Oh, just one minute to go. Some people suggested that you might pull out in the comments, but looks like you're here. Um, I I never pull out of interviews. I don't I don't I can't recall a single time where anybody would even have the ability to compare that to, but yeah, I'm here. Okay, George, I've got to ask you, do you think of yourself as an aberition in politics? Are you mainstream or uh symptom of the times? I am George Santos. I I don't I don't I I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. I think symptom of the times that would be kind of rich because uh I mean we have members of Congress going on on social media and saying flaunting as one of the richest members of Congress or like I mean no I don't know. I I I consider myself more of an outlier in politics or when I was in politics. I kind of like to say that I've removed myself from politics at this point. So, you're a one-time limited edition. Pretty much. Yeah. I Oh, that's a great way to put it. I love that. Do you think there'll be more George Santoses? I mean, I'm not the first person to go to Congress and get caught up, I mean, in scandal, right? Um, but I am very upset that I didn't get a FEMA sponsored Tiffany and Co. Yellow Diamond ring out of it, but I'm just going to leave it at that. Uh, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I don't I don't even know what that means. Will there be more George? What will the Will there be another gay open Republican? Hopefully. I think, you know, hopefully the party keeps growing and and, you know, we show that it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, your background, your ethnicity, your gender, your, you know, so long as your ideology is conservative. That's that's my opinion. And so I I more mean like do you think that other people in Congress are doing what you were doing in terms of taking donor funds and and do you think that they just didn't that you didn't understand the game and they do? I I think it's interesting. So when you say taking donor funds, can you can you expand because I do want to answer this question appropriately. I No. What do you What do you plead guilty to? Tell me what you believe. I plead guilty to what the DOJ forced me to plead guilty to because that's how the DOJ operates, right? They they write your allecution for you and your plea for you and you can't even edit it. So if if we're going there, but you know, my crime and I'm very very uh comfortable in admitting that it was a poor choice was straw donation. That's where the whole thing starts. People I am sick and tired of hearing online people say, "Oh, he stole from a dying veteran's dog." That's not true. That's not I was never charged for that. That is false. That is a figment of the imagination of a man who ex you know ignored his dog for so long and by the time he sought help it was the dog was passed. Speaking of dogs, doggy. My dog. He's saving you right now. You're so fine. No, you're fine. So, um, so like I I there's this wild con concept out there that people like to say like, "Oh, stole donor money." There was issues in my campaign with expenditures, but people failed to realize that I was the largest contributor to my campaign. I contributed $700,000. So, it it's it's it's quite annoying, but it is what it is, you know. I Who do you owe $374,000 to? Um, according to the DOJ, uh, I don't owe anybody, by the way. Um, by law, I owe nobody nothing. Um, so let's correct the record there. According to the DOJ, they wanted me to pay back money that was invested in my campaign by the NRCC. That was a big swat of that chunk of money that was put out there uh, in the restitution. Uh and then there were some I guess all the you know misspent funds in the campaign and they came up with their formula of how they would I guess but those people donated money to you thinking that that was going to go to campaign activity not to like Sephora La Mer or like Sephora is an expenditure on a lot of campaigns. Where do you think politicians buy their makeup? I I you know I work in the It's not illegal. I work in the broadcast business but you're not allowed to expend it. That's not a business expense. It is in campaigns. Okay. I mean, do you think that people when they were donating to you thought that was how you were they were going to use the money? We're talking about $183. You do you know that, right? I do understand that. But still, it's a matter of like ethics. You know, how it is ethical. If a person is donating to a campaign and it is to fund all the operations of the campaign and candidate imi candid image goes with that. By the way, I wasn't the one who even went to Sephora. But what about like the Only Fans subscription or Again, that wasn't me. But great. Hey, do you want to call me the guy who spent money on Only Fans? And the the allegations out there were $400,000. We're still looking for $400,000 for Only Fans, by the way. Yeah. Um the the here here's what I want to um ask you about though because you did mention that you think that the the other people in Congress here your former colleagues that they are actually doing a lot