The following remarks were delivered to the Kitsap County Lincoln Day Dinner on June 2, 2023, in Bremerton, Washington. They are shared here as prepared and edited for print.

((REMARKS))

It is an honor to be here tonight, especially considering my friend Dori Monson was here last year as your keynote.

Dori was one of the last true government watchdogs in media. He took the responsibility seriously.

He was fierce.

He was fair.

He was unflinching.

He believed that if left to its own devices, government would move further away from the People.

In a lot of ways that’s already happening.

May I propose a toast to our friend Dori, to what he stood for, and to why we’re all here tonight – our shared mission to keep a government of the People, by the People, for the People.

When I’m invited to speak at events like these, there are always a few people in the room who are confused why I’m here. There is certainly a segment of Republicans in Washington who don’t understand why a self-titled moderate independent who has been critical of the former president and his claims of a stolen election would be invited to be a keynote at a Republican fundraiser. There are those who don’t believe I’m conservative enough to deliver a message to a conservative crowd.

There are critics on the other side as well. I was told by multiple people that I should not come tonight. That there would be a J6er in the room. That the county party is too extreme. That it will hurt my credibility and my public image.

As you can see, I came anyway. Frankly I don’t care about my public image. And I don’t see extremists in the room tonight. I see a room full of people, my fellow Washingtonians, who despite our occasional differences, share one very important foundational belief: that more freedom is always better than less.

The theme of tonight’s event is “Let Freedom Light the Way.”

In some ways, I was born and raised to talk about that theme.

Constitution is the first word my dad taught me to spell.

I know, that’s a little weird – he was a weird guy – but I still remember him reciting each letter to me and having me recite it back to him.

C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N

C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N

I recall a picture I drew when I was young, I'm sure my mom still has it somewhere. I wrote the word Constitution and drew a big trophy alongside it.

Sure, I could look at that now and think, 'well maybe I was a little confused about what the constitution actually is.' But you know, the Constitution is a trophy. It is a prize. So maybe I understood that better than I give myself credit for.

My dad was a troubled man. He died a few years ago – homeless, after a lifetime of addiction and mental illness. But he was also incredibly smart, wise, and complex.

In the past couple years – especially through the pandemic – I’ve started to appreciate and understand better some of the things he used to say. The things he taught us as kids.

My dad wrote a lot.

And what seemed like the writings of a mad man to me growing up are suddenly so meaningful.

Well, at least some of them. Other passages were a little crazy. We were given his daybook and journals after he died. One page on his calendar read:

“Got shot today. Four tubes of super glue later, all good. Fucked up my favorite pants.”

Let’s just say not everything he wrote down was profound.

But on one page in his journal, he wrote down a quote from Frederick Douglass.

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”

In reflecting on those words, I will admit something for the first time tonight. That I am genuinely embarrassed by some of my early coverage of the pandemic. How I lost sight of our most unalienable right – liberty – and how I used my platform to encourage others to lose sight of it as well.

I have a lot of shame over that.

For example, when hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters first marched to the state capitol in April of 2020, I offered a commentary on my FOX 13 show.

I quoted Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” and told viewers: “Maybe right now we should focus on staying alive, and fight for freedom from within the safety of our own homes.”

It’s like the meaning of Patrick Henry’s words were completely lost on me.

There was also an interview I did with King County Executive Dow Constantine where I was almost urging him to arrest people who were violating quarantine.

In hindsight, that is so deeply mortifying. I'm sure my dad rolled over in his grave.

I’m not sure at what point my mindset changed, probably sometime in the summer of 2020, but I’ve tried to make up for it ever since.

In fact, the government’s handling of COVID is one of the main reasons I quit my job in TV news in 2021.

The Fourth Estate was floundering. It was failing in its core duty to hold the powerful accountable.

Even when presented with new evidence that vaccines wouldn’t stop the spread of the virus, hardworking Washingtonians – dedicated public servants – were being stripped of their livelihoods.

Many in the media were unbothered by it. Uninterested in highlighting the clear logical and scientific inconsistencies.

And then of course there was one-man rule. 975 days of it.

During which time, the closest representatives of the people were all but cut out of decision making during one of the most difficult crises in our lifetimes.

Again, too many in the media just accepted it as necessary. Even as the months and years dragged on.

If there were ever a time for the power of a free press to show itself, it was then.

If not then, it is now.

Increasingly, there is a willingness to allow the erosion of our freedoms – if those freedoms are being taken away by people we are ideologically aligned with.

