In this episode, Lisa welcomes Matt Whitlock, a former Capitol Hill staffer, to discuss how Democrats and the mainstream media exploit the deadly flooding in Central Texas for political gain, often rushing to blame Republicans and President Trump before facts are known. The conversation critiques the left’s reactionary approach to gun violence and Medicaid reform, highlighting how Republican policies are frequently misrepresented. Whitlock emphasizes the need for conservatives to improve messaging and address cultural issues, such as declining national pride among youth, driven by left-leaning education and media narratives. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we cut
to the heart of what matters to you. Today, we've
got Matt Whitlock on this show. He's the host of
Ten Minute Drill, a senior vice president at CRC Advisors,
and he's also worked for National Republican Senatorial Committee Senator
Mike Lee, a lot of people like that on Capitol Hill.
We're going to impac the fallout from the devastating Texas floods.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So many young children have died in these floods, truly heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
But what are Democrats doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They're trying to politicize this tragedy for political gains. So
we'll get into that with Matt. Also, we're going to
talk about the Big Beautiful Bill. If you look at
parts of the bill they pull well, you know, people
want border security, people want things like that, but overall
the bill does struggle in pulling. So what does that
look like for the midterms heading into them? For Republicans,
(00:56):
you've got people like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling
it a crime scene due to what he says or
medicaid cuts.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So how do Republicans counteract that? What does that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Messaging need to look like, particularly when historically the party
in charge does struggle in a midterm. I'm astly gonna
ask Matt about a new victor. Davis Hansen op ed
his scathing critique of America's experts and they're crumbling credibility.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So tune in.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
We'll talk to Matt Whitlock about a lot of things
and get his insight, particularly all his time in politics.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So stay tuned for Matt Whitlock. Well, Matt Whitlock, It's
great to have you on this show.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I've known you for a little while now, so you
have been doing hitting the TV circuit, but you've been
on Capitol Hill for or you've worked on Capitol Hill
in and around Washington, DC and politics for a long
long time, and you know a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So great to have you on the show. Appreciate you
making the time.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thanks for having me, big fan, big fan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You know, it's kind of disgusting because is you know,
we're still finding out how many people have died in
Central Texas. There's still you know, search and rescue recovery
efforts that are underway.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Over ninety people have died.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That number are going to continue to climb, and yet
Democrats are using this as an opportunity for politics. It
really is.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It's gross. Yeah, really it's gross.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And it begins with this sort of model of you know,
let's blame Trump, let's figure out how he can pin
this on him, and then you know, usually five to
six hours go by and you get new data that shows, okay, wait,
this wasn't Trump's fault. There actually was good staff and
for the weather services. You get the people saying, oh,
it's Trump's fault because he's ignoring climate change, and then
you get the experts that are coming out and saying, no, actually,
(02:43):
this is pretty similar to a pattern they've had for
a long time. But it really is just gross to
see again, as you said, they're still finding bodies and
it already has become such a nasty political conversation. I
think it just speaks to where our kind of political
cultural dynamic is right now, which is really toxic.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well's interesting too, because it's not just like the low
brow Democrats who are just you know, completely gross and
always taking cheap shots.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's also people like David Oxwrod.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yep, yeah it is, and George Stephanopolis and even like
Dana Bash, who I think actually tries pretty hard to
be fair, had like a big segment right away was
this climate change and did Trump do this? And it's
like a lot of times when media people are asking
questions like that, it's because they want to make the point, Yes,
it is Trump's fault and this was climate change. And
that's really really disappointing to see that. Again, like a
(03:33):
lie travels around the world before the truth can get
its shoes on. We see that so much because of
those more prominent media figures.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
But it's like it's sad in an environment like this,
you know, to sort of immediately turn to politics. But
it's kind of just where we are politically at this
point in the country, where like the hatred for Trump
is so great that it supersedes human decency to you know,
focus on what's in court right now, which is finding
(04:01):
you know, these young girls, of trying to find you know,
you know, to try to rescue people, to recover people
as well, and so you know that the supersedes all else.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It reminds me a lot of how democrats react to like,
you know, gun violence. It's always immediately, you know, how
can we blame the NRA and whatever lawmakers are not
angry enough about the NRA before we even know the
facts on the ground, They've set up this sort of
knee jerk reactionary machine to inject politics before we know
(04:32):
any facts. And often, you know, based on the circumstances
of the shooting, it will disappear from media as soon
as details come out. But that's exact same thing we're
seeing with Texas, with you know, how can we blame Trump,
How can we blame you know, Republican involvement before we
even know so much of how this happened. I think,
to your point, it's really tragic.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, and of course, you know they're turning into Doge
cuts and you know, any sort of reduction in spending,
you know they're they're going to sort of use US
is a political weapon in times like these, So you know,
this is not the last we're going to see of
this moving forward. Essentially, every you know, any tragedy is
going to be blamed on, you know, Doge in any
sort of spending reductions that we do.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And the White House is already sort of setting up
a model to work in overtime to refute that they're
doing a good job at this. But again, by the time,
you know, they're able to sort of get the facts
out there and highlight the local experts who are saying
everything these you know, more politically minded left wing people
are saying is crap, like it's it's you know, unfortunate.
