Grand Canyon Times

Steve Cortes, founder of the League of American Workers, had this exchange regarding the state of American cities with host Leyla Gulen on the Greatness Conversation Podcast:

"I'm not an incredibly global traveler, but I've been around the world enough to know. American cities, which used to be, in my view, the marvels for the world, are not any longer. In fact, in many ways, they are in a lot worse shape than foreign cities as far as danger and cleanliness. American cities have become places that are largely inhospitable to our own citizens. If I were to put something tangible on what I mean by greatness, I would say that we need to make our cities great again—they need to be gleaming, safe, aspirational places."

Cortes appeared on The Greatness Conversation Podcast to discuss the need for renewed national greatness, focusing on strong leadership and systemic reforms in areas such as border control, energy policies, urban decline, and concerns about a potential Kamala Harris presidency.

The League of American Workers (LAW) advocates for American workers facing wage declines and reduced political influence. The organization seeks to shift policy and public opinion to better support laborers.

Steve Cortes, a former Spokesman and Senior Advisor for Strategy for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns with a focus on Hispanic voter outreach is a Georgetown graduate and resides in Tennessee with his wife and four children.

Full, unedited transcript of this episode:

Leyla Gulen: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Greatness Conversation Podcast. I'm your host, Laila Ghulen. In this episode, we welcome our good friend and contributor, Steve Cortez. Steve is the founder of the American League of Workers, a pro worker organization that supports American laborers through public policy and advocacy, and rejects what it calls corrupt union leadership in this country, where a So grateful that you could be part of this new conversation talking about the idea of greatness, greatness of individuality, of country, policy.

And of course, leadership. So Steve, welcome. 

Steve Cortez: Laila, thank you so much for having me. I'm, I'm honored to be here for the, for the kickoff episode for this new podcast, which I am. I'm honored to participate and I certainly will be an avid listener when I'm not participating myself. 

Leyla Gulen: Good. Sounds great. Thank you.

Let me start by asking you to define greatness and what greatness means to you. 

Steve Cortez: Sure. It's, it's worthy for us, of course, to, to think about these foundational, philosophical, and important [00:01:00] aspirations, right? For, so what is, what is greatness? What does greatness mean individually and then corporately for this country?

And I think more than anything, Layla, it is, it is allowing individuals to attain Their, their highest ideals and their highest aspirations, creating systems and constructs where people can succeed and thrive. And that is something the United States has done incredibly well for most of our history. It's something we're not doing very well right now.

And we need to, we need to regain that trajectory of national greatness. What is, what is worthy of this country? A country that won world wars, that built magnificent buildings, that tamed a continent, a country with an incredible history that we should be really proud of, but we also can't live in the past.

We can't live on and rest on past accomplishments. It has to continue and persist. And in a lot of ways it's not happening lately in terms of national greatness and worthy national goals. So it's something for us to think a lot about. And I for one would advocate to be really specific because I [00:02:00] think it's important for us to be tangible, um, about it.

is American cities right now, and I say this as somebody who travels a bit around the world. I'm not an incredibly global traveler, but I've been around the world enough to know. Uh, that American cities, which used to be, in my view, the, really the marvels for the world, are not any longer. And in fact, in many ways, are, uh, in a lot worse shape than foreign cities are, as far as danger in cities, as far as dirt in cities.

Um, American cities have become places that are largely inhospitable to our own citizens. And so, if I were to put something tangible on, okay, what do I mean by greatness? So it's not just in the realm of theoretical greatness. Layla, I would say that we need to make our cities great again, that they need to be gleaming, safe, aspirational places.

And that would be a huge accomplishment of this country in the incoming decades, if we can get there. 

Leyla Gulen: Yeah, a hundred percent. Well, as we all know, some of this country is now waking up from its DNC hangover. Speaking of cities, it was held in Chicago, and you were just in Chicago this week, and you [00:03:00] certainly made your presence known, Steve.

Let me ask you, was it a Was it a warm welcome? Did they roll out the red carpet for you? Uh, and the new friend that you made outside the United Center? 

Steve Cortez: No, certainly the Democrats holding their convention in Chicago were not very hospitable to me. They weren't. No, but I'm a, I was a lifelong Chicagoan, so I lived the first 50 years of my life in Chicago.

