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Salazar Amnesty and the Democrats’ Socialist Bench: Jim Pfaff on The Alec Lace Show | Sep 22, 2026

Published: September 22, 2026
Network: The Alec Lace Show
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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Host Alec Lace said Rep. María Elvira Salazar took a stance against President Trump on deportation right as she is up for election, and on the September 22 edition of The Alec Lace Show, Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff said it is not merely a campaign angle. The Salazar amnesty position, he said, is simply where she is: someone who would give amnesty to illegals. The rest of the conversation ran through the takeaways from the GOP midterm convention, where the $5,000 check was the one piece of Trump’s economic case Pfaff was not a big fan of; the Democrats’ bench for 2028, which he reduced to Gavin Newsom or someone endorsed by Hasan Piker; Trump’s meeting with Mamdani at Gracie Mansion; the media ban; and why a good person who broke the immigration law still has to go.

Topics Covered

• Out of the Convention: Trump’s Economic Case and the $5,000 Check
• Newsom, Hasan Piker and the Democrats’ Socialist Bench
• Gracie Mansion, the Media Ban and Greenland
• Iran and American Strength
• The Salazar Amnesty Stance and Mass Deportation
• Nice Guy or Not: The Law, Human Nature and the Free Market
• Key Takeaways

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Out of the Convention: Trump’s Economic Case and the $5,000 Check

Alec Lace had last talked with Pfaff before the GOP midterm convention and opened by asking for the energy and the big takeaway. Pfaff called it incredibly positive, a really good event with a lot of great speeches and its typical convention flair. The markers that mattered came from Donald Trump: his main speech on Wednesday night and his relatively short speech closing everything out on Friday night.

“Other than the $5,000 check thing, which I wasn’t a big fan of, he really did make a case for why what he has done has been so successful.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The question for November, in Pfaff’s account, is whether Republican candidates will say two things: that they agree with what Trump said, and that they are going to work to implement it. About 60 seats will have a brand new representative. Some are contested and some are not, but that is a lot of people to change what has been happening in Congress — and he has said many times that the weak part of the Trump agenda is Republicans in Congress.

He added one recommendation from the stage: listen to RFK Jr.’s speech. Pfaff called it one of the great political speeches he has ever heard, at a convention or anywhere. RFK Jr. is no thoroughgoing conservative and nobody expected that of him, but Pfaff said he gets what the American dream is truly about, as his father and uncle did, and expressed it in high language that can inspire a person to understand what the fight is for.

The last message came from TCC’s own social media director, who posted that there is no scenario where voters get anything they want if Democrats take Congress.

“For all of your negatives that you may have against Donald Trump or about the way things are going, about the Epstein files or whatever your beef is, you ain’t getting none of what you want if Democrats get control of Congress.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Lace summarized the Democrats’ slogan as promise everything, deliver nothing, and blame somebody else. Pfaff’s correction was that in many ways they do not even promise anything: go after Trump, create Medicare for All, explode the budget, and bring back the inflation voters had before. That message, he said, is simple to address, even if it is not always easy, and Republicans need to stay on it.

Newsom, Hasan Piker and the Democrats’ Socialist Bench

Lace said he cannot see who the Democrats will eventually nominate for president. Pfaff’s answer was short.

“It’s either going to be Gavin Newsom or someone that is endorsed by Hasan Piker. I mean, that’s literally what it’s going to be.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Piker, Pfaff said, calls America a worse terrorist state than Iran ever was, and many DSA candidates are trying to run away from him — particularly Abdul El-Sayed, who Pfaff said knows he is in trouble in Michigan. On the Republican side in Michigan, Pfaff was candid: he is not at all excited about Mike Rogers as a U.S. senator, calling him a neocon who has been part of the deep state. What Rogers has, like other Republican candidates, is that he can be persuaded to go with the Trump message, and Pfaff said that if Rogers wants to win he needs to name the specific things he will do to support the agenda voters chose in 2024.

Lace pointed to what he called 90/10 issues Democrats will not let go of — men in women’s sports, opposition to ICE and deportations — and to Kamala Harris appearing that day with El-Sayed at an event on what Lace described as Black birthing people. Pfaff’s answer was that the American people are past it, and so are many of the tech figures who backed Democrats for the last couple of decades.

His example was the All In podcast. David Sacks has always been a Republican and a conservative; Chamath Palihapitiya is all in on Trump; David Friedberg pretty much is; and even Jason Calacanis, no supporter of Trump, makes the same arguments and has no faith in the Democrat Party. Pfaff singled out Friedberg: his case for free market capitalism is one of the best you are ever going to hear. There are many people like them, Pfaff said, and the DSA factor still lingering falls flat with most Americans — only the most radical voters are going along with it.

