26 Burst results for "James Lawrence"
The Charlie Kirk Show
Scott Presler Tells Us About the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
"Us now is Scott pressler to actually connect the stories together, we're going to talk about Wisconsin and I have a feeling that our Wisconsin viewers are going to want to hear more about Aaron Rodgers than about the Supreme Court seat, but they should honestly care about this more. Scott, welcome to the program. I think it's the most important election in 2023. Talk to us about the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Thank you, Charlie. Well, I'm here in Wisconsin and Milwaukee. And what people need to understand is right now, the Supreme Court is for Republicans to three Democrats. But one Republican is retiring, meaning that on April 4th, if we are not successful at electing justice Daniel Kelly, the court will flip from conservative to liberal. And I want to remind our Wisconsin viewers that governor Evers, a Democrat, tried to impose a stay at home order. And it was just as Daniel Kelly that was the deciding vote that negated and nullified that stay at home order, providing for Wisconsin's schools to open businesses to open churches to open. So everything is on the line with this election. If you believe in gun rights and hunting rights and school choice and voter ID and proof of residency in all comes down to the all important election on April 4th for justice Daniel Kelly.
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"Well, I mean, so let me make a provocative and probably a little bit distant analogy. I'm going to use a concrete one. George Carlin used to tell people not to vote. George Carlin used to say, hey, don't go vote. It's not worth it. The system's rigged. Is that voter suppression? No, I mean, that could be a little out, but. I suppose he would need to start a legal defense. He's not alive. Now, but he might need to start Carl and defense fund dot com. We have meme defense fund dot com and let me just yeah, no, please plug it. Please do, yes. Defense fund dot com is where you can go and log on and support mister Mackey's fans in this case. But again, I mean, if this theory is allowed to prevail in this case, we're all going to have to open up our own defense. Well, and I'll give you another example. So I was doing an event in Chicago and a young man came up and he buttered me up. He knew what radio station I was on, but he was a troll. And he said, quote, Charlie, that's why when the midterm elections came, I told all my Friends and family, there's only one way to stop the woke Democrat mafia, and that is to boycott these elections because they're never going to hear us if we don't really stop participating. It's a farce. It's a farce. Why should we participate? You said it yourself. Why should we participate? Now, I challenge him said, no, no, no, but he's a troll. He was a left wing activist, telling people not to vote, telling people he was trying to suppress the vote. I mean, the government is setting a precedent here that this young man should serve a decade in jail. And that's why we can't open this Pandora's box. That's why that's why it's so important that mister Mackey prevails in this case and that the door is slammed shut to this kind of prosecution because it will have a chilling effect on speech and it's just not where we should be going as a country. So again, I'd ask your audience to go on to meme defense fund dot com. So just spell it. Defense fund dot com. And I'd also like to encourage your audience at the same time. Romans 8 28 says all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And regardless of what the outcome is here in this case, ultimately we know who the author of history is and whatever the designs of the powers that be are, it's in God's hands, ultimately what happens in this case. And he will be glorified by the outcome of this. Regardless of which way it gets. Amen. But our prayer is that mister Mackie would be acquitted. We need the truth to prevail here. So people said, well, Charlie, who is they? This is the Department of Justice trying to put a young man in jail because he posted some harmless Internet jokes in the 2016 campaign. If that's not government overreach, and by the way, where's the ACLU? Nowhere to be found. Big free speech warriors. What a bunch of frauds were out of time. Meme defense fund dot.
The Charlie Kirk Show
James Lawrence and Charlie Discuss the Case of Douglas Mackey
"Doing an event in Chicago and a young man came up and he buttered me up. He knew what radio station I was on, but he was a troll. And he said, quote, Charlie, that's why when the midterm elections came, I told all my Friends and family, there's only one way to stop the woke Democrat mafia, and that is to boycott these elections because they're never going to hear us if we don't really stop participating. It's a farce. It's a farce. Why should we participate? You said it yourself. Why should we participate? Now, I challenge him said, no, no, no, but he's a troll. He was a left wing activist, telling people not to vote, telling people he was trying to suppress the vote. I mean, the government is setting a precedent here that this young man should serve a decade in jail. And that's why we can't open this Pandora's box. That's why that's why it's so important that mister Mackey prevails in this case and that the door is slammed shut to this kind of prosecution because it will have a chilling effect on speech and it's just not where we should be going as a country. So again, I'd ask your audience to go on to meme defense fund dot com. So just spell it. Defense fund dot com. And I'd also like to encourage your audience at the same time. Romans 8 28 says all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And regardless of what the outcome is here in this case, ultimately we know who the author of history is and whatever the designs of the powers that be are, it's in God's hands, ultimately what happens in this case. And he will be glorified by the outcome of this. Regardless of which way it gets. Amen. But our prayer is that mister Mackie would be acquitted.
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"That's why we are here. Brought to you by my friends and Todd at Sierra Pacific mortgage, Triple H, triple 8 1172, or Andrew and Todd dot com. We've been following this story and I think it's incredibly important. This is one of the most important legal cases happening in America. Surrounding freedom of speech, the overreach of the Biden regime, comedy, Internet culture, it all is involved here. And joining us now is James Lawrence, who's an attorney for the Mackey legal defense fund. You may or may not remember, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, and now it's going to trial. It's actually went through jury selection. I would go into trial. Of the case of Douglas Mackey. Where they're trying to put a young man in prison who made Internet memes and jokes about the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, and they're trying to lock him up and throw the key away. James joins us now. James welcome back to the program. Charlie, thanks so much for having me again. Good to be with you. So James, give us the update. What is the status of the trial or the jury selection, fill us in? Yeah, so I believe we're in day three of jury selection and mister Mackey's case. But since we last talked, there are two developments that I would like to make your audience aware of with respect to the case. The first involved the government's plan to introduce evidence from a confidential witness and to just give your audience context around that request. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of Americans to be able to confront their accusers and open the court. It's something that goes to the core of the constitution as a native of Raleigh, north Carolina. I can tell you this is something that sir Walter Raleigh was complaining about from his prison cell and the Tower of London in the 1600s. I mean, this is how bad rock this is to our country. And in this particular case, the government plans to introduce testimony from a confidential witness whose name will be withheld from the public and the court has not only granted the government's request to keep that person anonymous, but also to prevent mister Mackey's trial team from engaging in a fullsome cross examination of the witness with respect to that individual's connections with the Federal Bureau of Investigation through the briefing, mister Mackey's defense team has learned that the confidential witness has a relationship with the FBI and back has pled guilty to the very same offense that mister Mackey is accused of and is continuing to work with the government, but not only Charlie will, mister Mackey's trial team, not be able to confront that person in public open court, but they won't be able to fully cross examine the witness with respect to that relationship..