Gun control is a good example. Let’s take the latest ban on so-called assault weapons.

I oppose it. Not because I’m into guns. I don’t own any. I oppose it because it violates the only thing that guarantees our basic rights as Americans.

The Constitution.

There are many who seem perfectly fine with the erosion of Second Amendment rights because they are not exercising those rights themselves. What they fail to consider is that a government willing to take away one of your rights is only emboldened to take away others.

I would ask those who support limits to the Second Amendment whether they would support the government passing limits on other amendments.

How about the due process given to us in the Fifth Amendment. Should we further limit that?

Or the protection against cruel and unusual punishment in the Eight. Should we let the government make some exceptions?

Or the Third Amendment, the quartering of troops. That’s an amendment written during a very different period in our country. Maybe we should just do away with it and hope the government doesn’t get any ideas?

How about the amendments that guarantee women and people of color the right to vote? Or the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. We’re well past slavery, right? Surely we don’t need that anymore?

I think we can all agree that while those amendments were written at very different times in our country, they were written and ratified for good reason.

I often hear the argument that the Second Amendment wasn’t written for modern weapons. That muskets aren’t the same as an AR-15.

But the same argument could be made for the First Amendment. Written at a time when a free press only sent out stories in print. The First Amendment doesn’t mention social media, or radio, or television. But it doesn’t have to. Because we accept as a society that free speech and freedom of the press is all encompassing.

Why then, do some reject that when it comes to our right to bear arms?

In fact, my reading of the Second Amendment is that the people should have access to any weapon the government does – that being the only way we could successfully rise up against a tyrant.

Now, I’ve made the case before that I would actually be fine with changes to the Second Amendment – if it is done in accordance with the Constitution and the will of the people. It is a difficult process, as it should be. But the founding fathers put it in place for a reason. So that our fundamental rights as Americans would not be subject to the whim of political parties, or constantly changing periods of public opinion.

People who are so eager to see the rights of their fellow Americans whittled away would be wise to consider what rights of theirs could be taken next.

Again, there seems to be a willingness to allow the erosion of certain freedoms if it’s being done by politicians we are ideologically aligned with. We sometimes lose track of our moral and logical consistency when it gets wrapped up in ideology.

Both sides are guilty of it.

How can someone who supports the government mandating vaccines, argue for a woman’s right to choose and vice versa.

If you support freedom and individual liberties, how can you oppose the freedom of people to love who they chose or to marry who they want?

If you want the government to stay out of your homes and out of your parenting, then can you truly support governments that ban parents outright from deciding whether their child, in consultation with a doctor, can get certain types of care?

You see how “freedom” can have different interpretations? That’s where things get tricky. That’s why we have to fight even harder for the freedoms we might not like.

Such as the freedom a high school football coach has to kneel on the 50-yard line and pray after games. A practice I don’t particularly agree with.

But there are places in this world where practicing religion in the wrong place or in the wrong way can get you arrested, persecuted, or even killed.

In America, you have the right to fight for your freedom if you feel it is being infringed. In fact, you can plead your case to the highest court in the land. And you can win. Or you could lose. But at least you have the right to fight.

And when you fight for your freedoms, you are fighting to protect or expand everyone else’s freedoms, too. Even those who might not appreciate or understand them.

When Glen Morgan exposes what the government wants to hide, he’s doing it for everyone. Even those who voted for the politicians at the center of his stories.

When Representatives Caldier and Couture speak up on the floor of the House to fight for parental rights, they do it for all parents – even those who seem perfectly fine with the government’s intrusion into their households.

When you fight for freedom, you fight for everyone’s freedom.

Today, I understand better than ever why my dad drilled in the word Constitution into my head.

C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N

Sure, maybe it was because he was a little odd.

But he knew the importance of it. And he wanted me to know too.

He knew that no matter how hard his kids worked, how smart they were, how sound of character, it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t free. And if they didn’t value that freedom. And if they didn’t fight to keep it.

I didn’t understand or appreciate that lesson then, but I do now.

Just like I didn’t fully appreciate the importance of those who were fighting for our freedoms in the early days of the pandemic.

I do now.

I know now that they were fighting for me, too, even if I didn’t see it at the time.

So, for every one of you in this room who is committed to expanding our freedom and our liberty – that is a worthy fight. Not everyone in this state might appreciate it, but perhaps one day they will.

And know that as long as freedom is lighting your way, you can be sure that you are on the right path.