Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E156: Adoption, Abuse, and Growing up Reagan’s Son w/Michael Reagan

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E156: Adoption, Abuse, and Growing up Reagan’s Son w/Michael Reagan · The Lila Rose Show

0:00
What was it like being raised by Ronald Reagan and by your
0:03
mother, Jane? 1953 I walked away from God.
0:06
I walked away from my mother. I walked away from my father.
0:09
I walked away from everybody. In 1950.
0:10
Three, my dad looked at me and says, you know something,
0:13
Michael, I just don't believe in nepotism.
0:15
And I walked out of the Ambassador Hotel that night
0:17
thinking to myself, I should have voted for the other guy.
0:20
How did being adopted impact your pro-life views?
0:23
I wish more American kids were adopted into families.
0:25
Unfortunately, the laws we have in the United States makes it
0:28
tough. And later on, it was reported
0:30
that he expressed regret for legalizing some of these
0:33
instances of abortion. Well, he was governor because he
0:36
felt that it was the wrong thing to do.
0:38
He always sit there and said, you know, it's essentially all
0:41
the people who are pro-choice have already been born.
0:43
I thought that was one of the great lines he ever he ever
0:45
gave, but he was partially pro-life.
0:48
And I think part of it might have been because.
0:51
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the Lila Rose podcast.
0:54
Today we've got a great treat. We're going to be interviewing
0:57
Michael Reagan, who is the son of President Ronald Reagan.
1:02
Michael is here to share about his story and it's some of it
1:05
heartbreaking and some of it very inspiring about his
1:07
upbringing. He's also going to be talking
1:09
about the new film Reagan, which if you haven't already seen it,
1:12
I encourage that you do. It is an incredible film about
1:15
the life and the fight of Ronald Reagan, fighting communism and
1:18
fighting for this country. Michael is an author of
1:20
political and a radio host. He also has a lot of incredible
1:24
stories to share about the impact of his relationship with
1:27
his father and the lessons that he learned.
1:30
I hope that you enjoy this episode.
1:32
Michael Regan, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
1:34
Good to. Be with you.
1:34
Thank you. It's a real honor to have you
1:37
on, truly. I mean, I am a huge admirer of
1:39
your work and of course of your father and his incredible impact
1:43
on this country and the world. So really pumped to get this
1:45
opportunity to talk to you. Thank.
1:46
You. So let's jump right in and start
1:49
from the beginning and then we'll go forward in your in your
1:53
amazing life, starting from the beginning.
1:55
You were raised, you're the son of Ronald Reagan.
1:57
And of course, millions of people around the world are
2:00
curious about what that must have been like.
2:02
I know you get asked this question a lot.
2:04
What was it like being raised by Ronald Reagan and and by your
2:07
mother, Jane? Well.
2:08
To be honest with you, because they were divorced when I was
2:10
like 3, I was really raised by my mother because that's who I
2:15
lived with. I've seen my dad on weekends,
2:17
horseback riding, you know, shoot ground squirrels, go
2:20
swimming, all those kinds of things, which is really great.
2:23
Dad was a pushover. I mean, the reason the kids in
2:27
the family didn't like our mothers is because our mothers
2:30
are the ones that in fact spanked us.
2:33
They're the ones that holds accountable.
2:34
Dad was an easy, easy mark. Unless you were Russian and
2:38
then, you know, then you weren't.
2:40
But the reality of it was he was just, he was, that was a
2:43
pushover with everything, really.
2:47
Mom raised me and, you know, many of us in Hollywood back in
2:50
the day, we all went to boarding school because their parents
2:53
were actors. They were out on location.
2:56
So most all of us were raised by nannies and maids and we're I
3:00
went to a military school and I was in fifth grade.
3:03
I was a boarding school and I was six years old, come home on
3:06
weekends and, and what have you and reintroduce myself to my
3:10
family. So I'm I'm the kid that was away
3:12
all week with my sister Maureen. So that's kind of how we were in
3:16
fact raised in Hollywood back, you know, in the day.
3:22
We are like I say to people, we are members of the Lucky Sperm
3:25
Club because we had parents who were famous, went to great
3:30
restaurants, we went with them chasing's and all the other
3:33
places. So that was great.
3:36
But you missed your family on weeks during the week because
3:39
you were in boarding school and you only saw them really on the
3:42
weekends, and those weekends you used it all up.
3:45
What was the lessons that you learned having an upbringing
3:48
like that, which is pretty unique, and especially being
3:51
raised by two parents who were Hollywood stars.
3:54
And then of course, your dad becoming, you know, incredibly
3:58
successful in politics, being the governor of California, then
4:00
went on to become the president of the United States.
4:02
These are huge roles that your parents had both on film and in
4:05
real life. How did that affect you as a kid
4:08
and and looking back at it now as an adult, what would you say
4:10
are the lessons, both maybe the good and the bad ones that you?
4:13
Learned well, I learned from my mother.
4:15
Not to make her mad because she had a riding crop and hit me ten
4:18
times in the back of each leg. She only had to do that once and
4:22
I went. That's not going to work out
4:24
very well for me. I am probably the way I am, and
4:28
my wife Cohen would tell you that I am the way I am because
4:30
of my mother, politically because of my dad, but I am the
4:35
way I am because of my mother. My mother held me accountable to
4:38
everything and anything. You know, when I wanted A10
4:42
speed bike at 10 years old, she made me sign a note with her and
4:48
she loaned me the money for that 10 speed bike.
4:51
And I said why in the heck are you making me borrow money from
4:54
you when all my friends in Beverly Hills are getting bikes
4:58
given to by their parents? And she said because I build
5:01
men, I don't build boys. I don't want you to be a 40 year
5:04
old child, so sign here. So at 10 years old, I was in
5:08
debt to my mother. I said, what am I going to do to
5:11
pay you back? She says.
5:12
You now have a bike, you can deliver papers.
5:15
Oh, I never thought of that. So I started selling papers in
5:18
front of church on Sunday morning and I would split the
5:22
profits with my mother until I paid her back, which she want me
5:26
to get that bike. You know, that was a great
5:29
lesson then. But you know, when you're 10
5:32
years old, you're not thinking about lessons they're teaching
5:35
you. You're going like, just give me
5:36
the damn bike. You you find out later on.
5:40
Oh, that was a good lesson. Because she did the same lesson
5:43
with me. When I started my national radio
5:45
talk show. Back in 1991 and I was making no
5:49
money to get it off the ground. I was driving to San Diego and
5:52
back every single day, 272 miles every day to do the show and
5:58
tried to get off the ground with no money.
6:00
And I called my mother on the phone.
