Johnny O on the lack of progress and Trump chaos and chicanery in Washington

We’re all fed up and should be. Congressman Johnny Olszewski joined Nestor to discuss the lack of focus and progress on Capitol Hill and potential solutions for health care, transparency in government and the use of Trump’s absurd pardons as a grifting tool.

Congressman Johnny Olszewski discussed the lack of progress on Capitol Hill, particularly the delay in releasing the Epstein files despite a unanimous vote in both houses. He expressed concern that President Trump might use ongoing investigations to withhold the files. Olszewski also highlighted the need for action on healthcare costs, noting that the average Maryland family could face a $4,000 annual increase under the Affordable Care Act. He emphasized the importance of bipartisan cooperation and transparency, including a proposed constitutional amendment to review presidential pardons. Olszewski also touched on local issues, such as the delayed Sparrows Point bridge project and the need for continued investment in Baltimore County.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host and run the Maryland crab cake tour events at Costa’s in Dundalk (Thursday), Gertrude’s at the BMA (with Dan Rodricks, Friday), and a final event at Planet Fitness in Timonium (early 2026) as scheduled
• [ ] Draft and introduce a constitutional amendment to allow Congress to review and overturn presidential pardons with a two-thirds vote (high standard; addresses recent egregious pardons)
• [ ] Continue active campaigning to help Democrats regain control of the House and narrow the Senate in the upcoming midterms (support other Democratic candidates and run campaign events)
• [ ] Advocate for and develop policy proposals to ban stock trading by members of Congress (clean up congressional ethics and prevent insider trading benefits)
• [ ] Coordinate with congressional colleagues and continue discussions to secure and defend federal funding and timely rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge (prioritize cost-efficiency and remove politicization)

Outline

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Political Discussion

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland crab cake tour, mentioning upcoming events at Costa sin Dundalk, Gertrude’s at the BMA, and Planet Fitness.
• Nestor humorously mentions dragging Johnny Olszewski to crab cakes and crab Imperial.
• Johnny Olszewski discusses his work in DC to bring down the cost of living for hardworking Marylanders.
• Nestor and Johnny joke about the need for a rejuvenation bed after the holiday season.

Trumpism and the Epstein Files

• Nestor brings up the Epstein files and the need for accountability for sexual predators, including President Trump.
• Johnny explains the discharge petition that forced a vote on the release of the Epstein files.
• Johnny expresses concern that President Trump might use an ongoing investigation to withhold the files.
• Nestor and Johnny discuss the lack of trust in the Trump administration and the need for impeachment.

Impeachment and Presidential Pardons

• Johnny mentions the Articles of Impeachment brought forward by Representative Green of Texas and the procedural move to table them.
• Johnny discusses the constitutional amendment he plans to introduce to limit presidential pardons.
• Nestor and Johnny talk about the need for checks and balances and the corruption within the Trump administration.
• Johnny highlights the lack of civility and trust in Congress, which hinders progress on important issues.

Cost of Living Crisis and Healthcare

• Johnny discusses the lack of action in Congress to lower costs, including healthcare and electricity.
• Johnny mentions the significant increase in healthcare costs for Maryland families and the impact on working-class families.
• Nestor and Johnny discuss the frustration of Americans with Congress’s inability to address basic affordability challenges.
• Johnny emphasizes the need for Congress to focus on the cost of living crisis and not politicize issues.

Political Violence and Social Issues

• Nestor and Johnny discuss the fear of political violence and the unpredictable actions of President Trump.
• Johnny mentions the recent gubernatorial and judicial elections where Democratic candidates outperformed prior cycles.
• Johnny predicts that Democrats might take back the House of Representatives and narrowly control the Senate.
• Nestor and Johnny talk about the impact of the Trump administration on various social and economic issues.

Presidential Pardons and Congressional Integrity

• Johnny discusses the need to ban stock trading by members of Congress and the corruption within the Trump administration.
• Johnny mentions the pardon of Honduran President Hernandez and the need for a constitutional amendment to review presidential pardons.
• Nestor and Johnny discuss the importance of Congress getting its own act in order and the need for transparency.
• Johnny highlights the importance of treating members of Congress decently and finding common ground on issues.

