Breaking Battlegrounds

Join hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone this week on Breaking Battlegrounds for a dynamic lineup of discussions. Our first guest, Governor Joe Lombardo, gives an exclusive update on his journey as Nevada's Governor and shares his perspective on the state's progress and his vision for the road ahead.

Later in the show, we shift gears to explore the complex world of technology with David Sinclair. Sinclair delves into the intricacies of data gathering and behavioral manipulation by tech giants. Gain a deeper understanding of how these companies collect and leverage user data.

Concluding the episode, Rachel Walden, Mesa Public Schools Governing Board Member, brings a crucial dialogue on school safety to the forefront. Gain insight into the latest agreement in Mesa, AZ, where a significant step has been taken to enhance student safety. Every junior high and high school campus now benefits from the presence of school safety resource officers, fostering a secure learning environment.

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Governor Joe Lombardo

Born in Japan in a military family, Governor Joe Lombardo spent his childhood growing up across the world, until his father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base and his family put down roots in Las Vegas.

Governor Lombardo attended Rancho High School in North Las Vegas, before going on to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree. After graduating, he served in the United States Army and in the Nevada National Guard.

Following his military service, Governor Lombardo joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), where he quickly rose through the ranks and served on nearly every level of LVMPD, from detective to assistant sheriff. While serving at LVMPD, Governor Lombardo earned his Master of Science in Crisis Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2006.

After 26 years on the force, Governor Lombardo was elected as Sheriff of Clark County in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. As the sheriff of Nevada’s largest county, he oversaw a $1.3 billion dollar budget, 6,000 employees, and LVMPD’s efforts to protect millions of Clark County residents and visitors each day.

Governor Lombardo was elected as the 31st Governor of Nevada in November 2022 and sworn into office in January 2023. Governor Lombardo is focused on diversifying and revitalizing Nevada’s economy, restoring law and order in communities across the state, and bringing excellence, school choice, and accountability to Nevada’s education system.

More important to him than anything, Governor Lombardo is a devoted husband to First Lady Donna Lombardo, a dedicated father to his daughter Morgan, stepdaughter Lacey, stepson Jackson, and a grandfather to his 1-year-old grandson Teddy

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David Sinclair is the founder and CEO of 4FreedomMobile. A secure mobile service platform that provides secure, unlimited talk, text and high-speed data worldwide, while preventing tech companies, network operators, and others from tracking users' location, identity, communications, internet activity, payments, and more.

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Rachel Walden is a member of the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board, the largest school district in the state. As a Governing member she has prioritized academic achievement, parental rights, fiscal responsibility, and transparency.

TRANSCRIPTION

Chuck Warren

We met with Governor Joe Lombardo today. He is the governor, the 20th most popular governor in the United States. How does it feel to be in the top 20?

Gov Joe Lombardo

Was it 20 or 27? 20th?

Chuck Warren

20th, 57% approval, 20th. Most popular. You should. It feels.

Gov Joe Lombardo

Good. I just don't know how comprehensive the poll is. Right. I mean, but it's good that in the short tenure seven months. Right. That people the word is getting out. What we're trying to achieve here in the state of Nevada and what we're trying to a...

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we are joined by Dr. Aaron Friedberg, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on China. Later in the show, Kerry Picket of the Washington Times calls in to discuss some of the week’s biggest headlines.

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Aaron L. Friedberg is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on China and US-China relations, great-power competition, and US foreign and defense policy. Concurrently, he is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, where he is codirector of the Center for International Security Studies.Dr. Friedberg serves on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In addition, he is a counselor of the National Bureau of Asian Research, nonresident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and president and founding board member of the Alexander Hamilton Society. From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Friedberg served as deputy assistant for national security affairs in the Office of the Vice President of the United States. After leaving government, he was appointed to the Defense Policy Board and the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion.Dr. Friedberg is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, monographs, and book chapters. His books include Getting China Wrong (Polity Books, June 2022); Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate over US Military Strategy in Asia(Routledge, 2014); A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011); In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America’s Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy(Princeton University Press, 2000); and The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905(Princeton University Press, 1988).Dr. Friedberg has been widely published in policy journals, academic publications, and the popular press, including in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Commentary, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, War on the Rocks, the American Political Science Review, Asia Policy, China Economic Quarterly International, Daedalus, Harvard International Review, and Washington Quarterly.Dr. Friedberg has a PhD and AB in government from Harvard University.

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Kerry Picket is a senior congressional reporter for The Washington Times and fill-in radio host at SiriusXM Patriot 125. She previously covered the hill at other DC-based outlets including the Daily Caller and the Washington Examiner. Before that, she produced news for Robin Quivers of The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM, wrote entertainment news for MTV Radio, and worked as a production assistant at MTV.com. She appears frequently as a guest commentator on cable news programs and syndicated radio shows.

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This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck and Sam are joined by Matthew Continetti, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the new book The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism. Later in the show, we check in with Tom Horne, Republican candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.