So, I mean, I know the city incredibly well. I raised a family in the city proper, uh, for 25 years in Chicago, so I have tons of friends and family. And look, I love Chicago. I hate what it has become, and I hate what's happened to it. And the latest failure in a string of failures, all caused by the Democrats in that once great city, the latest failure is this migrant crisis, which again, the Democrats have not just allowed to happen, but in fact, incentivized, they've not just tolerated this mass trespassing into the United States, but in fact, incentivized it and welcomed it.

And you see it all over the country, even though Chicago is thousands of miles from the US Mexico border. The consequences, the dire consequences [00:04:00] are evident all over Chicago. There are migrants everywhere. They are, they're begging, they're causing problems, they're in the streets smoking and drinking in the middle of the day.

Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's terrible what's going on. And I wanted to shine a light on that for all of America, because if you, if you don't live near a big city, you might not be aware of just how bad it is in cities. And again, cities way far from the border, right? Chicago's obviously not close to the U S Mexico border.

And so I went and found, and I, I, sort of wagered that I could do this. Could I go convince a migrant to come with me and try to get him into the DNC? So I met this young man, 21 year old man. Where 

Leyla Gulen: did you find him? Where did you find him? 

Steve Cortez: So I went to, yeah, it's a good question. And actually, I think it's an interesting story.

I might try to do some more filming on this aspect. Actually later, there's a club called the standard club in Chicago, and it's a very, it was a very wealthy, very upscale private city club, mostly Jewish membership. That the Standard Club closed largely because of the COVID panic. It couldn't survive the lockdown.

So it's kind of sad that this institution, cultural and social institution in Chicago [00:05:00] closed. Well, I don't know who owns it currently, but they've turned it into a migrant hotel and we are paying for it. So we are paying for hundreds and hundreds of migrants, mostly from Venezuela to live in this luxury high rise, or at least it was luxury.

I went in there, they wouldn't let me bring my cameras in. I went to the lobby and the lobby had been completely trashed. I mean, just garbage. Smelled dirt everywhere. So I had probably representative of the rest of the standard club, unfortunately, because it was really just, I mean, if, if folks are listening to the podcast, I encourage them to just do an image search, uh, for the standard club and you'll see what I'm talking about, that this was a wonderful, uh, institution now full of migrants that we're paying for.

And, uh, Edwin with a lot of other, uh, migrants were basically, I guess the kind way for me to say, we'll be hanging out. They were kind of loitering basically, but they, they have nothing to do. And listen, they don't have any, they don't have jobs. Right. And I really liked it. And he said, he says he does some odd jobs here and there for cash, but he can't have a real job, not allowed.

So here's the thing, Layla, like this is a bad deal for us, obviously for the United States, but it's also a bad deal for a lot of the migrants. [00:06:00] This 21 year old young man, he seemed like a wonderful guy. I don't speak good Spanish, so I brought a translator along because I wanted to be sure. And I wanted to explain fully to him exactly what we were doing, that we were not exploiting him in any way.

That he knew exactly what we're going to try. We weren't going to get him in trouble. I assured him like once we get refused, which we will get refused, we're going to leave, we're not causing a problem at the DNC and we were refused three times effectively, if you, for folks who watch the video and it's only three and a half minutes long, but we refused at two different gates and then also refused and kicked out of the credentialing center, but.

Uh, I thought it would be important to highlight the hypocrisy to shine a light on this problem and show that the Democrats, while they do want an endless stream of illegal migrants pouring into the United States, they don't want them coming into their party, into their celebration, which is totally secured.

Again, you can see in the video if folks watch. They built a wall. They believe in walls, and guns, and rules, and credentials, and identification, and all the things that they don't want at our border. They believe in it for their border, for their barricade around the DNC. Of 

Leyla Gulen: course. Well, it [00:07:00] kind of reminds me of, of the, the busloads of migrants that were sent to Martha's Vineyard.

Well, they didn't really want them there either. 

Steve Cortez: Yep. Oh, they were, they were out of there in a flash. I say that too. And I thought that was a brilliant move to send them there to Mother's Vineyard. I believe that was Governor DeSantis that did that, right? It was. I think, yeah, I think just the best governor in America.

It certainly was. Yeah. He's fantastic. And I always say too, if, if these migrants were coming in and let's say they were taking jobs as investment bankers and lawyers, this problem would be solved in two seconds. Okay. If the, if the quote important people in America were more threatened, quite frankly, by them.

And I don't mean just physically threatened. I mean, economically threatened. Um, by the rivalries migrants, but, but those aren't the jobs that they're generally taking, right? They're taking blue collar jobs. They're competing in the labor market against working class Americans and the quote, important people in America, frankly, don't care about that.