Baltimore County Executive and Local Issues

• Nestor and Johnny discuss the challenges and successes of Johnny’s tenure as Baltimore County Executive.
• Johnny mentions the importance of public transparency and engagement in county government.
• Nestor and Johnny talk about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local businesses and the need for continued support.
• Johnny emphasizes the importance of maintaining momentum on schools, housing, and recreation to keep the county growing.

Progress and Frustration in Congress

• Nestor asks Johnny about his progress in Congress and his feelings on the lack of progress.
• Johnny mentions the incremental progress made on bipartisan bills and the importance of treating colleagues decently.
• Johnny discusses the need for Democrats to take over in the midterms to address the cost of living and other issues.
• Johnny emphasizes the importance of continuing to push for change and working with Republicans where possible.

Holiday Message and Final Thoughts

• Nestor and Johnny exchange holiday wishes and discuss the importance of hope over despair.
• Johnny shares his belief in the good and decency of the American people.
• Nestor mentions the Maryland crab cake tour and the importance of talking about health and family during the holidays.
• Johnny and Nestor conclude the conversation with a positive note on the importance of community and engagement.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Epstein files, Trump impeachment, cost of living, healthcare crisis, presidential pardons, congressional transparency, infrastructure projects, Sparrows Point bridge, political violence, economic issues, Maryland crab cake tour, Baltimore County Executive, public trust, bipartisan cooperation, constitutional amendment.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Johnny Olszewski

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are taking the Maryland crab cake tour on the road six times this month. We’re halfway home. We’re gonna be at Costa sin Dundalk on Thursday, Friday, we will be at gertrude’s at the BMA with Dan Rodricks, and then on Monday, finishing things up, because I’m doing a lot of eating this month with our friends at Planet fit. Planet Fitness. If we start 2026 right, we’ll be in the Timonium edition of Planet Fitness. Brand new. They have a rejuvenation bed, which I’m probably going to need after Santa comes down the chimney here, especially given the political play, Johnny Oh is our guest of I’ve tried to, like, drag him over to Costas and get crabs or crab cakes. It’s not like you’re undraggable, but you’ve got this gig in DC that kind of requires you to be there, maybe more than being in Edgemere, where I was last week with Calvin stadium playing Christmas carol in your hometown. Was in Edgemere last weekend. But you’re not in Edgemere much. You’re like it looks like you’re in your office somewhere in Washington, Johnny, I’m

Johnny Olszewski  01:00

here in DC doing the good work, trying to bring down the cost of living that has gotten way too out of control for hard working Marylanders, hard working Americans. But I will say we can talk shop during our time here. But I really appreciate that you have the planet fitness as your as your back end to all the eating, so

Nestor Aparicio  01:18

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I appreciate them as well. Believe me, you know, for something’s gonna have to give here, with all this eggnog that’s been going on in the cookies, and, you know, all these parties we have had, you’re not partying right now. Let’s just start at the beginning of Trumpism. And let’s start at as we’re here on this, you know, December 19, coming up, where’s the Epstein files? Like, let’s talk about that. And you know, at the back end of all of this, because I feel like that’s a nuclear situation that at some point will have to be handled by all of you who vote on such thing and impeach on such thing, and the American people.

Johnny Olszewski  01:54

Well, look, let’s start where I think we can all agree that, like, we should not protect valid sexual predators, period. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what your excuse, you know, your excuse, your profession is, whether you’re the president united states or you know someone who is a dog catcher, anything in between. That type of behavior is disgusting, and we should be holding people accountable for it. And so what we know is that President Trump is in the files, along with many other famous powerful people, people like President Clinton, Bill Gates. Now, what their involvement is in these files is not known, so I’m not ascribing guilt, although what I will say is, if I were the president United States, and I were truly innocent in some of the serious accusations and some of the behavior of Jeffrey Epstein, I would be volunteering to release those files to clear my name. So it took a discharge petition. It took four courageous Republicans to join the Democrats here in Congress to force a vote on the release. Once that vote happened, it was all but unanimous in both the House and the Senate. The president has said he was going to honor that release, he signed the legislation after fighting it for months alongside speaker Johnson. But what the President has also done, Nestor, and this is this is where it gets complicated and problematic, he’s launched a new investigation into Clinton and to other democrat and he specifically called out Democrats for their involvement, along with Epstein, and under the law, even if we are forcing the release, any documentation related to an open investigation can, in theory, be withheld. And that’s my fear here is that the President’s coming up at the end of the time that he has to release all the files. They should be released. The public should be able to see all of what’s included, obviously protecting the names and the identity of the survivors here. But I’m worried that President Trump is going to take this excuse that he created to quote, unquote, investigate people, to not release the files that would implicate these powerful, rich men who basically sex traffic young women. And so I know we’re not talking about the Epstein files, because the vote happened, and everyone assumes the files are going to be released, but that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m concerned it might not