How many people already have the cemented narratives. But you're
(05:36):
totally right, this is going to be a case all
the time where we get one day of insane news
about look at what Trump and Elon let happen before
we find out, oh, actually it wasn't connected to that
at all.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think it's a huge.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Problem, and they're going to do this with the Big
Beautiful Bill as well. Heading into the midterms, We've already seen,
you know, House Minority Leader Keem Jefferies say things on
the House floor like people will die tens of thousands,
perhaps year after year as a result of the Republican
assault is what he's calling it on the healthcare of
the American people. You've got the D Triple C saying
(06:10):
that you know, they're going to go up with ads
against Republicans already really sort of laying the groundwork that
the Big Beautiful Bill is going to be a rallying
cry for the left.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
How do you think that will go politically?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So I was in the Senate in twenty seventeen when
we passed the Trump tax cuts, which also included the
end of the Obamacare individual mandate, and I remember at
that time we had really really similar, you know, doom warnings.
You know, everyone's gonna die, people will you know, be destitute,
and there will be huge problems and giant deficits. And
almost every single one of those predictions ended.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Up being wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But what's unfortunate is those predictions and the sort of
machine behind them limit what people are actually willing to
do from a policy sense, because they're so worried of
the marches and the activists who come in and say,
you know, you've got blood on your hands for this policy.
But when you look at the big, beautiful bill itself,
particularly the Medicaid and Snap components that Democrats are so
hyper focused on, these are eligibility requirements, and when you
(07:10):
break down the numbers of who's going to lose care,
it is overwhelmingly that people who should not be on
these programs in the first place, whether it's illegal immigrants,
which we know more than a million illegal immigrants are
getting Medicaid right now. But even more than that, it's
the able bodied video gamers. And we have data to
show that the number of able bodied young adults with
(07:31):
no dependents, who don't have a disability, they are playing
more video games and doing more TV video watching, streaming
than your average person because they have a free time.
Those are millions and millions of people that we shouldn't
want on the program. And when you look at the
fact that there's about thirty five million people in the
country right now below the poverty line and seventy million
(07:54):
people on Medicaid, the math just doesn't add up. And
so there should be a vehicle to get people off
these programs, these safety net programs who shouldn't be on them.
And when I hear Democrats talk about, you know, fifty
thousand people will die a year because of these work
requirements things like that, I have to point out. We
know right now there's about seven hundred thousand people on
(08:14):
waiting lists for Medicaid hiring community based services for the
type of home care. But so many people with severe
disabilities need they can't get it because they have to
compete against these able bodied young men who shouldn't be
on Medicaid in the first place. And the wait time
for all these services is up to forty months, which
again sounds like Europe.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It sounds like socialized medicine.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And if it sounds like that to you, it's important
because what Democrats have done with medicaid expansion and trying
to make it more attractive for able body young men
to jump on this is their project to create socialized
medicine in America through medicaid by turning it into single
pair and things like that. And so that's why this
system sounds more and more like Europe and less like
(08:57):
a free market system. And so again, these eligibility checks
are incredibly popular, as are almost all the individual components
of the.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Big beautiful bill.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
But if you turn on the media, all you hear
is doom and gloom about how this is going to
hurt so many people and be a tax cut for
the rich. The rich have the exact same tax cut
or tax rate after this bill that they had before.
Nothing is changing for them except the fact that the
tax cuts that help the economy so much from twenty
seventeen until.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Now are extended.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And I do hope Republicans go on offense on the
fact that every Democrat in Congress just voted for one
of the biggest tax increases we've ever seen by opposing
the extension of these incredibly popular tax cuts from twenty seventeen.