6:01
I said, can you help us out? You know, we got the two kids at
6:04
home, Cameron and Ashley, and you know, Colleen's doing the
6:07
best she can. She has a travel.
6:08
Business and my mom said. I can help you out, I said
6:11
great, what can you do? She said.
6:13
I can tell you this, shut up and keep driving.
6:16
She hung up on me. I called her back and said.
6:18
Won't you hang up on me? She said.
6:20
Yes, I did. I said why?
6:22
She said, did somebody die and said you didn't have to pay your
6:25
dues like everybody else. I said no, shut up and keep
6:28
driving, She hung. Up on me.
6:30
And that show lasted from 199190. 2.
6:33
Till I walked away. 2009 you know, my dad on the other hand.
6:38
You know, he was the he was weekends.
6:40
Great. I mean, I learned about America
6:44
from my dad, right in the right front seat of the station wagon.
6:48
Any given Saturday morning, regaling me with songs, the
6:52
military, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, stories
6:55
about America. That's where I learned about
6:57
America. And and what have you.
7:00
And that was great learning those lessons.
7:02
The problem is, today we're leaving those lessons to the.
7:07
School and saying they're not doing their job, We're not
7:10
leaving them to the parents and letting them do their job.
7:16
The movie Reagan came out recently.
7:18
It was a big hit, amazingly done movie and it depicted your dad
7:23
and then your mother, their early relationship and you know,
7:27
there were some scenes that showed it.
7:29
And then later on, obviously your father would go on and
7:32
remarry again. And now Nancy Reagan.
7:35
What was that? How did that impact you the way
7:37
that the film depicted it? Do you think the film did a good
7:41
job in their depiction of your family or the what did you like?
7:44
What did you not like Well. I shouldn't that much first
7:49
thing. My mom wasn't that heavy, but
7:53
believe that by the side. Penelope came up to me
7:55
afterwards. We were talking and she said you
7:59
OK? The way we depicted your mother.
8:01
I said, you probably depicted my mother because the stories I've
8:04
been talking and telling, Mark and John and everybody 15 years,
8:08
when they came up with the idea of the movie, I was kind of
8:11
giving back stories to a lot of things that ended up in the
8:13
movie. And one of the stories I told
8:16
him was 1980s. My dad gave an actual speech on
8:21
television. I called my mom.
8:23
I said, mom, did you see dad's speech on television?
8:26
And what do you think of it? And she said, Michael, I didn't
8:29
like it in 1940. What makes you think I'd like it
8:32
today? And Penelope said, thank you for
8:34
the story. I said, no, my mom didn't like
8:36
politics, never did. And but she did vote for him
8:41
twice. So everything was depicted
8:43
correctly about my mother because, you know, Dad was going
8:46
home sleeping with a gun under his pillow because what was
8:49
going on with the unions in Hollywood?
8:51
And he was busy with that while mom was winning the Academy
8:55
Awards and Golden Globes and what have you.
8:59
In fact, my mom has two stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
9:03
Dad has one. She has handprints and
9:06
footprints and grandma's Chinese.
9:07
Dad has none. And so they really depicted her
9:11
absolutely 100% on target. I thought they did a great job
9:14
through the whole movie with Nancy, the horseback riding.
9:19
Back in 1952, they were interviewing Nancy for movie
9:23
magazine said what do you think about riding a horse?
9:26
And she said I only learned to ride a horse to capture a
9:29
husband. And she did, and she did so.
9:35
It was a life and. You know, like the library
9:39
refers to me as the prequel because all the stories they
9:43
have, I have a back story to their stories.
9:46
And so I did a lot of that, you know, some of that with the
9:48
movie and they were able to use it, which is really nice.
9:53
Your mother and and yourself, you would later become Catholic
9:57
and you are very passionate about your faith.
10:00
How have you seen that change your mother's life, Jane's life?
10:04
And then I'd love to hear how it has changed your life.
10:07
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American meat delivered. Well, my mother and I and my
11:38
sister Rory were baptized December 8th, 1954, Church of
11:42
the Good Shepherd, Father John Osborne back in 1954.
11:47
And my mother, you know, was really brought to Catholicism by
11:52
God, Loretta Young, who was a dear friend of hers, and.
11:57
And what have you. And so, you know, Maureen and I
12:00
started Catholic schools with the Good Shepherd School,
12:03
Maureen with Marymount, so on and so forth.
12:06
And it changed my mom's life dramatically.
12:10
I mean, she never missed a day of Mass.
12:11
She never missed communion. And in fact, my mother was
12:14
buried as his Dominican nun to the Third Order full regalia
12:19
back when she passed away 2007. So she was very much into it.
12:25
I remember I was speaking at a Legatus event in Bermuda way
12:29
back when, quite a few years ago.
12:32
And. The cardinal there was one of
12:34
the. Cardinals who was there that
12:36
worked with Pope John Paul and they introduced me and do a big
12:41
applause. I said, well, thank you.
12:42
For the applause, I really appreciate that.
12:44
But you really are applauding. The fact that Ronald Reagan is
12:47
my father, you're not. Applauding me.
12:49
You're applauding who my parents are, who my father is, I said.
12:53
But let me tell you about my mother.
12:55
And I started telling about my mom being.
12:58
Is the Dominican 3rd order to A to the.
13:02
Thought we didn't know that, Said yeah, I know you didn't
13:05
know that, I said. So when we're all gone and we
13:07
reached the pearly gates and walk into heaven and you see my
13:10
dad look three floors above him because that's where you'll see
13:14
my mother. I said, I'm thinking of
13:18
Dominican. None.
13:19
The 3rd order, no matter how much you love Ronald Reagan, is
13:22
a little bit above a politician in heaven when you when you get
13:27
there. So it changed her quite a bit.
13:30
I went through things as a child.
13:31
I walked away from God. 1953 I walked away from God.
13:36
I walked away from my mother. I walked away from my father.
13:40
I walked away from everybody. 1953.
13:42
I didn't find my way back until after I met Colleen and going to
13:46
the 1980s and and 1990s, if you will.
13:51
Coming back to. Catholicism.
13:52
But now you know I've I've. Back in my My wife is now
13:57
Catholic because of the trip to Bermuda.
14:00
My son Cameron, my daughter-in-law Susanna, my
14:04
daughter Ashley. I mean, so you know.
14:07
We're all, we're all in the building because I know when we
14:10
go to heaven, my mother, if we're not Catholic, she may turn
14:13
us away. Your dad had a very deep faith
14:19
himself and his whole time in politics, he and I think the
14:23
movie Reagan depicted this well. He was really driven in in and
14:27
he had a sense of calling to stand up to evil, to fight for
14:31
the good, obviously to fight for America's future.
