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Music.

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Hi, I'm Liz Hershnoff-Tolley, and welcome to the Capital Coffee Connection podcast.

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And I am really excited today because I have Congressman Buddy Carter,

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who is from Georgia's first district.

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I have never in person met with this congressperson. We did a Newsmax piece

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with Eric Bollings on the balance. And the subject that day was really about hostages. My My niece was a hostage in Gaza for 51 days.

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And what I saw when he was speaking and he talked about Abigail,

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my niece, in such a beautiful way was somebody that had a heart is a leader.

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And so I thought this was a great opportunity. So we invited him to join. And here he is today.

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And one last thing I'll say, which was I had spoken with another congresswoman, Lisa Blunt Rochester.

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And I said, oh, I had this really good interview with one of your colleagues.

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And she said, who is it? And I said, Buddy Carter. And she said, Oh, my buddy, buddy.

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And I loved it. And while we don't talk about politics and policy,

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what we do talk about is heart and humanity.

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And the thing that I learned after that was the work that you and Congressman

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Blunt Rochester have done, which is not a partisan issue, but is Telehealth

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Modernization Act, which is really beautiful.

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And I'd love for you to, in a minute, tell us about that, because it's really

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about helping people. And that's why you're a leader.

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So that's my way of introducing you and saying thank you for being here.

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Well, thank you. I'm honored to be here.

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Exciting. Thank you. So let's start with that whole concept of the work that

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you and a Democrat are doing, which is really why you're there.

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And we'll talk a little bit more later about your medical history and your being

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a pharmacist and all that. But what is it that this act does? Because it helps everyone.

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Well, it does. And obviously, we all know what happened during the pandemic.

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We all know that a lot of things changed during the pandemic.

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But there were some good things that came out of the pandemic.

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And telehealth, I think, is an example of one of those good things.

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There was a national newspaper headline that said that telehealth had advanced

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more in a week than it had in the last 10 years.

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And it did because it became an integral part of our health care system.

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And we were all closed up and not able to meet.

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A lot of people went to telehealth and telemedicine in order to get health care services.

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And that's why Lisa and listen, Lisa had been such a great partner.

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And she's on one side of the aisle, I'm on the other side of the aisle.

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But we won't go for the same thing. And, you know, when it comes down to it, when you're talking about health care,

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all of us, whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, or a defendant, we want the same thing.

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We want accessible, affordable, all-out health care. That's what everybody wants.

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And Lisa's been a great partner, and we've worked together on a number of bills

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and a number of pieces of legislation and energy and commerce to advance health

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care and, I'd say, to make it more accessible. And that's what telehealth does.

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It makes it more accessible, particularly for those in rural areas,

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particularly for those who can't travel as much.

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But it also solves another problem that we have in health care,

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and that is the shortage of providers,

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because this gives us an opportunity for people in some areas that don't necessarily

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have a specialist to see a specialist through telehealth. Yeah.

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So you're from Georgia. Thank you for explaining that, because I think it's

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important for people to really understand the work and that it does actually

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affect people that need the help. You're from Georgia.

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Talk about what makes Georgia special and the people of Georgia are special. special?

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Well, it's my home. It's where I've lived all my life. And, you know,

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it's an honor to serve in Congress, but it's a special honor when you get to

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represent the area you grew up in, you clicked in all your life.

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And that's why it's so special to me and such an honor for me.

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I love Georgia. I've been in Georgia all my life.

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As I say, I grew up there, went to school there, graduated from the University of Georgia, go Dawgs.

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And, you know, I served in the Georgia state legislature davis quinader in itself

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and but you know i love the south i think it's uh.

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You know, I try not to profile, you know, I know the North is different,

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but at the same time, I just love the South.

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I love our traditions, I love our food, and I just love everything about it,

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particularly where I live, because I live on the Coastal Shore,

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and I have the honor and privilege of representing the entire Coastal Shore,

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over 100 miles of pristine coastline. I took him for all the time.

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435 districts in the United States, and I get to represent the very best one.

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I love it. And you were born in Port Wentworth and grew up there.

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Yes. What was it like growing up there? And tell us a little bit about what

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your family was like, your parents, what they did.

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Well, it was very industrial in Pullip. In fact, if you go there today,

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you'll see that it's pretty much where the area that I grew up in is pretty

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much turned into an industrial area. You know, mine's the American story and the American dream.

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My Korean father was a sharecropper. He didn't know all the land.

