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Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#079- "Justice and Perseverance" with Dan Simons
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Tune in to hear Dan Simons, the Republican candidate for Harris County District Attorney, share his vision for addressing anti-law enforcement sentiment and clearing the backlog of drug cases. Our discussion takes an emotional turn as we explore the inspiring story of a young boy who overcame significant adversity to achieve academic and athletic excellence. Balancing military service with caring for his disabled father at just 19 years old, this journey exemplifies responsibility and sacrifice, ultimately leading him to pursue a career in law to combat corruption and protect the vulnerable.
We also delve into Dan Simons' career, tracing his path from humble beginnings to his rise as a prosecutor and District Attorney candidate. With over 70 cases tried in just a few years, Simons brings a wealth of experience and a genuine commitment to unbiased justice. We discuss the importance of prosecutor integrity, the need for office reform, and strategies for restoring public trust in the criminal justice system. This episode underscores the power of perseverance and the drive to make meaningful change in the Harris County community.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Clint McNeil and Dan Simmons Interview
Speaker 1Between the ages of 8 and 15 , I was a child victim . I know what it means to not have a voice . I know what it means for someone not to be there for me . I can make a difference , but I can't do it alone . It's going to take a lot of people . It's going to take law enforcement . It's going to take the community to reach and help , because this is their community . This is not just mine and I'm willing to risk everything for it . I have a very comfortable life .
Speaker 2Welcome back . Viewers , watchers , listeners . I'm your host , tyler Owen and Clint McNeil man . Welcome back . I have missed you . I have longed for your presence and we just concluded the Texas FOP TNPA Conference in Dallas Some pretty big news , ella Presidente . I don't want to spill the beans a little bit . Tmpa conference in Dallas Some pretty big news , ella Presidente . I don't want to spill the beans a little bit , but good conference .
Speaker 3It was an awesome conference . We had 500 , probably 520 or so people from all over Texas there .
Speaker 2The smoothest conference we've ever had .
Speaker 3It was actually probably the smoothest one I've been to . Yeah .
Speaker 2Well , it's because you were the Ella Presidente of the Texas FOP chapter . I appreciate that . Well , it's because you were the Ella Presidente of the Texas FOP chapter .
Speaker 3I appreciate that .
Speaker 2Congratulations , man , thank you , thank you . I was in the back and I was just reminiscing of all of our moments Like a photo reel and I got teary-eyed but I didn't want to cry in front of all of our members in the conference party . I didn't know if I had to go on stage or what I . And typically like when there's unified partnerships , like podcast guest hosts , they typically bring like their podcast buddy up there and say this is all because of our friendship . I did it for him . I wouldn't be here without him .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2And that didn't happen . But there's always next year . Yeah , we'll do that next time and we wanted to give some . I said how is this going to work ? Because I've gotten text messages and phone calls like man what the hell is Clint McNair doing , leaving TMPA and is he going to be ?
Speaker 3a . Texas FOP no that's a good question . I've had just the same , so I'm not going anywhere . You are stuck with me here . It's just an additional role as president of Texas FOP , but I've had people reaching out hey man , I hate you're leaving TNPA , or can I have your job now that you left ? Nothing's changed . I'm still here full time . Y'all are stuck with me , but just wearing two hats now instead of one .
Speaker 2Well , I guarantee you're going to be busy . You were busy before as the State Secretary , now you're going to be probably overloaded a little bit with the President .
Speaker 3Oh good , we're all excited , man , yeah , no , it keeps me young . Most people don't believe I'm only 38 years old . I know You're a year behind me .
Speaker 2Yeah , you're a year behind me Speaking of Texas FOP , one of our , I guess the vice president .
Speaker 3First vice president .
Speaker 2David Cuevas , first vice president , david Cuevas reached out about having a podcast guest . Of course , we are always open to people submitting guest ideas , but this one's a hot topic submitting guest ideas , but this one's a hot topic . This one is an important topic and one that needs some . I guess we need to have some discussion about it . We've had the other candidate on before and so we wanted to bring him on today . Can you set that up for us ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I'm pumped about it . Welcome on . We have Dan Simons , who is the current Republican candidate for Harris County District Attorney's Office . Did I get that right ? Yes , sir , thank you very much for having me on guys , Welcome home .
Speaker 1Congratulations .
Speaker 2Thank you , thank you , thank you , el Presidente . We got to say that just like that .
Speaker 1El Presidente .
Speaker 2I like it . Yeah , yeah , and you got .
Speaker 1David helping you .
Speaker 3So yes , I like it , and there's the Houston areas . There's a lot of good people and there's a lot of strong law enforcement leaders in that area and blessed to be friends with them and we work together a lot , so it's good crew to have access to .
Speaker 1I'm glad to be actually part of it and have a lot of their support over there , and that's the only way we're going to win . This is with all the support we can get from law enforcement .
Speaker 2Yep . Well , harris County has been in a mess for quite some time . I'm not a fan of kind of what the current leadership is never have been , because there's just been some issues with what's going on . But you're there to try to change it and you're there to try to change the perception of what the DA's office is doing and how we can move forward in a positive direction and be more what would you say friendly with law enforcement and work together towards crime .
Speaker 1Absolutely . I mean whenever eight years ago , when things kind of flipped , a lot of things throughout the country started happening . One of them was a lot of the DA's office , like Philadelphia , chicago , portland , san Francisco , la . They got rid of a lot of top prosecutors . Same thing happened in Harris County and then you had this massive movement anti-law enforcement and pretty much defund the police and it's created quite a big mess in Harris County and people talk about well , harris County is dangerous and it's never going to come back . It can't be .
Speaker 1Well , look at Montgomery County right above us . You can go to a park and feel safe there . You can't do it 30 minutes down the road and there's a way to get back there , but it certainly isn't traveling down the same road that we've already gone . You've got drug cases , a massive backlog . You had 187,000 cases that weren't even investigated . And this is all through the Sylvester Turner years where they're telling you that Harris County has no crime issue , which baffles me , that people bought that because it is very dangerous . So when you have all those things working against you , harris County becomes a criminal safe haven . I mean , when they get arrested now they ask the officers one question Are we still in Harris County . They don't want to be in Montgomery County or the counties because they're going to be held accountable . So we have accountability issue .
Speaker 1That has basically happened the last four years and it's a joint effort by the people that are actually sitting in those positions . But we can fix that and it takes working together . It takes building and bridging the gap between law enforcement and the DA's office , bridging the gap between the judges and the DA's office , trying to find some kind of olive branch with the commissioner's court . So they'll actually fund the DA's office . And right now we've got a problem where we're funding more . A lot of our budget is funding criminal defendants and not criminal prosecution of defendants . I mean , think about what the PD's office has bigger budget . They've got a court-appointed system down there that they're trying to make every defense attorney a court-appointed lawyer . Wow , you've got .
Speaker 1So somebody gets arrested and you're the victim . You get victimized again because you're going to pay for their lawyer , you're going to pay for their bond conditions and this is all covered under the budget , but it's not going to the da's office and the da's office is overwhelmed and understaffed and tim kim has a really good complaint there . So kim did not get removed from office because of crime in Harris County . She didn't get removed because of the revolving door in Harris County . She got removed by an opportunist that saw a chance to help out some friends and for leadership to get out of an investigation . She's got three staffers and this is going to Alina Hildago . She has three staffers under indictment and herself under investigation as well . Kim got removed because she was going after democrats for on corruption , not because of crime . This is why I have an opponent that basically one or 75 to 25 .