But if they were taking, you know, I always joke too, that if they were taking the broadcaster's jobs, uh, if they were taking cable news gigs, believe me, they'd be out of here. Okay. And then the narrative would be very different, um, about, about illegal migrants, but again, [00:08:00] you, in any big city in America, certainly in Chicago, you don't have to search far.

Okay. There are legal migrants everywhere. And, and it's not all of them, but some of them are causing significant problems. All of them are a problem financially. All of them are a problem as far as security, because we don't know who they are. I actually asked this Edwin as well. He said specifically he showed zero ID coming into the United States, nothing, not, not a Venezuelan driver's license, not a passport, nothing.

They just said, what's your name? How old are you? Where are you from? That's it. And okay. And then where do you want to go? Taking his word for it. Yeah. And then where do you want to go? He said, I want to go to Chicago because he had a cousin in Chicago and we flew him to Chicago. Uh, the American taxpayer and now he lives in a high rise and has food and board paid for and nothing to do in Chicago.

Like this is madness. 

Leyla Gulen: Of course it is. Let me ask you this though. Let's say Edwin wasn't coming along with you. If you tried to get into the DNC just with your own identification, but I gather you'd have to still be credentialed, right? To get past the gatekeepers. 

Steve Cortez: Correct. And I actually did even apply for a media pass because I was curious.

And it also, I was, the [00:09:00] main reason I was in Chicago was to do a lot of media interviews, which I did. And it's, it's helpful if you actually have your own credentials because they don't have to send somebody out to get you so you could do more interviews, more TV and radio if you have credentials. So I did apply for credentials as a member of the media, but they denied me and I don't really mind that they denied me.

I mean, I'm not truly a media person anymore. I certainly used to be, but I did apply for myself. Yes. Okay. Yes. But I mean, they're 

Leyla Gulen: high security, they're high security events, but, but I mean, you, you. Expect an event that is of high security. Will you expect your country to have high security and it's for Iris?

And that's, that's the whole point of it. Were you at the RNC? I was, yes. You were. Okay. And, and what was that experience like? 

Steve Cortez: Yeah, and we're kind of a similar setup as far as security and walls and you know all of that that to be honest to That's when I first got the idea because when I was walking past I was like, that's kind of a border wall to go into The RNC I said, you know what they're gonna have the same setup in Chicago And that's what I actually first got the spark of what I'm gonna try to find a migrant and see if you get him in And so sure enough it worked and And thankfully, Elon Musk responded a [00:10:00] couple of times, two different times to my tweet, and that really made it go viral then.

Yeah. So, on my own account, I think I've got a million and a half views, and then a lot of other big accounts were sharing it, so in total, it was, like, best I could gather. I had well north of 5 million views, so I mean, it really went pretty crazy. 

Leyla Gulen: And this is on X, so what's your, what's your X handle? 

Steve Cortez: I'm at Cortez Steve.

Cortez with an S, Cortez Steve. 

Leyla Gulen: Okay, yeah, yeah. While we're talking about it, I want to make sure people check it out. All right, so, so you say Chicago, once a gleaming city, did you see a lot of greatness in the Windy City overall? 

Steve Cortez: No. And, look, American cities in general are in decline, so I don't want to just pick on Chicago, but I do think Chicago is the worst example.

I think it's the most dangerous. And I think you can make a good statistical case for that, that it's probably the most dangerous city in the developed world. You'd have to go into the third world to find places that are more dangerous. Leads the country 12 years in a row in the most murders in the United States.

Unfortunately leads the country in carjackings, number three in robberies in the [00:11:00] United States. It's just, it's an incredibly lawless, chaotic place. The police have been totally neutered. I don't blame the police. It's the political leadership that has completely hobbled and neutered the police. And if you talk to cops, by the way, now, They'll even admit to you privately, maybe not on camera, but they'll admit to you privately.

I know a lot of policemen in Chicago. They'll say, we only show up after the fact now. We're not proactive anymore. We're effectively stenographers. We're taking a record of what already happened, the crime that already happened in Chicago. And I point this out too, I wrote an article that I put on my sub stack, which folks want to find, and it was the top five reasons the Democratic convention belongs in Chicago.

I say this as again, a former Chicagoan, somebody who loves the city, cares about it, but I also know Better than most of the problems and travails of Chicago. And I point out in that article, this is really an appalling statistic. It's the biggest life expectancy, expectancy gap in all of America between Streeterville neighborhood, which is a very wealthy neighborhood of high rises around Michigan Avenue.