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Most Important Court Case of 2023 With James Lawrence
"Now is James Lawrence, who's an attorney for the Mackey legal defense fund. You may or may not remember, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, and now it's going to trial. It's actually went through jury selection. I would go into trial. Of the case of Douglas Mackey. Where they're trying to put a young man in prison who made Internet memes and jokes about the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, and they're trying to lock him up and throw the key away. James joins us now. James welcome back to the program. Charlie, thanks so much for having me again. Good to be with you. So James, give us the update. What is the status of the trial or the jury selection, fill us in? Yeah, so I believe we're in day three of jury selection and mister Mackey's case. But since we last talked, there are two developments that I would like to make your audience aware of with respect to the case. The first involved the government's plan to introduce evidence from a confidential witness and to just give your audience context around that request. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of Americans to be able to confront their accusers and open the court. It's something that goes to the core of the constitution as a native of Raleigh, north Carolina. I can tell you this is something that sir Walter Raleigh was complaining about from his prison cell and the Tower of London in the 1600s. I mean, this is how bad rock this is to our country. And in this particular case, the government plans to introduce testimony from a confidential witness whose name will be withheld from the public and the court has not only granted the government's request to keep that person anonymous, but also to prevent mister Mackey's trial team from engaging in a fullsome cross examination of the witness with respect to that individual's connections with the Federal Bureau of Investigation through the briefing, mister Mackey's defense team has learned that the confidential witness has a relationship with the FBI and back has pled guilty to the very same offense that mister Mackey is accused of and is continuing to work with the government, but
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"Website is meme defense fund dot com. I'm working with our team at turning point USA. We're going to do a matching type grant that if a certain amount could be raised, then we will match it at turning point you'll say up to a certain amount. We're going to figure that out and make an announcement because this is one of the more important cases and trials. The implications for freedom of speech are wide ranging and significant. And the Biden regime knows. And of course they're doing this in Brooklyn, obviously. They wouldn't do this in Oklahoma City. They're doing this as a way to try to set a precedent with us as James Lawrence, who's part of the legal team here. Can you just elaborate a little bit more on the far ranging implications here? This is political speech that was done satirically with a comedic spirit, this could very well set a precedent where if you say something that we don't like, we could put you in prison. Well, yeah, Charlie, yeah, again, that's our view of this case from the defense side of the table. That if this prosecution stands and if the federal government using the statute, this well intentioned statute, which, again, was passed to protect the rights of free slaves in the post Civil War south. If this can be weaponized in this way to attack an individual's right to use memes to critique the powers that be in our society in this context, we're again regardless of whether or not one agrees with the content. Then one could see it being used not just to prosecute people who are accused of spreading disinformation about the method in ways of voting. But about the actual candidates that are on the ballot as well, conceivably because it could, in a attenuated way, interfere with the person's ability to cast a vote for a desired candidate. This is the Pandora's box that the government's prosecution of Douglas Mackey invites and we are committed on the defense team to shutting the door to this, which will be to the redoubt and the benefit really of all Americans, regardless of political. This is chilling to all speech. And I mean, I can't imagine that this would withstand an equal protection appeal. I only say this because I know for certain that there is the voluminous records of people on the political left that use this sort of tactic. I mean, is that at all in your calculus or is that a separate issue? Well, well, you know, Charlie, one would expect the most venerable civil liberties organization and our country would be standing up to the plate. Yeah, where's the ACLU? Why are you talking? Why are you talking, Charlie? Why are you talking to a person who spent most of their career as a complex commercial litigator from Raleigh, North Carolina, about a case like this? Why aren't you talking to somebody again from our nation's most respected and venerable civil liberties organization? No, the ACLU is too busy trying to make sure kids could chop off their private parts. One has to make the argument. I will say this, you know, Charlie, I had the privilege to have the opportunity in April of 2020 to stand shoulder to shoulder with working class people and moms who were trying to go out and protest our governors lockdown orders here in North Carolina. It was work that the ACLU would not do. It's a privilege to stand shoulder to shoulder with Douglas Mackey and defend him in this case. I'm honored to be a part of the defense team. And again, my message to your viewers is support this effort at meme defense fund dot com, but even more importantly, really, I believe in the power of prayer, James 5, 16 says that the prayers of the righteous available much. And I know there are a lot of people that are listening to this broadcast right now that are that are righteous. And I would ask for them to pray for Doug to pray for me to pray for the defense team to pray for justice to be done. It really is the most important thing you can do. We're going to keep our eyes on it. We're going to announce a modest matching opportunity, but at least something to help get some money through to the meme defense fund. They're trying to chill and criminalize speech, and it's happening in front of our very eyes. It's right here. So check it out, meme defense fund dot com. Thank you so much, James. And I agree that you are successful. Thank you, Charlie. God bless you. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening,.
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"Up to ten years in prison. Or for the meme specifically you mentioned the draft, the daughters, which is mentioned in the government's indictment, but also the tweet that which we maintain as satirical, the tweet about being able to text your vote for Hillary Clinton. And so that's where we stand right now in the case is set to go to trial in the middle of March in Brooklyn, New York. So the government's argument is that they think this meme specifically the one with texting your vote was misleading to people it's such a great extent that it might have materially moved votes from my memory that's a very weak argument. Is the government going to be able to prove that? That somebody did not vote or was disenfranchised because of a meme? Well, well, Charlie, it's a great question. Now, the governments, the governments or argument, I think, is that they don't have to, in their view, show that any particular person did not vote as a result of viewing this meme, right? That they can and the intention of a defendant in mister Mackey's alleged circumstances is sufficient in the government to be support to support a conviction. Therefore, I suppose it's incumbent on your legal team to just prove that he's a satirist then. How do you prove that? Well, and Charlie, there's certain things I can't get into. No, I know I'm just speculating out loud. I'm not asking. I'm not trying to make your job harder, but yeah. Right. Now, and much appreciated. But certainly, if one goes back in time to the 2016 election, there were quite a few of these kinds of memes that were floating around in the twittersphere. To include memes that were targeted toward Trump supporters. In fact, there's a similar similarly situated meme that's still on Twitter to this very day that invites Trump supporters to vote by mail. And so there were these efforts that were going on. There were conversations that were taking place in being had and but again, the government, the government hasn't alleged that a single day was moved. Because of mister Mackey's means and its read of the statutes, it's not something that it has to prove. But then it just has to improve it has to prove intent of what I'm just trying to make sure I understand this. So they have to prove that the intent, the deep seated private beliefs of what he did was to try to disenfranchise blacks. I mean, is that what to interfere to interfere with the interfere with the right to vote to do what the statute says is barred to injure oppress threaten or intimidate any person with respect to exercising their right to vote is the theory that the government has advanced and again this is my, this is my synopsis. And Charlie, as you can probably survive, if this prosecution stands and this theory has a lag, the implications for other speech is our dire and their troubling. Regardless of whether or not one agrees with mister Mackey's speech, regardless of your political ideology, left, right, center, whatever it might be. This prosecution has significant and in our view troubling implications for First Amendment rights. And that's why we really are asking people who want to help with this effort to consider giving to support mister Mackey's legal defense and you can learn more about that at meme defense fund dot com. And if you feel if you feel lad, you can donate and support the effort here. Because again, this is larger and just his speech just as it is, this is one of the more dangerous prosecutions I could set a precedent to go after any commentator or political actor and I also just can't quite wrap my head around this idea of interference because they're going to say, oh, look, he was a pro Trump activist, therefore look at all these memes he was obviously trying to do this, but hold on, but then you're able to indict somebody for political advocacy. I mean, that's where that's where the line doesn't make any sense to me. Well, and from our perspective, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the defense teams perspective. Either. But we do have and Doug, my client in particular does have not one great faith in God, first of all, and foremost and for a lot of your viewers who are asking what they can do to partner, I've already mentioned meme defense fund. As a way to help. But we would ask for prayer. Truly, we would ask for prayer for the case for dog for the defense and for justice to be done in this case. Because again, the implications are so from our vantage point. So significant in the stakes are so high for the First Amendment. And the ability of people regardless of political ideology, really, to use satire to use means to criticize the powers that be in our society. That's what we see as being stake in this prosecution. I think you're going to win. I don't know if you'll win in the jury. I have no idea, but I think you're going to win the court of public opinion. I'm certain of that. The.
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"So first James welcome to the program. Let me introduce the story of Douglas Mackey. We've talked about this before. This story fires me up as it should, our audience. And it really hasn't received the coverage that I think it should. So Douglas Mackie for lack of a better term was a, let's just say a talented Internet voice in 2016 and started to make memes. He's a meme maker, okay? And he's a comedian. He made memes in the fall of 2016, making fun of the ridiculous Hillary Clinton advertisements and posters and some of which that said we could put it up on the screen. Avoid the line, vote from home, Tex Hillary to 5 9 9 two 5, obviously a joke, silly, and there were other or how about this one. Join Hillary to fight Russia with our greatest asset diversity, hilarious. However, the Biden administration doesn't find this to be very funny. They are now trying to put the meme maker himself Douglas Mackey in jail and criminalizing comedy. And James Lawrence is part of the legal team trying to fight the government on this James. Again, welcome to program, walk us through it. Hey, Charlie, first of all, thanks so much for having me. Thank you for taking the time to really address a case that goes to the heart of the First Amendment and really who we are as a country. So thank you for having me again. This case, as you mentioned, really does present an unprecedented prosecution by the federal government. Against what we believe to be constitutionally protected speech. My client, mister Mackey, is accused of violating 18 USC two 41. And I want to take a second and just explain what that statute stands for. It was passed originally, Charlie, and the aftermath of the Civil War. To guarantee the right of newly freed slaves to vote. And to protect them and to prevent recalcitrant forces in the south from interfering with, again, the right, the right to vote, the right to exercise constitutional rights. And the statute speaks specifically of barring conspiracy to injure or oppress threaten or intimidate any person in connection with the exercise of those rights. And up until mister Mackey's indictment just days after President Biden took office to our knowledge, it's never been used in this way to really tackle what would otherwise be constitutionally protected speech as we've argued in the motions and the pleadings that have been made to the case in the case to this point. And so the government's position. And this is why this case is so important and could have such a chilling effect on free speech is that what mister Mackey is alleged to have tweeted out on Twitter could end up with him facing down not only a felony conviction, but ten years..