Speaker 1You go back to some of the things that were being said back in april . I'm sorry , october of last year . A lot of those things like I being said back in April , I'm sorry , october of last year . A lot of those things like I'm not going to go and prosecute Democrats because they don't want that and that's who we're up against . And I don't care who you are out there , any Republican out there , if you really believe this line . I mean , there's some oceanfront property in Arizona that this individual is just telling everybody what they want to hear , just to get elected , and he's going to all of a sudden become a conservative Democrat .
Speaker 1You have to look at the people that he's aligned himself with Lena Hidalgo , rodney Ellis , sylvester Turner and $2 million from Soros to get rid of Kim Ogg , who got $500,000 eight years ago and let's talk about that for a moment . $500,000 eight years ago , and let's talk about that for a moment . Every district attorney in the country , funded by Soros , and the different PACs like TOP , texas Organizing Project and all that . Look at what they've done for their area . Look at New York . Look at Philadelphia how safe is there ? Look at Chicago . Look at San Franciscoisco . They tried to basically legalize shoplifting and what did it do ? It ran so many businesses out of town .
Speaker 1Look at portland , where they pretty much decriminalize drugs dallas county , where they are more focused on indicting police officers than they are criminals look over in la where you got gas gone and honestly I think this guy's just like gas gone . We'll do whatever it says to get elected and does not care about law enforcement . That'll do anything to get out there .
Speaker 2Well , you ain't got to look that far outside of Texas . Look right here in Travis County . And what scares me is I don't even think he took as much money as what your opponent took from Soros . That's right . So if we're prepared for that , then we better strap in and buckle up .
Speaker 1Well , the only thing stopping Harris County from being Austin , san Antonio , dallas , chicago , portland , san Francisco , la and New York is Kim Ogg . She wasn't playing ball with him and they removed her because she wouldn't . Do you think they're going to replace her with someone that won't play ball with him ? No , and if he does have this perception that he's going to be D be DA if he gets elected , he's wrong . He's not going to ever be DA . He will always be told what to do and if he tries to bucket , they will remove him . They will primary him out , just like Kim Ogg . Harris County does not need a district attorney that represents one party and one specific elite group . They need a district attorney that represents everybody equally and fairly . I can deliver that , and the way I'm going to deliver that is to show everybody of who I really am . Because you see , what the Democrats don't know or realize they were up against is this is not a typical year election . I'm not a typical Republican candidate .
Speaker 1I grew up homeless and in foster care here in Texas . I lived in tents , I lived in backseat of cars . I lived in motels the first month's rent if we could afford it campers , lake Livingston , those areas this is my background . In the middle of the night , state of Texas came in and took me and my brothers and sister away and put us in foster care . And I'm going to tell you now , foster care was worse than being homeless . That was honestly . I can't express to you the level of corruption there and I remember it very easily .
Speaker 3You bring up a good point If we can backtrack . We start usually each episode with just who's Dan , and let's bookmark right there and step back a bit and just tell us , tell us about yourself , where you were born , um , early life , grown up as a kid , and what that looked like , and um , we'll kind of navigate through this to where we are today . You got it Well .
Speaker 1I was born in Galveston . Most of my childhood was spent bouncing around different schools in Beaumont , port Arthur area , kuntz all north of Livingston and Cold Springs . After foster care at the age of 12 , I asked to move in with friends that I met through the Salvation Army .
Speaker 3You were born into foster care no .
Speaker 1I grew up homeless with my mom , broken family .
Speaker 1That was all the bouncing around , yeah just wherever , living with whatever neighbors , our friends , living the projects wherever . I mean this is the life that I lived . My mom worked at Hispanic bars . I mean we'd be camped outside in the car while she did her shift . I mean this is the world I lived in Drugs , alcohol , sex all that as a kid . And whenever we got taken away and put in foster care , it was definitely just as bad . At 12 years old , I moved in with friends I met through the Salvation Army , just to have the opportunity to be the first to graduate high school in my family's history .
Speaker 3Wow , did you know ? At the time when you were bouncing around with your mom ? Did you know it was bad ? Or a lot of times as a kid , you only know what you know . Was that your normal or did you realize it was tough ?
Speaker 1I realized that I'm never going to get an education by bouncing to school , to school over six months and starting behind every class was always difficult , but realizing that that wasn't what I wanted . I saw what was around me . I saw where people go and what they , what they have . I have four brothers and one sister . A lot of those guys they didn't do very well I mean all of them dropped out .
Speaker 1Ninth grade , 10th grade , the youngest or the second to the youngest , okay , and uh , I mean I've got relatives in prison . I mean that's just the fact of life .
Speaker 3It's
Taking Responsibility and Overcoming Adversity
Speaker 3it's . It's interesting that that early on you realize that's not what you want . You want to do better , you . This is not that's fascinating for a kid , because normally a kid only either only knows what they know or doesn't think that far ahead of . Yeah , I want to do better and be better and get out of this .
Speaker 1In my world . If you were not an asset , getting a social security check , you were a liability . You're also disposable . So I did everything I could because my brothers and sisters they got money from the state . I didn't . I was a liability . So I did everything I could to not be a liability , to be an asset that people wanted to have me around . So that was early foundation for me is like work hard to make sure that people know that you're an asset . And when I moved in with friends that I met through the Salvation Army , it was an opportunity that the only chance I really had to graduate high school . How old were you then ? Twelve years old , Wow . And despite all the you can'ts and things like that , I did very well in school . I graduated fourth in my class and I was an all-district quarterback for my hometown Wow , what town was that ? Comanell .
Speaker 3Wow .
Speaker 1Just nine miles north of Woodville , yep . Now , what I didn't tell you is this I didn't tell you is this I don't hypothesize and I don't talk third person about being a victim . Predators prey on the weak , they prey on the poor and they prey on the vulnerable . I was not an exception Between the ages of 8 and 15 , I was a child victim . I know what it means to not have a voice . I know what it means for someone not to be there for me . When I left high school , it was pretty much you're on your own . We can't do anything else for you .
Speaker 1So I joined the Air Force because I wanted to be a cop . I wanted to protect victims . That's what my job was . That's what I wanted to do in life . In fact , I wanted to be a Texas Ranger one day . I probably watched way too much Texas Ranger , but I wanted to go after corruption , and the only way to do that is you had to be 21 years old to be a state trooper , and they don't exactly take from other branches . They'll take from the DPS . So that was my plan when I joined the Air Force Go to Lackland .
Speaker 1I was at Lackland . I managed to pick Lackland in August , by the way . So , yeah , it was very poor planning on my part . I was like I'm going to enjoy this summer and then I got to go . Now , august 26 was not a very fun time and then I stayed there for tech school in December at Fort Bliss . It was very cold , so definitely a lot of fun in the military .
