Welcome to the Siren Podcast. I am very excited because I'm joined by my friend Harry Dunn. And Harry Dunn has some incredible news. You are running for Congress, sir. In Maryland, this district. Is that like incredible news or is it like crazy news? Yes. My gosh. Yes, it is. That is both incredible and crazy. And your launch video, which I'm going to see if Sam can or anybody can edit it so that we play it on this podcast. Your launch video is fire. Thank you. Absolute fire. So congratulations, and let's just jump in. Why are you running? You know, kind of like literally just to finish the fight that was started. You know, I thought I was going to be my whole adult life being a public servant as a police officer, you know, do my time until I got tired of standing around and then be like, you know what, I'm going to retire. And then just live out retirement with my family and my daughter. But obviously the universe had other plans. And on, you know, January 6th, you know, obviously we, that's where everybody knows me from. Unfortunately, it showed me a new path or a new mission that was for me. And it's been fighting for accountability against what happened that day. And it's evolved from just what happened that day to what's happening now across the whole country from defending the people of America, our most vulnerable populations, immigrants, black and brown people, women, children. They are targeting people, our LGBTQ plus community, but just people that just need help. This authoritarian regime is just hammering people. And this isn't politics as usual. I mean, we're not talking about sensible gun control. We're not talking about codifying Roe v. Wade. We're literally talking about this administration wiping his ass with the Constitution, with with the rights and just saying, I can do what I want because I'm a wannabe dictator. And this isn't politics as usual. We need fighters in Congress and all across all spectrums of elected officials that are willing to stand up and say, all right, no, not on our watch. I have authority. I have congressional oversight authority that was given to me and by the Constitution. And I'm going to exercise my rights that so many people in Congress right now are not doing. They're just rolling over and just submitting to Donald Trump's will. yeah it's well first of all thank you that was a lot right yeah that was good no no it's true and the thing is harry the thing that is so true about you is that you are a fighter right and and a kind benevolent fighter you know a fighter for good and and right now based on so many of the elections that we've seen in the results that we've seen including right here in my backyard New Jersey 11. Yeah. A bit of a shake up here and in New York City elsewhere. Did they did they announce the winner? Is it still too? I don't think that they've called it officially yet. A hundred votes or so. Very, very close. Extremely close. And I've been very public about my support for Tom Malinowski. I will support the Democrat no matter who it is in the in the general election. But but it was interesting because some of the takeaways were that with the American people, with the voters in New Jersey, By the way, 10,000 more people showed up for that special election primary than voted in the presidential election in 2024. That tells you something. Yeah. In a special election Democratic primary, 10,000 more people voted than in a general election for the president in 2024. That hurts my heart. It hurts my heart a little bit because, you know, going back just to the whole, not going back to that, but, you know, if just people would have just showed up, you know. People thought the better option between Harris and Trump was sitting at home. Yeah. And that hurts my heart, you know. And it hurts mine too. But I will say, like with parenting, right, sometimes with your kid, you can tell them 100 times what they shouldn't do. But until they do the thing, stick their finger in a, you know, or stick a key in a socket, stick their hand in a flame, you know, run around with their hands in their pockets and fall on their faces. They have to do the thing sometimes for you to make them understand. And I think what we see now, Texas 9, New York City, Miami, here in 11, elsewhere, is that people are like, oh, shit, we shouldn't have stayed home. But more than that, they're looking for fighters. They're looking for somebody who isn't the status quo. They're looking to shake things up with somebody who does seem a little bit to be coming in from the outside with fresh perspectives. And that's you. Absolutely. But the thing is, I believe, like, when you talk about these primaries, right, there isn't real—most primaries, 90, 95 percent of them aren't issues elections. We're not electing the candidate that has a better view on health care. We all agree on, you know, we need affordability. It's about who is going to best convey that message and represent the people of said district the best. And as we're seeing now with so much, you know, it's a lot of corruption. Well, I don't want to say corruption, but it's a bunch of greed by a lot of officials, public officials, elected officials that only want their self-interest. And I don't mean greed just like money or whatever, just greed for power and greed for that authority. so they're not representing their constituents best interests you know like we've seen town halls from across the whole country where you have members of congress throwing town halls and walking out in the middle of it