Nestor Aparicio  04:17

well, there’s a level of trust that I don’t have with him or anything involving this administration, nor should anyone who is sane, but you’re down there in the middle of all of this. And it would seem to me, in any normal presidency that led the first 44 presidencies, there would be impeachment papers being drawn up daily. There would be P tests given daily to his sobriety, his dementia, the things that he wrote about Rob Reiner after his murder this week like just things that would say the only way this is going to change is for that seat and that job and that role to change. And I don’t know I I vote for you and. Send you down there and say, shouldn’t you all get together and do something about this before you know we’re really on fire here, where no one in the world trusts us to begin with. Well, it’s interesting.

Johnny Olszewski  05:10

You mentioned impeachment because there actually were Articles of Impeachment brought forward by Representative green of Texas against the president again, and because there is a overwhelming Republican majority. We didn’t actually vote on those articles because there was a motion to what’s called table, which is effectively it takes the proposal to impeach and sets it aside in perpetuity. And so what happened was there was a procedural move where the articles were introduced, the Republican majority move to set them aside, and they have the numbers to do that, so we weren’t even able to have the debate on or consider articles of impeachment, certainly any number of concerning things this president has done, whether it’s been enriching himself and his family through cryptocurrency schemes, real estate, shady dealings, by offering to let foreign governments build military bases in exchange for real estate deals for their own family. The pardons that have happened recently, I’d love to talk more about a constitutional amendment I’m planning to introduce that would put a check on some of these pardons that are just egregious and terrible.

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Nestor Aparicio  06:14

Well, that’s why I brought him up, because I think at heart, it’s not every Democrat’s job to overthrow the president, it is checks and balances to say this isn’t adding up. This isn’t honest. This is not the direction the country should be taken, and certainly not the level of power that he’s granted upon himself. That’s really not unprecedented. It’s unlawful.

Johnny Olszewski  06:37

Johnny, yeah, well, and you know, Congress could claim some of that authority back, could exercise some of those checks and balances, just like we tried to do with the Epstein files. But that requires, at a minimum, all Democrats in Congress, plus at least four Republicans coming together to force an action or to prevent an action, and what

Nestor Aparicio  06:59

underneath it all, you need good faith, right? And there’s none of that, right?

Johnny Olszewski  07:03

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Well, not only is there not good faith in this Congress, there’s also just a lack of decency. I mean, when people are having conversations, some of the personal attacks and the vitriol that is being viewed between colleagues is really behavior that I as a parent would be embarrassed if I saw in my child, and yet you see members of Congress behaving worse than what we teach our children not to and so the lack of civility and trust and decency and the extreme partisanship, candidly, has created this environment where it’s really hard to come together and do anything. Everything has become politicized. Everything has become partisan. And I think it’s wrong. I think it’s absolutely to the detriment of the American people. You think about the resources that the federal government has, the trillions and trillions of dollars that we could put towards the housing challenges, the energy costs that are going up. I mean, it’s been almost a year, Nestor, we’ve been in session in Congress, and we have not taken a single vote to lower cost. If anything, we’re seeing costs go up by lack of action, or action that drives up costs on electricity, action that lets these insurance premiums that are set to expire the end of this year if we don’t take action this week. This is our last week in session before the new year, and the average Maryland family is going to pay over $4,000 more a year if they’re on the Affordable Care Act like over four working class families cannot afford that kind of increase, and now they’re going to go without health care entirely. And if you’re lucky enough to have insurance through a, you know, a private marketplace, through your employer, you’re going to see 1015, 20% increases too, maybe not the $4,000 a year increase on the ACA, but costs are going up. Coverage is going down, access is going down. Wait times are up. This is a, I mean, this is a real problem, and this is why Americans are so frustrated with Congress, because we’re not coming together to hold this President accountable. We’re not coming together to solve, I think, some very basic affordability challenges that Americans are facing.