Speaker 1I enjoyed my military career . I loved what I did . Now I went in law enforcement and they had military career . I loved what I did . Now I went in law enforcement and they had two divisions security police and law enforcement . Sp watched planes on the flight line . I did not want to do that . I wanted to patrol base and do the gates . Well , when I joined and got stationed in Utah , they combined them , so now I found myself watching planes in the middle of the night for 12 hours going . What did I sign up for ? This is exciting . Then I got volunteered overseas to go work in Bahrain , which it's 120 degrees during the day .
Speaker 1I was in Italy as well , in San Vito , and I enjoyed my military career . But the problem was I took on way too much responsibility . At 19 years old , my dad , my biological dad , was crossing Lake Livingston because he's been disabled my entire life and he made money by fishing for a living . And he was crossing the lake and a boat motor kicked up and he put his arm up to stop it and about killed him . Well , I got called down here and they said look , we got no place to put him . So at 19 years old I took my dad in as my man-child dependent . So here I am taking care of another human being , got out of the Air Force to do that .
Speaker 1No , sir , I stayed in the Air Force . I got deployed , but the problem was in one of my tour duties I had somebody taking care of my dad , the up and left and my first sergeant said , hey , can you just check in on him till I get back ? And they look , you're gonna have to make choice . You're gonna have to . Well , I'm gonna discharge you from military early , or you got to give your dad up as a dependent . You don't turn from responsibility . It was not in my best interest to get out of the military . I love the military , but sometimes you got to put other people's interest over your own and I did that . I gladly make that sacrifice . And my dad was my dependent up until the age , uh , till 2015, . Till he passed . So everything I'm about to tell you I've managed to accomplish while taking care of my responsibilities with my dad .
Career Journey to Becoming District Attorney
Speaker 1I got into the business world after the military , kind of by accident , and , uh , a partner inspired me to become a lawyer . So at the age of 27 years old , I moved back down here to Texas , started Angelina Junior College , worked out of state to still take care of everything , went to Sam Houston State University where I graduated number one out of 1,108 students , wow . And then I got accepted to Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston . Now a lot of people said , dude , don't go to Thurgood , you can't pass the bar from Thurgood , you can't graduate from Thurgood and you can't get a good job from Thurgood . The two things that were not stripped from me as a child is my honor and my integrity , and you dance with those who brought you . Thurgood . Marshall gave me the opportunity . I did go to Thurgood . I did graduate Madden Cumulality . I did pass the bar on the first try . And here I am running to be the first Thurgood Marshall , texas Southern District Attorney in Harris County history . Wow .
Speaker 1But I didn't stop there . I went to University of Houston for my master's in tax law . The DA's office was not my first choice . I did not want to do anything criminal related . But while I was getting that master's degree , I applied to the DA's office to do an internship because I wanted to get some experience . Harris County , yes , sir . And they said look , we don't hire lawyers for internships , so we're going to put you in the other pile . And I said didn't know what that really meant . Whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa .
Speaker 2Okay , You're telling me that the DA's office said they don't hire attorneys as interns , as interns , as interns . No , but how do you get ?
Speaker 1experience Law students . No , no , no Law students that are working on passing the bar , because what it is is they have like the internship is for . They'll send out students . Have them come and work in the DA's office while they're taking the bar While they're going to school .
Speaker 1Well , usually taking the bar going to school . Once they pass the bar they'll give them a formal offer . But I already passed that . I already had a law degree . So they put me in the other pile and I didn't think anything of it . A few months goes by and I get a call from the DA's office wanting to do an interview . And I'd already had plans to take over a tax law practice and that thing was grossing about $500,000 a year . So I don't know if I want to do that . But the lady I was talking to said Dan , go check it out , just make sure this is what you want to do . So I went down there for an interview and honestly , had a really good interview . I did another interview , another great interview .
Speaker 1The third interview was probably the most hostile interview I'd ever gone into in my life . You walk into a room . There's a horseshoe shape , you walk in , they put you in the middle and you've got all these high-ranking DA officials in there just bombarding you and see I already had another plan in life . So I went in there and was like , well , we'll see what happens . And so they started interviewing me . And then I started interviewing them Like what do I get out of this and a lot of them took offense to it , like who the hell are you ? Well , look , I'm going to sacrifice a lot . What do I get ?
Speaker 1When I left that interview , one of the guys walking me out is a current judge , aaron Burdett said well , we'll be in touch in a few weeks or months . This thing's going to take time . They called me the next day and offered me the job and I'm like I don't know if I want to work for you guys . And she said look , come in and just shadow a court and see what you think . So I went down there and I shadowed court 11 , judge Bull's court . Within an hour I made a decision .
Speaker 1That was the easiest decision I've ever made in my life . I turned down the big job for a $60,000 a year job , didn't even think twice or look back . I had never felt more at home . When I looked across the audience , I didn't see just defendants , I saw people . What year was this ? This is 2013 . Okay , and having 12 years of business and a lifetime of experience prior to that becoming , before becoming a lawyer , kind of gave me a leg up on a lot of people I worked with , because most people are like my opponent I mean mom and dad paid for his high school at St Thomas first college law school . His first job was the DA's office . I had a lifetime of experience prior to that .
Speaker 1You had a lifetime experience by the time you were 12 years old , so I worked at the DA's office and I didn't work it like other people . I have worked my entire life . I know how to fight for myself and defend myself . Now I know how to work . I may not be smarter than the other people , but I'll outwork you and in three and a half years , with eight months of that sitting on the sidelines and intake and juvenile , I tried over 70 total cases , from justice of peace all the way up to felony . Most prosecutors down there get about 20 , 25 . I'm a workhorse . This is what I do .
Speaker 1When I left the DA's office , I wanted to be a practice defense , because I think a good district attorney needs to have a good balance of both sides , and I also tried to mix in being a judge there . I ran against a judge that lost his judicial independence . This judge was a 16 year incumbent that he went into another courtroom and testified as an expert witness for his best friend's friend's daughter , and I had a problem with that . So I ran against him and unseated him . 70 to 30 in 2018 , one of the largest landslides for a race like that in Harris County history too . Didn't know what I was doing , but you know what . You go out there and just be yourself . People respond to it . We all got wiped out in 2018 and I've been doing criminal defense ever since . I am a real criminal defense attorney , not one for five minutes , not one pretending to be a criminal defense attorney . So you won the judge election , I won the primary , but I lost the uh , we lost the war , yeah , the general . We all got wiped out .
Speaker 1And you know , as fate would have it , five years ago , I registered Dan for DAcom . This is not by accident . I knew that I was going to run for DA in Harris County , just a matter of timing . And when , and last year , when I saw an opportunity , I went down there and put DA Dan on the board and I challenged anybody to run against me . Nobody wanted it because , see , people believe that Harris County is unwinnable . They had believed that there's no possible way . It's blue , never coming back . I never saw that . I saw an opportunity that ,
Harris County District Attorney Campaign
Speaker 1hey , we can win this actually . And I didn't even put up a primary fight because I didn't need to . I didn't even have a webpage , people didn't know there was a Republican candidate , to be honest , and I wanted it that way because I want to let them see what the Democrats do , and they went out there and just beat up each other pretty well and , at the end of the day , 75 to 25 .
