Fox’s Julie Banderas on Her New Anti-Woke Children’s Book

CLAY: We are joined now by Julie Banderas, Fox News anchor. She’s also fantastic on Gutfeld. She is the mother of three young children, 12, 10 and 6, and she has an anti-woke children’s book, Fiona’s Fantastical Fort. Julie, do you drink now more or less than when you had kids?

BANDERAS: Uh, more, believe it or not, and then there was this study in the pandemic that actually said that during the pandemic, moms drink more, and I’m like, “During the pandemic? How about since I had started having children 12 years ago? I didn’t need the pandemic to turn to a glass of wine or two during bath time.”

CLAY: Tell us about the book. Like, what motivated you to write the book? I’m sure you’ve read a lot of kids books over the years, and that is something that strikes a lot of parents. Would you have written this before you had kids? What drove you to write it?

BANDERAS: I would have never written this before I had kids because I couldn’t care less what was happening in schools because it didn’t affect me. Right? But during the pandemic, as a mom, I had kids at home. And that’s when the heavy drinking really started during homeschooling in the afternoon. Sometimes my kids would actually come over with a bottle at about 1:00 and they’re like, “Mommy, I think it’s wine time,” and I’m like, “You’re absolutely right.” But, you know, during the pandemic, that’s when I realized that our kids are being taught stuff that I would have never approved of had I been in the classroom.

Sex ed in kindergarten? Because quite frankly, that is what they’re teaching now by bringing in this woke ideology that they need to teach 5- and 6-year-olds about what it means to be bisexual or gay or transgender. My child does not need to know about anything that has to do with sexuality, and that includes gender-revealing information that teachers are teaching small children. So the reason I wanted to get on with the Brave Books who you know, there are this amazing Christian conservative book publishing company.

The CEO, Trent Talbot, basically left his career as an ophthalmologist because he saw a need for children to be actually taught things that include American values and morals and just beliefs that I was raised around. But for some reason, something changed in this country where that is no longer the norm in a public classroom, a public-school classroom, which was disturbing to me. So these books actually come out with positive messages, which I think is awesome. Mine is Fiona’s Fantastical Fort. You can get it on BraveBooks.com.

It’s a story about perseverance — and every single month, if you subscribe, you get this amazing book a month. This month, Kirk Cameron actually has a book out. You have to check it out. It’s lovely. But every month a positive message which parents, honestly, this is what you need to subscribe to when it comes to Christmastime, because it’s the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, unfortunately, our children in schools right now are being inundated with, you know, this ideology that is just bringing them to this really dark place, and I’m really nervous and scared for our kids’ futures.

BUCK: Julie, it’s Buck. Congrats on the book. Clay and I think —

BANDERAS: Hi, Buck!

BUCK: Hey, how are you!

BANDERAS: (giggles)

BUCK: We think it’s so cool when people in the field of, you know, news commentary. I mean, obviously you’ve been with Fox a long time to news, but doing things that are also content creation in the cultural space, going beyond, you know, commentary on the day’s events. I think there’s such a huge need for that. So kudos to you for that. I also wanted to ask you, when you talk to other parents and I really… You know, this isn’t a leading question because I don’t know.

BANDERAS: Of course.

BUCK: Because I know of parents, friends of mine who are parents now. I mean, I’m working on it. Clay keeps telling me Clay is going to put me through parent bootcamp soon. He’s going to be like telling me, “Get ready for it.”

CLAY: My already 13, 12 and 8.

BUCK: Yeah. Yeah.

CLAY: So I’m telling them what he’s got coming really.

BUCK: But what I hear from parents, they’ll say, you know, other parents in the classroom sometimes when they hear about what’s going on, they’re kind of like, “Okay.” You know, they’re a little woke themselves or they’re little indifferent to it. I mean, most of the parents you come across, do they feel like this has gotten completely out of line with the exposure of children, particularly to the sexualized content at a young age under the rubric of education.

BANDERAS: Yeah. I mean, first of all, any parent that I speak with who’s in the public school system, I feel is a bit on the woke side, whereas if you talk to parents like myself whose kids have been going to private Catholic schools since they were very little, they do not have to experience the same sort of issues. But I do believe that this whole country is sort of turning right. You know, when I look at the election in the midterms, right, you know, we talked we predicted a red wave, but we didn’t quite get the red wave politically.

But we did get the red wave when it comes to school districts because more and more parents are standing up. There are there are school districts that are being sued right now in the state of Pennsylvania, for example, by dozens of parents that are basically putting their foot down and saying, “Look, I’m the parent. I should be in power, not the school districts, not the administrators, not the teachers.”

