Table Talk Episode 16: Interview with Don Brown, Candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina | Eastern NC Now

    Background and Early Life: Don Brown grew up in Plymouth, North Carolina, in Washington County. He spent his youth fishing in the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds with his grandfather, including net fishing for herring. He fondly recalled the Easter Monday herring tradition in Jamesville, North Carolina, where millions of herring would run across the river and local restaurants like River's Edge and Cypress Rail would cook them up. His family would salt and preserve their catch to eat throughout the year.


    Military Career: Brown served as a JAG officer in the U.S. Navy for 16 years, five on active duty and 11 in the reserves. His last duty station was the Pentagon, and notably, his former office there was destroyed on September 11, 2001. Though he had already left the Pentagon by that time, the experience profoundly affected him and inspired him to begin writing. His first book addressed radical Islamic infiltration inside the military. He has since authored 16 books, mostly on military topics, with one adapted into a production. His most recent book, Kangaroo Court, examines Democrats' use of lawfare over the past 30 years.

    Conservative Roots and Influences: Brown credits the late Senator Jesse Helms as the reason he became a conservative. As a high school senior, Helms invited him to a weekend at Meredith College where Helms, Jack Kent, Gary Bomar, and Phil Crane taught young people about conservative principles. Helms' political mentor, Tom Ellis, founder of the Congressional Club, later influenced Brown's career path. Brown eventually left the Navy to work for Ellis's law firm, Mop and Taylor and Ellis, in Fort Mill, South Carolina, near Charlotte. He currently resides in Union County, North Carolina, though he considers Eastern North Carolina his heartland.

    The Constitution and Republican Form of Government: Brown expressed deep passion for the U.S. Constitution, emphasizing that America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. He cited Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, which guarantees states a republican form of government. He quoted James Madison calling democracy "the most vile form of government," John Adams saying "all democracies commit suicide," and Benjamin Franklin's analogy of democracy being "two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch." Brown argued that the country began drifting from its constitutional foundations around 1913 with the passage of the 16th Amendment (income tax), the first income tax act, and the Federal Reserve Act. He stressed that the federal government was designed to be limited, with most congressional powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8, and the Tenth Amendment reserving all other powers to the states.


    Education and the Constitution: Brown pointed to a dangerous constitutional ignorance in America, even among lawyers. He noted that in law school at Campbell University, he never actually read the Constitution itself during his constitutional law course, students only read Supreme Court case interpretations. He compared this to attending seminary and reading sermons without ever reading the Bible. As an example, he noted that most lawyers cannot name the five fundamental rights of the First Amendment: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceable assembly, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. He advocated for teaching the Constitution and the Federalist Papers from kindergarten through 12th grade every year.

    Local Government and Republican Voter Engagement: Brown strongly affirmed that "all government is local" and that local officials are more important than federal ones because they are closest to the people. He recounted meeting a town council candidate in Plymouth and telling him his race was more important than a U.S. Senate race. He expressed concern that Republican voters fail to turn out for local and off-year elections, citing that in Mecklenburg County, if just 40% of registered Republicans had voted, their candidate would have won. He also pushed back against the notion that North Carolina is a "purple state," noting that since 1968, the state has only voted for the Democratic presidential nominee twice. He observed that while the legislature is decidedly Republican, Democrats have controlled key offices like Attorney General and Secretary of State, and only three Republican governors have served in his lifetime.

    The Monroe Doctrine, Venezuela, and Presidential Authority: Brown discussed the potential revival of the Monroe Doctrine under President Trump, particularly regarding Venezuela and countering Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere. He outlined the historical precedent for presidents protecting Americans on the high seas without congressional approval, citing Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates in 1803, Abraham Lincoln's seizure of the British mail ship RMS Trent, and FDR's orders to sink German U-boats before Pearl Harbor in 1941. Regarding the naval strikes on narco boats, Brown defended the president's authority, arguing that fentanyl constitutes a weapon of mass destruction that has killed more Americans in a single year than ten years of the Vietnam War.


    Military Insubordination and the UCMJ: Brown sharply criticized six U.S. Senators, including retired Navy Captain Mark Kelly, for releasing a video encouraging service members to disobey orders related to the narco-boat strikes. As a former JAG officer, Brown argued that Kelly violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice on multiple counts, including disrespect to the commander-in-chief, conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, and sedition under Article 94, which prohibits discouraging civilian control over the military. He dismissed the "second tap" controversy as a manufactured distraction, arguing that if a boat still carried drugs, which he classified as weapons of mass destruction, destroying it was justified, and any collateral damage was an acceptable consequence of carrying out the mission.