when their constituents are saying hey listen to us this is what we want and they're walking out of them and i forgot the guy's name but he wrapped up his town hall by saying and one more thing ice ice baby and then like the crowd just like was was so pissed off about it. It's like these people, I don't know, we need people that are going to listen, not only just listen, but work their ass off to make sure the voices of their constituents are heard in the halls of Congress. And there's something, there's something karmic. There's something like, I don't know what it is, cathartic about a law enforcement officer who stood up against an attack on our capital, the citadel of our democracy and democracy itself, standing up and doing the right thing for democracy. Right now, like that juxtaposition, right? Because we are seeing law enforcement, in theory, being used against the American people, being used as a weapon, a tool to put down peaceful protest, to undermine democracy, to threaten our freedoms. And so there is something symbolic, right, about the fact that you were a law enforcement officer who stood in the breach on September, January 6th and defended democracy. Right now given how very shaky our relationship is with law enforcement in this country as it is being used by Donald Trump Rightfully so I mean listen I will always support law enforcement I will support the police But the problem with when you talk about the trust and the fractured relationship, the broken relationship between the communities and law enforcement, you're 100 percent right. And rightfully so. Like what's happening now, what's been happening over the last couple of years, people should look at law enforcement and be like, wait, can we even trust you? And you know what cures or what will start to cure? It's accountability. When you see law enforcement just be able to hide behind what people say, their badge and qualified immunity and this and that, there's going to be no trust because people are going to take it as law enforcement can do whatever they want, which, by the way, is a quote from the president of the United States where he told law enforcement, do whatever the hell you want. So as we saw, obviously way before that, you know, with George Floyd and so many other incidents that started the Black Lives Matter movement and, you know, the killing of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, people got to see that and then see nothing happen as a penalty of it. Zero. So it's like, how can you trust law enforcement? Because we always say nobody's above the law, right? So we're not showing that law enforcement can and will be held accountable. So the average citizen, well, not even everybody should be like, wow, there is no. So going in there, the number one thing is addressing the need for accountability for law enforcement, period, period. But there are so many good law enforcement officers out there that do their job great. They do it for service. They serve their community. They do their eight hours and they go home to their families and they do it day in and day out and are just proud public servants. But then there's that one or two bad apples that spoiled the whole batch. And, you know, yes, one bad apple can make everybody look bad. And that's what we're seeing now. And how we fix that, you have to hold the bad ones accountable. And I wish that more officers would speak out when they see something bad instead of just, you know, head down and just not addressing it at all. Yeah, it's like I can imagine the culture of anywhere, anywhere you work, right? that when something becomes the way people do something and like whether it's stealing you know or or lying or showing up late or or you know whatever it is um once it becomes kind of the culture then everybody's sort of doing the same things in its human nature so to tell any law enforcement agency that there is no accountability and that they have immunity and that they can do whatever they want they can literally murder you in the street and get away with it and then walk away a millionaire, it has a way of like becoming metastasized into the, you know, ethos of that group. And I'm not saying that that is true of all law enforcement agencies or agents and or all ICE agents, to be honest. Again, what we have seen is that this is no longer the outlier. This is not the exception, right? But every step they move away from what they're supposed to be doing and it becomes normalized is another step closer to them knowing that they can just do whatever they one and two lawlessness yeah and we can't get there joe we can't get there exactly and and we're already shit we're already there i guess we can't we we can't like you just said accept that as normal this is not okay this is not just like why are we like you know obviously i don't you know i don't want to speak with emotion but i always try to speak with facts and everything like that too so we need to continue to pressure we're not even pressure to have uh the community the lawmakers in Minnesota to hold accountable. You know, obviously they're getting stonewalls, and I'm not familiar at this moment with the court proceedings and the rulings that they have going on, trying to get the evidence for the murders of the two individuals, Renee Good and Alex Preddy. But that's the type of stuff. We got to hold them accountable by every tool, exhaust every option available. You have to exhaust every single one, you know? And take him to court every single day. Appeal. Do this. Do