There are actual school districts that have made it a rule that if a child goes to school and questions their sexuality or their gender, that they can share that private information with an administrator, and that administrator is not obligated to share it with the parent. So, there are parents that are suing over that, and I believe that there’s a lot of school districts in this country that are now finally hearing from parents because parents are sick and tired of the school districts trying to take power from the parents. The parents should be in power, not the teachers, not the administrators, and it’s jsut frustrating to see.

CLAY: Julie, L.A. is talking about putting people back in masks indoors. You lived through covid, I would think probably having to drink more because you were in the New York City area, which would have drove me insane. If New York City follows L.A. and decides people need to put masks back on indoors. How do you think a lot of parents in the Tristate Area are going to react?

BANDERAS: People are going to move out of New York City because that’s exactly why people moved out, number one, because of the lockdowns and the implemented masks. The mask mandates really put our children back year, years! I mean, our math scores and our all of our school scores are so low right now, people couldn’t even make eye contact or see somebody’s facial expressions, see somebody’s mouth moving in a classroom. That is really important for kids to learn by actually being able to look at somebody’s face when they’re speaking to them. So a lot of parents moved out of New York City during the pandemic because, one — and this is me.

I moved out of the city during the pandemic because when I found out that the kids were going to stay on Zoom all day long, I was like, “Oh, heck no. I’m not doing that to my kids.” So we moved out and private Catholic schools stayed in school all year. They never went to Zoom unless there was a, you know, covid scare at the school; then they would have to quarantine for a week or two, but then they were back in the classroom. So that’s what’s going to happen in New York City — and I don’t believe that they’ll do this again, because I can’t imagine that any — any — person in law, law enforcement or anybody, you know, politically driven would make the same mistake twice.

Because by closing by basically making mask mandates, you’re basically telling kids, “Don’t come to school, there’s no point,” and they’re going to move out into other cities. And that’s why our economy is where it is right now. I believe the mask mandates, in fact, actually damaged our economy and helped us toward inflation. I mean, I believe that the reason why we’re in this mess economically is because small businesses shut down and prices went up — demand went up and supply went down — because we were closing businesses left and right. And New York City is a perfect example of that, led by Democrats who made these awful decisions. And now our kids are suffering because of it.

BUCK: Julie, where do we send folks to get a copy of your excellent book?

BANDERAS: BraveBooks.com, and then also I’ve got this Julie’s Signature Treasure Box that you guys have to check out. If you go to BraveBooks.com/Julie, there’s this treasure box that has over seven wonderfully written stories with positive messages. Plus, you get a signed copy of my book and a fort — a fort-building kit — and I’ve included a compass in there for many reasons. One, I’m a boat captain and I rely on a compass. But secondly, I want people to sort of use that.

CLAY: Hold on! You’re a boat…? (crosstalk) You’re a boat captain? What kind of boat are you a captain on?

BANDERAS: I am a captain of a 42-foot Grand Banks.

CLAY: That’s a big deal!

BANDERAS: Basically, I’m like a man sort of. Every time —

CLAY: (laughing)

BANDERAS: Every time I pull my boat into a slip at a marina, I kid you not, when they see me driving my boat from the top — and sometimes even back when I had newborn babies and they were strapped to my chest, I’m not kidding, I was navigating my boat and slipping/docking it — all these men would come running to the dock, assuming I’m going to crash or hit somebody. Somebody taking pictures and video had nothing to do with who I was because they didn’t know who I was. They were probably collecting evidence for their insurance company, you know, thinking that I’m going to crash or something.

CLAY: (laughing)

BANDERAS: I’m not kidding. And then later they’re like, “Oh my God, I’m so impressed you can dock that thing.”

CLAY: My wife is way better at handling a boat — because she grew up on boats in Michigan — than I am, too, ad so you guys would actually be great co-captains on the high seas.

BUCK: Yeah, Clay and I’ll be on the back drinking Zimas and taking selfies.

CLAY: That’s right. (laughing)

BANDERAS: (laughing) Taking selfies! That’s hysterical! No, I would love. Oh, my gosh. If you guys are ever in the New York area in the summertime, please let me know and I will take you guys on board. I swear, I’m a really good captain. I’ve been doing it for a long time. But as far as the company was concerned, I kind of thought of it as a moral compass. Our children need to be sort of guided, right, with a compass. With a moral compass. And who doesn’t love a compass? It’s a cute compass. It comes with a signature box. So you gotta get this. It’s like the perfect gift for grandparents and parents to give to their children this season.

BUCK: Brave Books, BraveBooks.com. Julie Banderas. Go pick up her book. Julie, thanks so much for having us. Come back soon.

BANDERAS: I would love to. Thank you guys! Have a great weekend.

BUCK: Thank you.