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He worked on that. I can remember my father taking me down Third Road when we

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went to the family reunion and saying, you know, we used to live here,

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we used to live here, we used to live here. They lived wherever the land was they were working.

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And my father left the country and caught down Georgia and Tackle County and

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went to the city and went to Savannah,

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which Port Wilmoth is outside side of Sedona and got a

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job at Union Bag in the field and he told me

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he said when I got that job I took every penny

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I had in my pocket and I put gas in my car and I rolled

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it down and I just rode around Pollard I got a job at Union Bag I got a job

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at Union Bag he was so happy to have that job he worked shift work he worked

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car you know and provided for my sister and I and I was the first one in my

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family in my city to go to college and to graduate from college I left home the day I turned 18,

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not because, oh, I'm 18, I'm out of here, but it just so happened to be.

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That's when I went off to college. I swore up and down, I'd never go back.

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And of course, the first thing I did when I graduated from college was go straight back home.

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Yeah. Yeah. I know that your first job was you were a newspaper delivery person,

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young boy, and this was your way of working and also making some money.

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You know, you're a businessman that went into politics and into public service,

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but was Was this your first entry into making a living and having to do what

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I thought customer service? Yeah. And I did have a paper route at one time, but I always considered my first

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job to be a landscape engineer. I couldn't rest.

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Another one of the very important jobs when you're young. Exactly.

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But, you know, it taught you the value of hard work.

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It taught you the value of saving and making sure that you were saving your money.

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And certainly it was important for me to have that experience.

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But obviously my dad had a big influence on my life.

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Another important lesson he taught me was that whenever I went off to college,

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when I came back, he actually got me a job in that paper.

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I don't know how familiar people are with paper mills, but there's a place called

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a rug beater, which is at the bottom of the paper machine.

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And it's not hell, but you can see hell from there. It is hot.

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And my dad had the wisdom to get me a job working on that rug beater.

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I couldn't get back to school fast enough, I think.

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Yeah, I think you get those jobs, which also make you want to go to school,

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but it also gives you this understanding. So no matter what you do, you understand the hardest jobs that people could

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have. So you can actually relate to them. My dad, you know, gave me the hardest jobs when I went to work for him when

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I was 13 and I just did them.

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But then I look back and I'm like, boy, they, he gave me the worst possible

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jobs, you know, do it intentionally. Yeah. Yeah.

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So I know that you went to school in Georgia and all that.

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And could you talk a little bit about sports and how that influenced your life?

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Because I know you played a lot of sports and perhaps teachers or coaches that

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were influential because what I've learned from a lot of leaders is the importance

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of teachers and mentors as they grew up.

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Well, I love sports and I wanted to be a football star.

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Unfortunately, not only was I short, I was also slow. So it just didn't work out.

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But I don't know that anybody loved it anymore than I did.

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And it's still a bit. I still follow all of them closely.

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Football, basketball, baseball, played a lot of tennis, just love them all.

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It did have to be an influence, but thank you for mentioning teachers because,

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you know, I think back, and I read something one day that said that,

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you know, you may not remember who won a certain sporting event a year,

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but you always remember who your teachers were. And I do. I remember my elementary school teachers, Ms. Carter,

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Ms. Cook, Ms. Lane, Ms. Toot, Mr. Usher.

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And I just remember all of them. And they had such a big influence on my life.

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And I was so blessed to have greater teachers.

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And I tell my wife all the time, I actually, I met my wife in college.

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She was my chemistry lab partner. I didn't like her at first because she was

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so much smarter about lives. But she had an up-to-date advantage. Her mother was a teacher.

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She had to study at it. I had habits, but they weren't steady habits.

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My wife did exceptionally well, but again, she had an unfair advantage.

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Your mother was a teenager. But you got married early, or you married her, and then you had kids, and you have grandkids.

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So you were actually pretty smart to marry somebody who was smarter than you. Yes, very much so.

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And how is it to be— Exactly. And how do you balance, because you're traveling

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so much with being there for your wife, being there with your kids,

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your grandkids, to have a full life? Well, it is a challenge and you have to work at it. Being up here a lot,

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and we are up here a lot, and we travel a lot, it's challenging.

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And then I've got red mavis all over the country. I've got them in Charlottesville,

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Virginia, which is not bad from D.C. It's only a couple hours outside of New Orleans and Atlanta.

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So it really is an effort to make sure that we touch everyone.

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And my wife is a professional babysitter now.