that. Do whatever we got to do. Because, like I said, how do we stop Donald Trump? We rein him in in November when we win the midterms, obviously. And then we have to have members in Congress that are actually going to do the work by reining him in and not just, you know, just saying, hey, I'm here now. Let's let's you know, let's try to work. You can't work with Donald Trump. like where where is the reaching across the aisle with donald trump right it doesn't exist it hasn't existed since he's been president and not even just this term and the term before there hasn't been good deals and work it no it doesn't work it's his way or the highway yeah and and this this thing broke today it happened overnight where he donald trump he uh posted to his social like this is another thing speaking of it's the same idea with the rot right like the culture because we've known that donald trump is a racist since day one okay if you listen to noel kassler and others that this is not a secret and it's certainly he hasn't made it a secret this is a person who called into question the birthplace of our first black president he he he made that one of his signature things he was still talking about it when he was running he still talks about it to this day. He put a full page ad in the New York newspaper calling for the execution of the now fully exonerated Central Park Five. He said, that's my black over there. He called them black jobs. He said he was going to send people back to their shithole countries in Africa. He said he was going to deport AOC and Presley and Ilhan Omar, American citizens, because they are women of color. This is a person who has never, ever, ever been shy about being a racist. We know who he is when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. And overnight on his truth social, he posted a video of himself as the king of the jungle in which there are all these, I guess, animals, wild animals with people's faces on them. And the Obamas, Michelle and Barack Obama are apes. They are gorillas in this. Let's talk about the trope. I've been really intentional about what I put on my skin lately. And one skin is one of those brands that genuinely surprised me. 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Born from over a decade of longevity research, OneSkin's OS1 peptide is proven to target the visible signs of aging helping you unlock your healthiest skin now and as you age For a limited time you can get 15 off with my code JOJO at oneskin slash JOJO That 15 off oneskin slash JOJO with the code JOJO And after you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Is anybody surprised? I'm not surprised. Like I didn't see it and be like, oh my gosh, I am appalled. Yeah, what? Not him. A lot of people did. That's fine. But how are you surprised? I mean, like you just said, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. He's told us forever this is who he is. And all those examples of things that you listed, you know, I'm not surprised at all. But what also that it does is his echo chamber of people laughing at it. They repost it and retweet it and share it and then leave their comment, their racist comments. So what it does, in fact, is it emboldens more people to outwardly show their racist behaviors and their acceptance of racist behaviors. I mean, we've seen it all. A lot of people there. Y'all are on social media. You saw people defending it. You saw people laughing at the screenshot of it. There were hundreds of a ha-ha and hundreds of thousands of ha-ha comments. That's what I voted for. Exactly. So what that, like I say, I'm not surprised by Donald Trump. I mean, you know, I don't expect an ounce of decency from him. I'm more shocked if he does something nice more so than he does something racist. So that's just who Donald Trump is. like I said but what it does is it emboldens people to outwardly show those beliefs even more um if just if one of us or somebody that works in you know and for a Walmart or whatever job or and they posted something on that they might lose their job we do not condone this behavior but the president of the United States just openly does it right that's how we got January 6th like People at the Capitol were attacking police officers and beating their way because they felt emboldened to do so. They felt entitled to do it. Why? Because Donald Trump told him to. Yep. So, I mean, like I said, I don't expect anything from him. I'm more shocked if he does a decent act. Like I said, I'm more worried about what it causes from the people who look up to him and see him. Now, there are people that's going to be like, all right, now there's nothing but monkeys to me. So, you know, it's disheartening, obviously, because, you know, black people have been dealing with racism since the beginning of time. So it's one of those kind of things where you just say, I'm used to it. But nobody should ever be used to that. Nobody should ever be subjected to that. But that's when you have lead in this country. It's kind of like, here it is. I'm not surprised. And it's interesting because in the Republican Party, just like we were talking about with, you know, where things become entasticized, they have become so accustomed to it where often when asked about this stuff they either say they didn't see it or donald trump says a lot how was tim scott surprised at this that's what i was gonna ask sorry my bad like i didn't mean to steal your thunder no no oh my gosh i'm praying that this is fake yes that part right that was tim scott's response