So as you go point by point through this bill,
the individual components are incredibly popular, and Republicans have their
(09:48):
work cut out for them trying to erase the lies
and dishonesty from Democrats in the media about the bill
as a whole.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We've got to take a quick commercial break more with
Matt Whitlock on the other side. I do think there's
a challenge in this sense, Like even if you look
at some of the polling, like as you pointed out,
the individual components, like you know, securing the border, things
like that, those are popular and they pull well. But
like at hole as a whole, the bill has not
been pulling as popular. You know, you know, whether you know,
(10:18):
a lot of the polling has been skewed over the years,
but you know, Fox had a recent one where you know,
fifty nine percent opposed it. There's been some other pulling
as well on the totality.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Of the bill.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh, you know, do you think there's a danger in
just the largeness of it, of being able to sell
it or do you think, you know, I guess, how
do Republicans sell that? How do those how do they
turn those numbers around heading into the midterms.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
That's such an important question.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
I do think they have to break down what the
bill is, they have to rebrand it. One way that
they did it back in twenty seventeen was highlighting the
individual benefits, particularly as companies saw their own you know,
were able to keep more of their own money to
pay their own employees they hired. They were able to
pass on the benefits of that by expanding, by giving
out bonuses to their employees, things like that. This will
(11:06):
be a bill that needs to be told in story
form as people go through and talk about the benefits
to it. It is hard to message on a you know,
near miss of catastrophe. It's hard to message on you
almost just had this massive tax like it's still good
policy and it's still important to do. But that is
part of the reason this is such an uphill battle
(11:27):
is conveying to people what their tax situation would have
been if this didn't happen, that at the worst possible time,
they would have seen an increase of fifteen hundred dollars
a year on their tax bill and seeing all these
other horrible fees go up, and so they do need
to go on the road point by point and explain
to people that there is something for everyone in this bill.
(11:47):
You know, whether it's no tax on tips for somebody
who's working, you know, hourly jobs or in the service industry,
whether you're a senior talking about the deduction to your
Social Security taxes, talking about as you said, immigration enforced
continues to be one of the most popular things President
Trump is working on. This gives a massive cash infusion
to carry that out. Gun owners, the decrease on taxes
(12:11):
for suppressors, that's a huge one they've been fighting on
for years. It gets more and more niche as you go.
But the point is there is something for everyone. In
the downside that Dems are talking about are things that
simply aren't going to materialize, particularly when you talk about
these tens of thousands of deaths that didn't happen when
we got rid of the individual mandate, and it's not
going to happen because of eligibility checks that make Medicaid
(12:34):
work better and longer for the people actually need it.
So again, we do have our work cut out for
us and selling this. But I also think it's going
to be an exercise of seeing the bill come into
play and realizing that there's been so much crying wolf
from Democrats.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I definitely think the medicaid aspect is going to be
probably you know, the prickliest part about it. You know,
we're kind of already seeing like Representative Chris Papas, who's
running for Senate in New Hampshire, you know, going on
earth least attempting to go on offense, saying that forty
six thousand people in New Hampshire will lose their health insurance.
(13:08):
I know there's been some Congressional Budget Office estimates, you know,
saying millions of people.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Could lose coverage.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So I do think that's probably like the biggest point
of concern. Would you agree with that in terms of
that's sort of like the biggest point of vulnerability potentially.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I think it's the biggest point of vulnerability if people
don't understand what the medicaid reforms in this bill actually were.
And that's one thing I think Scott Besson, you know,
on Sunday, did a really good job great.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I say, put him on.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
TV every week, if not more, if you can the
way that you described both the Medicaid eligibility check but
also the misconception about Medicaid cuts. One thing that he
pointed out that's so important here is Medicaid is going
to continue to grow. It will still be about ten
percent larger in ten years from now than it is
right now. So it's not cuts to Medicaid as a program.
(13:57):
It is trying to ensure that it doesn't continue to
row so astronomically that we can't afford it in that
it's not actually helping people. So when people like you know,
Pappus or for example Amy Klovich a brought out a
bunch of patients the week of the vote to say
this person's Medicaid is at risk, and he brought out,
for example, a dad with a disabled daughter to say
her Medicaid is at risk, the reality is and I
(14:19):
wish if our media was as aggressive fact checking Democrats
as they are against Republicans, they would have pointed out
nothing about this built risks that girl's medicaid. But what
does risk her access to Medicaid is Democrats' insistence that
she compete for care against illegal immigrants and people who
are able bodied with no dependence and no disabilities who
(14:41):
shouldn't be on the program in the first place. So again,
the problem here is media has not fact checked Democrats
on these numbers. They haven't fact checked Democrats on the
fact that every time you hear a Democrat talk, they're
tacking on another two or three million who are going
to lose their health care without any actual sort of
data behind it. They just kind of to keep expanding
and expanding and expanding and hoping that nobody checks on it.