Speaker 1But here's some numbers for you that I think will give you hope and this is for all the Republicans out there all the law enforcement . They put $3.5 million into my opponent and one full year of advertising to get rid of Kim Og . I didn't even have a web page and I got 20,000 more votes than he did . Wow , he had 9,500 undervotes in his race . I had 58,000 undervotes in my race . These are people that didn't know me .
Speaker 1I've spent the last four months galvanizing the entire Republican party , telling everybody look , you've got a district attorney that can relate to everybody in Harris County . I'm not running for district attorney for Republican party or Democrat party . I'm running for Harris County district attorney and I really can relate . I don't pretend to relate . I'm not anybody's puppet . I'm not bought and paid for . This is what I bring to the table . And last month we had some interesting things happen . My opponent decided , after months of telling everybody the thing was over with , sent out a nice little email that said hey folks , our Republican opponents are a little closer than we ever thought . We're worried . This race is a lot closer than anybody ever anticipated . This could be as close as the Hildago race in 2022 . We need your help . Think about that . We went from December and January to unattainable , unwinnable , to right here , right now .
Speaker 3That's crazy because in Dallas County if Jesus ran as a Republican in Dallas County he couldn't get elected and I would have assumed all this time Harris County was very similar , so hearing and Quavis indicated the same . He's like man . This thing is going to be super close and there's a really good shot that we're going to Republican district attorney can pull this off . I was shocked because of being so familiar with Dallas County and it says a lot about I think it says a lot about your character , but I think it also says a lot about people are tired of the social experiments in large cities , all the cities that you've mentioned a couple of times .
Speaker 3people are tired . That experiment failed and it failed miserably , and I think people are tired of it .
Speaker 1I , it failed miserably and I think people are tired I cannot say that any better than you just said it , because I call it . This fake social experiment that they've been doing the last eight years has failed miserably . The fake bond reform has failed miserably . You've got a guy out there running for district attorney that's endorsed heavily by top texas organizing project . Have you seen their poster ? Clear the jails in or in cash bond ? I mean , he's standing right next to this poster . He's endorsed by these folks . Believe your eyes .
Speaker 1Do not believe what someone's telling you , because somebody's feeding you a lot of crap , thinking that , oh , we're going to be a law enforcement friendly , we're going to be a victim friendly . Let me give you an example of what I'm up against and I'll stay on him , because you know I can attack Lena all day long . But it's the people you surround yourself with will decide who you are . There's a prominent figure that just passed away , mike DeGaran . Condolences to his family . Dick DeGaran , all those great attorney my opponent posted about it to his family , dick DeGaran and all those great attorney my opponent posted about it . Sheila Jackson Lee passed away . Long life put a lot of servitude for her community . My opponent posted about it . Twelve-year-old girl gets murdered and raped for two hours under a bridge , thrown in a bayou like trash by two illegal immigrants that came from El Paso . Crickets Didn't even reach out to the mom . You're running for district attorney and you want people to believe you care about victims and you don't even reach out or go to the visual . You don't go out and say , hey , I'm probably going to be the next district attorney , you're going to get justice . I will seek the death penalty for these two guys .
Speaker 1Texas has the death penalty for a reason . If this case is not it , then I don't know why we have it . That has not happened . This tells you who this individual is . He's not about victims . Everything he talks about is geared towards defendants . Now , with saying that I'm not going out there saying I'm going to lock everybody up , because that would be wrong , there are some people that deserve an opportunity , but not a handout , it's a hand up . Some people will get a chance at a diversion program . What can we do to teach responsibility and accountability and can this person be safe ? If we can do that , I want to make sure we do it . Whether it be the misdemeanors , the less than a gram drug cases , let's see what we can do , but sometimes a deferred or probation is appropriate , sometimes jail or prison is appropriate , and sometimes the death penalty is appropriate . You have to have a district attorney that represents everybody equally and fairly , not just one party , not just one group . Nobody gets favorable treatment down there and this guy's all about favors for friends .
Speaker 2That's why I don't even think the district attorney's position or sheriff's position should even be party affiliated .
Speaker 1Thank you very much . I tell everybody that this is that my office will be independent of politics . In fact , you can call me an independent Republican because , honestly , it is not about Democrat or Republican . This is a Harris County problem . It's about doing the right thing and we have to fix this and we can fix this . But you cannot go down the same path and take someone that's been in the office as a high ranking Lieutenant and say , oh , he's going to do different . No , you're going to get worse . Right now , the only thing preventing Harris County but from becoming those other backed , uh , crazy places like Philadelphia and Chicago which , by the way , he went to the New York Times on March 5th and said I see myself the Texas version of that , meaning Philadelphia and Chicago . Are you kidding me ? And now you want to backtrack and say that you're friendly to law enforcement , that you're friendly to victims . No , it is the job of the DA's office to seek justice for victims while protecting defendants' rights , because you're not protecting just the defendants' rights , you're protecting everybody else's rights .
Speaker 3On the failed experiment . It's really funny . You know , the Travis County District Attorney . Crime in Austin is out of control . Officers are leaving Austin PD and this week it came out , monday afternoon , that the district attorney subversively moved $115,000 over into his budget for him to have security installed in his home and for him to have a protective detail assigned to him for the taxpayers to pay for . And Twitter is eating him alive that if you hadn't turned the criminals out and endorsed crime , you might feel safe but needed . And they just they're posting about the hypocrisy . And you know being safe from criminals . Good for me , not for the . And and I'm thinking man , that's not a smart move . Why ? Why do these social experiment ? People keep doing the same thing , expecting a different .
Speaker 1It's . It's actually what they call it . That's . That's the definition of insanity . It is trying the same thing over to get a different result . And it's like , why , why would you do this ? And you have to ask , why would someone want to do this ? In fact , you've got someone that , really honestly , he didn't need to go do what he did , he didn't need to go get Lena's endorsement , he didn't need to go take Soros money , but he'll be forever linked to that . Yeah , and you never lose that . And there's not one Soros-backed district attorney in the country that any law enforcement official can say anything positive about . Why would you think anything will be different ?
Speaker 1Now we have a path to victory here . We have a way to win , because when you have someone like me and I'm not your typical Republican from foster care to district attorney , it's a good story . First , thurgood Marshall district attorney in Harris County history it's a good story . But also 16 years of business experience , a real prosecutor , a real defense attorney . I've freed more minorities in Harris County than my opponent .
Speaker 1You want to talk about being a lethal prosecutor or defense attorney ? This is what I do . My entire career in law has been the legal criminal justice system and I have a relationship with everybody down there . I've worked with all those prosecutors . I've worked with all those judges . They've known me for years . This is we can fix this , but we cannot fix it by doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome .
Prosecutor Integrity and Office Reform
Speaker 1You can't have somebody that's bought and paid for , that's owned by Lena or Rodney the defense bar . Think about this Personal injury lawyers gave him $600,000 . $100,000 came from Montgomery County . Not even in Harris County . They don't even have a criminal practice . What do they get for their money ? People do not give you $600,000 and say , hey , good luck , thank you . No , everybody's expecting something .
Speaker 3If they do , if you'd let me know about that .
Speaker 1I would .
Speaker 3Right .