The Charlie Kirk Show
"james lawrence" Discussed on The Charlie Kirk Show
"Charlie, thanks for having me and God bless you and your audience. God bless you. Thank you for your faith. All right, everybody. I had good ranchers send me a box of meat. And I got to tell you, it blew me away. You know, I've been using good ranchers for a while, but I said, come on, you guys got to send me it. And I need to really get into it and prepare it. It blew my mother in law way. It's great stuff. It really is. Now look, you got to check it out. How do you say I love you? The flowers, chocolate, can jewelry express true love? Well, in the end, they all fall short. The only thing that could be completely communicate the depths of your affection is Valentine's is look at to me, obviously. And not any meat though, only 85 over 85% of grass fed beef sold is imported from overseas. That's why it has to be good ranchers. A 100% American, hand trimmed, steakhouse quality meat delivered to your door. Don't say it, how you always have, say it with meat. Right now you can get $30 off when you order any box from good ranchers and use my promo code Kirk. Look, I use good ranchers. I love it. In fact, I just told good ranchers. You got to send me another box. It's amazing. This is a gift shirt to add sizzle to that special day. Whether on the grill or in a pan, nothing simmers like prime cuts of beef, pasture raised chicken, and premium quality seafood. You can get it all at good ranchers dot com. Perfect for the lady, the man or yourself, this Valentine's Day. Good ranchers of the gift that keeps on grilling. And look, if you want to support the Charlie Kirk show, if you want to eat, if you want to support American ranchers, you got to go grocery shopping anyway. So go to good ranchers dot com and save $30 on your unique gift as Valentine's Day by going to good ranchers dot com promo code Kirk say it with American meat instead. Again, the sizzle, the quality, the succulents, of good ranchers, will blow you away. Good ranchers dot com, promo code Kirk, check it out. Good ranchers dot com promo code Kirk. With us now is James Lawrence, James Lawrence, is a lawyer, and he's on Douglas Mackey's legal team..
The Charlie Kirk Show
Has the Government Shown Any Remorse to Mark Houck?
"Life centers were firebombed across the country. They tried to kill Brett Kavanaugh, the leaker was never found, but their focus was on Mark hauk and Mark, what did you do? You were praying outside of a clinic and some paid agitator probably tried to come up to your kid. I mean, did the government show any remorse or hesitation throughout this entire prosecutorial process? This is the federal government of the United States. Yes. Well, the gentleman that you allude to, he's been there a volunteer for 20 years. So, you know, that kind of puts that to Rhett to rest. But the government and how they handled this and how they treated me is interesting and something will hopefully take before Congress. When they came to my house that day again, if you know anything about a federal age and coming to your home to serve a warrant or to arrest somebody, usually it's one or two people. Now the FBI does their homework and they do a tremendous research over who they're going to go out and bring this paperwork to. On that particular day, I had over 20 plus agents and PA state troopers that were at my house with long guns and full S.W.A.T. gear. I'm surprised someone didn't get shot that day. I'm surprised one of my children weren't shot. We do have some airsoft guns in the house. But if one of my children thought this was interesting, a little 5 year old or a four year old, they would have been shot. So it was extremely reckless. Once I was put in custody, I was not told that I would be returning to my family. I wasn't told anything. Again, they said they were going to take me with or without a warrant. They did have a warrant, but that's how they communicated to my wife. As my children were screaming and they took me away, they wouldn't allow me to get a pair of pants to get a sweatshirt on a cold day. To put socks on, wouldn't allow me to brush my teeth. Well, let me put angor in on it was 6 45 in the morning.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Mark Houck Joins Charlie to Discuss His Recent Trial
"Recently had your trial. It seems as if this was a very quick timeline between the raid and the trial and so was there a reason for that? That's a good question. I think, you know, you look some of these things up. Whenever there's a minor involved in a trial like this, they try to expedite it so that the child isn't further traumatized. No one communicated to me that that was the reason we were just first up, couldn't believe it was four months after the yeah, it's super quick. Yeah, yeah, it was quick. You look at David the lightest case and he's still in court and waiting his trial for many things and it's been years. So you just recently had your trial and they were, this is the federal government, right? So there was a fair to say there was a federal prosecutor that was arguing to try to put you in jail. What law were they alleging that you broke? So I was charged with allegedly violating the face act, which is in 1994, federal law that was enacted sponsored by the late center Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer. And basically it was designed in the 1990s to deal with pro lifers who were performing public sit ins and civil disobedience called the rescue movement. And they effectively did that under Bill Clinton's administration. It has been resurrected to come after pro lifers, basically they act stands for federal access to clinic entrances and it protects those acronyms. It protects those that are coming into in and out of an abortion facility or even protects those trying to get into a pregnancy resource center, believe it or not. In this case, it's being applied widely to against pro lifers and not being adequately or equally applied to the violations against people with intent to go to pregnancy resource centers or violence against pregnancy resource centers. But in this case, it was applied to me. They had two counts with three to four elements under each and basically it was a violation of the phase act with that held up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 in fine.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Pro-Lifer Mark Houck Committed No Crime
"I was fired up a couple months ago when the Biden department adjusted this decided to deploy a S.W.A.T. team to go after a pro life leader and that same DoJ told us they can't find the Supreme Court leaker, sorry, just not interested. Almost nobody arrested for my knowledge on federal hate crime charges for the firebombing or the arson of pro life clinics, but what they focused their attention on was going after a pro life dad who's a pro life activist, storming the home and trying to do a show trial to say that if you support pro life ideas, if you are a pro life activist, we are going to show the world that we're going to make you suffer. Well, Mark hauk was rated by the FBI indicted by the Department of Justice and has now been acquitted a federal jury rejected the government's intimidation against pro life people and Mark hawk joins us now. Mark, welcome to the program. Greetings, Charlie. Thanks for having me. Mark, tell us your story first, the situation that's in question, and then walk us through the day the FBI arrived. Sure. So all glory be to God for this opportunity and it all began on October 13th, 2021. Which was the day that my son and I and my 12 year old son at the time were coming into the city of Philadelphia for our normal prayer vigil, our weekly prayer vigil. We've been doing it for myself 20 years and my son for the last two years with me. And on this particular day, the fall afternoon after about 45 minutes of praying there was an altercation between myself and a Planned Parenthood escort. And that ensued to be, I guess, more problems with this man because that initial altercation where he was interfering with my First Amendment rights to give literature out to abortion minded men and women who come and go from the facility. Led him to further harass me and my son.
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Rep. Troy Nehls Describes His Post-Raid Visit With Donald Trump
"About your recent visit with president Trump and what kind of mood was he in? You know, that photo was the day after the illegal rate in Mar-a-Lago. And I tell you, you didn't see Trump's sweat and he met with us for over three hours. It was a dinner meeting there about 11 of us from the Republican study committee up there up in bedminster. What a beautiful, beautiful place. Beautiful golf course. And he is such a great host. I mean, he asked questions. He answered questions. He was signing hats and all sorts of things till his hand hurt. But you didn't see any stress on his face. You didn't. I think truly that he is disappointed to see what this administration, what Joe Biden has done to the country in the last 18 months. Donald Trump did so much to make America great again. And now he has seen this president destroy what he's built. In four years, he destroyed it in 18 months. So I think deep down some of that concerns him and bothers him a little bit, but he's encouraged, I believe, I know, I believe he's coming back. We need to clear the fields that nobody needs to challenge him in a primary. He's going to clobber them all. And then he's going to win the general election. And he's going to come back and make America great again again.
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
"james lawrence" Discussed on America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
"All right, I want to hear more on that. I want to know how you defeat and how you win against these behemoths. Can you stay on the line for another segment, please, James? Yes, sir. All right, follow this man right now. He is available on Twitter at J Lawrence and C that's J Lawrence NC. I'm Sebastian gorka from a strategist to president Trump. This is America first on the Salem network across the nation wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay on this channel. Hi, this is president Trump and Sebastian is really a friend of mine. He's a great guy. He's been with me from the beginning. Listen to him. We all learn. Are you familiar with just how prosperous black America was in the 20s and the 30s in America? You'd be shocked if you understood the deliberate targeting by the left of that community. I know somebody who isn't, my former Salem colleague, Larry elder, who made the incredible movie Uncle Tom. Well, this week he releases the sequel Uncle Tom two in which he reveals the sinister agenda, the truth behind Black Lives Matter and the destruction of black Harlem. There's only one place you can watch it. Check it out today at Salem now dot com. The first one was incredible. This one's even better. Uncle Tom two the sequel, Salem now dot com, Salem now dot com where we have a whole panoply a galaxy of good content for you to watch, including 2000 mules. Check it out today. Salem now dot com. We're back with former Trump administration employee James Lawrence, who is now representing conservatives who are fighting the goliaths of big tech and Palo Alto. You were in the middle of the story with regards to Alex berenson, the case you once again, you won against Twitter, where you said the First Amendment strategy didn't work. You didn't have, you know, smoking gun on that. But then you went for this breach of contract. I am fascinated because as far as I'm concerned, it's tilting at windmills. Don Quixote is a mission to go up against these guys. So what did you have to prove, how did you succeed in this case? Proverb 6 two talks about the wicked being caught up in their own words. Not to call Twitter the wicked necessarily. Why not on this show you are permitted to do so, so what are the wicked words that you caught them up in? So here is what happened. They promulgated a specific policy. Their COVID-19 misinformation policy where the company went out of its way to define specifically what is COVID-19 misinformation and what is not. And what we did in Alex's case was that we lined up what Twitter said is COVID misinformation in this information with what Alex said. And simply explain to the court why Alex never violated the policy. And because we did that, it was enough in the courts view to allow the breach of contract theory to move forward and for the case to go and to discovery. So the case really does stand for the broader proposition. That if a tech platform is going to go out of its way to create a speech code, like it did in the case of the COVID misinformation policy. That if they don't follow that speech code and if you say something that doesn't actually violate it and they ban you anyway and they punish you anyway that it gives rise to a breach of contract.