tim scott's response oh my gosh i'm praying that this is fake this is the most racist thing i've seen that is it though like like I had to think of that. I'm glad. That was my thought. I was like, is it? Sure, Donald has done something to one-up that. You know? The fact that we're questioning, like, wait, is this the most racist thing? The fact that we even have to question it just shows that, like, yeah, dog, this dude's terrible. But, like, if this is the most racist thing that Tim Scott has ever seen him do, where the hell has he been? because, first of all, I don't believe that. I think he's choosing to see what he wants to see. I also think that there may be, because he's a lame duck, because he's extremely unpopular, across the board, because he's lost so many of his own supporters, because he's in the Epstein files more than almost Epstein. I saw something that's a, speaking of that, I saw something. I can't take credit for it. I saw it somewhere. It said Trump is named in the Epstein files more than Jesus is named in the Bible. so yes brooklyn dad defying told me this last night and i've seen lots of memes about it he's mentioned more in the epstein files than valdemore in harry potter more than sauron in the lord of the rings the lord of the rings books are like literal like like he's he's he's mentioned more in the epstein files than darth vader is mentioned in all of the star wars movies combined Right. So he's he's he's almost like like wounded. Right. And so they're OK, well, it's it's safe for us in this moment to say that's unacceptable. Yeah, this looks racist. You should take it down and apologize, like asking the leopard to change its spots, first of all. But let's not play dumb here, Tim Scott. Like you helped him. You emboldened him. You polished that knob. You made this shit normal so that when he was when we were when we were litigating a 2024 presidential election, largely due to race. Yeah. A lot of people either sat it out or voted for him because they couldn't vote for a black woman. And Tim Scott was fine with all that. He was on the campaign trail with him every step of the way. And now they think we're stupid enough, stupid enough to believe that it was a staffer who erroneously posted it in the middle of the night to his account and they didn't realize it. Tim Scott is the guy when people use the phrase, I have a black friend. Tim Scott is the black friend that they're talking about. So like, it's like, oh, my gosh, I have a black friend. I'm not racist. Tim Scott is the black friend that they are talking about. And it's just unbelievable. Because, you know, people say, they say that. I have a black friend. I can't do this. Yeah, your black friend is Tim Scott. Like, that's right. Give me a break, man. And, yeah, like you said, now they're talking about, yeah, a staffer, a ronis. No, no, no, they didn't. Come on. No, they didn't because in the press conference, Carolyn Levitt was defending it as the Lion King. I've seen even the Lion King. Yes. And also, I don't remember many monkeys in the Lion King. There are none. There are none. He was a bad bone. He was a bad bone. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. He's not, these are, these are like silverback apes. No, I know. So I'm just saying for them to be lying, just, okay, well now, okay, now it wasn't, he wasn't that it was actually, okay, sorry, the staffer messed up. Yeah. I'm just waiting for him to say that it was a staffer. Who's the staffer and are they fired? Okay. Who's the staffer and why, why is the staffer not fired? And why does some staffer, A, have access to your, and B, why does some staffer think that you would like for that staffer to post a video of the Obamas as apes. They think we're stupid, yo. Yeah, so it's like, oh no, that brazenly, blatantly, unabashedly racist thing that we did wasn't really us being racist it was just us being super incompetent They would rather own that But it bullshit But the thing is again it lies Okay so they now put the lie into the universe A lie that we all know is bullshit because we've already had Carolyn Levitt defend it. And it sat there for 12 hours. If it was an erroneous mistake by a staffer and they knew that it was, after it was identified, after she defended it, what was it still doing there? But the point is, they lie like they breathe. that's like the hell out you yes and they expect well they should expect because their cult is going to accept it they expect that we'll all just take it and roll and move on right that's just like everything else just like the epstein files just like how he keeps saying we need to turn the page well brother you're on the next page too by the way yeah turn the page we're you're on the next one yep that is i like that so true yeah so tying this back as we kind of close this episode. One of the things that you say in your launch video is tell Donald Trump, I'm coming back to the Capitol. And man, if that is not the arc of justice that we all need right now, we need that kind of closure. We need that kind of, like I said, justice. And this is the first time you'll be running since the pardons. We've had several reoffenders. One that just happened yesterday. One of the J6ers got arrested again. But let's talk about this. Tell Donald Trump I'm coming back to the Capitol. Yeah. So, you know, Joe, like there's so much more that people are suffering now. Like my suffer, you know, obviously, along with everything else with affordability, was January 6th. Right. And that's what turned