People have been to Chicago. They might know that area, the magnificent mile. Streeterville, average life [00:12:00] expectancy, 90 years old, according to the NYU School of Medicine. 8 miles south of there, in Englewood, an almost entirely black, very impoverished, very dangerous neighborhood, 60 is the average life expectancy.

There's a 30 year gap. You only find that kind of a gap in the third world, you don't find that in the United States, at least you never did previously, but I mean that's to put a number on it, on how dire things are in Chicago for the have nots, which are the majority of the people, of course, who live in that city, and again, Chicago I think is the worst example, but it's hardly the only one.

We could go to San Francisco and New York and Washington D. C. and find all of these similar pathologies, unfortunately, in these Dem run cities, and it's a shame, but we have to also describe it. decry it, but that also fix it. And, uh, what can we do? And I think this election is going to be part of that. And part of fixing it is controlling our border.

Uh, that would be, that's not the only solution, but it is part of controlling. 

Leyla Gulen: Yeah, exactly. Well, in many, if not all cases, greatness and leadership coexist. They are not mutually exclusive. [00:13:00] When we're talking about the leader of the free world, a. k. a. the United States of America, what in the past has made a good leader, a good president?

Steve Cortez: Yeah, it's a great, great question. When I think of greatness, immediately Teddy Roosevelt comes to mind for me. And because he, he was so inspirational and, and always exhorted America to be great, right? To reach higher in, in everything he did and he assumed in his personal life, he exemplified that as well.

We believed in a strenuous life, right? Believed that life is about noble struggle. And as an individual. No excuses 

Leyla Gulen: for yourself. 

Steve Cortez: Yeah. As a man. And then also as, as a country. And so I think TR more than anybody that I can think of really personified and exemplified that kind of leadership that strives for greatness.

And not that he didn't make mistakes, for example. I think America got into a bit of the empire business under TR, which I think is regrettable. But for the most part, I think he was just, he was an incredible leader, an incredible man, great father, great husband, [00:14:00] somebody really, really to be admired. And, and by the way, on the policy side, I happen to agree with his populist leanings as well.

I think we need a lot more. TR populism in, in America today, and I'm, but I'm also confident that Donald Trump, if elected, will pursue that kind of populism in his second term. 

Leyla Gulen: And this was pre, quasi pre industrial revolution. Do you think his presidency impacted what came after him? 

Steve Cortez: Oh, sure. Yes. No, I mean, and of course he remained a significant national political figure, even afterward running again for the White House, unsuccessfully, but certainly remained very, very influential.

Very important on the national scene, even after his presidency was done, although he of course never regained quite the stature he had as president, especially as evidenced by him losing in his subsequent race, but he certainly did remain somebody of a really significant influence. And I believe right now, in terms of to be really tangible and really specific about what lessons should we take from TR for today, I really believe that there are giant, uh, Companies, conglomerates, I would really call them [00:15:00] oligopolies in America that have far too much dominant power, particularly when it comes to tech, and these firms are actually harmful to the United States because of the absolute massive concentration of power and the way they can censor our public life, for example, the invasions of privacy.

So I, I think that the trust busting ethos of TR should be brought to bear in American life and American policy today, particularly as it pertains. to some of these enormous firms, which wield, in my view, just unprecedented power. I mean, I think they make some of the trusts of his day look actually weak by comparison in terms of the power that a Google, for example, has or Microsoft in today's world.

I 

Leyla Gulen: mean, at this point with failed border policy, high energy costs due to whether it's a lack of energy independence or increased federal regulation, years of inflation, how do we return to that? to greatness, some balance and can we do it? Do you think in the next term? What? What will it take? 

Steve Cortez: Yeah, no, I think we [00:16:00] can now.

Can it all get done in one term? Probably not. But I'm also hopeful that if if Trump and Vance do get elected, That JD Vance will immediately be the heir apparent. Um, and we at least, you know, at least initially have the pole position on becoming president after Trump is, is term limited out. And if you, if you're talking 12 years, then of Trump plus Vance, uh, that could really be transformational.

And you know, how much can we get done in 12 years? Gosh, I think almost anything is possible. Uh, you know, within. 12 years ago, you mentioned some of the items, the agenda items to return America to greatness. Controlling the border is an absolute must, and that can be done, I think, relatively quickly. And I believe they would, Trump advance, if they are elected would get that accomplished relatively quickly to absolutely unleash American energy.