of the same things are just not Oh I didn't say that. I'm just pointing out to the facts that are in the media. Okay. Um and I'm just wondering like do you ever see anyone in Congress and think like wow they're running the same playbook that I am? No I don't I I didn't run a playbook. I my my shit was unintentional, right? Like, let's let's make this very clear. You're talking about somebody who literally ran for Congress twice. Um I was not a politician whatsoever. Uh I had an entire team around me. They were running the gambit, whatever. Um uh and you know, the whole the whole thing comes into But what about the using like donor's personal information, their credit cards for again? And I didn't do that. Uh I didn't have access to donor's credit cards. I've made that very clear for years now that I didn't have access to that. I wasn't in the finance team. I was a candidate. Okay, let's do a lightning round about who's more trustworthy in Congress, George Santos or Mike Johnson. I'm not I I think that's what's the point of that? Like what are you trying to get at it from comparing me to other people? I'm just wondering because you when you came into Congress, you said I want to drain the swamp. You said these people are all corrupt and you want to do that. They are. They are. I mean, look at where we are. We're $38 trillion in debt. But I'm not going to go like headtohead and calling people out. That's just not something I want to do. I don't have to do that. Do you can ask the question? I don't have You seem when you left Congress like you were ready to take like burn the place down. You were sure I was. And then I went to prison and prison is so sobering and why would I spend any ounce of my energy attacking people? It's it's just not good energy. I don't want to spend my energy that way. Like you can choose to make those questions and make this entire interview about things that I don't want to answer and you know or you can make it productive. So it's it's up to you. Tara balls. I would I do really I I would love to talk to you about Marjorie Taylor Green because you sometimes I feel like you're speaking for her and I don't know if you are or you're channeling her. I'm not. I'm speaking for myself. I love Marjorie. Marjorie's my friend. I think the amount of pressure she's under, the amount of like hate that's out there for her because people operate in hive mentality in today's day and age is just unfair. She's been such a good supporter of the causes that we all in my guess my tent believe in. To see people turning on her because of a disagreement is just wild to me. You know, now obviously the president I'm a big fan of the president and the president's entitled to his opinion and everything. We don't all have to agree. And a lot of people like, "Oh, George will never disagree with the president." No, I disagree. I think he could have done this in in a different fashion. I also think Marjorie took steps that she could have done differently. So, I think everybody here is just like at odds for with one another for no reason. But Marjorie's my friend. I'm not going to change that. President, President Trump's my president, the guy who really motivated an entire movement to actually get out of the dark and and go out there and fight for something they believe in. I'm never going to change that support for him either. Um, but in this situation, I find it very unfortunate that everybody's just like kind of at odds with each other. But again, I will go to bat for Marjorie the same way she went to bat for me. How do you think she feels about being kicked around by Trump? Someone who like she was I don't know. I mean, it has to her. It has to be upsetting, but I don't know. I I I haven't talked to her about that, honestly. My conversations with her are totally unrelated to these things. I I try to talk to her and, you know, like just put a smile on her face. That's That's my job as a friend. Okay. If you had to choose one, Trump or Marjorie, who would you choose? Uh that's just not there. There isn't a world where I have to make that choice. So, I don't have to make that choice. Thankfully, you want to name your first two children, Donald and Marjorie, though, right? That that is actually fact. Yep. That is true. The rest of it's not true. The stuff that you had to go to prison for, but that's that's true. Um so, a lot of your colleagues are talking about quitting. What do you think about that? the fact that let them quit. Let them eat cake. I don't care. Honestly, don't call them my colleagues because I'm not a member of Congress anymore. I'm a civilian. So, they're not my colleagues. You don't want to go back into politics. No. The people that I associate with from politics, I call them friends. And those are very few. And everyone else there is just members of Congress that I could give two flying you know whats about what they do with their lives. If they want to resign, resign. If they want to stay, stay. If they want to keep screwing the American people, stay screwing the American people. But in please do not put me in the same pot as they are. I I find that