Speaker 1I'd like 600 grand , come on . But I'd like to ask him that question Honestly what did you promise ? And you don't get that without making promises . You can't keep . And now , when you're promising everybody something you can't live up to it . You've got a district attorney right here that will benefit everybody in Harris County equally . That's not bought and paid for . I have no strings attached to me , but I don't need that because you will have somebody doing the right thing whether you're looking or not . And , yeah , da , file down in the Harris County there's always political issues going on . But I can tell you this what's in my file ?
Speaker 1I went to bat to protect a defendant where a prosecutor couldn't make the case . She emailed her chief and said hey , if Dan said dismiss , he's a trial dog , he knows what he's talking about . She went forward and she lost her case and it was an acquittal , not a hung jury , an acquittal . On the flip side of that , I went to bat to protect a victim , a judge in Montgomery County's parents were about killed in a DWI accident 106 miles an hour from the behind about killed him . It was a misdemeanor filing and that judge was really not happy about it . She had reached out to Devin and it was on everybody's radar . But it landed on my desk after sitting on somebody else's desk for four months to evaluate it . I evaluated it and it was easily intoxicant . I presented it , got an indicted felony and got written up . That my opponent's a little protege over there likes to say oh , look at his evaluation , where he has poor judgment . Well , guess what ? When that valuation came out , that case was still a felony . It was poor judgment . Why didn't it get moved back to misdemeanor ? But , more importantly , it pled to a felony . They pled guilty to a felony .
Speaker 1I went to bat for a defendant . I went to bat for a defendant . I went to bat for a victim and I'll do it again . This is who I am . It doesn't matter to me . You can write whatever you want . I will do the right thing , whether you look at it or not . This is what we need . You have to have integrity . It's three things I tell people we have justice for victims , integrity to our office , safety to our community . Another way of saying it is bringing justice to defendants . Integrity to the process . Safety to our streets . This is what I stand for and what I can do , but I need people out there to know .
Speaker 2So for the line-level officer out there that's listening , that works in Harris County . A lot of discussion has been made . A lot of discussion has been made In fact , kevin Lawrence , I believe , actually confirmed this that Harris County is the only county in Texas that you've got to call and get permission . As far as the intake process , have you heard anything about this process ? What are you planning on doing to fix it ?
Speaker 3Every arrest has to be approved by an intake prosecutor .
Speaker 1It's not new . It's actually several counties do it . Montgomery County does it .
Speaker 2But not maybe to the level of degree that Harris County does it .
Speaker 1Harris County . So here's the issue that happened right off the bat and I'm not going to speak for Kim , but when she did get rid of everybody that worked intake and put in people that have never worked in a court , that was a mistake . You know , people make mistakes . But they've tried to revert back , getting prosecutors in there that work the courts that are working there . Now I know a couple of people in there .
Speaker 1Johnny Holmes did great job of creating and fixing and promoting and saying look , we're going to have these prosecutors that work in court do intake . It makes sense , right , and it worked for a long time Rosenthal , all the way up through Devon . And here we are right back to where we started . You have to have seasoned veteran prosecutors that work in the courts taking charges . But I want to take it a step further . I want to reach out to all law enforcement and have our prosecutors go out and talk to them . I want an officer that calls in to know why it's being pushed for further investigation or decline or accepted . I mean I want them to know why .
Speaker 2So you're still going to maintain that process of having to call and get permission for the office ?
Speaker 1That process is actually really , really good at not wasting your time . We have 13,000 total law enforcement throughout Harris County . It's 4.7 million people . That is a buffer to be able to go and screen these and say , hey , this right here , you're missing , because if you have a DWI and I'll go down , it officer calls in and says , hey , we've got this guy . Came upon him sitting in the driver's seat . Smells like alcohol , red blood shot eyes , slurred speech , got him out unsteady on his feet . Did the filter body test . Six of six , four of eight , two of four . We got a consent to blow any blue .10 . Sounds like a good case , except one problem . How'd you come into contact with him ? On the side of the road ? How long has he been there , I don't know . Was his car running ? No , was it hot ? No . Keys in the ignition no . Got a problem ? You have to screen these and that will prevent that from happening , but it's got to be done by somebody that's qualified that can do
Speaker 1it . What I want to do is something a little different . I want a combined intake and grand jury . I don't want prosecutors to get pretty much bored in intake . I want them to also go present to the grand jury , because if you're going to accept cases , you can go present to the grand jury . There's a way to do this for people not to get
Speaker 1bored . They can do their jobs , but we have to have quality prosecutors down there and the first thing you have to do is create a positive work environment . You've got to get rid of inter-office bullying . You've got to give prosecutors discretion . You can make things a lot better because you want people to want to come to work . You do that . We can go around town and get a lot of these prosecutors that are practicing defense , that got fired and the ones that have left the county to come back . We do that . We basically overnight become an experienced office and now we can train the younger staff . Now , when they go through misdemeanor , you're going to make mistakes there . This is the place to try cases . This is where you want to get that experience . You don't want your first two or three cases to be in felony . That is a mistake . You've got to get back to where you take care of people , because the number one asset of the DA's office is people , and right now the commissioner's court .
Speaker 2They're very underfunded , but if they really care about you got important underfunding going on in Harris County . If they really care .
Speaker 1they need to invest more in public safety and not just the defense side , not just PD's office . You've got to put in the prosecution . The way I look at it is this way you have one fire department in Harris County 50 years ago . It grows in 20 years . One fire department grows in 30 years . One fire department . Now it's 50 years later still One fire department grows in 30 years . One fire department . Now it's 50 years later still one fire department . You got to keep up with it . The courts are doing it . They're expanding and adding courts all the time , but the DA's office isn't expanding .
Speaker 2Let me ask you this too , because this came up in a different podcast or a different discussion If your office feels like the bond reform the bonds issues a lot of times not speaking for every county in Texas , but a lot of times the cops tend to blame the DA's office when it comes to bail situations . They have a hand in it maybe , but it has to do with magistrates , and so would you be willing that if you see a problem with a magistrate that maybe had a bond too low , did a PR bond or consistently sets low bonds are you willing to stand with law enforcement to say this is bullshit ?
Speaker 2This should have never happened , and I think that's one of the troubling things that we see in some of the blue cities that has the higher crime rates is there's a bond issue going on and it hasn't . It has something to do with the da's , but it has everything to do with the magistrates very well said and I will tell you this .
Speaker 1I'll take it a step further for you . Okay , when the chronicle started blasting kim aug to help boost my opponent they were talking about blaming kim for all these cases that were accepted . No , pc , they're falsely arresting people . The DA's office does not decide somebody's guilt and they do not decide probable cause . And an elected official now the commissioner's court appoint magistrates . The magistrate decides that , not the DA's office . So I want to make that clear right there . The Chronicle that was that was false . To blame it on Kim that she was accepting all these charges . No , the magistrate is the one who accepts or finds PC , not the DA's office . And you need full transparency at the DA's office and not just
Criminal Justice System Reform Discussion
Speaker 1there .
