dishonorably discharged. Here to discuss is one of those
lawmakers, Kansas senator Roger marshal. Thank you so
much for being with us. I first want to start with what's
happening on capitol hill. Congressional leaders say they
have a deal to avert the government shutdown. There's
actually a house vote scheduled on that bipartisan
infrastructure bill, scheduled for later today. Do you think
they have the votes? You know, Amy, I imagine speaker
Pelosi is the only person who knows the answer to that
question. Regardless, our concerns are, even if they have
the votes for te small infrastructure bill, we're much more
concerned about all the taxing and spending that would go
on in the bigger infrastructure bill. So we'll see. We're glad
we'll keep the government open today, though. As a
Republican, what do you make of the deepening division
we're all seeing within the democratic party? I think this
is fairly common. We saw it with our tea party, the
Republican party. Now we have this going on with the
Democrats. There's traditional moderates, and quite a few
people lining up pretty far to the left. They're having their
own struggles right now. We hope they can come together,
so the country can come together. Senator, you are a
physician by trade. You also served for seven years in the
army reserve. I'm going to quote you here-- American
heroes should not be treated as felons because they refuse
the covid vaccine. It is important to note, and I know you
know this, prior to covid- 19, there were certain
vaccinations arrived for all service members. So why do
you feel this is different from other vaccines imposed
on service men and Yeah, Amy, that's a great question and
a fair question as well. First of all, I want your listeners to
know that I support getting the vaccine. I got the vaccine.
My parent got the vaccine. Hopefully they have their
booster shot by now and all your senior citizen listeners
should be out there talking to their physician about their
booster but a percentage of our
soldiers are not vaccinated. They'll be separated and
perhaps given a dishonorable discharge. If they're given a
dishonorable discharge, they'll lose their benefits. Possibly
lose the opportunity to get jobs. They'll lose the benefit to
higher education and health care. Why this is different is,
first of all, half the soldiers are already immune from the
virus. So why would we be forcing young, healthy soldiers
with minute pal problems with the virus anyway, why force
them to get a vaccine which does have side effects,
especially for this age group? We're seeing a bit of a
high insure dense incidents of heart enlargements in this
age group. I still believe it's a personal choice, and we
don't want those soldiers separated with a dishonorable
discharge. I know you've been an advocate for the booster
shots for seniors. We know now that the fda has authorized
the pfizer vaccine boosters for all seniors. What are you
doing in your state to make sure seniors in Kansas have
access to those booster shots? Yeah, I'm absolutely
certain our pharmacists, our health departments have an
adequate supply. We have been pushing the fda
for actually over two months now to approve it. So it is
happening. It's all Teed up. I have confidence that it folks
call their own doctor, their own pharmacist, if you're a
senior citizen, you should be able to get your third shot
now. Senator, before we let you go, you were just one of
eight senators who voted to not certify
the election results of I'm curious now, with time to reflect,
with audits having been completed, do you still stand
by that decision? You know, look, I think that's
been adequately litigated and investigated. I still have
concerns about the integrity of six states and their election
process. I think they have made some significant
improvements along those lines. Probably more
importantly, here in the senate, I'm standing up to stop the
federal takeover of the election process. I'm very
concerned about legislation that would take away the
opportunity for states to demand voter I. D. As well. But
it's time to move forward. It's time to move forward. Do you
recognize the election results of the 2020 presidential
election that president Joe Biden is, in fact, the president
of the United States? Of course. Joe Biden was sworn in.
We called him Mr. President since the moment he got
sworn in. Senator Marshall, we appreciate your time. We
know you have a lot on your thank you for being on the
program. Thank you, Amy.