I was told that Willamette Week had new ownership and was not the Progressive Socialist rag it used to be. After stepping into the den of vipers, I realized that information was not completely correct.

I just got home from my “Endorsement Interview” with Willamette Week. First, I must say that I was completely surprised by the fact the Rep. Salinas was willing to answer questions in the same room with me. However, the first things “The Board” made clear was, “This is not a debate or forum. This is not for you to address each other rebut each other’s statements. Then immediately progressed into violating their own rules by allowing Rep. Salinas to counter things I said while making sure that my important and valid points were cut off before being completely solidified.

Throughout the interview, I had to correct many falsehoods that these “journalists” continue to pedal regardless of facts.

We went through several questions. Most of which came down to Rep. Salinas saying we need to create new programs and reinstate all the Biden era spending, and me saying we can do better at home with more money if we can just get the Federal Government out of the never ending Progressive Socialist tax spend mode.

There was a few places in the conversation where I was completely shocked to find that these people really do not understand The Constitution, Small Businesses, or the actual needs of the constituents.

• At one point they started a questions with, “You know that Congress has power over the President…” I cut that off real quick. Our Constitutional Republic is set up with “THREE SEPARATE BUT EQUAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT.” After I made that statement, Rep Salinas pulled out her pocket Constitution and proudly claimed, “It says right there in Article I, Congress is listed first.” (Does she also think that Congress and the President have power over the Supreme Court? The Judicial Branch is listed last in The Constitution after all. That is a very DSA like position.) The board members agreed with her. I was completed shocked, appalled and exasperated. I pointed out that “first placement” does not mean the most power, and The Constitution clearly does not say that the order of inclusion indicates order of importance. They all disagreed with me and we moved on.
• They tried to corner me for an attack by asking what I thought of Donald Trump’s moral character. I spun off of that question to point out that how you feel personally about the man in charge is irrelevant to his performance and functionality. The metrics are what matters (I cover this in more detail in a Facebook post from 9/14/26 – click here to view). They refused to acknowledge the fact that Donald Trump was never convicted of rape and that all the current metrics are positive (jobs, manufacturing investment, murder nation wide at a 50 year low etc etc). For some reason they were completely unable to discern the difference between “Criminal Prosecution” and “Civil Liability.” In the end, they were very disappointed that they were unable to utilize an ad-hominem attack on me through this avenue.
• As part of her unauthorized and long winded rebuttal to my comments regarding moral character (which I was not allowed to complete) Rep. Salinas went into a “spirited” tirade about how much she hates Trump and thinks he is immoral. She then raged on about how The President has made $2.2B on personal business ventures since his 2025 Inauguration. I explained to them that is due to a simple financial fact. If you have $26B it is almost impossible to not make money. You have investments that bring in returns and the money keeps flowing. By the same token, if you only have $100 it is almost inevitable that you will lose it all. You pay for today’s expenses, and tomorrow’s expenses, and it will be gone. Again, they all looked at me as if I was crazy.
• The Representative stated that she is pushing a Bill in response to the President’s personal income that would make him pay capital gains tax on the value of the stocks he owns regardless of whether he has realized the gain. I clearly stated to all of them that such a legislation is more immoral than they think Trump is. I said, “We all know that stocks go way up, and can go way down. Are you really saying that you want him to pay tax on the peak value of the stock even though it could go down and he could lose all of his investment?” I continued with, “You own a home. Lets say you bought is 10 years ago. It is worth approximately double now. Do you want to pay tax on that realized gain? Can you afford to pay that tax? Do you think that the people who are having trouble getting by right now can afford to pay that tax. A tax on unrealized gains is completely immoral.”

There are a few more points that you will be able to see when Willamette Week posts the video (if they do). I will add the link here and on my “appearances” page when it drops.

In the end, I do not believe I stand a chance of getting the Willamette Week endorsement. However, I am very happy to have entered that den of vipers for you to help make that Q&A session with Rep. Salinas a little more balanced and truthful. I am also proud to have treaded where your previous Republican Nominee did not have the intestinal fortitude to go. I walked out knowing that I clearly spoke truth in the face of deceitful journalists making a clear case for God, The Constitution and You.