Speaker 1The courts . I want everybody to know what's going on down there Every day . Keep a tally , what's going on . There's a blog right now that kind of keeps tallies along of prosecutors and defense attorneys , and show me the justice website . Let's do the same thing with the courts . Let's see what's going on with the courts and I'm not throwing the judges under the bus . Here's my carrot . Look , let's work together . Let me give you the tools you need to do your job . Let's also go get rid of the O'Donnell consent decree . Let's give the judges their discretion back . Let's let them do their job Right now . As long as that is in play , a lot of cases people are just going to keep walking in and out . There are some people down there with 16 bonds . Like how does that happen ? You've got murders and rapists . Mainly the one rapist had a PR bond . Think about how the victim felt about that .
Speaker 2And the risk to public safety on that .
Speaker 1That's right , and when you get rid of the bond bondsman , you're getting rid of a very essential tool to keep violent offenders to show up to court and keep the community safe . You're going to let them out . Think of it this way I don't know what's more frustrating for an officer to go make an arrest and then to know that that person's right back out and now you've got to chase them down because they don't want to go to court . We have to have a balance down there , and getting rid of the bond bondsmen all together and going no cash bonds , like my opponent wants to do , is crazy . That has failed everywhere it's been tried .
Speaker 2What's more frustrating is not even that it's for when officers find out that another family's fallen victim because of the lack of experience and lack of persistence to our pursuit of justice , when they find another victim and have to work that second case and it could have been prevented , that's the most frustrating thing .
Speaker 1Talk to Andy Kahn at Crime Stoppers . Over 200 people were murdered by people out on bond . Wow .
Speaker 3One is too many .
Speaker 1One is too many and there are ways to prevent this . And you take a good Samaritan that was at McDonald's , got into an altercation , tried to break it up , got shot for it . That guy was out on bond for ag assault , deadly weapon against a family member carrying a gun around . When you create a criminal safe haven in Harris County , this is what you get People walking around with zero accountability . You had one guy shoot his girlfriend multiple times in front of EMS and he stood over a body , waited for life to leave . He then gets into a shootout with the police and steals the police car but then returns to the scene to get his car .
Speaker 1This is what we have going on . And then when you have an opponent out there that his number one issue is a national issue that's not even related to the DA's office , because no woman in the state of Texas faces criminal prosecution for seeking or getting an abortion and no provider is going to be prosecuted criminally . They don't even recognize that there's a crime problem in Harris County . That's dangerous and that's what we're up against .
Speaker 2Let me ask you something real quick , because this is another topic a lot of our members face in Harris County . Do you think of all the stuff that Lena Hidalgo has been under the microscope for ? Do you feel like it's appropriate for her and or the office that she holds , to be able to practice as the Harris County judge with all of the accusations going on ? I'm leading into something the Brady list across the state is in is up for interpretation and I'm comfortably going something . The Brady list across the state is up for interpretation and I'm comfortably going to say this Harris County has been a focal point for us because we had the most Brady cases come out of Harris County for unforeseen reasons and even unexplained reasons . What is your take on the Brady list and how are we going to fix it ? And how can we all sit down in a room and say this is how I interpret it and how can we get to the bottom of how we can all at least maintain some kind of understanding ?
Speaker 3Literally , the Brady list is interpreted 254 different ways in the 254 counties in Texas .
Speaker 1Here's my take . You should not be afraid , as law enforcement , to stand by your actions . If there is something that we want to disclose , I think it is important to disclose to . I don't want anybody to be arrested or convicted of something that should have been suppressed . I'm not interested in that . We should be able to stand by our evidence and stand by our investigators and investigations . And on Lena , I'll tell you right now I've been fighting my entire life to get here . If somebody's going to accuse me of something , I'm going to walk out there and say fine , go ahead , Indict me . Let's go fight this . Let me go show you that this is a witch hunt . Let me show you . But that's not the way they took it .
Speaker 2So Let me show you . But that's not the way they took it . So the point I'm making is that when officers are placed on a Brady list , we don't have that opportunity . There's no recourse . Our members have no recourse to even fight that , so they are literally handcuffed with no appellant process .
Speaker 3Terminated usually .
Speaker 2No way to defend themselves , and so my point is that I'm glad you said that , but also let's look at it from a 30,000 view , 33,000 point view , and let's look at it collectively . It all begins with a conversation and having a discussion and not being one-sided one way or the other . But officers are being put on the Brady list for simply calling in sick and it being misinterpreted . It could be that small , that's ludicrous .
Speaker 1Well , I can tell you right now that we ought to bring everybody to the table and fix these things , because law enforcement is not your enemy and right now a lot of people don't even call in cases . They just refuse to call the police because you're handcuffed , you feel like you can't do your job . I mean , you had a situation that Mark Herman , the constable over there , talked about , where this guy came out of the motel with a gun , three young officers , none of them fired . An older generation officer would have fired . They're afraid to even defend themselves and those officers very well could have gotten killed and let me be clear on that .
Speaker 2What you mean is that the officers were justified in using deadly force because the level of safety for the public is at risk , so they weren't firing just because the guy had a gun . I'm sorry , I just want to clarify .
Speaker 1No , they never fired . They never fired . But I'm saying a seasoned officer , but it would have been justified . Yeah , it would have been justified . But that guy coming out and raised that gun , they could have fired but they didn't .
Speaker 2A seasoned officer would have had the whole peripheral understanding of doing that . So I just want to clarify that .
Speaker 3Yeah , we have officers getting hurt , choosing to get beat up rather than defend themselves because they're afraid they'll get indicted .
Speaker 1But I'm not going out there and saying you know what ? I'm going to give officers a blank check . Sure , you're going to be still held accountable for your actions . Everybody is . And I want the agency to investigate and say , dan , you know you made a mistake . The agency to investigate and say , Dan , you know you made a mistake . It is what it is , man , you got to do what you got to do . I don't . I want that kind of transparency . We can work together and we can fix this . And but here's the problem we have right now . We're , we're now victimizing victims . And let me give you an example .
Speaker 1I had a case where clearly this guy the Castle Dockern definitely played in part . This guy had broken in , was given a night to stay at a friend's house homeless guy and then he was told to leave after that next night . The guy refused to leave . Five different nights the officers came and removed this individual and this guy broke back in every time , but the fifth time it turned violent . This guy is in his house 1030 at night and this guy breaks in through a hole in the kitchen because there's a refrigerator block in the door that won't lock . The guy's kicked in multiple times . He breaks in and the guy says I just want to get my stuff out of the room . I just want to get my stuff out of the room . He goes fine , go to get it out of the room . The guy emerges with a hatchet a tomahawk-like hatchet , and starts swinging at my client , got him right across here , put holes in the wall . My guy pushed a chair down the hall and the guy's coming . He takes an old .22 rifle and shoots the hatchet out of his hand . The guy then reaches down with the other hand , picks it up and he shoots his arm . Wow , hey . Then the guy stops , takes him to the front door , calls EMS . Guess who got arrested ? The homeowner , the homeowner , the
Speaker 1homeowner . I had to go through the grand jury to get that no-build . I don't want to victimize victims again . We have got to send a clear message that you can defend yourself in Harris County . I'm tired of us spending all this money on these violent offenders and not caring about victims . I want you to be able to protect yourself and it's not happening . There's a policy in play that most shootings I have to go before the grand jury . Is that really necessary ? We can still have a level of scrutiny and look at everything . But do we have to go that far on some of these ? That right there should never have gotten passed . In fact they should have taken the other guy to jail . This is what we're facing . I practice real defense cases down there and a lot of my clients are people in situations like that and we can fix that . But you only fix it if we work together .