Lace pressed the point from another side: Hasan Piker is a multimillionaire with a million-dollar mansion, Bernie Sanders has three houses, and Mamdani and his circle come from well-to-do families. There is no form of socialism, Lace said, that gets anyone what those men have. Pfaff agreed and went to the voters.

“These people are just whiny babies who grew up playing video games in their parents’ basement and then suddenly had some very interesting, cool ideas, right? They made a really cool communism and socialism, like that’s really cool. There’s nothing cool about it. There never has been.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Pfaff added a warning for his own side: Americans do not trust politicians at all, Republicans included. That is why candidates have to talk in substantive terms about real things they want to get done, and offer the opposing vision — not only calling out the woke agenda but explaining how the Trump path is working for Americans, even with the challenges that still exist, and will keep working if the country stays on it.

Gracie Mansion, the Media Ban and Greenland

Lace noted that a lot of people had their panties in a bunch over Trump meeting Mamdani at Gracie Mansion the day before. Pfaff said nobody knows all the substance of what happened there, but he was pretty certain about one item, given that the UN General Assembly was coming in and Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak on Thursday.

“If you even try, Mamdani, to make an attempt to arrest Bibi Netanyahu, just watch out. You sow the wind and you’re going to reap the whirlwind, dude.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Other topics came up too, Pfaff assumed, but as best he could tell that was the main substance and the main reason for the meeting: we are not going to put up with those kinds of shenanigans, so back off.

Lace then asked about the media ban. CNN, he said, has been melting down over it; Fox News said it would join them and not cover the pool; and Lace said he thinks that is great because it opens room for others who want to cover Trump. Pfaff kept his own hedge up front.

“Well, listen, I’m not a big fan of banning anybody.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

He had said the same to his friend Peter Boyles, the Denver talk radio host he has known for more than two decades and opposed on certain measures because Boyles is very libertarian-minded. His read is about the calendar: going into this election, win, lose or draw, Trump is making sure everyone remembers there is still fake news out there telling lies. His message to voters over the next 50 days, as Pfaff paraphrased it, is to remember these people are liars — and the outlets flailing about only prove his point. Lace supplied the example: after saying they would not cover Trump’s travels to New York, CNN was front and center at the UN, with Kaitlan Collins having said they were not covering it.

Pfaff tied the media fight to the same negotiating method he saw in the Greenland agreement. Critics said Trump lost because he wanted to take over the country and did not get it. His answer: did you read The Art of the Deal? You start at a strong position to get to the position you want, and Trump got exactly what he wanted, which Pfaff said will be good for the American people. He reads the $5,000 gift the same way — put out there not as a serious plan but to ask what about all the other goodies Democrats want to give that cost hundreds of billions, even trillions more, and take the country nowhere.

Iran and American Strength

Pfaff said this is the strength of Trump: he knows what his strengths are and plays to them, and the outlets cannot stay away because their viewers expect coverage. The same instinct, he said, is at work on the world stage — not only with Greenland but with Iran, which he called a win even while admitting it feels chaotic to him too and frustrates him when he thinks of the politics. Trump, he said, is using American strength in a way that is pro-American, not pro-military-industrial-complex — though that complex will benefit from any military.

“We should have a badass military that we hardly ever use, right? They always are going to benefit somewhere. The question is, how is it being utilized and for what end and purpose?”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

In the Bush administration, Pfaff said, American strength was used for ends that were not entirely American. Trump is accused of trying to please Israel, and Pfaff’s answer was that this is the least pro-Israel Middle East action America has taken in a long time — if anything, Trump used Israel for his own purposes. He did not claim it has gone to plan: it has gone longer than Trump expected and longer than Pfaff wanted, which shows the country has to be really careful about war efforts. But the end goal is not political. It is dealing with a regime that, over the 47 years the Islamic Republic has been in power, has killed certainly multiple thousands of Americans, mostly soldiers. Pfaff called that pro-American, and said America is on the resurgence from Europe to China because Trump plays to its strengths.

The Salazar Amnesty Stance and Mass Deportation

Lace’s last topic was deportation. He said he does not like the narrative that the country has to wait for illegals to become violent criminals before deporting them, and that coming here illegally is sufficient. Salazar, he said, took the opposite stance to go directly at Trump right as she is up for election.

“She’s only there because Trump endorsed her from the get-go.”
— Alec Lace, Host, The Alec Lace Show

Asked what her angle was, Pfaff said it is not merely an angle — the Salazar amnesty position is her actual belief. He gave her full credit where he thinks it is due. She has been really helpful to his friends in Brazil, where he has been closely involved with people in government and media, and she is anti-Cuba and anti-leftist in the region. None of that changes the Salazar amnesty question.

“She really does believe in amnesty. She believes in open borders, I believe.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Her line, as Pfaff described it, is to just get rid of the criminals. He laid that against his own call. He recently interviewed Mike Howell of the Oversight Project, who heads the coalition of organizations TCC belongs to — see our conversation with Mike Howell on the next phase of the Mass Deportation Coalition. What Pfaff is calling for Trump to do now is double down on what he has done and go all the way.

“We need to mass deport everyone that’s here illegally. That should never be allowed.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

We have the border figured out, Pfaff said; we do not have the deportations figured out yet. Salazar opposes that and he opposes her in it. He acknowledged the argument on her side — people here illegally who have been part of society, productive and working — and answered it plainly: they still broke the law. His verdict on the Salazar amnesty position was that she is coming at it honestly, but from what he called a very dishonest and, he believes, unethical position.

Lace agreed that calling someone an illegal immigrant does not dehumanize them: a person can be a fine member of the church and the community and still have to go, because nobody gets rewarded for doing it the wrong way. Pfaff made the comparison to embezzlement.

“There are many embezzlers who steal lots of money from companies who have great families, who are probably really nice parents and everything, but they stole money and they should go to jail for it.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

TCC has tracked the housing side of the same argument in our earlier coverage of illegal immigration and housing costs. Pfaff’s message to the people affected was not hostile: we think you are good too, but you have to go back and do it the right way, and then we will reconsider.

Nice Guy or Not: The Law, Human Nature and the Free Market

Lace closed the segment with his own marketplace comparison: plenty of nice, hardworking people do not make much money because they do not bring value to the marketplace, and some real a-holes are rich because they do. The law works the same way for citizenship.

“Nice guy or not, there’s a criteria. If we’re going to throw that out, we have nothing but chaos.”
— Alec Lace, Host, The Alec Lace Show

Pfaff answered with a line he says he uses with some regularity everywhere he goes.

“6,000 years of recorded human history proves the moral depravity of man. When we are calculating good in people, what we’re calculating is not real goodness.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

What people call goodness, in his account, is the varying degree to which people who are bad at their core have learned to reduce the bad in their lives through discipline. That, he said, is why America has the small-r republican form of government it has — men are not angels, as Madison wrote in the Federalist, which is why you need government — and why it needs a free market system. Even the greediest person can become a billionaire by following the golden rule in the business he runs. Not every billionaire is that way: Pfaff would not count Elon Musk, or most of the All In hosts, and he pointed to Chamath Palihapitiya saying on his own podcast that he got sick of the $10,000 watches and the cars and now focuses on raising his kids, loving his wife and building great things.

Under rules and constructs — formal ones like the Constitution, informal ones like the free market — better people tend to rise and bad people tend to sink unless they follow the rules. Pfaff applied that directly to immigration: good or bad, someone here illegally is breaking the rules and has to pay the consequence. America loves to bring in people who want to be part of the country, believe in its system and assimilate, and they can prove that and be given a chance to come back.

Pfaff closed by pointing listeners to theconservativecaucus.com, where TCC’s convention interviews from its media booth — on the same level as CBS, NBC and other networks — are posted, including his earlier interview with Lace, and asked listeners to sign up for email as TCC works to win this election for Republicans.

Key Takeaways

1. The Salazar amnesty stance is conviction, not tactics – Pfaff credits her work for his friends in Brazil and her anti-Cuba record, but says she really does believe in amnesty and, he believes, open borders, and he opposes her on it.
2. Mass deport everyone here illegally – Pfaff, whose TCC is part of the Mass Deportation Coalition, wants Trump to double down and go all the way. The border is figured out; the deportations are not yet.
3. Good people who broke the law still go back – Pfaff’s embezzler comparison, the housing prices now receding, and the bar of up to 10 years in the immigration law for those who do not do it the right way.
4. The Democrats’ bench is Newsom or a Hasan Piker pick – Even DSA candidates like Abdul El-Sayed are running from Piker, and the All In hosts show how far the tech world has moved.
5. Not a big fan of banning anybody – Pfaff reads the media ban, like the $5,000 check and the Greenland agreement, as Trump making a point: remember for the next 50 days that these people are liars.
6. 60 seats and one message – About 60 seats will have new members. Candidates who agree with Trump’s economic case and promise to implement it, while doubling down on immigration and spending cuts, are how Pfaff says the convention pays off.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast Sep 22, 2026 on The Alec Lace Show with Alec Lace.