highly offensive. You think you're definitely above them. It's not about being above them. It's just I'm not them. I'm not there. I'm not an elected official. So I'm not part of They're not my colleagues. You're a colleague to someone when you're part of something with them. I'm part of nothing with them. I'm an American. That's at best. So you feel like you escaped when they sort of expelled you? No, they didn't sort of expel you. They expelled me without any ceremony. Let's make that very clear. Um, I feel like I dodged a bullet. I feel like politics was the most toxic thing that happened in my life and being in Congress was the most self-destructive thing that happened in my life. So, I I I'm so humbled and glad that I'm not there anymore, honestly. Okay, let's talk about the commutation. How did you get it? And I don't know. I was in prison. I saw it on TV. Okay, for first of all, people are spending millions of dollars trying I did not spend a penny to get a commutation. Let me cut that. No one working the scenes for you behind the scenes. Nope. Nope. We we did the process. Uh my attorney uh Joe Murray did the process within the confines of the law and I got a commutation. Is the secret to getting a pardon? Simply loving Donald Trump. I would disagree with that, but you know, you can say that it's it's your platform. You can say whatever you want. Sarah, do you think having like devotion have to endorse it? Do you think having he got special treatment because of your devotion to him? I don't there's no devotion. Uh I don't adore. I don't I want to make this clear. My devotion is to God. And it it's it's so fucking infuriating that I have to keep listening to people say that I have devotion and adoration for Donald Trump. No, I support Donald Trump as a president of the United States as a politician. And it's infuriating when people have this they they essentially elevate him to god status which is fine if if some members of the media want to do that like yourself that's cool. I'm okay with saying I support President Trump that I think he's a great leader for our country that he's a great for the Republican party but I don't think it's something where we should be conflating the two things. I think it has nothing to do with it. President Trump has given clemency to so many people. So many people. I don't recall the the Grizzlies having adoration for Donald Trump and they got a pardon. Uh I mean let's let's just call a spade a spade. The man looks at case by case. He didn't think first of all and Tara a lot of Democrats in office didn't think that I should have gotten the sentence I got. That was number one. It was overly charged, overly political. You look in history, it was like the most insane political charge in history. Uh, on top of that, you you have me in a prison in solitary confinement for 41 days being tortured. Like, that's not that's unamerican at best. So, you can say whatever you want. You can ask it and frame it in a catchy way. Get the viral clip circulating on the internet. I love that. Like, I'm here for your I mean, you're the you're the meme king. There you go. Advice. Yeah. I mean, no, I I showed up. I did you the favor of showing up. Okay. You didn't do me the favor, but I have a question. Do you think that Trump gave you the pardon because he sees you as a kindred I mean a commutation because he sees you as a kindred spirit. I don't know. You know, that's a question for President Trump. I mean, I'm I'm humbled. I'm thankful for it. Thank you. Uh and and and I don't try to be I'm not trying to be catty or anything. I'm just trying to be myself, you know, and and I'll and I'll go back here for a second and say I'm not saying as in a favor to you, I agree to come on your show, right? I'm not trying to knock you there. So, for your audience there, I'm not trying to knock Tara. I have nothing against you. We never met, but I I just wanted to correct that because as I'm relisting to myself like that that sounds a little effed up. So, um um look, no, I don't know on I I can't tell you how President Trump thinks. Yeah. Do you feel like you owe him something? Look, I gratitude for sure. I mean, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and I have the awesome privilege and ability to spend it with my family. That's priceless. You can't like you can't put a price on stuff like that. I I cherish my family so much and my friends and I have a full house. Uh and I'm, you know, I I've been super emotional about it. It's been really rocking my world and my emotions the last few days that I it's like pinch me. Is this real? But uh yeah, I owe I owe the men a lot of gratitude. That's for for goddamn sure. Yeah. Um, let's talk about prison. You look really thin. Did you use it as a reset or um I wish I looked really thin. I did lose weight. Um, I need to lose a lot more. I mean, I'm still like 40 lbs heavier than when I first got elected to Congress, but that's just not going to even get into the issues of it. But no, I did lose weight. I did lose weight. Not because I use it as a reset. It's the environment itself. uh is is food's tough there. It's