14:34
That fight most I think, played itself out in the fight against
14:38
communism. He was also passionately
14:41
pro-life in addition to being against communism.
14:44
What was it like for you? I guess at this time you would
14:47
have been a young man and maybe you were not living your faith
14:51
for a period of time. What was it like for you to
14:53
watch your dad in his political career?
14:56
How did that impact you? Well, you got to go back.
15:00
You got to go back like I'm 20 years old when he decides to run
15:04
for governor. You know, all I'm thinking about
15:08
is honestly, God, I hope he wins.
15:10
It'll be easier to get dates. I mean, I could care less what
15:15
he believed in. I was only saying, hey, my dear
15:19
governor of state, California, is that going to be a great pick
15:21
up line or what? And I mean, that's what I'm
15:24
thinking. So I'm really happy when he
15:27
becomes governor of state of California at at that point.
15:30
But that's when my first move into politics back in that day.
15:36
But, you know, there's so much that comes before him really
15:40
getting into that. You know, there was General
15:42
Electric Theatre, which was shown in the movie, you know,
15:45
when he did that. And then he was, you know, in
15:49
Las Vegas before that doing a stand up act, which was just
15:54
horrific and it showed that. In the movie.
15:58
But a lot of people don't know about General Electric Theatre
16:01
that Bobby Kennedy, the brother of the president of the United
16:04
States, you know, John F Kennedy got a hold of the head of
16:08
General Electric back in 1962 and was basically intimidating
16:15
him by saying, you know, your government contracts are coming
16:18
up very shortly. And the head of GE is trying to
16:23
figure out why is the attorney general in the United States
16:24
calling and we find out about those government contracts be
16:30
much easier together. We find a way to get rid of that
16:33
guy who's going around the country, all those GE plants
16:36
speaking I'll against my brother and where there about 48 or 72
16:40
hours of that phone call. General Electric theater was
16:45
cancelled. My dad was fired and had no job.
16:49
Now where did I learn that sitting at dinner table with my
16:52
father Nancy and my sister on a Sunday night when he's telling
16:56
us I'm not going to be on anymore and tell us the story
16:59
exactly why. But what happens?
17:02
He now is a little upset. He's a Democrat.
17:05
My sister Maureen, who was the Republican in the family,
17:09
browbeats my dad into changing from a Democrat to a Republican.
17:17
He always says to the Democrat Party left me.
17:20
Yeah, they did left an alert without a job.
17:24
But he now had time to sit down and pet a brand new speech,
17:29
which he would lose use for Barry Goldwater.
17:32
And it was called the Time for Choosing, which now launches his
17:36
career into politics, to the governorship of the state of
17:40
California and beyond. So that's why they call me the
17:44
prequel. Incredible did.
17:47
What was it like? Would you see your dad working
17:50
on his speeches, working on his, you know, when he would get into
17:54
campaigning, working on his campaigns?
17:56
What was that like for you as a young man, and how what did you
18:00
observe about? Your Well, Maureen and I, you
18:02
know, Maureen and I were up campaigning Speaking of
18:03
Republican women's groups in 196566.
18:07
So I was able to vote because I turned 21 before the election.
18:11
And I remember a few years ago I was speaking to a Republican
18:15
women's group and when we raised her hand and said Mr. Reagan, I
18:18
said call me Mike. And she said that.
18:21
How long have you been? Speaking to Republican women's
18:24
clubs, I said look better. And this is like maybe 10 years
18:28
ago. And I said, ma'am, I probably
18:31
spoke to your mother. That's how long I was speaking
18:34
to. Republican women's groups since
18:36
that period of time learned about politics from my sister,
18:41
you know, like she was the first one to tell me.
18:43
So what's the difference between a Democrat and Republican?
18:45
She says. The Democrats go to bed every
18:47
night hoping you never figure it out.
18:50
Republicans go to bed every night hoping someday you do
18:52
figure it out. And we're still in that
18:55
position, you know, how many years later, in fact.
18:59
And so she was very, Maureen was very instrumental in my dad
19:05
moving to the Republican Party, ultimately all of us into the
19:09
Republican Party, if you will, because you didn't want to fight
19:12
Maureen on any issue at all because she seemed to win on
19:17
those days. I thought campaigning for my dad
19:19
in 1965 was was great. Campaigned in 76, campaigned in
19:24
198084. So I was, you know, campaigning
19:28
for my dad and I didn't want to make him mad.
19:30
I was. In fact, when he won the
19:32
governorship in California in 1966, you know what I did?
19:36
First question I asked him. I asked him for a job in
19:39
government because I thought every politician gives their
19:43
kids jobs. My my dad was not named.
19:47
Did you get it? My dad was not named Biden.
19:49
He was named Reagan, unfortunately.
19:51
And my dad looked at me and says, you know something,
19:53
Michael? I just don't believe in
19:54
nepotism. And I walked out of the
19:57
ambassador. Hotel that night, thinking to
19:59
myself I should have voted for the other guy because that guy
20:03
does believe in nepotism. My dad doesn't believe.
20:05
In nepotism. What a terrible, what a terrible
20:08
choice I've made. It's a fairy, you know, like
20:10
that. But yeah, it's.
20:12
It's a great mobis together. Michael, earlier in the
20:16
interview, you described your dad as a pushover when you were
20:20
a kid. There have been many of his
20:22
critics who have described him as, you know, bumbling, not very
20:26
intelligent. He was accused of this, of
20:28
course, by those that were against him politically, you
20:31
know, even being naive, not really having his wits about
20:34
him. And yet, on the other hand, he's
20:36
given some of the most consequential speeches and done
20:39
some of the most consequential policy.
20:40
You know, they called it the the, the era of Reagan in the
20:44
last century. What's your take on all of that?
20:46
Was he a a a pushover? When you saw him in his work in
20:52
politics? What was the guiding light for
20:55
him? How?
20:55
How do? What is your take on?
20:56
That guy, Guy White, you know, if you watch the movie, he had
21:00
more trouble with his own staff than anybody else getting things
21:03
done. He knew what he wanted to
21:05
accomplish. And anybody disagrees with me,
21:08
he's going to make up stories. All he's bumbling, He's this,
21:11
he's that, and what have you never saw him?
21:13
But the only time I saw him bumble things was the first
21:17
debate with Walter Mondale. And Nancy was completely right.
21:21
Let him be Reagan and quit giving him so much information
21:26
and let dad be Reagan. The second debate and the story
21:30
ends up walking away with 49. States, but back to another.
21:33
Question You asked me about religion with my dad because he
21:35
used to go to church every Sunday morning with everybody to
21:38
go to Bel Air Press, and I never went with.