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Lawyer James Lawrence Fights the Big Tech Goliaths
"With former Trump administration employee James Lawrence, who is now representing conservatives who are fighting the goliaths of big tech and Palo Alto. You were in the middle of the story with regards to Alex berenson, the case you once again, you won against Twitter, where you said the First Amendment strategy didn't work. You didn't have, you know, smoking gun on that. But then you went for this breach of contract. I am fascinated because as far as I'm concerned, it's tilting at windmills. Don Quixote is a mission to go up against these guys. So what did you have to prove, how did you succeed in this case? Proverb 6 two talks about the wicked being caught up in their own words. Not to call Twitter the wicked necessarily. Why not on this show you are permitted to do so, so what are the wicked words that you caught them up in? So here is what happened. They promulgated a specific policy. Their COVID-19 misinformation policy where the company went out of its way to define specifically what is COVID-19 misinformation and what is not. And what we did in Alex's case was that we lined up what Twitter said is COVID misinformation in this information with what Alex said. And simply explain to the court why Alex never violated the policy. And because we did that, it was enough in the courts view to allow the breach of contract theory to move forward and for the case to go and to discovery. So the case really does stand for the broader proposition. That if a tech platform is going to go out of its way to create a speech code, like it did in the case of the COVID misinformation policy. That if they don't follow that speech code and if you say something that doesn't actually violate it and they ban you anyway and they punish you anyway that it gives rise to a breach of contract
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
"james lawrence" Discussed on America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
"Thank you. Thank you, thank you. So I don't know where it's at right now. Reports with regards to Elon Musk, free speech and Twitter. But his reminder of his attitude to the whole question cut three play cuts. And a good sign as to whether there is free speech is, is someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like. And if that is the case, then we have free speech. And it's damn annoying when someone you don't like says something you don't like. That is a sign of a healthy functioning free speech situation. Now that would be wonderful if that were the principle by which Twitter were run, it is not, they are censoring people for just stating the truth. One of those individuals was the report of the journalist Alex berenson, who was on the show last week, he has had a massive victory against the giant the Goliath that is Twitter. And we're going to talk to the man who helped make that happen. It's his attorney, James Lawrence. Welcome to America first. Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure to be here. All right, well, I'm looking at your credentials. We've never spoken before on the show. You have worked as deputy general counsel for HHS. You've worked as chief counsel under president Trump for the FDA. So that's good enough for me and especially given what Alex said about you. Will you tell us what was so utterly egregious about what happened to Alex? Sure, happy to. So in Alex's case, he had started really providing insights on the pandemic that no one else was providing going back to march of 2020. And had a reported and really gained a lot of traction and following to the point where when he was banned in August of 2021, he had close to 400,000 followers on the platform. Wow. What led to his suspension or his at the time permanent suspension is no longer suspended of course. Was claims that he had made on the platform that, among other things, the vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccines do not stop infection or transmission and COVID-19, which even when he made the claim at the time, or made the statement tweeted that out to as following, was not untrue. And in fact, was view that was held by other people in the public health. Well, which was confirmed last week by CDC. To correct in the way that they're treating unvaccinated and vaccinated people really without any distinction anymore. And so what was egregious about the ban in our view was that he had never said anything that was demonstrably false. But it was true. But the most disturbing of all was the connection to The White House and to the government, no. Correct. And that is something that he reported on last Friday or at the week ago Friday. Where he has published documentation that he obtained from the litigation that shows that very level people with a Biden White House were asking Twitter, why has this berenson die not been thrown off the platform yet? Hang on, let me just repeat that. So everybody, the 3 million people listing right now live understand what you just said. People inside the Biden White House communicating with higher ups at Twitter and the conversation being, why has this man not been suspended already? Correct? Words to that effect, yes, sir. Yes. And then what happened? What happened to how did you get involved and what was the strategy? So that was in April of 2021, those questions were being asked by the Biden White House. And then in August of 2021, mister berenson was suspended from the platform. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to represent him in we filed a lawsuit in December of 2021 where we made 8 different claims against Twitter, including that they had colluded with the Biden administration to suppress Alex's First Amendment rights. And I will say that the vast majority of these ten kinds of claims we see black on Ukraine fail for various reasons, including claims made by former president Trump that the Biden administration had colluded with the social media platforms to suppress and silence his First Amendment rights by his deep platforming with all of the pressure that was being applied after January 6th. The court in our case dismissed the First Amendment claim because in these kinds of contexts don't have direct evidence of what actually happened. You're seeing a Google glass darkly. Although we saw we thought in our case we have compelling circumstantial evidence that was collusion and comes to find out that it appears that that's the case. We were allowed to proceed on was a breach of contract..
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Lawyer James Lawrence Unpacks Alex Berenson's Permanent Twitter Ban
"Lawrence. Welcome to America first. Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure to be here. All right, well, I'm looking at your credentials. We've never spoken before on the show. You have worked as deputy general counsel for HHS. You've worked as chief counsel under president Trump for the FDA. So that's good enough for me and especially given what Alex said about you. Will you tell us what was so utterly egregious about what happened to Alex? Sure, happy to. So in Alex's case, he had started really providing insights on the pandemic that no one else was providing going back to march of 2020. And had a reported and really gained a lot of traction and following to the point where when he was banned in August of 2021, he had close to 400,000 followers on the platform. Wow. What led to his suspension or his at the time permanent suspension is no longer suspended of course. Was claims that he had made on the platform that, among other things, the vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccines do not stop infection or transmission and COVID-19, which even when he made the claim at the time, or made the statement tweeted that out to as following, was not untrue. And in fact, was view that was held by other people in the public health. Well, which was confirmed last week by CDC. To correct in the way that they're treating unvaccinated and vaccinated people really without any distinction anymore.
Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
"james lawrence" Discussed on Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
"That aside from it and now we have to build the tendon strength and get your joints there. You know your ability to deal with the mental side. And that's the part that people aren't willing to do because it gets so excited. They see see the headline they see the headline of what it is and they want that feeling of what it takes and be honest with you i. I don't enjoy the business out of stuff like i am. I didn't sit out on the coaching. Side of stuff just triathletes. I trust me last thing. I wanted to be on stage. Last thing i wanted to be was in front of people. Last thing i wanted to be was the center of attention. And like you said it's so important to have that big old. 'cause that's super exciting thing but people miss out on the journey and i so cliche eighty. The words came out of my mouth. Enjoy the journey. But it's so true and it's not about enjoying the journey about In the journey and participate in it and being very present in every step of the journey. And that's why people fail is because they rush straight to that big goal and they they miss out on everything in between which is the most important part you can't you can't skip those stepping stones and go right to it because that's where you're gonna learn i earlier in this in this conversation. You fail in your preparation so that when you get to the big goal i tell my clients all the time dream as big as you can so big that it scares you and you hear that all of the time but what people don't do is they don't shelf it. Forget about it. Reverse engineer it to the point where they build that success in that will make them so they can eventually get to it on a small level. We coach the full distance triathlon. All the time and all the time someone will do the first workout on. They say. I can't do i can't do it. Can't do a full business. And i say forget about it. That's not that's not where we're at like that's the finish line and i asked you trust me. Do you trust the process. Are you willing to show up every single day. Yeah absolutely great. That's not the goal. Let's just do today because by doing this. You're going to adapt evolve. And that's the part about doing if you just read watch. You don't adapt and evolve you gain knowledge but it's not applied dodge once you do you get closer and closer to that big goal when i started that four three four. Run that we've talked about. I know way my brain could have conceptualized. I couldn't even come up with the goal. It was so astronomically out there right. I couldn't even come up with fifty. I could come up with a marathon. That was my that was my heart and as you evolve and learn and continue to show up more becomes possible when you know. This is what i as. I do one. We wouldn't do it if we knew hard it was and to when you're in the middle of it it absolutely seems impossible and everybody. That's in the middle of their impossible. Hit us so hard and it is ruthless in its brew. Then when you accomplish news you hit that goal whether it's intermediate or big then you go. I've learned i've grown adapted now more becomes possible and then you can continue to push that envelope. That's the thing you never wanna do is sit down and go. Cat made it. I'm there i would've. I would've been content with the thirty thirty firemen's through eleven countries. I would have been it. But i just knew deep down to myself like there's more capable of more and i've i've learnt. I'm different than when i was when i when i was in the middle of it and it was the hardest thing i've ever done and then as things evolve and progress more becomes possible and it's man i've learned at the highest level that perception perspective is an amazing thing. When you mean my perception in perspective of a hundred is very different than say yours You've never done an arm right right. And so two u. that would be holy cow from where i am today. That would take a lot of effort a lot of energy a lot of training. I could probably walk off set. And if somebody said hey go. It's time doing fine. Let's go doing right. My perception in perspective of what that is very different but over time now my like my new normal and the way i look at things is very different. My previous world records. That were the hardest. They could have possibly been. When i was in the middle of it are laughable to me but to the newest member of their community their heart as my former fund. Run from fourteen years ago. And you need to meet yourself way. You're at on your journey and over time your perception perspective will change about. What's possible for you and that's the biggest thing. People wanna get intimidated and overwhelmed by. Oh heated that's impossible. I can't do it. I can't even relate to that you have to understand that everybody's journey start your never an expert when you start like when you exited quest. Your knowledge was so different than when you're like. Oh i'm going to start making bars and do these get this nutritional space how how big of a paradigm shift in your perspective probably changed a lot from conception to exit strategy even where you are with this business where you were and what you've learned has completely changed but you didn't watch a youtube video you did it and experienced. It experimented with it this work. This didn't work. you learned. You had failures. You.
Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
"james lawrence" Discussed on Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
"Is because they rush straight to that big goal and they miss out on everything in between which is the most important part. You can't skip those stepping stones and go right to it because that's where you're gonna learn. You fail in your preparation. So that when you get to the big goal dream as big as you can so big that it scares you and you hear that all of the time. But when people don't do they don't shelf it. Forget about it. Reverse engineer it to the point where they build that success in that momentum so they can eventually get to it. And that's the part about doing if you just read watch. You don't adapt and evolve you gain knowledge but it's not applied knowledge once you do you get closer and closer to that big old james lawrence the iron cowboy. Welcome back to the show and tom. Thank you thrilled. The beer excited to have you. You are the pitney to me of hard things doing hard things building your identity around that. Why do hard things. Why do they matter why. In fact we should tell people what you did so you sent me an instagram Dm and you said tom. I'm going to do one hundred ironman length triathlons in one hundred days which is crazy and then you ended up doing one hundred and one in one hundred one days which is absolute pandemonium. Why why hard things wire things great question. I believe that without doing hard things. We will go backwards in life. We'll go backwards. In the way we feel we'll go backwards in the way our mind develops and let's just take the pandemic for example when that happened. You take a look around to your peers or colleagues or associates and say they've experienced hard things based on what. I'm observing. how they're handling this right now and then flip side of that is. I could look over here and say okay. These people have never experienced something difficult in their lives and really really struggling with this and we all struggle with different things different times but it was pretty obvious to me who had experiences before and who could handle like that and so for me doing hard. Things with intent is preparation for the unknown. Because life's not easy. Life is not easy and we all struggle with our own ways. And i truly believe that we all have to go through this life and we all have to learn the same lessons in order to navigate. It's like a like a board game and you got hit all the check marks and you gotta hit all the squares and you're going to keep falling down the the the slide snakes and ladders if you fail that test and when you pass the test you gotta go with the latter you universal lessons that we all have to learn absolutely yes. Let's hear him. I've never thought of the actual lesson. But i mean i think we all have to learn things like humility kindness. Perseverance toughness grit off the top of my head. There are things that i think we all have to learn and the more inquiry. Learn those the quicker. We can advance through life and gain those experience number one question again. I've traveled around the world a lot of stages. It's been a blessed. I never thought that this would be my life but the number one thing is how do i become more mentally tough. How do i become around with. How do i overcome the barriers. How do i climb that mountain. You you cannot read about it you can hear someone tell their experience from it. You have to have an experience. You have to climb the ladder you. What is it about doing it yourself. I agree by the way. But i wanna know. Have you thought about why it is that we have to actually be in the mud doing a hard thing ourselves because motion create emotion and you have to experience something in feel it in order to haven't experienced knowledge with it and so if you are backed into a corner your beat you're broken and somebody says when that happens you can take the next step. Well do you truly believe you can take that next step if you haven't done it because i'm sure in your life with what you've built you know. Momentum is a huge thing right. Success breeds success and confidence breeds confidence. And so by actually. Doing you're creating those small wins in your path and then you can draw back on those experiences and apply them to now. You can't do that. You can't gain momentum by reading something that's always by application. Are this push on. I'm going to add a third type of person. So you said you're looking at cova and you're seeing people that are handling it well and you're like all right that's somebody who's seen some shit. They've been through something. They've built that sort of mental awareness of wet. What they're like what they need to do that. They can survive you say a lot. The next step isn't gonna kill me once. You know that next steps not gonna kill you all of a sudden. You're willing to take that next step. Then you look around. You see people who are floundering. The really struggling and you know that they haven't been pressed in hard times. I think though there's a third category that might be indistinguishable or maybe you can tell. But they've been through hard things and they've been damaged by it and they haven't learned the lesson they took the hard knock like you went through in two thousand eight. They lost everything and what they decided to learn from. That was that a failure and now when something hard comes along. They've got ptsd about it and they really don't wanna face it or engage with it. So how do you make sure that as you either go through the hard thing or put yourself through the hard thing that you learn the right lessons. Great example and that category israel and it exists. What happens is a lot of people they want to go from zero to one hundred and they fail when they try to do that. And that person that has been knocked down hard what they do. Is they try to go from zero to one hundred again. And they're not ready for it. And it's about everything in between zero to one hundred. And i couldn't even have conceptualized one hundred without doing the fifty prior to and i couldn't containing the actual one hundred iron men was precipitated by the fifty. Which before that was the thirty and before that on the training down to a mile fundra right because that's kind where my endurance history started and someone tries to miss the skip the former fun run skip the first half. I ran world records. Skip the full. Skip the fifty and try to go all the way to one hundred. You're not creating momentum. You're not learning the lessons along the way to learn the key lessons that we all have to learn and so that category needs to reassess where they are and be patient with their journey and start to learn the smaller lessons that are meaningful that. Get you to the bigger ones. I want you test fail and preparation. And they're not. They're not willing to the prep face. They're just going right to the test they fail and that just kills her confidence. I want to get into the lessons. And i wanna get into like the. There's a mental analog to what has to happen but there's also at least in terms of what you did. There's a physical analog. So one thing that i think is important for people to really understand that what i'm obsessed with this idea of. You're having a biological experience. And what i mean by that is one that your brain in your body. Act in certain ways and there's no way to transcend their ways to deal with it there's ways to leverage it but there's no way to transcend it..
