17:13 Well, there is a lot to unpack there. You can find out everything about Matthew Hurt, who's involved in a lot of great organizations in Virginia, native Tennessean, proud Virginian, director of professional services, leadershipist and the right jobs on Twitter, community organizer and Super connector. So Matthew Hurt, I'm glad that a mutual friend reached out to me with your number this morning. Glad we could get you on. You've got one of the top stories out there right now that really illustrates how hyena-like and crazy these people are and how they're projecting. There's a lot to unpack here. First off, tell us about yourself a little bit and then the big response to this. And before you got your camera rolling, your phone rolling, what was he saying before you got your phone on?
18:10 Well, thank you so much, Alex, for the opportunity. My name is Matthew Hurt and I'm the chairman of the Arlington County Republican Committee in Arlington, Virginia, where 80 percent of my neighbors living and dead voted for Joe Biden. And I've been an activist since since I was young, since I was in college. And even before then, I ran for office when I was 19. I tell people I got it out of my system. And now I help people run for office and I help people engage in conservative activism. So yesterday in Arlington, we had an election. And as the chairman of the Arlington County Republican Committee, it's my responsibility to distribute our sample ballots, our campaign literature. And this was the fourth polling location that I dropped by that yesterday morning.
18:53 It's about 9am and the gentleman is, what you don't see in the video is he actually walks toward me at the beginning of the interaction and I offer him a Republican sample ballot. He then flies into a rage for two or three minutes, very similar kind of conversation that you see in the video, and then he goes in to vote. And it's at this point that I realize he's going to come back out and he's going to do the same thing. So I took my phone and I dropped it in my shirt pocket and I hit record, like you said, and I waited for him to come out of the polling location. And sure enough, the the entirety of the video, about two minutes on Twitter or on X.
19:31 is actually the second interaction, the second encounter I had with him. This is what unhinged progressives and leftists look like in places like Arlington, Virginia, in places like Austin, Texas, in places like Memphis or Nashville, these urban centers across America where they don't really like to have a political party. opposing viewpoints in their communities. And as the chairman of the Republican Party here, I am very outgoing and I'm very friendly and nice to a lot of my Democrat neighbors. And they actually like to talk to us. They like to engage us on policy, but occasionally you get somebody like this who just does not want a diversity of thought in this community. So there in your community, you're the chairman of the Republican Party, you're a nationally known, recognized grassroots organizer and public speaker. I've seen your work for years.
20:19 and you're just out there calmly handing out brochures, talking to people, and I figured that's what happened because we didn't talk before you came on. You just agreed to come on. It looked like he'd already confronted you and he was coming back for more. I noticed that's something they do too. If you're polite to them, they seem to enjoy that and then want to bully you. Sometimes they wait till you try to leave, then they chase you in some weird ritual. What were some of the things he said just from memory in the first confrontation? You know, and I have filed a police report and I am pressing charges in this interaction. There is allegedly a track record with this gentleman of disrupting political activity. Allegedly in 2018, he was on the White House lawn protesting Donald Trump from within the gates of the White House lawn. And so I learned via online yesterday that he has a long track record of this. And I think it is important
21:13 that he'd be confronted with these transgressions and his outrageous activity. But the conversation on the way in was very similar to what you heard in the video. I'm an insurrectionist and all of these things, all of the things that you might think, whatever you, Alex, or your viewers think a progressive would say in a community like Arlington, he said it. And it was comedy gold if it wasn't so scary, because there are people walking around this community here in Arlington who are deeply, deeply disturbed. I will say this to the credit of my counterparts on the Democratic side here in Arlington. The other gentleman in the video, he's an older.
21:56 gentleman. Um, he was the official representative for the Democrats outside the polling location, and he was a super pleasant guy. Very nice. We, you know, for about 10 minutes before this other gentleman walks up, he and I are having a very good conversation. Um, and then as the guy approaches, he's probably 20 or 30 yards from from the sidewalk. And I just say, Hey, you know, would you like a Republican sample ballot? The same thing you heard in the, toward the end of the video. And again, he just lost it. A lot of the same stuff. A lot of, you know, you're a, you're an insurrectionist. You, you're going to steal my vote. You're going to steal this election. Just really wild stuff. And a lot of it is projection. You know, progressives often accuse those of us on the right of the things they're actually doing. So this is what, this is what I saw. And it couldn't have, couldn't have happened to a better prepared activist.