Nestor Aparicio  09:13

Johnny oshevsky is our guest. He’s our, our, I should say, our, maybe not on some sort parts of town, but one of our congressman doing the good work down in Washington, DC, and for me, with Marjorie Taylor green, you said representative green? And I thought, No, the other one, the on the other side of the aisle, there’s tremendous fear of two things. One, political violence, which I think you know should be the fear when the President United States is stoking that against Mark Kelly two weeks ago, not to mention just all of it, but the the social part of what rancid, unthinkable thing he would say or do or fall. Asleep, or the next racist or thing that will come out of his mouth or out of his tweets, or all of that really be lies. Where we are with costs, jobs, the fact that there are no jobs reports coming out all parts of the economy and the social issues are one thing, and they want to fight over gender, they want to fight over all sorts of things. But then there’s the cost of things and what and what it means to the economy, and what the the Nazi with the chainsaw was doing nine months ago, and how that’s affected our state. It’s It’s outrageous, but I think at heart, we’re going to vote again soon, right? I’ve had a bunch of candidates up for your old job at Baltimore County Executive this last couple of weeks. There’s going to be an election year again. I can’t imagine how unpopular Donald Trump must be in, let’s say Williamsport, Maryland right now where they flooded, or even in Sparrows Point where the bridge isn’t getting built.

Johnny Olszewski  11:05

Well, if you look across the the map, if you look across this country, whether it was the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, or judicial elections in Pennsylvania, small town elections across the country, Georgia had a statewide non congressional election, the Democratic candidates were outperforming the prior cycle by 1012, 1520, points, and that is a huge shift from what happened when President Trump was elected. If that, if those trends hold, if Republicans fail to continue to address the affordability crisis, the healthcare crisis, the cost of living, issues that are facing Americans, and I think that is the fundamental issue. Then I think you will see Democrats take back the House of Representatives. The Senate will become a lot more narrow, and there will be those checks against what’s happening people are. People are hurting, man like it is tough out there. And shame on leaders for not making this like the thing that we’re focused on. But to your point, we’re focusing on this. The majority, Republican majority, is focusing on attacking people who are who represent less than 1% of the population, meanwhile, giving out the largest tax cut in American history to the people who make the most money less, who represent less than 1% on the other, You know, in an economic so we’re ignoring the millions and millions and the 99% of Americans who are just trying to put food on the table and a roof over their head, but we’re transferring wealth from those working class families to give it to the to the billionaires of country at a time when we’re also cutting healthcare For millions of Americans through the big, ugly bill, we drove up the deficit. Energy prices are up, grocery prices are up, gas prices are up, and there’s no legislation out there. There’s no action to do anything. The president said the cost of living crisis is a hope like let that sink in. President Trump said it’s a hoax. It’s fake. I don’t think anyone who’s going to the grocery store tonight would call the cost of living crisis a hoax.

Nestor Aparicio  13:30

Well, I got shrinkflation in my eggnog ice cream here this time of year. Johnny oshevsky’s here. He’s down in DC trying to make a difference the Presidential part. I mean, again, I go back to corruption, and what a crooked, awful human this man is, what a criminal he is, what a repeated, lifelong criminal he is. But you think he is selling presidential pardons for millions of dollars to his kids through third parties, to think that he is allowing Russian and Saudi mobsters to buy citizenship into our country with money, and only allowing people in who look like you and not look like me. No offense. I these things are going on. Really strikes to the heart of your presidential pardons and the inside, and then there’s people in your seat making tons of money every time I bring Nancy pelosi’s name up to, you know, a Republican, they start chewing. I hope you’re not getting wealthy yet. I mean, we’ll find out. But, like all of you were there, right? But there is this Hokey Pokey going on that feels like y’all are protecting y’all, meaning Congress, meaning across the aisle. Everybody’s trying to keep their job, and that speaks to Marjorie Taylor Greene. But then there’s the presidential pardons, which speaks to the heart of we got a corrupt guy sitting at the heart of all of this, shaking hands with Putin and making nice with Saudi kings and getting fake medals from. The most corrupt sports organization on Earth. This is all in the last three weeks. Yeah.