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"Come keep showing up keep getting in the water and then all of a sudden five six years passes and you're like okay. Time is going to keep moving. And so i knew during the hundred i was like. Yes this is what we're doing. Yes for grinding yes. I'm on a lot of pain. But i know that june eight this coming eventually. It's going to get here and we will get through it. It's like the same this to show pass and it's true as long as we stay and put our focused on attention where it needs to be this too shall pass. It's when we don't show up and when we take ourselves out of the equation that time is gonna keep ticking now you have become a Bystander or spectator to everybody else accomplishing decided to show up. So that was. That was for me. One of the things that i utilized when i was in those dark moments that said okay. Time's going to pass either way and it was beautiful. Because i have a really really tough difficult day and i'd be like i don't know i don't know if i can do that again tomorrow. Like that was so mentally grinding. I don't know if i can do it again tomorrow. And sunny would always say. Look the work's done today. Let the team help you. You've you've done your job. We'll go to bed will wake up tomorrow and face tomorrow with whatever it gives us and so that was kind of the pattern it was like i've refi breaking point but i. I knew that if i kept moving i'm eventually going to get to the finish line. Sometimes on on the time frame that. I want to. But i'm eventually going to get there. And then once the work is done reset take the therapy that you need process that moment and get up and fight another day right like do the best you can with what you have in these moments so right now someone goes to your social media page if we're just talking instagram. They see Endurance athlete who has performed in these unbelievable wonderful ways that raise so much money for charity Father of five devoted husband when you look in the mirror. What is it that you see looking back at you. Brick question one. I see a father An an a husband and two. I see a person. That's still striving in for the limits. I i don't. I don't wanna sit on my laurels. I wanna take. I want to celebrate. But i wanna take the knowledge and experience that we've had an apply to other areas of my life. I think truly satisfied Said this before. But i'm really sad. This fight was with what we've accomplished. How he accomplished it. I think the the hundred really showed who we are as a team. What we're capable love. The level at which we can execute and we removed any doubt or criticism that we'd ever received in the past And that was important to me to to Kind of reset historian and let people know we are who we said. We were I think that's very cool and so for me. I just wanna look in the mirror and say you know what. I'm i'm a person that does what i says i'm gonna do. I'm a person that tries to set the best example. I know how for my kids. And i'm a loving devoted husband and my wife of twenty years. have you thought about. Maybe what the next thing could be. Yeah you know what. I think i am going down a a road of of biohacking the the human mind and the body and i think what's next for me is trying to figure out how to live a high quality of life well into my hundreds fat love to hear that right now my friend you have an opportunity to offer yourself. You know what. I've never done this before. But i think i'm gonna do it here. You're in a pretty big life. Erdal moment right now. You have done something that is so adorable and so wonderful and in the process have done so much. Good through your charitable efforts but as we spoke about at the top of this episode. Like you're going through it so if you were to take a step outside of yourself right now and give yourself one piece of advice in this hurdle moment. What is it that you think you really need to hear just Done enough You're worth it and just keep showing up consistently in in whatever capacity a direction that you take And you'll you'll just always be enough. You'll always be enough. I'm so grateful for your time today. James things so much. How did that heard keep up with you. How do they follow along with you. Give me all your details. Yeah Many thing that we do is on instagram iron cowboy james. Please follow us there. and then any resources and courses and books and all that and merchandises all on iron cowboy dot com so amazing. I'm over at emily. Body and hurdle podcast another hurdle.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"Like. Why not just go. Why not just go for the extra. I'll get into that just quickly cover. Why did that. But you know the the eve of an enormous tax that You are excited because you're about to start something cool. You're nervous because there's the unknown you don't know what it's going to be But generally it overall excitement you've got adrenaline. You've got the media the big thing and you finally get to the start of it and so the start is always cool because you've got a rental anna a ton of support it's the it's the middle part of a quarter of a year project that becomes hard because the excitement's worn down people have either tuned out for a little bit because you're in the middle part of it and it's not close enough to the end and your past the start the the exciting start And so those. I call them the the the blue collar worker days in the middle. Because it's when the work gets done where nobody's really paying attention and watching and it's it's kind of the important part because you can't get to the finish line without that kind of real grinding middle where nobody's watching and that's the way it is in life and business in relationships. There's always going to be those like blue collar. Grind him out moments that aren't exciting and but are pivotal on our journey to get us to where we are so we can have those exciting moments. Those finish lines though celebrations those you know all of that stuff and so those are important days And then we were. We were less than a week from finishing the goal successfully. One hundred and i said to myself i need to do one more and As a as a speaker as an author and whatnot i have a core set of values and principles and and one of them is. We can always do more even when we think we're broken even when we're defeated or even when we've celebrated and we've reached the finish line you have more in you even when you think your broken and i really i don't i don't like it when a mentor or coach is not speaking from experience. I haven't done it and they're just telling him somebody else's story or the collaboration or something right. I felt that was really important that i had to go out and do one more. We'd reached the goal. We'd accomplished it. We had celebrated. And i was broken. And i got up the next day and i still got on the water. I did two point four miles swim. I got on the bike. One hundred twelve and then we ran another twenty six point two and sometimes in our lives when you are broken you defeated. It is dark sometimes. You have to get up and do more on your own because you are in the middle of that journey and so i just really wanted to set the best example. I wanted to lead from the front. That said i am broken. And i am going to get up and i don't.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"That that's a lot of fun trust it. I love as you're talking about your experiences and traveling you keep using a we and the are and recognizing that this really is truly just such a family effort. I'd be curious to know Along the way perhaps not just yet up to one hundred but along the way the fifty obviously traveling throughout the united states with everyone were there hiccups or moments where you started to ask yourself like. Why am i putting my family through like. Are we really going to keep doing this effort. Sure especially when they're super young and your wife pulling her hair out. And i'm doing my thing and she's responsible to entertain the kids Because you know we we discuss our roles and we know each have a very important role in order to keep this thing moving. And when it gets chaotic and things aren't going plan and your bootstrapping things and things start to go wrong the you've gotta make sacrifices and yet becomes very difficult and challenging We're not talking about one athlete. And the dynamic of just what my needs in my you know What do i need in order to keep. Moving it psych. Okay they're seven of us and it's what are my wife's needs and what am i. Kids needs and four teenage girls right now and a son and so they're all very not demanding they have different needs and wants and as a parent five different parenting styles because each one of our kids is very unique in. It's so fun to see that like these individuals came from the same people. I mean we've been married twenty one years but it's just so fun being a parent and But yeah it is hard in these types of challenges. And i always say. Let look when you're putting together a team Don't look at someone's resume. Don't look at someone's great moments of their highlights. Go find out how that person performs under stress fatigue and exhaustion. Because that's who you want on your team when that person's performing at their worst because everybody's great when their great i mean that's easy it's how greater you and you're like broken that that's the team you put together in. Our family works really good exhausted. Broken we are just problem solvers and we figured out and we keep moving forward and that that's when being teamer family is a lot of fun with knowing a thousand percent every single one of them has my backing. They know i've got. I've heard that saying china times. It's like you can do good times with anyone but at psych. Who can you do those bad times with for sure for sure. Well so are you traveling around the country for that I always call the experiment. I feel like sorts. It was but were you traveling around the country in an in an rv for which fifty over fifty yeah everyday was yeah. We were in an rv so the we had to get to the next state and so the the wingmen we call them. Are the two guys on our team. They would drive throughout the night. While i was trying to get any sleep by could and get my body in therapy worked on and get food at me but the entire team was exhausted because it wasn't moving caravan. We had multiple vehicles to move. We had teammate equipment. We had everything. I mean it was. We still had to do a full distance. Try every single day and that takes a lot of effort and a lot of moving pieces took a lot of volunteers across the country and every state that helped us with the area that we ran. I it was fun to see the country. Just kinda come together for one. 'cause both when we did the fifty and the hundred i mean the community that came out and we on the hundred we. We raised in over two hundred fifty thousand dollars for Operation underground railroad which is trying to solve the problem and save humans from current day slavery and sex trafficking and so we always attach a charitable component to what we're doing which makes it even more meaningful For our family and our team to be able to to be able to raise those funds for those for those causes. Because there's truly people out there that are suffering that don't know when they're suffering gonna end and if we have a chance to help them make an impact on that like we realize that our lives are incredibly blessed and we have an opportunity where we can impact other people's and that's become a driving force for us as well. How did you decide on that particular charity for the hundred. Because i know previously you had worked with others in the past. Yeah we kinda we kinda pick a different scene For each one of the big campaign that we do it all hinges around where we are at that time in our lives and when we did the fifty we did it for childhood obesity and we had really young kids in. I was involved with the school system. And you could see okay. This is a problem. Because when i went to school i i could still name today like the two or three overweight kids in my class. Well now it's more than fifty percent of the class that is struggling with this and that's a very big problem and so that was really in our face and so we're like okay. Can we make an impact there. And now that. I've got four teenage girls and it's a utah charity. That was Heading this up and just a great cause and it was just kind of in our face. My wife had a big passion for it. And she's like we need to. We need to do our peace here to try to save these humans and so we just got behind the charity here. did did a ton of research on them and was really happy with the partnership. And you mentioned kind of where the thought process came from when it came to conception the idea of one hundred and one hundred when you first said this out loud what was it you that i this out loud or was it someone else on your on your team aka in the fam- no it was. It was definitely me a. They're satisfied their their. You know or teenage girls have got jobs. They've got school. They've got friends got dances. They've got all these things. And so that was the biggest thing when we came up with with the hundred or i came up with one hundred kind of presented it to the family as they were like. Okay well. I love the fact that you want to control the environment. And you want to do the whole thing here in utah. Because we can't displace our family at this time in our lives for a quarter of a year especially coming out of the pandemic and there was a lot of confusion and everything and so so really. It was the best decision for our