21:42
Him and I asked him. One time and he said, why didn't
21:44
you never ask me to go with you when I was living with you when
21:46
I was in high school for a couple years?
21:48
And he said, well, 'cause your mother raised you Catholic, I
21:50
didn't want to make her mad. I said OK, that that makes
21:53
sense. But you know something else?
21:55
The last time I flew on Air Force One with him and I was
21:58
just on Air Force One at the library.
21:59
The other day, telling the story as we were landing at Point
22:04
Magoo on on Good Friday of 1988, he counted out nine on his
22:09
fingers. I said, what's important about
22:11
the number 9? He says 9 more months, I'll no
22:14
longer be president. I said something you're looking
22:17
forward to, he says, yes, I am. I said why?
22:19
He said, you know, Michael, ever since I looked out the rear
22:21
window of the limousine on March 30th, 1981, and saw people
22:26
laying in their own blood with bullets meant for me, I have not
22:30
wanted to go and visit a church or places where other people can
22:34
be again in the way of bullets meant for me and put them in
22:39
harm's way. So I haven't gone to church.
22:41
People talk about I haven't gone to church.
22:43
Well, I haven't gone to church because I haven't wanted to put
22:45
people in harm's way. So I'm looking forward to no
22:48
longer be, you know, present anymore where I can go to church
22:50
each and every Sunday. And when he left the presidency
22:53
January 20th of 89, he never missed a Sunday in church.
22:58
Even when he had Alzheimer's and couldn't go, the minister would
23:02
go to the house and the minister always say I went to.
23:05
The House, the minister. To President Reagan and
23:08
President Reagan ministered to me, and that goes back to his
23:12
mother and his family bringing in Dixon and Tampico, Illinois.
23:20
Michael, you were adopted and you are passionately pro-life.
23:24
You are outspoken about your pro-life conviction.
23:27
Your dad was pro-life. How has being adopted how?
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24:42
How did being adopted impact your pro-life views?
24:45
Well, because when I used to do Radio, One of the questions I
24:47
put forward, I say if you had OK, if you had an opinion, I
24:51
just asked all of you have been adopted, would you have rather
24:55
had the other choice because the other choice is abortion.
24:59
There's your choices. Abortion or adoption.
25:03
I always come down on the side of adoption.
25:06
In that way. And and you know, I'm.
25:09
Lucky I was adopted, you know, into this family.
25:12
I wish more American kids were adopted into families.
25:15
Unfortunately, the laws we have in the United States makes it
25:18
tough to adopt the United States, so people go to foreign
25:22
countries and adopt from foreign countries.
25:24
Instead of adopting. And children are here.
25:27
There's 100,000 kids in foster care who would say, I want a
25:31
family, I want a forever home. We should be doing that.
25:34
The churches should be challenged to have their
25:38
parishioners who want children but can't have them themselves
25:42
to adopt from the foster care system within their
25:45
neighborhood, within their county, within their system.
25:49
Because foster care is just a, it's a, it was a train wreck,
25:55
but it's a, it's an automatic pipeline to human sex
25:58
trafficking because we're sending kids out on the street
26:01
when they're 18 years of age. They don't really have an
26:03
education and nothing. And we put them out there.
26:09
And all they can do is sell their bodies for money, and
26:12
that's what they do. Not everybody's a Simone, you
26:16
know who is adopted. Also, not everybody's like that,
26:19
or me. Lucky enough, most of them.
26:22
You have 400,000 kids in foster care in Los Angeles, 100,000
26:25
available for adoption. What's going to happen to the
26:28
ones who age out at 18? They're getting up on the
26:31
streets and they're being hit, hit on by traffickers and
26:35
they'll be trafficked. For sex, that's what's going to
26:38
happen and so we need to really do something to clean up the
26:41
foster. Care system and we need to
26:43
really challenge churches. To have their parishioners adopt
26:47
US kids and to their families instead of foreign kids, not
26:51
that I have think they have foreign kids.
26:53
I have adopted niece from Uganda because it was it was easier for
26:57
my sister Marie to adopt A child from Uganda than adopt A child
27:01
in the United States of America. Think about that one for a
27:04
moment. And her dad was president of the
27:07
United States and George Bush was president when she did that.
27:11
That that shouldn't. Be able to happen.
27:13
It should be easier to get on. Here than there.
27:15
So I am very pro-life in that way.
27:17
But something else I was adopted, Nancy was adopted, my
27:22
mother Jane was adopted. We are a piece meal family and
27:25
when I talked to adopted in groups they said think would
27:28
have happened. If Nancy been aborted, Jane had
27:31
been aborted, I've been aborted. Think about the Reagan family
27:35
now. Where are they?
27:38
They're not here because they were aborted.
27:40
Instead, they were adopted in and look at the difference they
27:44
made. Jane, Dad, Nancy, whatever,
27:48
Whatever I'm doing, you know, not only the United States, but
27:50
around the world, around the globe.
27:54
Was your adoption, was that something that you think also
27:57
inspired your father to be pro-life?
27:59
How did your adoption, in your view, impact your father's?
28:04
Politics. You know it.
28:05
It might have I, I. I don't know if it did or not
28:07
really, but I know he never. Never thought, you know, I was
28:13
always. Kidding.
28:14
Never thought of me as adopted. Now I am still teased on the
28:18
Internet. I don't have a right to say
28:20
anything because I would. Ronald Reagan really, really
28:22
wasn't my father. You know, I I still get that it
28:25
just because they're mean, terrible people out there.
28:28
In the world. And they and they do that.
28:31
But Dad and I really never, never, you know, talked about my
28:35
mother and I. I only talked.
28:38
About it one time, and that's back when I was, I think four or
28:42
five years old. Maureen was in boarding school
28:45
at Chadwick already. I would be there the next year.
28:49
So I guess maybe I was 5 or 6 and she was four years ahead of
28:52
me. And because I was home, I knew
28:57
what she was going to get for Christmas.
28:59
So when she came home for Christmas break, I'm a little
29:02
brother. I'm trying to be cool with my
29:04
older sister and I said to her, I said, hey, I know what you're
29:09
getting for Christmas and her I'm sorry.
29:11
I know what you're getting for your birthday because her
29:13
birthday is January 4th. Mom's was the 5th.
29:16
And she said I don't want to know.
29:17
I said, but I know what you're getting for your birthday.
29:20
I don't want to know. I said, mum, I know what you're
29:23
getting for your birthday. She says if you tell me a
29:25
secret, I'm going to tell you a secret.
29:27
I said you're getting a blue dress.
29:29
She said you were adopted. And that's how I found out I
29:32
was. Adopted and so.
29:35
Maureen, I look this and and I. We went downstairs to my mom and
29:39
said what is what's adopted? And my mom said.