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Johnny Olszewski  15:04

I mean, pick pick a day. It’s a new headline. And I’ll say to your first point, Congress has to get its own act in order to I mean, Congress, as an institution, is not sure in all of this. I mean, we need to ban stock trading by members of Congress. I do not buy and sell individual stocks because I think it’s wrong. I don’t think that members of Congress should be able to benefit from the top secret oftentimes information, certainly the insider information that we get as a result of our job functions. And far too many members have stock portfolios and stock sales Democrats and Republicans who vastly outperform not a little bit. We’re talking like double and triple and quadruple what what the market does, and whether or not that’s happenstance, it doesn’t matter. We just shouldn’t do it like if we want to put our money in a an index fund that’s managed by somebody else, like every other American. Fine.

Nestor Aparicio  16:05

I remember when Jimmy Carter put the peanut farm into trust, right?

Johnny Olszewski  16:09

It’s just, yeah, I mean, but like, to your point, like the president and his family are becoming billionaires off of this cryptocurrency, selling dinners at the White House, accepting private jets. I mean, it’s all wrong, and it’s against the Emoluments Clause, and it’s a very fancy part of the Constitution. Congress has no excuse. And then you have the president pardoning people like this, Honduran President Hernandez, who is a convicted drug kingpin, he put 400 tons of cocaine into America that’s over 4 billion doses. He was convicted and sentenced over 40 years in jail, fined millions of dollars, and then early into that sentence, Trump just gives him a blanket pardon. And so this, this is like, really, it boggles the mind, frankly, about the justice system entirely, and it proves it like you can get a job, get out of jail, free card if you’re wealthy or well connected or the president likes you. So it’s why, just this week, I announced I’m going to be putting in a constitutional amendment. Crazy that I’m saying this, that like our system is so broken that we have to change these things, but the American government teacher and me just couldn’t stand by and watch these kinds of Pardons happen, but putting forward a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to review presidential pardons and overturn them with a two thirds vote. So it’s a very high standard, but if we have these kinds of egregious giveaways from Trump and look, let’s be clear, Democrats have abused the pardon and clemency power as well. But it’s time to change the way that we operate here in DC, have some real checks and balances, and in the process, we should also clean up our own act and do things like ban stock trading by members of Congress.

Nestor Aparicio  17:54

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Johnny oshevsky is our guest. He is our congressman. He wanted to have crab cakes and crab Imperial and feel like the king over CASAS with me, but Job’s busy, so he’s on the zoom here. Hope we get together in the new year at some point. Hope to see you around 10. By the way, I was supposed to light the tree down at trade point, Atlantic with Aaron to Mario, and it was too cold and snowy that night, so I’m still waiting to light the Charlie Brown tree down in my dad’s homeland

Johnny Olszewski  18:16

is Paris. Point, to get you back.

Nestor Aparicio  18:20

Speaking of Sparrows Point, it’s not a time I get on the beltway up here. I live in Towson now, where it’s not a cluster, and I know it’s a cluster because of the bridge. I never would have known that in all of my life, since the bridge has been there 50 years. I’m like, who uses the bridge? Oh, all these people, and you and I have talked about that, the bridge federal money, what this administration means. I mean, you know, one minute he’s on our football field wave, doing a Papa wave for the Army Navy game. The next minute he’s denouncing Baltimore, not sending money to us. The bridge is near and dear to your heart. It’s out your window. What do you know about it? And you know, I would have said the minute he was elected last year that this was going to be problematic.

Johnny Olszewski  19:11

So the good news is 100% federal funding for the bridge is law. It is codified. It is it is not optional appropriation and so on that score, it’s good news. What I will say is that, first of all, you you experience that traffic, because that’s 35,000 daily commuters that you are not having across the bridge, and they’re going through the city, they’re going north, they’re going around the beltway, the other way. That’s that’s why the traffic so bad. So this isn’t, it? This is probably one of the most important infrastructure projects, not just for Maryland, but for the Mid Atlantic and our country. And what’s concerning, though, so it is law, but what’s concerning is that President Trump has threatened to cancel the funding. Now he can’t cancel it unilaterally, fortunately, but given his. Result on democratic led states, I worry that in this time where in national tragedy, we always come together, that he might try to have these Republican majorities change the law, it’s very unlikely that that will be successful. I’ve been talking to my colleagues. I’ve been talking about the importance of the bridge. I have Democrats and Republicans alike who understand that, but the President has explicitly threatened funding for the Key Bridge. His secretary, Sean Duffy, has sent letters to the governor questioning the time it’s going to take the cost of the bridge. And those are those are valid questions to ask, and I think we should move with all urgency to get this bridge built as quickly as possible and as cost efficiently as possible. But we shouldn’t politicize it, right? This is too important a project to make it political. Let’s come together figure out how to get the bridge rebuilt so that we can take the traffic off of your your streets and your commutes and put it back where it belongs on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