22:44 We had a number of other poll greeters out at polling locations who were not as equipped or not as prepared to handle a controversial or a contentious situation like this. And I'm glad I was there and I'm glad I was able to get it on camera. Wow, so studying Republican politics, isn't Arlington, Virginia one of the most important battleground areas in the country, one of the most important legislatures, also for the wider state there, but also the county commission? So many of the decisions that ended up being made in that area end up matriculating up into DC that's obviously very nearby. So I can ask you a million questions just about the state of the country, the state of the voters and where you think this big election's going in 12 months.
23:32 You know, these voters in Arlington are overwhelmingly progressive. I think the last time we won a presidential election in Arlington was Ronald Reagan in 1980. But as the chairman of the committee, and Alex, I understand a lot of your viewers are skeptical probably of Republican Party politics. I jokingly say I am the establishment in my committee. I was a Ron Paul delegate in 2012. I supported Ron Paul. I went to the convention in Tampa and I've been a pro-liberty activist my entire life. It is so important for your listeners, your viewers to get involved in these processes and to join us because what I found last night, last night at our election night party, a woman came to the election night party. She said, I worked as a political appointee for Bill Clinton.
24:19 And it took me 20 years, but I was wrong. And I'm ready to join the Arlington County Republicans and make a difference as a Republican. So we have an opportunity in Arlington where again, like I said, 80% of my neighbors living in debt. Most of them, they voted for Joe Biden. Most of them are federal employees or auxiliaries. They work in some tangential relationship to the federal government. So they are biased toward the left or toward progressive or leftist ideology. But there's a real opportunity here. And I tell people I'm the kid in the room full of horse manure saying there's got to be a pony in here somewhere. And I'm digging out and trying to find. Well, I totally agree. And I know that it's a majority Democrat. And that's what Jack Posobiec tweeted. This is the type of jurors people get in those areas of Virginia. And I'm
25:04 And imagine DC, what Trump is facing. When I'm at battlegrounds, and I should have clarified, I don't mean close. I mean, it's a good place to be able to really wake people up. That's what I'm seeing around the country is people are turning away from the Democratic Party in droves. Absolutely, Alex. And the one thing, the honor that I have to serve in this capacity as chairman is tremendous because what we get and what I get is so many opportunities to take this message to so many diverse viewers and listeners. You know, a string of talk radio interviews, of course, this very important program here with you today, Alex, and a number of others, because people need to know what's going on. They need to know what's going on on Election Day. They need to know that, you know, how
25:47 how democracy plays out in the smallest communities and our proximity to D.C. You know, you see the background here. I'm practically within spitting distance of Washington, D.C. A lot of the policies that come out of Arlington and Northern Virginia wind up as earbugs in the members of Congress as these failed progressive policies. So it's something that I really care about. I care about carrying our message to anyone who will listen. And that's why I was so honored last night to have so many, you know, the woman I mentioned who was a Clinton appointee, but others who said, you know, I'm really waking up to this one party garbage in Northern Virginia. Well, that was my next question is.
26:24 The bullying is obviously backfiring, but they're only intensifying the bullying. They're attacking the White House multiple nights in the last week, but then that's called peaceful, but then people between velvet robes are getting years in prison. Giving us the big 35,000 foot view, do you think the persecution of Trump is overall growing the Republican Party or hurting it? You know, I think it's mixed in the communities across the country. I think that obviously there are a lot of things that can be said about a witch hunt and about, you know, politicians who want to score political points and elements of our justice system that are corrupt. And I think that those elements are taking advantage of a situation. I will say, I think it's hard to make apologies for Trump from time to time. He doesn't really
27:13 he doesn't really play the victim that well. And he could navigate that system a little better, but every institution of our society is against him. And you can see it in our community. On Saturday, the last day of early voting, I attempted to hand a sample ballot to someone and she said, I'm never voting for blankety blank Donald Trump. And I just say, Donald Trump's not on the ballot this year and he's not running for county board. Well, that was my next question. What do you make of the election that just happened in Virginia and the governor not getting what he wanted? Yeah, it was disappointing in some regards. Obviously we lost the lower chamber and we were looking to pick up the state Senate, but we did defeat a Soros backed.
28:04 We ran great candidates. The Republican Party ran great candidates. Our governor did a really good job funding those candidates and the state party built out the infrastructure. But when it comes down to it, there were a lot of people who voted on the matter of abortion. And I think that was a driving force that boosted Democrat turnout in Virginia. Back to this individual, we can do a little bit more on the other side if you've got time. Why do you think this story went so viral? I think that being there and having the presence of mind to film it and then to immediately get it online. If you think about it, this happened at 9 a.m. Eastern yesterday. It was up by 910. And so as we go into the news cycle and a program like this, producers and reporters are looking for stories. I'm pretty well connected in the conservative movement with reporters and with others. And so friends of mine push this out. It's got over 11 million views now from my own Twitter account.