(15:04):
And I mean, they've been lucky that nobody really has.
But as you talk about how this is actually going
to work taking people off, about eighty percent of the
country believes there's fraudway it's going to be used in Medicaid,
and about sixty five to seventy percent support the eligibility requirements.
But what Democrats have convinced people is that Republicans are
taking a chainsaw to the program so that people who
(15:25):
actually need the program are going to lose it.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
But that's just not the case.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
The reality is the people that are going to lose
Medicaid are the people that shouldn't be on it in
the first place. That's going to make it work so
much better for the people actually need it. And Republicans
have to keep following the lead of people like Scott
Besson and getting out there shouting it from the rooftops,
even holding media accountable for letting Democrats get away with
so much dishonesty on this topic.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, I do you think the difference now between you know,
when we're getting hit with the Path to Prosperities stuff
with Paul Ryan. You know, the difference now is Trump right,
and the Republican Party has become a lot more aggressive
under him, a lot you know, like gone are the
days of Oh, a binder is full of women, you know,
like with Roney, it's like we're just you know, Trump
(16:08):
has sort of encouraged the Republican Party to be you know,
hit back a little bit more strong, you know strong.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Uh. You know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I worked for Tommy Thompson, who was sort of like
the pioneer of medicaid reform in Wisconsin with Wisconsin Works.
You know, Bill Clinton actually copied his model when he
was president to reform medicaid and it was a positive
for the state of Wisconsin. I mean, the caseloads declined
by more than ninety percent for welfare and the economic
status of those that are part of Wisconsin Works improved,
(16:38):
So you know, it was to the benefit of the
individuals involved with sort of the work requirements as part
of that reform. So, you know, I viewed that aspect
is definitely as a positive and really all of it.
It's just you know, obviously we're talking about the politics
of things. I wanted to ask you, Victory Davis Hansen
had an interesting article talking about how, you know, everyone
(16:59):
just keeps getting things wrong in the age of Trump,
whether it's tariffs, whether it's saying that we're going to
enter into World War three, if President Trump engaged with Iran.
You know, the list goes on and on, and he
blames like the universities for you know, sort of waging
this war against free thinkers, free speech, free expression.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Do you sort of agree with that assessment.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I guess part of me thinks too, it's like this
Trump derangement syndrome that you know, previously smart people are
now blinded to any sort of objectivity. But you know what,
do you think sort of that source of why the
experts continue to just be so blatantly wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I think that's such a good question.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And for one, I read everything to David Santsili, so
I think he's so smart. But he also just has
such a long view of these cultural conversations that I
think are so important. This reminds me a lot of
a conversation that we've been having, you know, particularly with
media for the last week, with pulling about fourth of July,
showing that people no longer are as proud to be Americans.
And to me, that goes back to the university system,
(18:05):
and it goes back to the education system, that is,
you know, convincing young people that America is a problem
that we need to sort of put our you know,
the ugliest parts of our history to the forefront when
we educate kids and then are surprised that more people
aren't proud to be Americans. And I think with Trump too,
when your north star is criticizing an individual, it gets
(18:26):
impossible to see the forest for the trees. And that's
what we've seen both, you know, from kids coming out
of school, academia, Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
If your north star is this guy is bad.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I mean, some of the things we've seen from Democrats
the last six months just knee jerk reaction to anything
Trump does puts them in some pretty bizarre positions. And
I think, you know, a version of this is the
Abrago Garcia conversation. The fact that you had Democrats, you know,
flying Tel Salvador to have margaritas with a guy who
is a serial wife abuser, likely involved in human traffick,
(19:00):
likely involved in gangland murders, doing this just because they
needed to oppose Trump. And that has trickled down to
such a huge part of our society that view the
urgency of opposing anything Trump does as more important than
being right, being you know, having good sound policy and
ideas about our country or history anything like that.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And it really does worry.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Mean, I think it's a huge problem, and I think
Victor nails it when he talks about what this means
for you know, free expression and the future of our society.