Speaker 3I would two things . I would really take you to task when you win to reach out and communicate with all the local law enforcement . Because one thing , that's been interesting , not just in Harris County I spent my whole career at an agency in Dallas County and my whole career my dad did , 34 years before that his whole career law enforcement and the district attorney's office were allies . We didn't do the same job and our mission wasn't the same , but it was close and it was justice , whatever justice may look like . We kicked the football and got it and then we handed the baton off to you guys , but it was a relationship and there was an alliance there and it was a partnership for justice .
Speaker 3Now , dallas County , travis County , harris County , not only is it no longer an alliance , it's a hostile relationship . There's no trust , there's animosity , nobody wants to work together and that's just not how this program , that's just not how this works and it's not efficient , it's not in the best interest of the community , it's not in the best interest of victims . And I don't know rural Texas . When we travel the state a lot , there's still so many good places , probably Montgomery County , there's still places where justice is served . Law enforcement , the DA's office work together . They collaborate . I didn't grow up in an area where I had to call and ask somebody if I could arrest somebody . I was given the trust .
Speaker 2God-given freedom . I was given the trust to arrest somebody at arraignment .
Speaker 3Probably twice in my life the judge called and woke me up and said hey , I'm not sure I like PC on this deal . You need to come in and either tweak it if you have something or if you don't . I'm about to boot them out . But we were given authority and I know that does not sit well in Harris County with officers , does not sit well in Harris County with officers , but even if it's continued , I can't tell you how often we hear from people yeah , I called some probably 22-year-old kid that's had a law degree six months and at 3 am they're trying my case of a DWI and I've been a cop 20 years and I have some 20-year-old trying my case .
Speaker 3I can understand the frustration . I've never been through that because that wasn't our process . Well , that's fixable , that's easily fixable . But I think the trust has to come back and if it's never a perfect alliance again , the trust and professional relationship come back and be healed again .
Trust in Criminal Justice System
Speaker 3And I appreciate your goals and where you've been and where you're looking to head , because there's a lot of work to be done there and I certainly don't think somebody that Soros is in love with is the right person for Harris County .
Speaker 1You said it best and this is the best thing Harris County residents have lost confidence in our law enforcement . Our law enforcement has lost confidence in the da's office . It starts at the da's office . If you've got a strong da that's willing to stand for victims , hold people accountable , protect defendants rights , it'll filter down to the law enforcement that you can trust the da's office and now you can go out there and earn the trust of all the people calling in that hey , you have law enforcement that has your back because we're all working together .
Speaker 1The whole goal is to seek justice . It's public safety . It's the number one goal of all of our elected officials and right now I'm running to actually work for everybody in Harris County . This is their office , not mine . When I went in November . They're the big winners . We have too many elected officials that you work for them . We can fix that and I'll tell you this . This is who I am , if I get it , when I get elected and I get in there and I look at every case and Lena's case will be looked at just like all the rest . Nobody's getting favoritism , nobody's getting special treatment . If it's a witch hunt , I'd walk out on the front steps and dismiss all those cases and tell you why . But if it's not , ken Paxton's going to continue his job . This is who I am , because I don't care about politics . What I do care about is can I have a prosecutor that's going to seek justice , protect the defendant's rights and make our community safe ? Can we do that ?
Speaker 3And that's interesting . You said the citizens have lost faith in law enforcement in Harris County . If people knew how weaponized district attorneys have offices have become . So I worked as a detective most of my career . When you have an officer-involved shooting , the one person in an officer involved shooting or a high profile critical incident is the lead detective . Crime scene detective has some information . The patrol officer that took the initial report has some information all these different people but the lead detective is the holder of the facts . That's who's gathered all the facts In Dallas County .
Speaker 3The lead detective is not allowed to present to grand jury any longer . He's not called as a witness . He's not asked to present in any form or fashion . In a very high-profile officer-involved shooting in Dallas County , the Texas Ranger was the lead detective . The state did not call him . He was the defense witness and when defense declared they were going to have him on as a defense witness , the state tried to block it . When we've come to the point that the prosecutor is trying to block their star who should be their star from being able to testify and he becomes the defense star witness , we have flipped a 180 upside down in what the mission of this collaboration is actually supposed to be of this collaboration is actually supposed to be and it's the weaponization is the really sad , shocking , disgusting point . So it hurts when you say the citizens of Harris County have lost trust in Harris County law enforcement .
Speaker 3When , man , it's just it's a guy pushing a police car in the middle of the night trying to catch bad guys and serve and protect , but they feel like they're up against a wall .
Speaker 2I think what you meant to say was they've lost faith in the criminal justice system . Yeah , and law enforcement is included in that just because , like we've had the , I'll call it what it is and I don't mean to upset anybody that's on law enforcement in Harris County but , like the sex assault victim , that's a excuse . My language that's a fuck-up . I mean that affects all of us , but it impacts the criminal justice perception . So the image of criminal justice within Harris County needs to be addressed . But guess who ?
Speaker 1the people see out there first .
Speaker 1I agree , and they're getting blamed for it , but we can fix that .
Harris County District Attorney Candidate Interview
Speaker 1What I give , I do not tell my story for sympathy . I tell it for hope that those kids out there that are homeless and in foster care that look , one day you could be in the position asking for everybody to vote for you to make a difference . It's incredible . We can make this and we can do this . We can , we can change things . We can do a one 80 and there's a way to do this and to do justice reform , but a real justice reform . But it takes someone with the eyes that I can look through the eyes of a former prosecutor , defense attorney , businessman .
Speaker 1I have over 16 years of solid business that I've worked on my own . I know what it means to be falsely accused and to have to fight your innocence . But , more importantly , I know what it means to be a victim , a child victim . You put all those in one . There's never been a candidate like that . I can make a difference , but I can't do it alone . It's going to take a lot of people . It's going to take law enforcement . It's going to take the community to reach and help , because this is their community . This is not just mine and I'm willing to risk everything for it . I have a very comfortable life . I have made a very good practice for myself , but I know what I stand to lose if I don't prevail in November . And I'm okay with that . Do you know why ? Because everybody out there is worth it . It's worth it for the chance .
Speaker 3Dumb question for our viewers , but um , will there be , is it ? Do you guys ? Is there a debate ? Is there a time when you guys would be on a stage or in a in a , in a venue where you guys would have a debate ?
Speaker 1Hope . So I think it'd be really important for people to see us side by side . I mean , I'd have been happy sitting over there .
Speaker 2Nobody's done that yet .
Speaker 1No , we've had people reach out , but honestly , I'd like to get Thurgood Marshall involved and say , hey , we're going to host a debate for you guys . Let's go ahead and go into , thurgood Marshall , let's do a debate .