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Nestor Aparicio  20:57

I know there’s some Republicans who drive from Sparrows Point to Pasadena, I’ve met them. They need the bridge, sure.

Johnny Olszewski  21:03

Yeah. I mean, look, and that’s the thing, is that these kinds of infrastructure projects in particular don’t know partisan boundaries. I mean, that’s the that was the lesson of my time as Baltimore County Executive, was schools don’t have party affiliation. Potholes don’t have party affiliations. Parks don’t have party affiliations, and I try to bring that lesson here to DC and just find ways forward, trying not compromising our values, but just being a decent person and trying to find those places of common ground where we can move, move together. I have a friend that I’ve made, a guy named Jeff, heard out of Colorado, decent guy. Our politics are different, but we realized that we should just be able to talk. And so he and I had we rented a space, and we had pizza and beer and we watched Monday Night Football with a small group of bipartisan legislators. And you would have thought that we did something so innovative, like, oh my gosh, that’s the best I am. But no, that’s just being a person that’s just called being decent and so that, but that’s how low the bar is currently in terms of even talking to members of the other party. And it’s something that’s going to take time to change, but it’s something I’m committed

Nestor Aparicio  22:11

to trying to change. All right, take off your congressman hat and be former Baltimore County Executive Johnny O and be citizen Johnny O and the county. And, you know, I spent an hour with Nick Stewart the other day. I spent an hour with this Patoka. I’m going to spend an hour on the other side of the aisle with Republican candidates. I’ve had pat on. I’m, you know, I’m talking to everybody. I’ll have Julian on, back on again as well. Everybody running. I have not had your successor on at all. That’s been its own thing with the Inspector General. Can you speak to any of this? Or do you even, I mean, you have to care to speak to it. You’re still a resident. But I live here, I vote here, I work here, I school here, I do everything here. I’m not here to, you know, pat you on the back, but I’m here to say it’s not the way it was when you were here running it. There’s not a level of confidence that I have, and that’s been brought out in the candidates that I’ve spoken to the last couple of weeks. I’m very disappointed in sort of the, you know, the trajectory of things around here, and certainly the inspector general thing was

Johnny Olszewski  23:13

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messy, yeah. So, I mean, I’m really proud of what we did when I was county executive, and I’m glad that the expectation is so high that’s that’s where residents of the county should happen. I mean, we made the county government open, accessible, transparent, whether it was creating the Office of the Inspector General, putting it into our county charter, making the budget town halls happen for the first time in The County’s history, really engaging and bringing the public into the budget process. We did environmental efforts, we did housing efforts, we did transportation efforts. We put historic funding into schools and parks and improving our roadways, just things that really have been transformative in really positive ways.

Nestor Aparicio  23:55

I had a business owner in Hale Forbes said, you did a nice job during covid The last week. So I was over at honeys and L for just a block into the county. I was almost in the city over there, and they’re like, John, yo, we had a sign out covid. We did okay during covid. He helped, you know, he kept us safe. And that’s what somebody said to me last week.

Johnny Olszewski  24:14

I appreciate that feedback, you know. And for us, it was always the balance of like, how do we keep people safe, but also support business? I think I had

Nestor Aparicio  24:21

you on every six weeks during that because the tides were changing all the time during that thing. You know, least we didn’t inject any bleach.

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Johnny Olszewski  24:27

Johnny, the President of the United States, did also, I mean that that was, that was term one. There have been quite a few things that have happened

Nestor Aparicio  24:36

since. Let’s vote for him again.

Johnny Olszewski  24:39

But look, I’ll say this like as you’re and I think it’s great that you’re having these candidates on for county executive. I hope that as people are really looking at these candidates, and I think we have some great candidates out there, that the expectation is that we continue that that level of excellence, that level of public transparency. The trust and engagement to really sort of take our county to the next level. And we we everything from like bringing back bulk trash pickup and the small things to the big things we did. But if you just like anything in life, if you stand still, you’re either, you know, you’re either growing or you’re dying.