just really tough. I mean, they're feeding us pretty much slop, expired food, um bread with mold on it. It's just like you can't make what happens in prison. Can't you can't make it up for the best script writers to actually translate it. So, yeah, naturally, everybody does lose some weight when they go to prison. Um, it's not supposed to be camp. It's not supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be comfortable, but it shouldn't be torturous. That's, you know, so I did lose weight, which hey, I'll look on the bright side of every awful situation. So, on the bright side, it's a great diet plan. Not one that I would say for anybody to subscribe to. Yeah, I know some people would probably go to prison to lose uh 30 pounds. Um, I don't suggest it, but sure. Go ahead. So, I read one of your op-eds in one of the local Long Island papers, and you said the hardest part about being in prison was being invisible, not being seen. What did you mean by that? Invisible by the system, not being seen. My health issues and and and and concerns were number one. Um, they took me off um my medication that I've been on for God, I'm 30 22 years, since I'm 15. Uh they denied me my my asthma medication for an entire 24 hours. It's just the whole thing was just wild and I felt unheard, not listened to and I felt like I was just being destroyed from within and I felt lost in the system at that point. Do you think it would have been different if there were like cameras on you or you were being documented at the time? Um, no. I don't know. I I There are cameras all over the facility and that didn't stop the warden from doing what she did. So, I don't know that it would make a difference. What? Take me into that moment when you heard the doors close and you knew that you were in prison and you thought you were going to be there for I'm guessing you thought you'd be there for seven years, not three months. Well, not seven years, but you know, whatever within the programs. I knew I was going to be there a while. Um, it sucked. It really sucked. It really brings perspective. Makes you re re-evaluate your poor choices that led you to being in prison. Um, and and it you feel accountable and you feel like the responsibility of your shit actions. And and I was there and I sat there, I wept, I cried to sleep pretty much every night. and I'm, you know, just got to deal with it. Um, and and like I said, the commutation came to such a surprise. I found out through the TV like it was MSNBC actually of all TV channel that had it on um in and then what happened next? Did they just come and get you? Well, I called I ran to call my husband and he's like, I was I was just on the phone with President Trump. I'm like, oh my god, go back to President Trump. I'll call you back in 15 minutes because you can only call every 15 30 minutes, pardon me. Um, so I said, "I'll call you back." I was like, I started crying. It was just it was all a blur. And then people started coming to fill paperwork out and you know, it was it was insane. Insane. Do you think you should have actually been in prison or was it just part of your arc? Look, whether I believe I should have or should have not, um, it happened. Um, I did some dumb things. Um, I I accept that. I admit that. And, you know, it it it is a part of my life that will stick with me for a very long time. Um, but also it is a part of my life that will help reshape a lot of like the way I conduct myself moving forward because there's one thing I can tell you, nobody wants to go back. Um and and I find it wild to think that there is a 55% recidivism in the federal um incarceration system. It's just wild to me, right? People violating probation and going back right to that hell hole. I mean, if you in 84 days, I learned enough of a lesson that I can tell you. I will make sure that I can teach my kids those lessons that I can teach anyone I ever touch like don't do anything stupid. Don't do anything wrong. Don't break the law. It's not working. What did you learn? Like what what did you do? Because you before you were pretty much saying you were guiltree. DOJ made you say you were guilty even though you weren't. Like what do what are you sorry for it? It's it's it's not about guilt, Tara. It's about how the system works. It's not it's not a fair system, right? You go into this process. the decks are stacked against you as a person and there is no way no way whatsoever that you can go ahead and have a fair shake. Right? But what I did learn is to avoid ever being put in that predicament, make sure that you cross your tees, dot your eyes, don't play fast and loose with anything that is regulatory regulation, and especially stay the fuck away from money. That's literally kind of like I I mean I I work, I earn my money, but I want no dealings with any kind of regulatory stance. Like I'm so done. Like I I I want a simpler life. That's for sure. That's 100% for sure. So like submitting false financial disclosure reports, you say you learned your lesson from that. Taking $25,000 unemployment benefits during COVID, using donor credit cards without authorization. Like those are things that you learn from. Like I said, you I I just literally said that I think all these things are things that no one should be doing. Yes. But are you like repentant? Well, I I get asked that question a lot. I mean, you know, some of your people say like your your followers are just delightful people, by the way. Um with the way they speak, it's just amazing. Um, I really hope that they have mirrors at home and that they one day don't find themselves or a loved one in the crosshairs of the law and then because I think everybody is so quick to judge and to be so bold on the internet and say awful things to people. Um, they first of all, nobody really knows me personally. People who know me personally will tell you straight up that this is so toxic. Like the toxicity of the internet right now for me is my biggest turnoff. Second of all, um uh to to answer your question is quite simple. What am I repentant? Of course I'm repentant. I I hurt friends. I hurt family members. Disappointed people. But I can say that until I'm blue in the face. Your followers here say a con man never changes his behavior. Right? Somebody just said that. Well, you know what? I I can't I can sit here and speak to you, but clearly we're we're achieving nothing. We're changing. We're giving nobody the perspective because people are so decided in this country today to stick to what they believe and they don't want to hear it. You can show that to them in the face this is not what it seems to be or this is not exactly how it is but they refuse to because we're in such a divided environment since 2015 that it's pointless. I mean the amount of people I I just think it wasn't just the the the crimes too. I think it was like the the um the person that you claimed to be where you said you said you worked at city uh group and another bank. You said you you know played on the volleyball team and these are little things. I mean you said that you're descendant of Holocaust survivors. I mean why did you choose the Holocaust? That that's actually not a lie. That's the one thing that got caught up in all of it that I thought that your your mom's family in Brazil immigrated to Brazil before the Nazi takeover. That's not true. That's not true. That's factually inaccurate. What year did they immigrate to Brazil? My my my mother's family migrated to Brazil in the 1930s. So I and I'm not going to and look I'm I'm so done. I've already submitted DNA tests to prove my Ashkanazi background. I'm Catholic and and the Jewish thing was always a a joke like it was said in the form of a joke at the RJ and everybody took it out of proportion. I have utmost respect for Israel and and Judaism and all religions in general. But look, I I'm not gonna relitigate all of it, right? Because I don't have to and I don't want to. But at the same time, so much was said that was wrong. The media got so much wrong because you had literally escorts posing as journalists and writing for um Politico, Mother Jones, and contributing to the Daily Beast. That was Jacqueline Sweet. literally an escort, a call girl on a website where professional call girls are posing as a journalist and having an affair with one of my senior staffers to try to get information from my office and writing sensational things without any cooperation, any proof. The lucky thing is is that at the time I was in no position to go sue anybody because my attorney said you don't want to go into a deposition, right? It would be counter uh it would be countereductive. But so a lot of people got really lucky with statute of limitations for liel and and and defamation. Yeah. Do you have any desire to be known as an honest person? You know, I'm already known as an honest person amongst people who deal have private dealings with me and you can have those conversations with people. Um anyone I've ever had a business dealing with has never felt burned and has always said that I've always operated above board in business. Um, all the people that I I have interactions with, I'm pretty blunt and I'm pretty like I I don't beat around the bush and I don't mince words. I'm like very direct. So, I'm okay if people on the internet don't care. Um, so, you know, I don't I don't care honestly what people who don't know me think about me. If we were going to play a game like you can trust me because how would you fill in the blank on that? No, you can trust me because I'll be your best phone call uh when you need it. I'll get I'll be your you know I got in trouble. Call me like which I have so many times at 2 o'clock 3:00 in the morning. I you can trust me because if I have the means and you're in trouble financially, I have come through for so many friends of mine in so many various stages of life helping bail them out of here's rent money. Here's car money so your car is not repossessed. Like I'm that friend. I know I don't know how to be a halfass friend. I'm a full friend. I go all the way. Um like just literally yesterday I dropped off in in in a local um soup kitchen in Mount Pocono. I dropped off 50 fucking turkeys because people can't eat and have a turkey this Thanksgiving. So, it's like it's it's the best I can do. I can't do more. I'm not a multibillionaire, right? Like like Elon Musk, who I wish would give more to like people who are really suffering right now with the high cost of food and the holidays coming, but I do the part I can't, you know, like I I can't do everything, but I can do as much as I can. And I'm not one that show I don't do it for show. You didn't see a single picture of me doing it. You didn't see a single video of me doing I didn't even post about it. I commented it to because that's just how I like doing things. So yeah, you were posting about Hermes. I mean, what do you think that's the best look right now? I don't care. I like Hermes. What What's the look? I mean, there do are you going to pay back the donors at like I said, I I don't have to I I owe and nobody anything. That's number one. Number two, they asked. Number two, um I have answered this question that when I have the means and if and and as soon as I do, I'll put the funds together and my legal team is exploring how to do it. There's no legal way to do it. There's no legal vehicle to do it. There is no restitution that can be done. You could just do it yourself though, right? No, you can't. No, you can't. The DOJ doesn't tell you who to. When you're doing restitution and you're paying the DOJ, they take care of that. So, there is no legal way to do it. I don't even know who these people would be that they put in the pot. They don't tell you this. So before you ask a question like that, I would preface making sure you understand how the legal process works. The DOJ does not tell you like, oh, X to such and so. No, no, they just say this is the loss amount and they'll disperse it. So there's no legal avenue. But my attorneys, I told them, look, I I'm working on some projects. I will hopefully by some point next year have the means to do it. I want to put the money up. If I can't give it to restitution to the people intended that the DOJ wanted it to, I'll just give it to a charity. So, a victim's charity. So people or or something like that, you know, I don't care. And I'll make that abundantly public and transparent, right? But that's something I want to do because it's for me. It's it's so I don't have to hear it from people like you or the internet. That's just the reality. It's for me because the next time a person asks me the question, I'll just tell them to, you know, go pound sand. So that's that's kind of where my head's at with that. Are you saying this because you're tired of people asking? It's not that I'm tired. I got out of prison five weeks ago. Yeah. Do you all think I'm rolling in cash? Well, you were looking at Hermes bags and we know that is that's it was a meme. Like I me myself like the face you make when the essay says you're not getting a quota bag. Come on. Like it's a joke. Like if you can't take the best thing I'm doing right now is buying my Borghazi mask. Okay. And that's 49 bucks. Okay. Like, stop. And it's a good mask. You should consider it. It's great for your skin and you have great skin, so keep it up. Okay. Thank you. Um, all right. I want to go into what's next for you. You said you're working on some projects. So, we know you've been a drag performer. You've been a member of Congress, former felon. Uh, what's the next George persona? Where where was I a drag performer? I I'm curious. I mean, there you know, from your past, there are pictures of you and and and performing in drag. Oh, I was performing. Well, you were dressed in drag. Okay. I dressed in drag at the age of 18 years old in Rio de Janeiro. I'm not judging. First of all, I'm not judging. I'm not saying you're judging, but performing and dressing in drag are two very different things. Okay. So, if it's about facts because everybody here screams about facts. So, that that's not fact. To clarify, you were only dressed in drag. Okay. Thank you. All right. Great. What's next? Is there dancing and performing? Dancing with the stars or You know what? There's so much on the plate right now that we're working on. I have been in um a frenzy of work and I'm so humbled by it. The opportunities have been thrown my way. Uh TBD, there is some stuff. 2026 is going to be a really busy year for George Antos. I heard that you're headlining events for veterans with Anna Delvi, the again. Oh my god. First of all, fraudster. Like look, do you think she's an honest person? I think she's honestly blunt and ambitious and I freaking think that she is just like every other American now. I don't know about her deals. What? Oh, wait a minute. You're going to say Americans aren't ambition ambitious. No, no, no. Ambitious. But you don't take other people's money. Oh, no. I'm not Again, I don't know about her. Believe it or not, I don't know about her the details of her legal stuff and I don't care to know because it's not my problem. Well, there's a great Netflix show if you want to watch it. Fantastic for Netflix. I don't give Netflix my time a day right now. I'm too busy for that. But my point is I met Anna Deli at the event. I don't know about headlining because