    Border Security and the Biden Administration: Brown characterized the Biden administration's border policies as treasonous. He argued that by opening the border and stopping enforcement, the administration sent a message worldwide to come across unchecked, resulting in drug trafficking and sex trafficking conglomerates establishing operations in cities like Charlotte, which sits at the intersection of major interstates and has one of the world's busiest airports. He warned of sleeper cells being set up across the country by individuals he described as "Sharia types" who crossed the border, and criticized the legal immigration of approximately 70,000 Afghans under Biden-era programs, noting that one such individual killed a National Guard member. Brown pledged to fight for stricter immigration policies in the U.S. Senate and stated he believes the damage done to the nation rivals anything since World War II.

    Lawfare, Political Prosecutions, and Judicial Confirmations: Brown detailed what he calls a systematic abuse of the legal system by Democrats for political purposes. He cited the cases of Mark and Patricia McCloskey in St. Louis, who were prosecuted simply for holding firearms on their own property, and Douglas Mackey, a cartoonist prosecuted in 2021 for satirical cartoons he made in 2016. He also referenced the prosecution of former Texas Governor Rick Perry for exercising his constitutional veto power. Brown argued that every Trump prosecutor, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James, should themselves be prosecuted for deprivation of civil rights. He advocated for "rogue prosecutor laws" that would allow prosecutors who bring primarily politically motivated cases to face criminal charges. He also discussed his defense of January 6 defendants, including the youngest known defendant, 20-year-old Elliot Bichay, whose home was raided by 12 FBI counter-terrorism agents over five misdemeanor trespassing charges. Brown contrasted this with the 95% dismissal rate for George Floyd riot prosecutions, despite billions in damages and over 20 deaths. He emphasized the need for Attorney General Pam Bondi to aggressively prosecute these rogue prosecutors, warning that if Democrats regain power without facing accountability, the abuses will be far worse.


    Education Policy and School Choice: Brown strongly supports school choice and competition in education. Having experienced homeschooling, Christian schooling, and public schooling with his own children, he coined the term "eduocracy" to describe the bloated bureaucracy above teachers. He shared an anecdote about a friend who teaches foreign languages in Charlotte being interrupted mid-lesson by an assistant superintendent earning nearly $300,000 a year to tell her how to teach. He argued that those administrative funds should go directly to teachers and classrooms. Brown also spoke against Common Core, noting that both working group leaders, Stanford mathematics professor Bill Milgram and University of Arkansas English professor Sandy Stotsky, resigned because the math standards would have capped high school math at pre-calculus, putting American students behind Asian competitors, while the language arts curriculum replaced Shakespeare and Dickens with what he described as sexual and communist material. He advocated for tax credits for families seeking educational alternatives and argued that public schools improve when faced with competition.

    Healthcare and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Brown drew parallels between education and healthcare monopolies, criticizing the "governmental pharmaceutical complex." He described his involvement in federal litigation against COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the Savannah River Nuclear Plant, where he represented 78 plaintiffs, mostly nuclear engineers, who refused the experimental jabs. The case went to the Fourth Circuit, and the Biden administration backed down. Through discovery, Brown learned that in a 10-month period in 2021, more deaths were reported from the three COVID vaccines than from every other vaccine combined over 30 years, information he said the government withheld from the public. He criticized vaccine manufacturers' liability protections, arguing this creates an unconstitutional disparity under the equal protection clause since no other industry enjoys such blanket immunity. On healthcare generally, he called the Affordable Care Act the "Astronomical Cost Act" and criticized the insurance monopoly in North Carolina, where Blue Cross is essentially the only option, contrasting it with the competitive auto insurance market where consumers can shop among USAA, State Farm, Nationwide, and others.

    Personal Connections and Closing: The interview concluded on a warm personal note when Brown discovered that his friend Danny Robertson from Plymouth serves as the minister at the host's church. Brown spoke fondly of Robertson and his sister Lori, a teacher in Beargrass, and praised the salt-of-the-earth people of Eastern North Carolina. The hosts thanked Brown for joining Table Talk and encouraged viewers to support his candidacy for U.S. Senate.