Nestor Aparicio  25:21

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Well, that’s the point. Every candidate I’ve talked to said that the county’s shrinking from a human standpoint, because of cost and housing and all of that. That was that’s topic one with all the candidates.

Johnny Olszewski  25:32

Yeah, I mean, and that’s true. That’s just true. I mean, if you don’t continue the momentum around schools and housing and recreation, then people are going to look for alternatives, because there’s there’s nothing that forces people to live in a county or a city. And we are blessed that our region is amazing. The county has some wonderful people working for it. And so having leadership moving into the next eight years, into that role is going to be critical. And so again, I just applaud you for bringing in all these candidates to sort of share that vision and hopefully have people land on someone who wants to build on what we did during our our tenure in that role. I think it’s

Nestor Aparicio  26:13

the hardest question to ask you down there. So where do you feel your progress? Man, because as a citizen, I don’t feel your progress. I and as a sort of a quasi media friend, I feel your frustration. Do you feel like you get anything done down there? I mean, and that’s, that’s hard to ask you that, but you’re trying to get vote again. I mean,

Johnny Olszewski  26:33

it’s incremental, right? And so I’d say, as an institution, we’re sliding backwards. We’re sliding backwards because Congress is not addressing the cost of living. Congress is not made sure that the Epstein files released. Congress is not, you know, meeting the needs of everyday Americans and so writ large. Yeah, I think it’s a problem. It’s It’s why, you know, I, while I’m work, while I will work with Republicans, I think it is important that Democrats take over in the midterms. It’s why I am campaigning so hard, not just for myself, but for others, so that we can turn that around. But while I’m here, I have a responsibility to try to do what I can where I can. And so we passed the port security bill, bipartisan bill, with Bill has Inga, out of Michigan. I passed a workforce training and apprenticeship bill out of small business, working with Roger Williams, the Republican chairman there. I’m doing these like meet and greets and time with people like Jeff heard, just trying to make our dialog more decent. I can disagree on policy, and I do strongly with my Republican colleagues. I think the deficit increase, I think the cutting off of healthcare. I think healthcare increases, the cost of living increases are wrong, but there’s still people, and I’m going to treat them decently, at least the people with whom, with whom I serve. And so I think that’s the balance. Is like trying to move forward in a way that is, on a human level, decent and right, but also understanding how these policies are harming and hurting the people I represent in Maryland, but also Americans across this country, and pushing for things to be different

8

Nestor Aparicio  28:08

on a human level. I’m going to be at Costas in Dundalk this week, a place that I usually run into you. I think I might run into you again. We’re going to have Rock and Roll Hall of Famer cheetah shock with us in Dundalk. Johnny o might be dropping by as well. He is our city Congressman on the east side of town, doing the work down in DC. Hey, happy holidays to you and your family. And I know these are perilous times in America on a day by day basis, stay strong down there and keep standing up for with the right thing. You know that’s I appreciate that.

Johnny Olszewski  28:35

Happy holidays to you. And I’ll end with this, Nestor, and it’s on my whiteboard, actually here in DC. It’s been there for several months now, and it’s very simple in all things, it is better to hope than it is to despair. And I still believe in the good and decency of the American people, why I’m here, why I’m honored to do it. And I wish you and yours and everybody out there very happy holiday.

Nestor Aparicio  28:56

Yeah, you know, I have hope and despair on my away and towards goals chart over here, my Robins chart. So I’m gonna have to take a picture of that and put it up. Johnny O is our congressman here. He is down in DC trying to do the good work down there on the the ACA, and trying to hold the president in line, which we used to have a Supreme Court that did that. We’re going to be out doing the Maryland crab cake tour. I will have the candy cane cash tickets, which are going to smell like peppermints. I’ll smell like Santa did at East Point mall back before the penguins came. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery and also our friends at GBMC. A little reminder during the holidays. Talk about your medical situation with people at a colonoscopy a couple weeks ago free cancerous polyps. I was the rockhead that didn’t get in there, and it almost cost me dearly, but I’m glad that I did get in there. So talk to your relatives about their health and their money and the important things and how much you love them during the holidays. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive.