military. But when those 9-11 terror attacks happen, it’s like, look, whether you think you’re good enough to serve or not, it’s time for all of us to step up and do something. And I feel like our country is at a turning point right now. And this Western congressional district race is so critical to the future of Montana, because, I mean, look at what just happened in Kalispell. A far left socialist from Portland just won the mayor’s race in Kalispell because conservatives were divided, because some conservatives were waffling. Kalispell just fell to a socialist Democrat. We cannot allow Western Montana to fall to the socialist Democrats. This race is so important for our country and for Montana, but a bigger picture, our country is at a turning point right now. That’s why I was willing to step away from a microphone that I love and I know you love.
Tom Schultz
You do, I know you do, yeah.
Aaron Flint
To do this because it’s that important.
Tom Schultz
Well, good luck and I appreciate that. Getting on the campaign trail. I know you can the campaign trail is awfully pretty busy, right? So you guys are off here in just a few minutes.
Ryan Zinke
You know, we should all just take a, you know, a moment to realize how lucky we are to be in Montana. That’s right. You know, I deal with Washington and D.C., you know, obviously on a regular basis, but we’re really lucky to be in Montana. And I can say America is strong. And so never ever bet against America. So we may have our differences, back and forth, but we’re all under one flag. And my message today is America’s great. We’re going to be greater. And we are really blessed to live in Montana.
Tom Schultz
We don’t move forward unless we have hope like that. So thank you so much for it, Ryan.
Aaron Flint
That’s why we’ve got to fight to defend it in our Montana Way life.
Tom Schultz
I get it. Well, look, I look forward to chatting with you guys down the road too. You know, you’re not done yet, Commander.
Ryan Zinke
No, I’m still in my post, guys. I’m still in the front line every day. I defend Montana every day. We have a great staff. We’re going to continue our mission and serving. But I look forward to is that the next rung of leadership. I think she has been great. proven that you need someone that was young, talented, and willing to fight. That’s what America is about.
Tom Schultz
Thank you guys so much. I know you got to run, so I’m getting you out of here.
Aaron Flint
I randomly call in every now and then, too, just to see what’s going on, just to check in with you.
Tom Schultz
Dude, but we’re going to recognize you, so you’re going to have to give your last name. Okay, you can’t go anonymous anymore. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, I can’t use a fake voice or anything. No, I think we call you out on that. Thank you. Good luck here. Good to see you guys. Commander, thank you so much. Thanks for joining us for the podcast and join us weekdays live from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. for more Voices of Montana on great radio stations all across our Treasure State.