Speaker 1Maybe the podcast team will knock it out . Maybe they'll do that . I think that it doesn't matter . Let's go . I think it's important to see both candidates . I think it'll be fun to have a conversation and , like I , have nothing against him . Okay , but you are who you surround yourself with . I've got Mattress Mac endorsing me . Whenever things go downhill in Harris County and the local government can't help , you guess who does A guy named Mattress Mac . He'll open his doors to you . He's done more for the community and those are the voters that I want to reach . Because he trusts me , they should be able to trust me .
Speaker 2Well , let's get it set up . So when is the election ?
Speaker 1October 21st is early voting and then we have November 5th is going to be the election day , and I'd be curious . I 5th is going to be the election day , and I'd be curious . I mean , I think it'd be important to have a debate . I think we need to hopefully set it up .
Speaker 2Well , do me a favor , Me and him , and John Siriga , who's running our camera , and some of the people we would love to be at the what is it ? Election night party . Watch party , Watch party . I've never been to one . I've never been to one , I've never been to one and I want to celebrate . I've never been important enough .
Speaker 1Well , hey come on over . We're going to hopefully have a real big one . I'm going to go out there and still reach to everybody , because I'm not only reaching just the voters , I'm hitting donors as well . Going , hey , give me a shot , look at what I've accomplished with very little help in my background . Imagine what , imagine what we can do .
Speaker 1Together we can make a difference and I'm willing you know what they're going to attack me , that's fine , bring it on , I don't care why , because at the end of the day , it's worth it to give Harris County a shot for victims and people to realize you can be safe , you're okay with your kid going to the mall or going to the park or knowing they're going to go to school and come home , or your husband or wife going to work and they're going to come home , and to be feel safe in your own home . I want to give everybody that chance and I can deliver a safer Harris County and I can do it with all your help . I need everybody reaching as far as they can to help me . I'm not getting the big Soros money . 80 or 90% of his money is coming from outside of Harris County . Why is that ? 80 , 90% of my money actually almost 100% comes from inside Harris County .
Speaker 2For me , when can people find out about ?
Speaker 1your campaign , dan4dacom . So it's either for or F-O-R-D , so it's like , yeah , dan4dacom , good marketing strategy right there .
Speaker 1So , well , I will say this I did get a nice nickname by the defense bar when I was prosecutor and because , you know , I held people's feet to the fire . I wasn't , I mean , a complete asshole to them , but I was very firm , I was very reasonable and I'd walk into the court and I was like here comes DA Dan . It was not a term of endearment , it was like here comes this guy . Well , it kind of stuck , but I'm a prosecutor for everybody . I've protected defendants' rights in trial before because I saw the other person not doing the job . I'm not interested in out there convicting anyone that is not guilty of it , and this is what I stand for . This is what I will deliver to Harris County and this is where the prosecutors that I want trained are , in that mindset . But you've got to create a positive work environment because it starts at the DA's office . That'll roll all the way through law enforcement , all the way out to the activists in the community , in their communities and all the people living in Harris County .
Speaker 2It doesn't matter who you are , but it starts with this race , because guess what happens if I don't win ? Philadelphia , Chicago , Portland .
Speaker 1San Francisco , LA it's called the purge and Dallas and Austin come to Houston If you want to stop that .
Speaker 1Help me win it . And I'm tired of people leaving Harris County . And there's one more thing that I do not like about my opponent he does nothing to protect businesses , talks nothing about it . There are so many business owners out there . They're like people come in and steal from us . You're not going to take that seriously , because it's not a serious offense when you have a district attorney that won't protect businesses .
Speaker 1Now businesses aren't inclined to come to Harris County because they have a DA that's not going to protect their property or their assets . In fact , they leave Harris County . And Because they have a DA that's not going to protect their property or their assets , in fact , they leave Harris County . And what happens ? Who gets affected the most ? The minority communities , the black community , hispanic communities , asian communities , vietnamese communities . They get affected the most by the fake bond reform , by all the fake justice reform and businesses leaving . They are the ones getting impacted the first and those are the ones they're counting on to go vote for them . I'm going to give them an opportunity to have a DA that actually cares for everybody in Harris County , not just one party . That's what I'll deliver to Harris County and in November will just be the start of it , because the real work would start January 1st .
Speaker 2Well , you guys find more information out . We're going to put the website right here around right here .
Speaker 3You got anything else . If your opponent were to drive up and come on , would you be willing to drive back ? Up and sit on with him .
Speaker 2Absolutely , let's go . Hey , maybe we'd like a boxing-type theme debate . Hey , we can have the microphone come from the ceiling in this corner . That'd be cool . Let's get ready to rumble . I mean , we won't have our shirts off , but it'll be kind of like a stage deal .
Speaker 1I like it . I think it's important for transparency purposes .
Speaker 3I agree .
Speaker 1At the end of the day , you've got two people that are trying to say the same thing , only one you can believe . And the one you can believe , look around and who he's surrounding himself with . When you've got Lena Rodney , Sylvester Turner and Soros on one side and you've got Mattress Mac on the other side , who are you going to believe ? Because we both have to say the same thing . Now he has to come out there and try to move back to the middle , but when you go that far left to remove Kim Og , I don't know who's really going to believe it , but apparently there are people that do believe it , because they believe Harris County isn't winnable , but it really is , because the election hasn't happened yet's nothing on the immediate horizon .
Speaker 3I would love for the citizens to have the opportunity for to see you and him side by side and speak and share and engage yeah um , I , I personally like that style to hear uh , it's easy to stand alone and I mean , I don't mean this I've been in your office before . It's easy to stand somewhere and say whatever and we've seen it on the national scale but when you have to stand across , I think it's important and I think you get good , digestible information and feedback out of that .
Speaker 1If you can get him to agree , that would be wonderful , but I don't think it's going to happen unless the polls continue down the trend . They are where he starts losing . Then he'll agree , but I'm not afraid to stand up to anybody .
Speaker 2I'm going to try it . I'm going to try it out . All right , el Presidente , you got anything else ?
Speaker 3I don't , I don't , I can't thank you enough . I know you were hoofing it and working today and beating doors and working and visiting with people and then to drive up here to be on this .
Speaker 1We're incredibly thankful for that . Well , I currently practice . I was in court all morning , I had about eight or 10 cases , and then I had a meet after that and then drive up here . But you know , this is the name of the game . I still work for a living I don't have all the other privileges and things like that and in fact I'll be leaving tonight , going home , reviewing my cases at night for tomorrow and going back to work tomorrow and keep on doing this , and I can do this all day long . I mean , this is what I was built for and if God's going to put me through all the stuff he put me through , let's make it work , let's make it count and now's the time to use it . But we can make a difference .
Speaker 3Well , winter losing November . Your story's incredible and I appreciate that you shared it and you have the brave , brave person to come out and share that and I think it's important for people to hear it because they see on the outside this shiny , sharp-looking guy , and for them to get the context and the texture of what's going on . I think it's important to share our bumps and our bruises and we can be shiny on the outside and probably you know , you don't know the storm that we faced in the past and win or lose in November . I appreciate you and I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story .
Speaker 1I do appreciate that and thank you guys very much for having me . I mean this is awesome to be here today , so it was definitely worth the drive to meet you guys . I appreciate it sincerely .
Speaker 2Well , this about wraps it up . You guys take care , stay up . You guys take care , stay safe . God bless you and , as always , may god bless texas . Thanks for watching .
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