Yes, fully. This country is blessed by the Lord above with unbelievable resources beneath our feet. We're not harnessing them to the degree that we should and we were we were under Donald Trump But we're not now and we and we can again and that's also [00:17:00] huge toward off toward onshoring bringing productive capacity back to the United States we've got to stop allowing countries to abuse us with predatory trade practices particularly China And so part of that is there's sort of a carrot stick the stick is Making sure that we, we punish countries that are being unfair, that aren't reciprocal about their markets, that are engaging in predatory trade, but then also the carrot side of, let's also create the most conducive environment possible in the United States to make things here.

Let's, let's provide the, the incentives. And part of that is affordable, plentiful American domestic energy, because the, the more dependable and cheap energy is here for our, for our companies, the more likely they are. to willingly onshore back to the United States. So control the border and unleash American energy and then onshore like crazy.

I think those would be huge, important macro goals that return this country to greatness and, and they're achievable. They're not, not pie in the sky. It's not just being dreamy. Like those are absolutely achievable goals. [00:18:00] That I think could happen with a Trump Vance presidency, particularly if it then leads to a Vance presidency following Trump.

Leyla Gulen: Well, and I think a lot of Americans, we keep talking about higher prices for just about everything and how fewer and fewer people are able to afford the things that define the American dream, whether it's buying real estate or having job security or whatever. But something we've been hearing from the left a lot lately in order to sort of, uh, pivot from the idea that it was the Biden administration that created the inflation that we're experiencing today, they're talking a lot about corporate greed, corporate greed is something that has become this mantra for them.

And what would you say to that argument? Is it corporate greed? Are people manufacturing prices to be higher than they need to be so that they turn a bigger profit? What do you think? 

Steve Cortez: Yeah. No, listen, it is not corporate greed. That's for sure. And I'm, you know, [00:19:00] as you can probably gather from some of my prior answers here, I'm no friend of big business.

I think big business is a real problem for American society, particularly what they do in terms of their political, um, preaching and indoctrination. But having said that, look, the underlying cause of high prices is the exorbitant borrowing spending of the federal government. I mean, I don't think that's even debatable to anybody who's being rational, anybody who understands history, who understands economics, the laws of supply and demand.

And let me be specific. So for instance, food prices are out of control. And among all of the prices that are bothersome for people, uh, All polling and I've done a lot of polling myself, by the way, all polling shows by far the most irksome, the most vexing for Americans is food prices. That's what's getting them the most upset about inflation, even though they're paying too much for all kinds of things, rent, gasoline, car insurance, everything, but it's food that really is bothering people.

Well, if we look at, uh, food retailers, for example, the grocery store chains. Uh, that is an incredibly low margin business, meaning that a very small percentage of their revenue ends up being profit. If you look at the industry as a [00:20:00] whole, it's only just above 1 percent profit margin. So the idea that their price gouging is absurd.

It's the input costs are too high. It's not that the Kroger or the Safeway is, is price gouging Layla and Steve and taking us to the cleaners. No, it's because the prices that they're paying. Are so elevated because, again, of policy, because of $35 trillion of debt and counting, uh, with rising interest rates on that debt.

So the debt is way more punishing than it used to be, even though the, even at amounts that seemed to be unsustainable previously with low interest rates, it, it really kind of was sustainable for the United States with higher interest rates, of course, and a much bigger pile of debt. It's not sustainable.

And so, uh, Biden and Kamala Harris deserve. All of the blame for this inflation and it is not about corporate greed. And the other thing is when Kamala Harris talks, for example, about price gouging, and of course she used the word gauging. She didn't pronounce it correctly. But you know, I think she shows number one, there are already price gouging statutes in many states in the country.

[00:21:00] So, I mean, this, those rules, it do exist actually. Now they are almost never enforced. Why? Well, because it's almost impossible to define what is even price gouge. I mean, how do you even define it? Right? And it's even more difficult to try to prove that in a court of law to actually charge a company or an individual with price gouging.

But I think she is revealing who she is, which is somebody who has worked in academia and government her entire life. Somebody who has never taken real economic risk, who has never hired anybody, never had to meet payroll. She's showing who she is. And by the way, the exact opposite, when you look at both Trump and Vance, uh, two people who were very successful in private business.

In the case of Trump, somebody who not just build companies, but also literally built buildings all over the world, golf courses and resorts and skyscrapers, and you can't get better experience in my view. Real world experience than actually physically building things, which he did for a living. It's the exact opposite of Kamala Harris, and I didn't know she's showing that she doesn't have any practical experience.