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But there's a balance. There's no question about that. Public service is important,

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too. And I hope that's one thing that my children and my grandchildren learn

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is just how important this is because we need good people.

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You know, people ask me all the time, what's the most surprising thing that

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you've learned since you've been in Congress? And most surprising thing is also the most important, and that is there really

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are a lot of good people out here. There are really a lot of people up there for the right reasons and to move this country forward.

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And I think that gets lost in the media. That's why, for me,

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this podcast is important because it gives people an opportunity.

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You know, you on most news or when we were on news, it's a soundbite.

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You get two minutes. You've got to get all that information in.

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But we don't really have an opportunity to learn about the character or the

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heart or the home where you come from. And I know that when I grew up, Democrat or Republican, my mom knew people's

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history. She would tell us where they came from, where their family background was.

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And I always thought that was so interesting. And then as, you know,

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as an adult, I was like, wait a minute, we're entrenching, we're not talking.

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And that's why I thought this was a great, and I started this about a year ago

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thinking, how do we talk to people? Because I didn't, you know, I wouldn't have known anything. thing.

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And you went to school, you studied pharmaceutical, you're a pharmacist,

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then you opened up pharmacies, and then you decided, okay, now I'm going to

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go and do public service. Can you talk a little bit about what that studying pharmacy,

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the pharmacy world and studying pharmaceuticals and what that taught you about

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not only helping people, but then what you could do as a leader?

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Well, that's a great question. And, you know,

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I mentioned a little little while ago and then in order to be a

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soccer football player it just didn't work out i promised my

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dad after my three-year high school that if i didn't get any scouts to come

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look at me for college scholarships that i'd get serious about a job and i don't

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know what happened they didn't show up but anyway but i got a job at a farm

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and as a delivery truck and you know it was just god's.

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Working in my life because I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

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And that was it. It was health care. It was working with the public, which I'm obviously very extroverted and want to work with the public.

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And I knew exactly what I wanted to do. When I was in school, it got under way.

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I was practicing pharmacy when I was still 21 years old and was able to get

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out and start practicing pharmacy and have been doing that.

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I was able to open a home business and had success business-wise.

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So I want to give back to the community that's given so much to me because I

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have lived the American dream. And this is important.

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And what we do, both humbleness is important. I try to stress to my staff all

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the time. For many people, we're the last resort.

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We're the last hope that they have of getting a situation resolved.

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And we need to take that very seriously. And we do. You know,

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I learned to manage that long ago. It's not real difficult. But

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all you do is surround yourself with good people and let them go at it.

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We get very fortunate to have good people.

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Yeah, yeah. And it's really a people business. That's the interesting.

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It's really helping people. What is the best advice you've ever received or perhaps and perhaps the worst

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advice you've ever received? One of the colors, both of them.

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No, no, no, no, no, no. You know, the best advice I think I've ever received,

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it's just from, again, my dad had a big influence in my life.

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And, you know, he always wanted me to succeed. He always wanted me to do better.

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And, you know, look, he had a great career.

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And he worked shift work in paper mill, which sounds like, I say that in a degrading

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way, it's not. That's a... It's an honorable trade and an honorable job. And he worked hard and he was

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very talented and he's a carpenter and there's a lot of good work.

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But I think just, you know, his encouragement really was the advice that helped me the most.

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The worst? I don't know.

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That's a good question. I don't know what the worst advice I've ever got.

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Might be some stock buys that I could tell you about.

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Yeah, I hear you. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. I'm going to switch now and

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go into some of these rapid questions. And if you think about advice at some point, just jump in. And they're easy

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questions, but feel free to answer however you feel.

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But I think it's just a nice way for people to get to know you on your likes

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and maybe dislikes. What is your favorite sound?

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My favorite sound? I agree with you.

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Yeah. Just hearing the other people around them and when I hear them,

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that's my favorite sound. It's a very nice wing.

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What is your favorite color? Red. Good nose.

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Okay, go dogs. And your favorite scent or smell?

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Chocolate chip cookies. That's not a bad one, especially when they're cooking, right?

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Yes. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Who is your biggest cheerleader? Who is or was?

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Oh, you could do both. Who was, who is? Well, my dad was my biggest cheerleader.

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He he always encouraged me and he was always you

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know i was always trying to to to impress

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him and please you know but my mom

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he just sure leave her now and just just pop

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a whole like very nice if you were to

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have one meal got stuck on a desert island and the genie said you get one meal

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what would your favorite meal be no question about it hawaii spaghetti i mean

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it's just great what kind of sauce she says it's the easiest thing for me but

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it is i just love do you still exercise do Do you have time to work out and

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do things? I do 500 push-ups every morning.