me on this mission. But just seeing people suffer. Doge, the firing of Doge, the firing of people by Doge, some of the largest people affected by that are in Maryland's 5th Congressional District. Thousands and thousands of people that I know personally, family members, friends that have been affected by these illegal firings. You know, shout out to Jamie Raskin for suing Doge and getting some people reinstated or temporary restraining orders against that. We need more of that. We need more of that. We need to bring Elon Musk before a committee. We need to have him testify. We need to understand how these 18 and 19 year olds were just given the broad authority to just go in there and do whatever they want and fire 20, 30 year long civil servants. That's not happening. So not only am I coming back to the Capitol, I'm coming back with a vote, with oversight authority, with subpoena power. The over the like I said, the full weight of the Constitution authority given to a member of Congress guaranteed by the Constitution. I'm coming back armed with all of that this time and a fighter's mentality and a servant's heart. So I just want to do like a lot of people, like I said, go to Congress for their agenda. Listen, I know where my morals are. I know where I stand. But my job is to be a voice for the people. And that's what I want to continue to do, to stand up to them, to this administration on their behalf. I want to stand in the gap and say, you want to get to them? You got to go through me first. And that's what it's all about. I love all of that. And I mean, God willing, we have free and fair elections in November. Yeah, you see, they're already trying to take them. That's the thing. That's the part. And also, my bad, like real quick, affordability, health care costs, like all of that, all roads lead back to Donald Trump. Because while, you know, inflation and all these tariffs and everything, Donald Trump is tariffing our way into unaffordability. Health care, the first government shutdown, people's health, my health care premiums went up. I benefited from the subsidies and all this stuff. It's necessary. But so many people are suffering. And you know who's not suffering? the people uh the billionaire bros uh all because of the big ugly bill that donald trump made sure he looked out for his billionaire buddies um you know i will give him credit he did do the no tax on tips great job there everybody else in the middle class is struggling yeah well as a server i i didn't get taxed on my i was just about to say like that's i said it sarcastically i was like yeah yeah thanks you know we didn't get paid minimum wage that was our the version if you had to declare like a certain like two dollars an hour correct to make up for that and we didn't we never got taxed on our tips that's the way most people so it's kind of also bullshit yeah that's sarcastic gee thanks for that you know yeah and i was just talking to governor shapiro the other day and he was talking about in pennsylvania great job on that interview by the way y'all go check that interview out it's very thanks they unfortunately we act they accidentally cut out some, he was shit talking my Giants. And I clapped back a little bit because he's an Eagle fan and I do not like the Eagles. Careful out there. There's a lot of Eagle fans out there. Oh, I know. One of my very good friends, George Conway, is an Eagles fan. Jill, the Bidens are Eagles fans and I love the Bidens, but I do not love the Eagles. But he was talking real quick. He was talking about health care because these ACA subsidies, this shit's real. Of the 500,000 people in Pennsylvania who were using the ACA subsidies in the month of January, just January, 85,000 of those people just stopped getting health insurance. They just terminated their policies. 85,000 people were like, no. Instead of – because they couldn't afford it. Right. Right. Because they couldn't afford it. And so that billionaires can get another yacht, another bidet. It's bullshit. And so, again, this is why we need fighters like you. We need people who live real existences and don't live in some insulated bubble and walk the walk and talk the talk. And that is you, Harry Dunn. So where can people go to help you to follow what you're doing here, et cetera? Yes. So the campaign website, Harry Dunn for MD dot com. And it could be it could be the number four. It could be spelling it out. We make sure that you're able to find us either way. HarryDunn4MD.com. Appreciate all the love, all the support. Like I said, this ain't about me. This is about standing up for people and just following my moral compass because this is wrong. And you know what? I saw an opportunity where there was an open seat. All right, let's get to work. You know, yes, I lost my first election, but losing did not deter me at any from wanting to make a difference in fight. And if that's if you lose and you're deterred from doing it again just because you lost, that means I don't believe that you were your heart was in it or you were in it for the right reasons anyway. So regardless of how this turns out, I'm always going to show up on the front lines being there for people because this shit is not normal and this is not OK. It is not normal and it is not okay and we cannot let it be normalized and or let it be accepted as okay. Thank you so much, Harry Dunn. Grateful to you as always and good luck and whatever you need. You know, I'm here. Thanks for having me, my friend. We'll talk soon. All right, we'll talk soon. Bye-bye.