She doesn't understand how an economy works She doesn't [00:22:00] frankly care and she's willing to use tactics that are frankly Marxist And I'm not exaggerating when I say that price controls are Marxist We don't have to guess where they lead all we have to do is look at Cuba at Venezuela And we know that price controls eventually lead to a higher prices paradoxically, but B lead to scarcity to black markets.

to all kinds of economic pain. They have never worked anywhere. They've been tried in the world and they've been tried quite often throughout the history of the world and in a lot of places, unfortunately. And, and they always, always bring misery. So it's, it's astounding that she, Kamala actually reaches for this as a policy tool and tries to promote.

And by the way. You don't have to take my word for it. Even the Washington Post, which is normally just an absolute cheerleader platform, uh, for the Democrats, even the Washington Post slapped back quite hard and said, this is crazy. It can't work. But again, it's revealing of, of where she is, uh, philosophically and how little, uh, understanding and experience she has.

Leyla Gulen: Yeah, you had just mentioned Venezuela, and of course this brings us back [00:23:00] to your new friend Edwin, who came from Venezuela. Did you have a conversation with him at all as to why he decided to come to the United States? Yeah. What he's seeking? Is he looking for greatness in his life? What, what was that?

Steve Cortez: Yeah. We did. And, and by the way, I want you, I want to make sure that this, this point is clear. I don't blame the migrants. I think they're making a very rational choice. And if I'm a young man in Venezuela and dealing with a total lack of opportunity, lack of resources, no foreseeable path to success in your life.

And Joe Biden's inviting me into the United States and Kamala Harris is incentivizing me to come to the United States. I'm going absolutely. Okay. Or if I'm in Guatemala, I'm going. So I don't blame them. I blame the Democrats. I blame Biden and Harris and Mayorkas for doing this. And, but to answer your question about Edwin specifically, yeah, it was all about, I don't know that he, you know, he's a young man.

He's only 21. So I don't know that he believes he's seeking greatness, but he absolutely wants prosperity and prosperity is certainly part of greatness. But he, he, he 

Leyla Gulen: tell you about life in Venezuela, what it was like. 

Steve Cortez: Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:00] He said it was tough. He said people are hungry. And Venezuela was a wealthy nation.

Venezuela, like the United States, is incredibly blessed. According to, 

Leyla Gulen: to President Trump, that's where we're getting all 

Steve Cortez: of our oil slash tar. And so, very blessed with natural resources, particularly oil, but other, other resources as well. And Venezuela was A wealthy country at one point, the wealthiest country in Latin America and has now been absolutely ruined, has a massive migrant crisis of people exiting, they're going to the United States, they're going next door to Colombia, people fleeing as fast as they can to get out of Venezuela, people who are literally hungry, which was never a situation in Venezuela in the past.

So, you know, we know where these leftist policies lead. And he specifically said, That he just, he wanted opportunity. That he wants to, he wants to have a job, he wants to stay in the United States, that he wants to have a family. And again, I don't blame him for making that rational choice. I blame the policy makers in the United States for throwing open the front door of the United States and telling anyone and everyone to come on in.

And by the way, we're just going to take your word for it, who you are [00:25:00] now, this This, he seemed like a very well intentioned, very respectful, good young man. But there are a lot of people crossing who aren't like that. We, and we know that, right? There are, there are menaces who are crossing this open border.

We know, for example, in addition, there are thousands and thousands of Chinese nationals crossing this border. I mean, how many of them are coming with ill intent or have been trained in some way by the Chinese communist party? We have no idea. We have no idea who these people are. It's madness. I mean, you would never do it at your home.

You would never do it in your business. The DNC didn't do it at their party and at their celebration in Chicago. Why in the world would our country do it? 

Leyla Gulen: Yeah, of course. Now, as of the time of this recording, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he announced that he is throwing his endorsement behind President Trump, and a lot of the things that he said up on that stage in Phoenix, I believe he was, he, he was denouncing all the things that have led up to what took place in Chicago this week.

Like the fact that Kamala Harris has not. She has not sat down for an [00:26:00] interview, has not made herself available for any kind of presser, has not agreed to, or, or, do we have a, we have a scheduled debate between she and President Trump now, don't we? Yes, yes. Okay, yeah. But, but all these other things, she's just placed in this, in this elevated position with absolutely nothing, no delegates, no nothing.

Right. And, and I looked through the different stations, of course, I checked out Fox, I checked out News Nation, I checked out Newsmax, all carrying this press conference from RFK Jr. with full audio, full screen, checked out MSNBC. You had pundits talking over him talking on stage so you couldn't hear what he was saying.