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Matthew Continetti is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work is focused on American political thought and history, with a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement in the 20th century.

A prominent journalist, analyst, author, and intellectual historian of the right, Mr. Continetti was the founding editor and the editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon. Previously, he was opinion editor at The Weekly Standard.

Mr. Continetti is also a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. He also appears frequently on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier and MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” with Chuck Todd.

Mr. Continetti is the author of two books: “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star” (Sentinel, 2009) and “The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine” (Doubleday, 2006).

He has a BA in history from Columbia University.

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Tom Horne is a candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. Mr. Horne has served both his community and our state impressively in several elected offices: Paradise Valley School Board member and president; Legislator where he was chair of the academic accountability committee; Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction; and, Arizona Attorney General. As Superintendent, he is most famous for enforcing the English immersion mandate for mostly Spanish-speaking children and getting rid of La Raza studies in Tucson schools. As Attorney General, he earned acclaim for winning lawsuits for Arizona that he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck and Sam are joined by Austin Knudsen, Republican Attorney General for Montana. Later in the show, Michael McKenna of the Washington Times calls into the show.

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Austin Knudsen grew up just outside of Culbertson, in the northeast corner of Montana, where his family has farmed and ranched for five generations. Austin grew up participating in 4-H, raising steers to show at the fair, and Future Farmers of America (FFA) throughout high school. In fact, Austin met his wife, Christie, while they both served as FFA State Officers during their freshman year at Montana State University-Bozeman.

Austin put himself through college in Bozeman working jobs at the local butcher shop and a hardware store, and returning each summer to work on the family farm and ranch, growing wheat and sugar beets, and raising angus cattle. Austin and Christie were married shortly after graduation and moved to Missoula where Austin earned his law degree from the University of Montana.

After law school, Austin and Christie moved their young family back to the farm and ranch where Austin worked at a law firm in Plentywood before opening his own practice in Culbertson. As a private attorney, Austin represented just about every kind of legal case imaginable, including estate planning, probate, civil litigation, land use, oil and gas, and real estate transactions.

In 2010, Austin defeated a two-term incumbent and was elected to serve as the Representative for House District 34. While serving in Helena, Austin quickly noticed the extent of the disconnect between Helena bureaucrats and the political insiders and the rest of the people across Montana, so he pursued leadership roles in his caucus and was elected Speaker Pro Tempore during his second session. During his third and fourth sessions in 2015 and 2017, Austin was elected by all 100 members of the House of Representatives to lead them as Speaker of the House. Austin was one of the youngest people to serve as Speaker in Montana history — and in the nation. Austin was also the only two-term Speaker since term limits were imposed.

The Knudsen family lived just about as far from Helena as any other legislator, so during the sessions Austin and Christie and their three kids — Leah, Connor, and Reagan — would move as a family to Helena. As a Legislator and Speaker, Austin worked to ensure his constituents had a voice, and that taxpayers were getting the most out of the hard-earned money they send to the state. In addition to his maximum four legislative sessions, Austin presided over a 2017 Special Session in which he led a united Republican caucus to defeat multiple tax increase attempts by the Governor.

Back in Culbertson as a private attorney, Austin was astounded by the lack of prosecutions coming out of the County Attorney’s office, and the illegal drugs and related crime that was devastating his community. Following a drive-by shooting outside of their kids’ school, Austin and Christie knew they had to do more to make their community safe, and in 2018 Austin was elected Roosevelt County Attorney.

As a county prosecutor, Austin worked hand-in-hand with the full range of law enforcement personnel, including on the Fort Peck Reservation, to ramp up prosecutions and put violent offenders behind bars. In 2020, Austin ran for Montana Attorney General because the illegal drug pandemic and resulting violence are a statewide problem. In fact, violent crime has increased more than 30% in just over a decade.

As Attorney General, Austin has made combating the drug pandemic and supporting law enforcement a main focus — ensuring that Montana is a safe place to live and raise a family.

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Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, is the president of MWR Strategies. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House. He can be reached at [email protected].

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This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we are joined by Congressman Andy Biggs, Republican from Arizona’s 5th Congressional District.

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Andy Biggs was first elected to serve the people of Arizona’s Fifth District in 2016. He currently serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, where he is Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

From 2019 through 2021, he served as Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. He is currently co-chair of the Border Security Caucus, Vice Chair of the Congressional Western Caucus, and a co-founder of the bipartisan War Powers Caucus.

Prior to his election to Congress, Andy served in the Arizona State House of Representatives for eight years, and in the Arizona State Senate for six years. In 2012, Andy was elected Senate President.

Andy received his B.A. in Asian Studies from Brigham Young University, his J.D. from University of Arizona, and his M.A. in Political Science from Arizona State University.

An Arizona native, Andy and his wife, Cindy, have lived in Gilbert for 35 years. They have six children and are the grandparents of eight grandchildren.

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