I arrived at an event. She was at the event. People are saying we headlined. Met her. Amazing, sweet human being. Quite frankly, gorgeous young lady. She's so chic. It hurts. But like the way people are reacting to her is just so wild. Like I met a person and all of a sudden it's just like, "Oh, how dare you?" I'm like, "Wait, what? She created a whole other personality. I think a lot of people don't like scammers, frauds, you know, people who take from others and live with the grift and don't have to work when so many people are struggling, especially right now when you talk about why do why then why do American people keep voting for members of Congress who do just that? Well, that's what kind of what I started with. I mean, who do you think does that? Just look at the news. Look at the grift. Look at everybody in the news right now. Congress is a joke. bipartisan joke. You want to talk about Oh, Joe Santos was a joke. There's sex scandals. There's D Tiffany $109,000 diamond rings from Tiffany B with stolen FEMA funds. Like, what? Like, but here's the deal. I don't see the same obsession with Sheila McCormick from Florida that I saw with Torantos. She stole five fucking million dollars from FEMA. FEMA where flityians are struggling all the time with natural disasters upon natural disasters. And I'm not trying to make this partisan. I'm just giving you an example of media bias. I don't see flocks of herds of people. I don't see internet sensation obsessions with her. Like guys, what's up? She has a fabulous taste. Like that diamond ring is kind of cute. Yeah. But FEMA fund, you know, like all of these all this money is supposed to go is is was somebody else's. You know what I mean? Like it it should have gone to someone in need. I think that's what I'm trying to get at. Like all of these people that are taking money. Well, that's my point. Where's the obsession with Sheila McCormack? I I mean, honestly, I I I don't It hasn't really been covered. You're right. I mean, it hasn't. Yeah, because she's not a Republican. So, thank you for making my point. I mean, Democrats go down all the time for for Oh, really? What's the last Democrat that went down? Other than Menendez, please. Because Menendez has been a crap corrupt politician for a decade. Other than Menendez, please give me another one. What do you make of uh Bob Mendez and how he was holding on to the gold bars in his pants? I mean, I don't care, honestly. His codependents were in prison with me. I don't care, honestly. Oh, yeah. What were they like? Normal human beings. It's like normal. Yeah. Like c got caught up in Menendez's garbage in my opinion. Okay. H you still didn't answer my question. I know it's your Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about that. I need It's okay. It's okay. No. No. You know what? Let's not do that because that's not the intent of this. Like look, what it matters to me is is this. Um we need to change the temperature in this country. The the rhetoric is out of control. Um I think the divide amongst Americans has just gotten so toxic. Um it's dangerous. the amount of people who tell me to go, you know, off myself on the internet and they do it in the open and these internet company like these social media companies like Meta or um X don't do much to moderate that content. They they claim they do, but it's still up there. People telling me to go off myself quite regularly. Yeah, but it's all being controlled by Republicans now. I mean, it's it's uh Elon Musk Mark Zuckerberg is a Republican. I'm talking about axe. Elon Musk. I said I did mention Meta and now Mark Zuckerberg probably is a Republican. No, he's not. Neither is Elon Musk. Look, Silicon Valley will always go ahead and pander to whoever's in power. That's just Yeah. So, I mean, how can you say it's a political thing when they are all just It's not about politics. I'm talking about the behavioral aspect of society. Like, it's so toxic. Like, telling people to go off themselves is just unacceptable. Period. Yeah. No, I I agree with you. Um, so do you I guess for a final question because I know you have to run, but do you think you're honest now? I think I'm honest. I think I'm forthcoming and I think I've been abundantly generous with allowing people to have a look inside of my life. I do a lot of these interviews. Um, I I I don't beat around the bush. I answer the questions you guys ask me. I I refuse to go into some of the antics and that's just something I I that's I guess you you we've never met and I and I think that's almost wildly amazing that we've never met um because you're Tara Palmier and everybody talks about you. We have so many friends in common and so many people who you've interviewed that I know and I think it's was just kind of like oh wow I never met Tara actually. Um but I think to like yeah um honest uh forthcoming and transparent and I will continue to be that way. I wish people all the people who criticize me, they criticize me not knowing that I'm the most accessible former member of Congress. You can't get members of Congress to do as much interviews as I did when I was there talking