CNN was in a commercial. I mean, it's obvious what's happening here. Why isn't it that, that the rest of the viewership isn't hearing? Maybe, I don't know, half of the viewing audience is watching. 

Steve Cortez: Yeah, so listen [00:27:00] RFK, I always thought was a very interesting candidate. I think he made the race smarter and better I really do by being in it and I'm a Trump supporter So I'm very happy that our case dropping out and even happier that he is endorsing Trump But he makes some really really important points and you're exactly right boy was he taking the Democrats to task for this Coronation of because that's what it is.

It's an anointing a coronation. It's not an election She has never gotten a single vote for president about never not in 2020 not now She has never earned And yet she has been selected rather than elected and they, and they have the gall to pretend that this wasn't a political coup when it clearly was, it wasn't a, it wasn't a violent coup, but it was a coup.

Um, and, and Joe Biden was taken out. And by the way, I always thought for him, how shameful. And not that I have, Any empathy for him because of what he's done to this country. But how shameful for him after a half century of politics in Washington, DC, he gets completely just politically shivved by Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrat power brokers.

And then he shows up at their convention and thanks them effectively for what they did to [00:28:00] him. I mean, does he have no pride? I mean, behind gnashing 

Leyla Gulen: his teeth, I'm sure. 

Steve Cortez: Yeah. So, but look, the reality is that, that. Kamala Harris is totally unprepared to be president United States. Her record as vice president was miserable.

She owns the failures of the Biden Harris administration, particularly as it relates to the border and to an economy that just does not work for, for regular folks, for people of modest means in this country. So she owns all of that baggage looking backward and then looking forward, if anything, she wants to take America in an even more radical direction going forward.

So my, my hope and my belief, my expectation is that once the American people really know who she is, and they're just learning who she is, that we're going to see this temporary sugar high that she has enjoyed this honeymoon period dissipate rather quickly. And I think we're going to see that one thing that I think is also very important to point out, because almost no one does in corporate media.

Is that while she has risen from, from Biden's numbers, she has not been taking from Trump. And I think that's really, really important. And the polling that [00:29:00] I myself am directing and the, and the credible public polling that's out there. If you look, Trump has been very sticky. So she has risen by taking, she was taking RFK voters and she was taking undecided voters, not taking Trump voters.

And I think that's really, really important, which gives me confidence. Can't be cocky, of course, can't be complacent, but gives me confidence that Trump, because of that sticky support, once he does a good job, and hopefully a lot of us do a good job of revealing who she is, of exposing her radicalism, that ultimately Trump does in fact prevail.

And I think it's gonna be a tight race, but I think Trump wins. 

Leyla Gulen: So I think I know the answer to this Kamala Harris presidency. Does that bring greatness to the United States? 

Steve Cortez: No, it certainly does not and it's hard for us to exaggerate to just how dire the consequences could be because the the house is very Much in play.

We don't know that the Republicans are gonna keep the house if I had to bet right now Layla I would probably bet that the Democrats actually end up taking the House of Representatives Unfortunately, hope I'm wrong, but that would be my bet the Senate. We know that the Republicans are gonna pick up West Virginia That's almost automatic.

So that gets you to 50 [00:30:00] But none of the other states look, look like a sure thing. That's, if anything, they look difficult. Possibly Montana. But what, the reason I'm bringing this up is, if there were to be a President Harris, very likely that she would have a Democrat House. It's entirely possible that she could have a 50 50 Senate, which she would then control, just as she effectively does now.

As vice president with a 50 50 cent and, and you could be looking at all three branches of government being effectively controlled by the Democrats and also a Supreme court that we can't necessarily count on on a lot of issues. So the amount of damage that they could potentially do. in the next four years or even eight years is, is massive.

And none of us should underestimate that. And getting back to the migrant issue, for example, I think if they did control, if they control the House, Senate, and the White House, they will absolutely amnesty all of these illegals. They'll invite in even more, they'll amnesty them as well. And that permanently changes the United States in permanent ways.

And I'm not sure we win an election again, if that happens. So like the, the consequences are, Are extreme and, and potentially dire [00:31:00] and why it's, it's so, so important that we win this election that everybody just works their tails off between now and election day. And I would encourage any of the folks out there listening, a lot of Republicans, a lot of conservative folks want to, want to vote in person.