family. Because we didn't have to displace our kids. They got to do their normal lives and be with their friends but still got to be involved at a high level with what i was doing so it was. It was really really great so talk to me about what the training looks like for an undertaking like this. Yeah it's It's a fulltime job. in it takes a lot of support from sponsors with equipment and product And just everything we can to make it work. You did a lot of damage on. Our bodies were retraining. Forty plus hours a week plus the recovery time that takes us all the therapy that needs to be done plus run a business on the side and so there's there's a lot to it. Obviously we do a lot of swimming a lot of biking a lot of running. But then you've got to train the mental side of stuff. You've got to do the therapies. Like i mentioned we've got to do strength training because with this type of project you know if you look at pictures of me. I'm not a like. I carry more weight than your average endurance athletes. Because i know once we start i'm going to wither away and i have to be very durable so we do. We do a lot of strength. Training supplements become super important We we get releasing a ton of free radicals and so any auctions become importantly we partnered with company called q. And they have a great product that really works on the cellular level and as an athlete those types of things become pivotal. I bike sponsor frazar. He becomes instrumental in what. We're doing the red light therapy the hyperbaric chambers all the swim equipment that we need it just becomes this huge team and undertaking just during the train process. There's three phases right. There's training there's execution and then there's post in recovery and each one of those demands a different respect and effort in order to get it right and if you don't get any of those right it's detrimental to your career lifestyle but your health overall. How does someone yell the night before they're gonna execute so when you started off you're going to do one hundred and then you decided to tack on the extra one. We didn't make that decision to like three days before he will.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"Have to do something outrageous again. You know i. I thought you know i set it off to the fifty and i set it up to the hundred. I'm completely satisfied with that. Effort and I didn't experience the same letdown sadness and depression that i did Off the one hundred fifty because just sheer do ration- of time and mileage and compounding a damage body so if you take the fifty just as it's timeframe and mileage it was seven weeks and it was a seven thousand miles. Well you double that you're talking fourteen weeks and you're talking fourteen thousand miles of self-propelled movement through effort and just that compounding effort day after day after day you get into a state where your mind is trying to protect yourself from the chaos from the trauma and it you don't you don't go from you know today to tomorrow. I went from chaos to protection. You slip into the state and then you don't even realize you're in that state until you come out of it after one hundred one days and then your body. Your mind says okay. I'm gonna now let you feel what. I've been powerfully hiding from you. And and it because of the duration of it it was it was intense coming out of it. I didn't feel that after fifty because it was a i know. Seven weeks is a long time to do something but it was only seven weeks. Compared to the fourteen weeks of the hundred and with the with the fifty we were swept away immediately into speaking and and media and all of that and the the hundred We shut everybody out because we needed to regroup as a family and it was just so intense that we need to shut it down and those two things that we did differently really impacted. How we were physically immensely. But i just had to recover. Yes i mean so from the fifty. What did you learn about your own recovery Let's start with during the effort. Because i'm sure right off the bat. You started to understand that you may need things that you weren't even prepared for her to be able to continually day after day. Go through that effort yet and it's so hard to Over when you have no time to recover you recover with time and time off nancy you need. You need both things in during these types of challenges where it's every single day you don't get to take a day off you now. Have your preparation becomes so pivotal. Because you have to over prepare knowing that you just have to figure out how to hold on and you. We do a lot of little things in order to Give ourselves the best chance with diet and supplementation and tools. And i mean we do. We do red light therapy and hyperbaric chamber. And we do chiropractor. We do deep tissue. We do Supplementation for our Cells and i mean just all these things that we do at a high level. I always say look. There's not one thing that we do that separates us from everybody else. The secret to success is doing a lotta little things consistently over a long period of time. And that's what most people aren't willing to do. They're not willing to do all of the little things that make the difference then. They're not willing to do them consistently so they can feel the effects of those. Well i think the problem in that and the reason why people don't do them right is because they don't feel the a instinct gratification thing like it's like you need to get into some sort of a habit or you need to create some sort of a routine so that you can feel the cumulative effect of all of these small things that can better you in the long run and people aren't willing to do that they wanna take a drug that makes them superhuman right now that heels for tomorrow and he for long term success. You just can't do those types of things you've got to do things that allow your body to adapt and evolve over time. It's just how you have to do it to be successful with these types of projects did any of the recovery tactics that you started to use completely like kind of blow you off your feet in terms of. You didn't expect them to help you as much as they did it. That's a really tough one to qualify. Because we do a lot of little things consistently right and so it's it's hard. It's hard to say okay. This one made the biggest difference of this one. Did and when you when you're at a level to where you're just performing at such a high level those micro micro adjustments that you have that we make in our training recovery. You don't feel them immediately or you can't quantify okay this this this this because you're doing such a great job and execute in a high level so it's very easy for somebody to go on like a new supplement or what when they're coming off the couch when their baseline is so terrible and you can see a big drastic difference like this is making a difference in my life but like when you're a top level like an olympian or the top of your game in in whatever sport you're doing it's really hard to see those big gains in changes because you're on your body is already performing at such a high level but i know through experience. All of these. Little things are making a difference. It's just hard to see. Gabby was because you're already performing right and you're your vardi done put so much effort and time into getting to that point that it becomes hard to quantify those small little things as you started to travel country after the fifty and do the speaking engagements and share. More of your story. Was there a time during that period that you ever start to feel a little bit of imposter syndrome or were you like this one hundred percent my purpose i am so this is i am in. I'm all in no worries. I'm good while i'm i'm an introvert And and so good on stage to so it's really weird and it doesn't bother me to get up on stage in talking big crowds but when when someone who knows me sees me on stage like who who the craft that every time my speaking bureau books me an event i get like nervous like oh crap i gotta go do that but then once i get on stage it is a lot of fun. My story is my story and tell it all the time. And i've had people see me on a couple different stages and they were like. Oh man i loved the way you change that part of the story. And i was like i didn't change it. You're just in a different part of your journey in something different resonated with you and so that's what's really interesting for me as we appeal to a massive audience. Because you're either at the start of your journey in the middle of your journey of the end of your journey or somewhere in between in our story covers an entire journey and so at some point time you get engaged with that part of what we're what we're what we're doing.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"So really get outside. And and that's what helped us in that really difficult time was like look getting outside is free and you start focusing and realizing there's so much greatness out there instead of sitting at home and focusing on everything that's going wrong and not having that you know that release or those endorphins. Come in. it's so important at can really sympathize with your sentiments of coming down from such a large event. And not knowing you know. What's the next write quote. Uncle right thing i should be doing. And how am i gonna do something as epic as the thing i just did and you know weighing other people's maybe thoughts are unsolicited opinions. And so what you do next like it can feel just like so much that comedown but it was amazing because we just did a huge project like i said and the project was a quarter of a year and so it was literally all consuming with what we were doing myself my team my family and then to come off it and then the public is just was so involved with the journey. They loved it and they craved it every single day but then immediately after we completed it and were successful. They were key. What's next and i'm like. Oh hold on a minute to process what just happened. And then you're you're so hyperfocused one thing for such a long time. I'm that when you're asked to when you do doing it. It becomes very difficult. Because i was so so one goal oriented and focused that it ended. And i'm kind of walking around my house going. Well now what i don't i don't know what to do. That was my identity for so long. And now i'm in a state of confusion and the hormones are all messed up because of the physicality of what we did and then the massive mental drain for doing one hundred forty miles a day for for a quarter of a year. And so you just come. Out of that in your. You're confused disoriented. Their sadness there's depression there's pressure from sponsors and all these things and media and was just as crazy world when that happens after such a big thing and it's hard and i understand and have empathy for those big life moments that you're talking about and then just massive letdown and a done big things in my career but this one was just so big and for such a long period of time that it really hit me. Yeah and. I've i've struggled me. We're only two months removed from the accomplishment. And and it it's it's been really really hard. Yeah and so. The accomplishment that we're talking about here is what you call it. Conquer one hundred one hundred and one triathlons in one hundred and one consecutive days now again. You don't just start doing something like this on a whim overnight. You've been doing this for a long time. So let's actually rewind and if you could even recall now perhaps how you felt after completing your first triathlon distance because I think that statistic that. I've read before something like one percent of people complete and triathlon a proper triathlon distance. Yes oh so. Just for the general public a triathlon is anything swim bike run and then there's four standard distances there's a sprint and olympic a half full and the fullest. The ironman branded type distant. So it's kind of been brought to the forefront because of their great job at marketing. But if it's swim. Bike run. And i started just with that sprint. Traffic on that a lot of fun takes an hour to do. You can go with your family. It's local it's explosive and i loved. I did it for years. But and then slowly you get to where you tackle the longer distances and now you're bringing in longevity and endurance and strength and nutrition and pace at all of these things that go into figuring it out and as you start to do them you want to better yourself and what you did and it's not about the other people in the cork okay. I have to figure out how to swim. Bike run key myself mentally sound and going. You're talking about an event that you have seventeen hours to complete. I mean that's a long time to be doing physical activity and so the the full distance where one that we did. The hundred end was a two four mile. Swim a hundred and twelve mile bike ride and a full marathon run and so that's one hundred forty point six miles a you just said like less than one percent of the population doesn't marathon let alone the full iron distance triathlon. And so i talk about. You can't go from zero to one hundred Off the couch like it takes a long time to gain that experience knowledge to be able to do and tackle on tackle something like a full district athlon and so over my career. We've slowly gained that knowledge and experience to be able to wake up one day and even conceptualize the hundred and then and then you know beginning part of twenty twenty one march first rejuvenates. We tackle it and we. We knew it was awesome. This wasn't this wasn't the first time that you set out to do something completely outrageous like this. So