about their own personal wos. still go on TV to talk about their shiny, you know, uh uh uh scripts, but they won't go answer tough questions like I have. So, you know, it's it's I can I see your dog? Yeah. I see what you're doing. You're sucking your dog. She's hearing noises. I wanted to ask you though, who are your top five favorite um presidents? Starting with one and going down. So, one is o and and one is always going to be Abe Lincoln. I'm a big Abe Lincoln fan. Honest. honest is the best president this country's ever had with temperament and everything he accomplished. Uh I'd say Reagan then Donald Trump. Uh and my my obsession with Reagan comes from ele electoral shellacking of um 1984 which was wild winning 49 states like gravitation. Donald Trump which uh in my lifetime is my is the best president of the country. George Washington who was so honest he would never tell a lie. And uh number three, number five is JFK. I'm a big JFK fan and I think JFK represented in the people and in their in the most pure sense of like what the American people deserve to be represented by despite coming from a super elite family. JFK is number five. Okay. Um well, thank you for coming into the Lion's Den. I appreciate it. Um and uh yeah, it's your your Thanksgiving. I'm sure you didn't expect to have. I did not. Freedom. Very thankful for it. I saw that you were posting recently that you were feeling unwell. You were feeling mentally unwell, which is surprising now that you're free. And I I guess that's some sort of PTSD. So, are you in therapy or are you getting help right now? Uh I'm I have a therapist. I have a psychiatrist as well. And I did get diagnosed with PTSD. Uh and it's not from prison. It's from the isolation from the 41 days where I'm still struggling. Um, I actually, this is going to sound so a first world issue, but it's still an issue. I can't go into my closet. I I have an issue with it, right? Like, it it instantly caves in on me and it's just like something wild that I never experienced before. So, tight spaces has become somewhat of difficult and I have the same reoccurring nightmare every single night. I wake up at the same time screaming my lungs out. It's just not cool. But, you know, it is what it is. Um I'm I'm going through it. But I like to talk about mental health awareness and and talk about that it's okay. We all have it because a lot of times um there's a stigma and this taboo about like, oh, we don't talk about that. No, we talk about it because we we lean on one another as human beings in order for us to get by difficult situations. And that's why I I keep doing it. and and and I get a lot of people thanking me like, "Oh, thank you so much for normalizing this conversation and, you know, doing my part." Yeah. So, am I going to see you in the Marjorie Taylor Green 2028 uh campaign? Hey, if she runs for president, I said I would go campaign for her. Um, and there's a few other people that I also like, but I I don't think she's running. She She's already said that she's not running. I think she just wants to go have a happy, quiet life at this point. She tried. She she's, you know, is she okay? I mean, this is her identity in so many ways. I I don't think this is her identity. I think, you know, remember Marjorie's only been in Congress. This is her third term. It's How can it be her identity? She's 50, I think, four, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So, so no, her identity, maybe her national identity. It could be her political identity for sure. you know, lucky for Marjorie, five years in in Congress doesn't define the amazing 49 years that preceded that. Um, and and I think that is that's the identity is Margie. Just she's a loving mother. She's a loving uh daughter. She's a loving friend and a business woman. Tough business woman, too. She's a contractor, you know, she's a construction company. So, um I think that that's more her identity than all the political identity in my opinion. Okay. Well, thanks George. I appreciate it and um hope to I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and thanks everyone who tuned in and I hope you all got it out there what you wanted me to ask from George. Uh thank you so much where you end up next. Let's see. You bet. Bye. That was another episode of the Tara Palmeri Show. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like this show, please rate it, subscribe, follow, share it with all of your friends. Please leave comments. If you like my reporting, you can go to tara palmeri.com. That's t a r a p a l m e r i. You can sign up for the red letter. That's where you can get all of my exclusive reporting and my independent journalism straight to your inbox. It is how you can support my independent journalism. And I will keep at it thanks to you. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abbenante. I want to thank Abi Baker who does my research and my social media. And Adam Stewart on the thumbnails. I'll be back again this week. I'm thankful for all of you. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving week and you're able to take it a little slower.