Natalie Kitroff

Everyone seems to be talking about him.

So just to start, who is Russ Vogt?

Okay, so setting aside the question of whether we can fact check the AI imagery in this truly wild video, you're saying it accurately assesses votes roll, right?

Wow.

Okay, you described him as a true believer.

How does he arrive at those beliefs?

How does he get to where he is now on this mission to radically change the shape of government?

It sounds like he was kind of turned against the idea of big government from the very beginning as a child seeing his parents navigate this country.

So it's passion that's combined with this really intense work ethic.

And what does he do in that first Trump term?

So the firing of these civil servants, it sounds like, is very much about going after what Trump and his allies see as the deep state, this group of people that are working against him and his agenda from within.

But at the same time, for vote, it's also about his really primary focus, which is giving the president control over spending and eliminating it as much as possible.

So despite all of Vought's grand ambitions and his efforts to really see them through in that first term, he gets stymied.

And how does he channel that obsession?

Like, what is he actually doing with his time and on all of that energy during the Biden years?

A far cry from the White House.

What's an example of that harder edge?

Like, how do you see it show itself?

Yeah, I remember that.

The idea being that the legislature, according to Vote, can tell the federal government what the upper limit of spending is.