I understand that and I, and I wish we had those rules in place. But those are not the rules we play by in almost every state in America now, get your vote in early, whether it's in person, in person, early voting or mail voting, we need to match the Democrats in terms of early vote, we can't count on game day alone to make up the deficits that we have been building in the last several election cycles with early voting.

So I want to really, really encourage people to early vote, get their friends and family to early vote, people at church, people at work, anybody who you believe is on our side. Prod them, bother them, be a little bit of a nuisance, get them to, to early vote. 

Leyla Gulen: Yeah. With less than 75 days until election day, uh, with that, keeping that in mind, do you foresee a Kamala Harris becoming her own worst enemy and imploding?

And also, do you foresee [00:32:00] a fair and legal election taking place? 

Steve Cortez: Yeah, great questions. You know, on the first one on, on Kamala, I don't think she's going to implode. And the reason I say that is I don't think they're going to put her in many situations where it can happen. Many troll her and keep her so tightly scripted that unfortunately, Yeah, and I was just gonna say, but the debate is obviously the one place where they can't script it, right?

It looks like only gonna end up with one debate And I think that's probably for exactly that reason from Team Harris that they don't want to debate more or are gonna be difficult on More debates but other than the debate and again and you you pointed this out How RFK pointed this out the fact that she hasn't done a serious Interview with it with a real journalist with somebody who's willing to be skeptical and and call her to task is it's incredible I mean that in more than a month not a not a presser You Uh, not a real sit down interview, uh, of any, uh, consequence since she became the, the nominee, since she was coordinated as the nominee.

That's just, it's incredible that that, uh, has not happened yet. And to your second point, too, [00:33:00] though, about the election. Look, I do not believe it's going to be perfect, that's for sure. And most of these swing states have not addressed these systemic problems in their voting processes, and that is a shame.

Mm hmm. But I believe it will be, it will be clean enough. And I know that's not the right answer. As an American, we should aspire to greatness, greatness, even in our elections, we need to fix this, but you can't fix it unless you win. And we have to win under the current rules and processes, even if we disagree with those rules and processes.

So I think it will be fair enough. And I know, again, that's not, that's not adequate. That should never be an answer. That's adequate for Americans, right? We should always demand better. But in the meantime, these are the systems we have. We've got to just flood the zone and make the wind too big to rig. And is that possible?

I think it is possible. And, and, but all of us need to do our duty in that. Even if you don't work professionally in politics the way I do, everyone has a role to play as a, as a citizen and patriot. 

Leyla Gulen: And what is next for you in the next days leading up to the election? 

Steve Cortez: Yeah, so I'm going to be super busy, a lot of [00:34:00] travel, I'm filming more documentaries.

My next documentary is coming out very shortly, I've actually already put a tease up to it on my ex account, but it is The Persecution of Trump, and I think people will find it very persuasive, and what I'm pointing out there, my main thesis is that while the shooting of Trump, the attempted assassination, Was the most recent and worst example of Trump's, the persecution of Trump.

It is, it is hardly isolated and that it follows, unfortunately, a long string of significant persecutions of Trump that we go through. Senator Blackburn, Ned Ryan, and Terry Schilling are the three interviewees that I highlight there. I'm going to be filming a couple of more documentaries. I'm doing one on food price inflation.

And I'm doing another one on a migrant situation. Whitewater, Wisconsin is a town of only 15, 000 people. They've been inundated with a thousand migrants, a small town of only 15, 000 has a thousand migrants that have showed up since Joe Biden became president and Kamala Harris, vice president. So we're going to go there and highlight the problems for the schools, for law enforcement, for everything.

In whitewater. So, uh, I've got a [00:35:00] lot going on. I'm actually going next week to El Salvador to meet president Bukele, who's somebody who I really admire. Who's done a great job of making one of the most dangerous countries in the world. One of the safest countries now in the world. Just something 

Leyla Gulen: about their prisons.

Fascinating. Are you, 

Steve Cortez: yes. Yes, we are. Yeah, that'll be great. And he wants me to lead a panel on on media and American media. So we're looking forward to that. So yeah, I've got to be a very, very busy man. But look in my line of work, this is go time. I mean, this is this is the playoffs. This is it for all the marbles and we've got a country to save.

So I'm going to be I'm going to be working super hard between now and election day. 

Leyla Gulen: Well, Steve Cortez, you've made the time for us. I want to thank you so much for joining us and great conversation is always fascinating. Always learn something when I talk to you 

Steve Cortez: Layla, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Leyla Gulen: Steve Cortez, founder of the American League of Workers. Thanks again for joining [00:36:00] us.