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Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I do it at 30 minutes. I get up every morning here at the cabin this morning.

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I get up about every morning here at Capitol. I'm in the gym about five o'clock,

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and I'm doing push-ups at 5.05. So from 5.05 to 5.35, I do 500 push-ups. Then I do some more exercises after that.

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That is amazing. Do you listen to music while you do it? I do.

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I do. So what's on your playlist?

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You know, 70s music. I'm a child of the 70s. It was the greatest decade for music ever.

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And I haven't made that forever, but it didn't just, any set of these music,

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you know, I'm a big Billy Joel fan. I name all of his sons Joel, you know, Eagles, All My Brothers,

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all Elton John. I just love. Great. I like this to ask this question and it kind of gets revealed through

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the answers before. But what if you were to say is your superpower?

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My superpower, I think, is just my faith and my faith in God.

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And God is truly blessed. I had an experience this morning that really,

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I appreciate the opportunity to share this, but I had a little bit of a problem.

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So, called in a couple of us to let us know that he's got a brain tumor.

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And he could have really, you know, been down, but he wasn't. And he shared it with us.

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And I just felt so honored that he would entrust me.

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You know, he's very strong and he's pulling up. He was very positive. He was quite a third.

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Yeah. it's a beautiful look and this is what

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it's about it's like having the relationships and being

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able to reach out to your friends your colleagues but

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people that you trust i think you just being able to do that shows his strength

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and then him being able for you to listen gives him the strength which is beautiful

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i'm sorry to hear the story but there's something very special about it yeah

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well on that one i'm going to ask you i also understand you like to hike and hang out outdoors

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and hunting and and being in the nature and do

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you have opportunities to do that and just to kind of get away

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well i'm more of a fisherman than i'm a hunter and

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i and i really do like it out for us

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i mean having grown up because of georgia you know it's the most beautiful area

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in the world and some of my fondest memories growing up were fishing my dad

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and yeah and we just recently bought a house on the water our dream home so

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me what kind of fish do you forget Yet, what kind of fish are you fishing for? We're on the saltwater.

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We're on redfish and trout. So that's really what we fish for.

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Yeah, that's lovely. And do kids fish with you? Grandkids? They do.

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And my wife, I talked to her last night and she was saying, oh,

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I just saw a couple of crabs by the dock. We got to get some chicken necks and go crabbing.

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That's nice. So like a date would be if your wife could be going crabbing.

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Yeah, it could be. Yeah, I love that. I love that.

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Okay. So I also would love to just know if you and your wife could go anywhere

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in the world, just the two of you, where would you love to go on vacation with each other?

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Probably anywhere we could go to Vichy. She loves Vichy too.

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And she's very, and she's an outboard person as well. Nice, nice.

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So my last question that I love to ask each person and answer so it can be anything,

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but they've been beautiful, is about joy. And I know we've touched on your faith

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and why you serve and why you want to be there.

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But if you could talk specifically about what joy means to you and what brings

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you joy and then how you share that joy to give others happiness and their joy

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and to also feel like connected.

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There was a time in my life when I thought that the greatest joy a person can

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possibly experience was the joy of being loved.

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Until one day I realized that the greatest joy a person can experience is the joy of the kidney.

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It really is joyous. And just to be able to give love and to show love to people

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is just the greatest joy I think anyone can ever experience.

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Yeah, that's really beautiful. I want to say thank you first for really being

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here. You really touched me, and you've given me a lot to think about today.

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And I appreciate your love for your state, for the South, and for your family, and for the people.

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And I really hope that everyone who's listening can just hear the authenticity

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of why you go and you leave home.

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And you're out of your house and in the Capitol and traveling and doing so much.

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And it's kind of like what you were saying it's what

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gives you the joy is to help others and to show others and

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what i also love is just that what we basically share

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and this is really my purpose is we all

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share common humanity and a common ability to hear each other listen to each

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other and share and so i just want to thank you for this opportunity and i hope

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to see you in person soon but in the meantime i just want to thank you and really

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appreciate you and what you do and and having this opportunity to learn more about you.

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Thank you very much. I've enjoyed this. Music.

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Hi, it's Liz. Please join me every Tuesday for coffee to talk about heart and

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humanity with our elected leaders. Remember to hit subscribe to get an alert when a new episode is live and for

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exclusive content. Ciao.