29:42
You were chosen. Now shut up and go back to bed.
29:45
I said OK, it affected. It affected me.
29:50
I was fine, but I was affected by other people at school.
29:54
I was teased mercifully by children that I was
29:59
illegitimate, that I was the bastard.
30:01
Still, I still get that today. I was, you know, illegitimate.
30:05
I was a bastard child. I thought at a point that the
30:08
reason I was put out for adoption is because my mother
30:14
knew I was illegitimate. And I thought maybe I was
30:18
putting boarding school because Jane knew.
30:22
Or she didn't know. I was afraid to talk to Jane or
30:25
my dad about that, in case they didn't know that I was a bastard
30:28
child or illegitimate. And I felt that if they found
30:32
out, if they knew what I knew from what the kids were telling
30:36
me, they would give me away also.
30:38
Just like my birth mother, I read back in 19501945.
30:44
So it scared the crap. Out of me, to be honest with
30:46
you. Because now I'm dealing with
30:48
illegitimacy. I'm dealing with being a bastard
30:51
because I went to the dictionary.
30:52
I wrote about this in my first book.
30:54
I went to the dictionary and look up bastard.
30:56
I didn't know what it meant until I read.
30:57
I don't know what it meant. And it scared the hell.
31:00
Out of me, and I was, Yeah, I was.
31:03
But unfortunately that opened up to be.
31:08
The cause of other things happening in my life that caused
31:12
me to walk away from everybody until, you know, until finally I
31:16
met Colleen and ultimately I didn't tell my, you know,
31:19
telling my parents all this stuff back in the 80s.
31:24
Did you were able to talk about some of this with your dad at
31:27
any point? I know he was obviously very
31:29
focused on career. He ends up remarrying, getting
31:32
into politics, having tremendous responsibility.
31:33
Did you ever have conversations about?
31:35
Some of those difficult events in your childhood with.
31:38
Your I didn't talk to anybody. I talked to nobody at all.
31:44
And what happened was because I was so, because all these
31:49
things, all these things working on me and what have you, it
31:53
didn't help me in my school work.
31:57
And I think about that on a regular basis.
32:01
I was laying other things, determine my attitude for the
32:04
remainder of the day. And those were good things.
32:08
I had been opened up. My dad put my dad my mom.
32:13
Put me in a. After school program for one
32:17
year in 3rd grade and the after school program the man in the
32:22
after school program was a pedophile.
32:26
I nobody knew that then, but for all of third grade he sexually
32:34
molested me for a year of my life and took me up to Santa
32:37
Monica Mountains. It was nice to me through it
32:40
showed me how to throw a. Football a baseball a
32:42
basketball. You know, a lot of things that
32:45
I'm really very good at. He taught me this is what
32:49
happens a lot of times in divorce.
32:52
You know, the red like divorce is when you're away from your
32:55
dad, who usually could do those things.
32:58
You know, some other person could step in and do those
33:02
things. Dad, we rode.
33:03
Horses shot. Ground squirrels, we did all
33:06
those fun things, but baseball, throw base football, all these
33:09
other things, you know, this this guy was doing and
33:13
ultimately took me up to Santa Monica Mountains on a given week
33:16
and took new pictures of me and then had me develop the
33:20
photographs three days later. His apartment in Santa Monica,
33:23
wherever he lived, Put his hand on my shoulder, said, wouldn't
33:26
your mother like to have a copy of this?
33:28
And that's when I walked away from my mom, my dad, God and
33:31
everybody else because then I knew.
33:34
I knew I was going to hell. I knew if they knew, they would
33:37
kick me out and I did everything possible to get out of my mom's
33:43
house. And ultimately it took till I
33:44
went to high school and we were doing with my dad on weekends
33:48
and when I was going to Loyola, so it was, it had a tremendous
33:53
effect on me. The TC I took in school when I
33:57
was like 6-7, eight years old. And so it begets begets now
34:05
conversation with my dad. I don't tell my dad about the
34:08
sexual molestation or my mother until 1987 because I wrote a
34:14
book called on the Outside Looking in where I'm kind of
34:17
telling the story. And that's when I told my mom
34:21
and and told my dad the story. And like somebody called me and
34:28
a friend of mine called me said what would have happened if
34:30
those photos would have come out before, before the book came
34:34
out. I said, well, I wouldn't have
34:35
been alive to be even talk about the book.
34:37
I'd be dead because suicide. Suicide is an option for
34:41
children who are going through molestation.
34:44
That becomes an option. And it became an option for me.
34:47
I didn't choose it, but if those photos would come out, I might
34:50
have chosen it. And the photos were not
34:52
destroyed until are they 2007 when the molester died and his
35:01
his sister-in-law called me or he wrote me a letter said Don
35:04
has finally died and you can find the rest because the
35:08
photographs have all been destroyed that he took of you
35:11
and so many other children that were in a chest at the end of
35:14
his bed where he lived. He did hundreds of people need
35:18
to understand that that's how a child is blackmailed and and
35:26
react to. So I didn't finish college.
35:29
I did I've done some good things in my life and what have you,
35:33
but I always have in the back of my mind, you know, the fact that
35:36
I'm trying to overcome all those things, you know, as a child,
35:42
because I I look and see what could have I accomplished had I
35:46
not let those things help destroy relationships.
35:50
So when I have no friends from my childhood, not I didn't want
35:54
any friends really from my childhood because I felt that
35:59
they figured if they knew what I knew about me, they would have
36:01
walked away anyway. So where you might have friends
36:05
from your childhood forever, I don't have those forever friends
36:08
from my childhood because of those things that happened in my
36:12
life. So I've gone out and tried to
36:13
overachieve racing boats. It's at 5 world records of
36:16
Powerball racing out the world champion radio for 2728 years
36:21
and and what have you. So I've done those things and
36:25
what have you, but you're still dealing with the fact of those
36:31
photographs and, and thinking about the children after today
36:35
are going through the same things I went through.
36:38
You know what? You know what takes the child 7
36:39
times to tell an adult what happened to them before the
36:43
adult listens for the first time 7 times.
36:47
At what point do you say screw it, I'm not going to, you know,
36:50
I'm not going to tell that conversation again and you
36:52
don't. And it seems adults always
36:55
believe the teacher first, the minister, the priest, grandpa.
37:03
They seem to always believe the adult who's done the damage,
37:09
then listen to the child who has been damaged and that nothing's
37:14
changed. It still goes on today, still
37:17
goes on today. Michael, I'm very grateful for
37:22
you sharing your story. I know you've shared it before,
37:24
and I think it's helped a lot of people because your willingness
37:27
to talk about this, as incredibly painful as it's been
37:30
for you, I think helps other people be more aware of how this
37:34
happens and how to stop it. And I know that's one of the
37:37
reasons you are such a passionate advocate for kids as
37:40
you are, both in your pro-life work and against sex
37:42
trafficking. So thank you for doing that
37:44
because I think it makes a big difference.
