I know, can you share what it was like that first day reporting to prison, what it's like to say goodbye to the people you love and accept the fact that you're walking into that building? And in your case, you didn't know it would be years before you got out. Can you talk about what that's like to go to prison and what those first few days are like? Wow. Not fun.
She can hit us for defamation. Well, so they get to the Washington Post, and then the rest is history. But when that happened, I actually flagged it for our leadership in the House.
And I think that they thought I was probably being paranoid or, you know, it was a hit piece. It was kind of a deal-maker. We'll come to find out less than a month and a half later, there was this big thing that came out.
You guys can actually look it up. So the DCCC, which is the Democrat Congressional Committee, Campaign Congressional Committee, had actually had an operative that obtained the service records of GOP members of Congress that were veterans. And they obtained it through the Department of Veteran Affairs.
And so they were using that against people who were running for office, against sitting members of Congress, or trying to find things in there that they could use against them in opposition research. So it's definitely a nasty world out there. But all that to say that, you know, the whole goal and objective of being in office is to not do it long term, right? Like, you have to get new blood.
You have to get people in there that believe, but also to want to help stand up other leaders and pass the torch. And I really feel like that's kind of what I'm going to do, especially ultimately, when I'm no longer in Congress anymore. And that's how you really save this country.
You have to get young people elected that aren't, you know, compromised and essentially can fight for the principles and then pass the torch. So unfortunately, George, we've had to deal with some of the worst of it. Well, letting go, I guess the lesson you just said is learning when to let go right and pass the torch is a big deal.
Yeah, part of running for office. So we don't end up with, you know, 40 year career Congress people, which is not it was intended. It was never intended to be that way.