what about the what about the fifty fifty fifty th the fifty is kind of what put us on the map and we'd broken a couple of guinness world records before that but that was all learnings all experience to get to where we could do it when we announced the fifty which was fifty full distance triathlons in fifty consecutive days. But then do it in one in every state and so we were in a new state every single day. So you've got massive travel massive logistics total chaos and then trying to execute something physically mentally that everybody said it was impossible and that we have a documentary out on amazon prime. It's called the iron cow boy but that was an unbelievable journey. Get my kids. Were six to twelve in age and we all crammed into a motor home. We literally whirlwind in the country to do this And then that's how really the the hundred came to be because for the last five six years of toured around spoken in forty eight different countries of written books and just realized that like people are stuck mentally and they. They don't know how to to to really break through barriers. And so i was like okay. I want i want to showcase what is possible. Mind body and spirit if you remove chaos because if the fifty is like chaos confusion logistics. What happens if we can remove some of that. Do we have the chance or is it possible to double what everybody thought was impossible and do one hundred consecutive so we decided to do it all here in utah remove a lot of chaos and logistic environments and then truly find out. Okay is the mind. Is the body capable of one hundred and forty point six miles for a quarter of a year which one hundred consecutive days. Wow and we found out and we found out well back to the fifty for just one more second. So in completing that Two part question one. Did you feel the same Kind of we're talking about this malays that we're in right now post event after the fifty as you did with the hundred. That's the first part of the question and the second part of the question is immediately after the fifty. Did you know that you were going to.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"Today. I am chiding with. James lawrence is better known to so many as the iron cowboy. How you doing today james. I am great. Thank you if you like right off the bat. I mean people must ask you this all the time. Where does the nickname come from. Yeah during the two thousand twelve world record when we did Thirty official events through eleven countries My kids were really little. And i mean we're talking You know ten and under and so Traffic not a very great spectator sport. And so during the marathon portion. I wear cowboy hat so they could see me come in because we want energy exchange and they'd been waiting all day to see that and so i'm just became this thing and then the public kind of just started to call me the iron cowboys. I love that. I love that. So you just mentioned your kids serve you and you are based in utah. How has been competing. And mostly i mean competing in a sense with yourself. How has that been for your family. It's interesting they. I mean my wife and i got into this. When our tool the daughter of a really really young we have five kids and It's just been part of our lifestyle and who we are and so so they they love it and they think it's funny. I'm just add to them. Obviously but i mean it's just been who we are what we are my oldest daughter. Lucy is now nineteen graduated and she kind of runs the business side of what we do and is really involved in my other kids get involved anyway. They can When they're not with their friends are. I'm not too cool for them. Didn't just become a family operation overnight. You didn't just start running and less triathlons overnight. So let's bring it back here and talk about your foundations of getting into sport at when you started to get really active. Always been active. It's just been part of my lifestyle. Exit grew up in canada. From calcutta played every sport. I couldn't in school and then gravitated towards a wrestling and i grew up a wrestler for six seven years eight years and then once you kind of get out of school in the structure of sports i wanted to find a new outlet and just started running with my wife and then we found triathlon together and it just became this fun lifestyle for of getting outside. If you've never been to utah it's awesome It's some some great mountains. Some great lakes and just a real cool outdoor seeing and triathlon was on a big rise up and we just raced played every single weekend. And she's the person here. Sunday signed you up for your first marathon right. Yeah she did we kinda. She signed me up for a four mile. Fun run and i kind of struggled through it didn't love it And she literally said pathetic and signed me up for the salt lake city marathon and we ended up doing that. I hated that have found found triathlon. And just really taught myself out of swim. Bought a new bike just like a four hundred dollar special but then realized that just really gravitated toward loved it and Now now just like it. Engulfs our life and it's part of who we are anyone who hears the sundance. My wife signed me up for a marathon. Like so many people that would be like a marriage ending. Dad's since then everything's obviously escalated in. It's kind of what would you full-time and so when When she gets a little You know done with what we're doing. I'll just say hey. This is your fault you started at all you started. Also your affinity for endurance training La the marathon and then eventually The iron man's this came out of a really difficult time in your life. Is that correct. Yeah you know. Like a lot of america we we ended up going through the two thousand eight real estate mortgage crash And we were in the center of it because we owned a mortgage company and And so little kids mortgage company in twenty real short period of time your life gets turned upside down and on the daily policies are changing. And you don't have any control over it. And then literally overnight everything crashes and you have to try to figure things out pick yourself up ended up. Losing everything. Lost our home everything and It was it was kind of a blessing to have that happen now. Looking back on it right when you're in the middle of something it sucks but then when tragedy strikes and if you fight persevere you can learn a lot of lessons in grow from it which is what we ultimately did and it put us on this totally different path that than we were on and it's completely Blessed notified lives. I feel like when someone hears the sundance. We lost everything we lost our home. They say okay but then what what happened then. So what happened for you and your family. When you lost your home what did you do. Yeah We had a a good circle of influence. We found a little one bedroom. Place that the seven of us crammed into a little tiny fireplace in a buddy mine had access to some coal and coal in there and to keep us warm in the winter. Here i mean it was just We just tried to make the best of it and really start picking ourselves up and really the only thing you can do is fight Have you have two options lay down or are stand up and fight and we decided to stand up and fight and create a new future for ourselves and and it just it just goes to show that you can build amazing things from rock bottom and sometimes and most often. That's the best starting point because you have a clean slate. You can be creative and go. Do you wanna do But it's a fight man. It takes it takes time and some endurance. In that scenario al being the father to these children husbands your wife having to show up and like e really strong for you when you were dealing with your feelings about it. How did you find that strength to show up for your family. I think it's hard if you were just a single by air self to you know you're the only one responsible for but when you have others that are relying on you. It really helps you. Go kay this isn't just about me. There's other people involved. You're hive eyebrow these kids into this world and we have a responsibility as parents to kind of make sure that they're okay and so that was becomes a massive driving force As parents you've got these little people that really don't they don't. They can't fend for themselves and they can't go out and get a job. I mean talking about little kids and so we just did what we could to make their lives as comfortable and fun as as we could make it. What were the moments of fine. Where did you seek fun at this time that you may have not sought it previously man. Great question We would just go outside and go for walks in dues little adventures and we had a little tiny trampoline that the kids played on all the time. And we'd we'd go out and sleep on the trampoline at night or you know he couldn't. We didn't have a car so we've just like do adventures around the house and outside again we live in utah and it's beautiful and so you can always escape up into the mountains for free and get outside. That's actually interesting. While i was on my bike ride today. 'cause post The the big project we just did. I've been suffering with some depression and sadness and it's situational but for me. I was like it's so important to get outside and active and doing something and i and i just thought it's tragic for those individuals that don't can't get outside because all what you start doing and as you start isolating yourself which is never a good thing and then you start you know having these conversations with yourself which is never a good thing and you're you're not outside breathing fresh air and you're like seeing the elements out there and like connecting yourself with the earth and that's a huge thing to do so like i love to get out an escape on my bike and it's really helped my mental state because the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself. Stay home and things. Just start to spiral. Start to focus on the darkness and the negativity and whatnot.
Hurdle
"james lawrence" Discussed on Hurdle
"Hey emily about a year you listening to episode one hundred seventy two of hurdle a wellness focus. Podcast where i sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about big wins tough moments and everything in between on the show you can expect a vulnerability motivation and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes and ceo's to aspiring entrepreneurs on what it really takes all your passions might mission is simple to inspire you to be your best self move with intention and have some fun along the way for today's episode. I am chatting with james lawrence. He's a triathlete and endurance athletes and better known to many as the iron cowboy. You'll find out why very soon he made headlines earlier this summer by doing something. He called conquer one hundred which involved him completing one hundred and one ironman distance triathlons in one hundred and one consecutive days. Yeah i know insane. He did it in utah where his family is based For those that are out of the loop a ironman distance. Triathlon includes a two point four mile slam a hundred and twelve mile bike and a full marathon. A twenty six point two mile run. He did that for one hundred and one day straight raising money for a local charity called operation underground railroad now. This is the time that james has done something. This outrageous will fall it back in two thousand fifteen. The father of five completed fifty triathlons in fifty days in fifty different states. All while averaging less than five hours of sleep per night in the process. This is again outrageous unbelievable in today's episode. He gives me so much of the how how he sets himself up for success to undergo at ease crazy feats that team that is involved the support that is necessary and we also bring it back you know. We talk about the devastating fertile moment. That james and his family has suffered in two thousand eight when they lost absolutely everything in the recession including their house he talks about making ends meet at one point. Movie seven of them into a one bedroom apartment and all the different activities and things that they learn to do together as a family. That costs absolutely nothing. Because it's what they had to do. Of course we segue into how used sports to get through this difficult time. And there's no doubt that the through line in this entire is that with determination and grit. Anything is possible. now keep in mind. I wanna see this off the top. This is not me saying that the everyday athletes should just decide tomorrow. They're going to do this amount of activity and vich short of a period of time. James had an extensive team of experts and consultants all whom worked with him to help him get him to his goal. So be careful out there with your big crazy goals but no that i support you in going out. Whatever it is that excites you lights. You on fire the whole thing responsibly. Make sure if you aren't already signed up for the weekly hurdle newsletter that you click on in over to the show notes and do justice at love to be in your inbox every friday and last week if you follow along with me over on instagram up. My personal is at emily. A body and hurdles is over at hurdle podcast. You may have seen. That was answering bunch of different questions. Well i did not have time to get to you all those questions over the weekend but if you are listening to this and you have a question for me i would love nothing more than if you send me a voice message and i promise i will answer it on an upcoming episode of the show to leave me. Voice message again. link is in the show notes. Nothing dangerous to say this. Nothing is off limits and with.