37:47
In your later on when you were coming out and getting involved
37:50
in your radio career, getting involved in writing your books
37:53
and doing your own work alongside your father's
37:56
political career, did you, you know, were there any other
38:00
things that motivated you in how you saw the world?
38:03
You were very concerned. You're conservative, you're
38:05
pro-life, pro family. You had, you talked about your
38:08
faith. Are there any other
38:09
conversations you had? You know, was there anything
38:11
else from your father and what he was doing that impacted you
38:15
during your career? Well, you know, it's just.
38:17
When I told his story flying on Air Force.
38:19
One they really impacted. Me the fact it impacted, I think
38:25
everybody you know when he. Was the 1st.
38:29
President to be shot. And.
38:30
Survive and and the fact he dedicated his life to God.
38:37
He didn't get angry. In my book, you know, in my book
38:39
lesson, my father taught me, the last lesson he taught me was
38:43
forgiveness. And and So what we were talking
38:46
about a moment ago is learning to forgive, like forgive
38:50
yourself. You can start there too.
38:53
Forgive yourself, you know, but I, I remember the way I treated
38:56
people because when I went through, I had to forgive myself
38:58
for the way I treated people. And so I forgive my dad can
39:02
forgive John Hinckley for trying to kill him.
39:05
And and I tell this story when I go out.
39:09
Yeah, I could go into a room and people say to people, raise your
39:12
hand. If you know the Lord's Prayer,
39:15
everybody's hand goes. Up, they say.
39:16
OK, raise your hand if you live it and you see all the heads.
39:22
I know two people who lived it, my father and Pope John Paul,
39:27
because both of them forgave the two people who tried to murder
39:32
them before they even went back to the White House and went back
39:37
to the papal seat. And back, as Pope John Paul did.
39:42
And I think that God honored those things by allowing them to
39:46
get together. The Protestant and the Catholic
39:48
get together both. Them deep in their faith, of
39:51
course. Get together and look at the
39:54
commonality they have between them on.
39:56
Both forgiving those who tried to murder them.
39:59
But the other thing, getting communism out of the building,
40:03
bringing freedom to Poland and around the globe and bringing
40:06
down the Berlin Wall, and I think it really it started
40:10
there. Because they gave them
40:12
something, gave them a, a place to plant their flag and, and
40:16
they did that. And like my dad said, I think
40:18
God kept me alive for a reason. I have a higher purpose.
40:22
And unfortunately you have people who saw that differently,
40:25
said, well, he's different now than he was before he was shot.
40:29
Oh my, heck yes, he was. He was shot and almost died and
40:32
what have you. And so he changed in that way
40:36
and, and so, you know, it, those kind of things really meant a
40:40
lot to me, seeing my dad. In.
40:42
That way, forgiveness, if you will, his humor, you know, the
40:49
humor was the same. With you or with me?
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That's Firebreaker series.com. You know, like the day was shot
42:02
dance. I forgot the duck.
42:04
I hope all you doctors are all Republicans.
42:06
But what does he say to me? He tells me if I'm ever going to
42:10
get shot, don't be wearing a brand new suit.
42:14
I said what? Yeah, I wore a brand new suit
42:16
yesterday. It's first.
42:17
Time I wore it, you know, last time I saw it, they cut that.
42:20
Suit off of me. It was in shreds in the corner.
42:22
Of the hospital room so if. You're ever going to get shot,
42:24
Michael. Don't be wearing a new.
42:25
Suit, I said, all right, he said, young man who shot me, I
42:28
said Hinckley, he said. John Hinckley, yes.
42:31
Understand his parents in the oil business?
42:32
Well, yes they are. Understand they live in Denver.
42:36
I said yes they do, he said you. Think they have any money?
42:39
I said. Dad of.
42:40
Course they have money. This is 6 hours after he's off
42:42
the table. Of course they have money.
42:43
They're in the oil business to live in Denver.
42:45
My dad looks at me, he says. You think?
42:47
They'd ever buy me a new suit. So this is the way he is with
42:52
me. So that's the way he is.
42:56
Things about him, he knew you would be nervous in his
43:00
presence, so he used his humor to kind of make him soften it
43:04
for everybody. And you know, I remember that so
43:09
well during those times. But there's a part in the movie
43:13
that would not happen. Today, unfortunately, in America
43:15
that we live in, and that part is when he's shot and he wakes
43:20
up in the hospital room. Who's sitting in the chair in
43:22
it? With his rosary tip O'Neill.
43:26
Tip O'Neill's in my dad. 'S hospital room with a rosary,
43:30
praying with my father. That doesn't happen today.
43:35
That doesn't happen. Today.
43:36
And that that's what we've lost in America.
43:39
Why do you think, why do you think that is, Michael?
43:42
That's such a good point that, you know, we're it's so
43:44
partisan, so divisive, and in some ways we've lost our
43:47
humanity in politics. What?
43:50
What do you Why do you think? I think a lot of social.
43:52
Media, I think a lot of it because people don't.
43:58
Nobody can't talk to each other. Your families, nobody talks to
44:01
each other anymore. They don't communicate.
44:03
But you know, I said to a Republican group the other day I
44:07
was talking to, not actual speech, but I would just happen
44:10
to be in a room with him. And I said.
44:13
You know you guys. Let me just say something.
44:17
The Republican Party is this is the minority party.
44:21
You spend more time kicking people out of it than you
44:24
bringing people into it. And you, you can only bring
44:26
people into it with a message. And my father had a message that
44:29
brought people in and he got elected because Republicans,
44:34
Democrats, independents voted for because he had that kind of
44:36
a message. And I said, let me just say
44:39
something to you. He has a daughter.
44:41
Padding, who didn't vote for him, was a member of the Peace
44:46
and Freedom. Party let him March on
44:48
Washington. DC when he was president of the
44:50
United States with a friend of hers, my dad didn't buy them
44:54
into the Oval Office and say, what's your problem?
44:57
What's your gripe? His son Ron is an atheist.
45:02
All right, He didn't vote for his father.
45:04
So you have two of his children didn't vote for him.
45:07
One's an atheist. One.
45:08
Let him March on Washington, DC. But you know something, at
45:13
Thanksgiving, they were at the table.
45:17
They weren't kicked off the table.
45:19
They were still allowed in, you know, and Dad, dad would talk
45:24
politics and what have you, but they're still at the table.
45:28
And so we I see people out there today, which really ticks me
45:31
off, who pretend like they knew Ronald Reagan, like they've
45:35
always been at the dinner table, who I never saw at the dinner
45:38
table, but yet they pretend they were at the dinner table no more
45:42
than me and other people that were there all the time.
45:46
And so it seems they could drop my dad's name, but they didn't
45:49
learn any lessons. And it's really about learning
45:52
lessons. I learned lessons from my
45:54
mother. I learned lessons from my
45:56
father. You know, it's about, it is
45:58
about being gracious. It is about, you know, being
46:01
forgiving and what have you. And.
46:06
I don't think we don't. We don't.
46:08
We don't want lessons anymore because it's, we'd rather fight
46:11
than learn anything about anybody.
46:14
And that's, that's, that's really unfortunate.
46:17
Are you concerned about the direction both the Democrat and
46:20
the Republican Party has gone in the way we talk about each
46:24
other, in the way that, and I don't just mean policy
46:27
disagreements. Those are, you know, good
46:30
disagreements to have. But in the rhetoric that's used
46:33
sometimes the accusations that are wielded against one another,
46:37
what do you think about the way politics is today between the.
46:40
Party and I think. And what would your father, what
46:42
do you think your father would think about?
46:43
It there they go again, basically with everybody.
46:46
It's it yeah, I think both parties.
46:50
I think one party more than the other said and then but it but
46:53
again, it's it's the name calling that what did my dad
46:58
say? Never speak I'll of another
47:00
Republican and he never did. But today we have no problem
47:04
speaking I'll of everybody and and so you'd say, why do we do
47:08
that? What?
47:09
Why? Why?
47:10
And, and by speaking I'll and by speaking I'll.
47:13
He didn't mean policy disagreements.
47:15
What would he mean? What do you mean character
47:17
attacks? Yeah, character attacks speaking
47:20
I'll of another Republican. You know, it's, it's really
47:23
saying, go back to Tip O'Neill for a moment.
47:26
Tip O'Neill. My dad passed the largest tax
47:28
break in American history. Tip O'Neill was Speaker of the
47:31
House, Democrat, House Republican President.
47:37
What'd my dad do? My dad invited Tip O'Neill to
47:39
the White House for dinner with his wife.
47:41
At dinner next day or two, he'd go back to his office.
47:45
Tip O'Neill wouldn't tell his staff.
47:47
I'm going to carry the legislation to the floor of the
47:50
House. And they looked and said, you
47:53
know, in the past, because back then they were bold, evil
47:56
Democrats. Today they're Blue Dog, just age
47:59
wise. I'm helping out there.
48:01
And and so he, he and so he said, and they said it'll pass.
48:06
He said, yeah, well, what did the president promise you?
48:09
What did he tell you at dinner that caused you to do this?
48:12
Said the president never talked about the taxes all night long.
48:16
He never talked about taxes. Then what in the hell did he
48:19
talk about? He talked about the greatness of
48:22
America, the goodness of all of her people and how the two of us
48:26
working together to make it better for everybody.
48:29
And before I knew it, I'm having a glass of wine with the
48:31
president. We're telling Irish stories and
48:34
today I'm telling you I'm going to take the legislation to the
48:37
floor of the Congress and I know it'll pass, he said.
48:40
Oh, by the way, on the way out the door he did say one thing.
48:43
Whoever votes for you, I promise not to campaign against in the
48:46
next election with it just kind of weakened or not.
48:49
But again, that's we don't do that anymore.
48:53
I don't know if Ronald Reagan had many regrets, but I do know
48:57
I have read reports that he shared about one of them, which
49:01
was, you know, in his passionate pro-life support.
49:04
He had a proclamation that he did as president where he
49:07
instituted sanctity of life Sunday in 1988.
49:10
And he talked about how every unborn child has a right to life
49:14
and that the government, the Constitution should protect that
49:17
child's right to life. So he was very pro-life.
49:19
This was unprecedented for a president to do this.
49:22
And I think it made a big impact on the people of the United
49:25
States. When he was governor, though he
49:28
passed a law before Roe V Wade in 1973, In the 60s he passed a
49:33
law that permitted abortions in some instances.
49:37
And later on, it was reported that he expressed regret for
49:40
legalizing some of these instances of abortion.
49:43
Well, he was governor because he felt that it was the wrong thing
49:47
to do. Did you ever talk to him about
49:49
this or what is your perspective on on this part of his his
49:53
record? He always sit there and said,
49:55
you know, it's this. All the people who are
49:57
pro-choice have already been born.
49:59
I thought that was one of the great lines he ever he ever
50:02
gave. But he was.
50:03
Partially pro-life and I think part of it might have been
50:06
because me coming into the family being adopted and what
50:09
have you, but we never really talked about talked about more
50:12
with Maureen, who was really she's part of the Republican
50:18
Party. She's a lot of stuff, but he
50:21
was, he was things he was passionate about, was pro-life.
50:26
Things you're passionate about was bring your freedom to the to
50:29
the world. And it it's, it's unfortunate
50:35
we're in a position in the world we live in today.
50:38
We're in, I think. One of the things he said, when
50:41
we become, when we cease to be 1 nation under God, we become a
50:45
nation gone under. And I think prolific, I think
50:48
that's where we're at today. We've gone under and, and, and
50:51
in every single way and what have you.
50:54
And, and that's, that's unfortunate.
50:57
I, I think we, we're not going to change anything till we get
50:59
that back, but it has to start there.
51:03
I also think another thing, I think that, and I say this, I
51:06
say on my ratio problem with abortion, the problem with the
51:10
border, too much money made on both sides of the issue where
51:15
both sides of the issue are, you know, are passionate about their
51:18
beliefs. But if either side wins, the
51:22
money stops. And I think there's I think a
51:26
lot of it's about dollars and cents, unfortunately.
51:29
And the children pay the price. The aborted kids pay the price.
51:34
You have the black families been destroyed because of abortion.
51:38
Back in 1965 when the government used to give black mothers,
51:43
African American mothers, they would give them money up until I
51:47
think the tenth child. And then after that they
51:50
wouldn't give them money. But they only got money if the
51:53
father of the child did not live in the home.
51:57
So they start kicking. Fathers were now not living in
52:00
the home of their spouse and their children.
52:06
And you wonder why the fathers are not out and not and fathers
52:09
aren't in the home because the government only paid you if the
52:11
fathers. Weren't in the home.
52:13
And they only paid you up to a certain amount of kids, and
52:16
after that they were going to pay you.
52:17
So what would happen? You have the you have the black
52:21
families aborting in, in the percentages that are just
52:27
unbelievable because of that. And so you have to go back.
52:30
A lot of times you see the media who doesn't do their job, never
52:35
tells you the history of something.
52:38
Yeah. You can't solve the problem
52:40
unless you know the start of it. What's the history of it?
52:44
What's going on? Where you look at the look at
52:47
the talk about let's make the Supreme Court larger.
52:51
Well, why has Supreme Court got why was Donald Trump able to do
52:54
what he did? Because what the senator from
52:57
Nevada did back in the 19, whatever 90s when he changed the
53:02
rules on how you elect. You know, you know people.
53:08
To the court, he changed it from 60 votes to 50 votes.
53:12
And he was warned, well, what goes around comes around.
53:16
And when the Republicans took over, they changed it on the
53:19
Supreme Court. And that's why you have Supreme
53:21
Court where it is. And this is what happened.
53:24
But again, the media does not tell you the basis of it.
53:28
Or you go back 1970s and say, jeez, how come we have such a
53:32
large deficit? Well, up until 1972, the
53:36
President, United States had the authority to hold back funds
53:40
they thought were budget Busters.
53:42
But that was Richard Nixon. And so after Wonder King,
53:45
everybody was mad at Nixon and the Congress took that authority
53:49
away from him and took it on themselves.
53:52
So since 1973, the Congress has been charged to the budget, not
53:56
the president. And if the president doesn't
53:58
spend, I don't know if people know this or even know this, if
54:01
you don't spend every dollar that is allocated by the
54:04
Congress of the United States, you could be taken to.
54:06
Court. By the Congress of the United
54:08
States. My father was threatened twice
54:11
with that. So again.
54:14
That's what makes you mad. At the media is the fact.
54:16
They don't give you source, they don't give you background, they
54:19
don't tell you so you can make an honest decision about
54:23
anything. What do you think, Michael,
54:26
about the direction the Republican Party is going now?
54:28
I think there's a lot of good that the party's trying to do.
54:32
But in the last couple months, the last three months, the party
54:35
changed the platform during the Republican National Convention,
54:40
took most of pro-life out of the platform, took marriage isn't
54:44
between a man and a woman out of the platform.
54:47
What's your sense of what if, if your father were alive today,
54:50
what he would think about that, what kind of voice he'd be right
54:52
now, and what is? Your take on that?
54:55
My take on that is you're one of three people to read the
54:57
platform. That's my take on that.
55:02
Well, let's say. Not Would people vote, they vote
55:07
for the most likable candidate or about the issue that they
55:09
like and that that's what they do.
55:13
But nobody really reads the platform or what have you.
55:16
They'll say it at the convention.
55:18
My dad talked about the convention in 1976, Bold colors.
55:21
All these other things didn't do any good.
55:25
President still lost back in 1976.
55:28
So not many people pay that much attention to platforms.
55:31
I mean activists. Do pay attention to it, but
55:34
outside the activists, they're just looking at what's in the
55:37
news, what are you saying, what are you going to do for me
55:40
lately and what have you. They're not looking really at a
55:44
very much else in it, if you will.
55:47
And so if the platform is the platform, if you read it, you
55:51
can be upset by it, you can like it or what have you, but it
55:55
really comes down to the candidates. 1 is each candidate
55:59
saying about what they're going to do or not do if they are
56:03
elected to the Senate, to the House and what have you?
56:07
I think the Republicans need to pay attention to the Senate,
56:10
make sure that they control the Senate.
56:12
If Harris wins, you're going to have a stop gap somewhere.
56:16
I think Republicans have made a mistake for generations.
56:19
Democrats, Democrats, you know, don't go for the don't go for
56:25
the big win at the top so much what they control.
56:30
What do they control? School boards, mayors,
56:35
governors, so on and so forth. And and the Republicans always
56:39
reaching for the stars and they forget about the mayors, school
56:44
board, City Council, all these. Like here in California, they'll
56:49
be Democrats. Why?
56:50
Because Republicans don't pay attention.
56:52
To it, they're too involved. It's a presidency.
56:56
They need to be more involved where we're involved with our
57:00
children, with the school, with the mayors and all these things
57:04
we have. We have a homeless problem in
57:06
Los Angeles, all Democrats in charge, all Democrats, we no
57:12
Republicans. And, and that that's a terrible
57:15
thing that the Republicans do. And I think the leadership at
57:18
the national level needs to start rethinking how can we be
57:23
involved more locally at. At those.
57:27
Levels, because Democrats are involved in those levels, and if
57:30
they win the governorship of the presidency, that's the cherry on
57:34
the cake. Because they don't really need
57:36
it. If they control everything.
57:37
Else and Republicans need to start.
57:39
Controlling the other side of the building.
57:42
It's a really good point, Michael.
57:43
Thank you. Listen, it's been such an honor
57:46
to get to talk to you. Do you have any final thoughts
57:48
you want to share about the the moment we're in the movie or the
57:52
incredible life of your dad? You know the the go see the
57:55
movie and stay till the end of it.
57:58
All the way. Through the credit and you see
57:59
the child read the letter about the goldfish.
58:01
At the end of the movie. But it's a great movie about him
58:05
fighting communism in Hollywood and his life story in that way,
58:09
if you're going to see it, to see politics is not really a
58:13
political movie. It's his, it's a movie about him
58:18
fighting, you know, communism and where it came from, how we
58:22
grew up and all the way to tear down this wall speech.
58:26
And, you know, so many of us fight, fight obstacles in our
58:29
lives. Something happens that's bad to
58:31
us and we give up. See this movie, every obstacle
58:35
my dad hit, he just went right past it.
58:40
And it's really something you need to learn.
58:43
Don't. Give up because you failed.
58:46
And look at the people who are successful today.
58:49
Every single one of them has failed.
58:52
Every single one of them. And look at it in that way.
58:56
So don't let failure control your day and don't let somebody
59:00
else's attitude control control those failures.
59:05
Be your own person, be your own leader.
59:08
And marry a, if you're a guy, marry a really good woman like
59:12
Colleen. And we'll celebrate our 49th
59:14
wedding anniversary November 7th.
59:17
Because without her. Without her.
59:19
I tell people I would be in a tent outside on the streets.
59:24
I said. It'd be a damn nice tent, but
59:26
it'd still be a tent. Michael, thanks for being a
59:30
living witness of what you're preaching and showing that
59:32
persistence and that strong character.
59:35
Thank you so much. It's just been a real pleasure,
59:37
and I hope everyone goes and sees the movie Reagan, if they
59:39
haven't already. Thank you so much.
59:41
And it's going to be a digital very soon.
59:43
Fantastic. Very good.
59:45
Thank you. Thank you so much.
59:46
God bless. A huge thank you to our partner.
59:49
EWTNEWTN is the largest religious network, reaching
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