But you've got to have more people like Victor, Davis, Hanson,
Elon Musk others who are creating those universes where it's
okay to say what you believe, it's okay to push back,
you can be comfortable, you know, going against the grain
(19:45):
with what pop culture and everybody else is saying about things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You know, the Brego Garcia situation is wild to me
that they decided to to, you know, go full throttle
for a marilynd Man from a Salvador who you know,
we at least who has been alleged by the federal
government of being a human smuggler, among other things.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's did not have that my bano card quick break,
stay with us.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Do you think, you know Elon wanting to launch this
new party, the America Party. He says that it's going
to be pro gun, pro bitcoin, pro free speech, et cetera,
et cetera. I mean, a lot of those issues are
you know, issues that our voters care about, that Republicans
care about. You know, we're already looking at a midterm
where traditionally the party in charge, or historically the party
(20:38):
in charge loses seats. We don't have a lot of
seats to lose, particularly in the House. You know, how
will this formation of a new party impact us in
the midterms, which historically could already be tough for us.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know, I am somebody who actually likes Elon. I
have a lot of association for.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
The con stations he started, whether it's doze and actually,
you know, pulling back the layers to understand the terrible
things our government's funding. I think the work he did
on that is critical. People will say, oh, he didn't
cut enough, or the top line numbers weren't enough. He
started a conversation that was really really important that will
be carried out for years.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But also free speech.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
What he's done with Twitter and making it a platform
where people could actually, you know, talk and have conversations.
Obviously there's conversations about the technical side of it, but
I think pushing back a big tech is critical. So again,
I appreciate so much of what he's done. I also
understand his frustration with the two party system. I feel
that way constantly. But I think what he's going to
find here is creating a third party that is disproportionately
(21:41):
conservative is only going to help the people that want
to throw him in jail, the people that want to
investigate him and his companies, the people that cheered for
the failure of his stock prices, and the people who
firebombed his dealerships, because they will be the beneficiaries when
he splinters a party that overwhelming he agrees with. And
I think that's the challenge here there's not an actual
(22:04):
constituency that supports all of his exact priorities to a t.
It's always going to be broken up, and right now
those break broken up parts are going to fall between
one party or the other. And unless Democrats also had
multiple parties of their own, different fractions of liberals and
we have the sort of European you know, four or
(22:24):
five party system where you build coalitions, Elon's is just
going to create a Democrat supermajority.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And I think that he's probably going.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
To change course on this before he gets too far
down the road as he considers what empowering that other
side might do. I do hope that like he's able
to course correct and see the challenges here before the
sort of back and forth with President Trump gets too far,
because I think that can you know, really ebb and flow,
and it seems to be more on the side of
like getting ugly again, which you know isn't really help
(22:56):
of anyone. Again, Like, the other good thing that Elon
did for us that I should have included is his
financial support and organizing did have a huge role in
us winning the majorities that we have in President Trump
winning and I think it's going to counter all of
that almost immediately to do this third party thing and
help Democrats.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, just I worry that sometimes when things enter into
like the personal element that you know, then you sort
of lose sight of oh, yeah, well we have all
these things in common, because then it's just like, you know,
I don't like this guy, and now we're at war
type mentality exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That's a huge risk.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, so I do worry about that a bit.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
But you know, we'll see, you know, heading into the midterms,
I guess, you know, how are you feeling about where
Republicans stand right now? I mean, we're I know, we're
pretty far out, so you know, obviously anything can happen
in politics this far out, But how do you sort
of assess the lay of the land today?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Totally? That's a really good question.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
So I do think that one my most fundamental take
is this is not twenty seventeen and twenty eight In
twenty seven eighteen, when you consider where President Trump was
right now, there was the massive Muller Report investigation. Democrats
were the protests that we've seen, the like no King's
Day nonsense, things like that. They do not have a
(24:15):
fraction of the same energy and uniformity that we saw
with like Women's March and the Resistance in twenty seveneen
and twenty eighteen. And part of it is the fact
that the protests we're seeing now are primarily dark money,
you know, pop up group driven exercises. I do think
that there's a lot of people who are true opponents
of President Trump who show up to these, but the
(24:36):
energy is not the same, and that's what we're seeing
in polls.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
President Trump, his.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Approval rating and his current political situation is night and
day different than it was in twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And the wins that he's putting on the.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Board right now, I think are the kind of things
that could potentially drive the historic shift that you would
need for Republicans to overperform in twenty twenty six. And
I also just think Republican are really benefiting from the
Democrats total, total, total lack of.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Identity and their own civil war.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And I think that, like there's an Axios article today
on Monday about Democrats under pressure from their base to
commit violence or to be shot, trying to disrupt and
ice rate things like that Democrats have totally lost it
and I think that as they continue to have that
sort of civil war fallout, it's going to be hard
(25:27):
for them to sort of mobilize in the way to
really capitalize in twenty twenty six. And when you look
at who their current standard bearers are, you've got polls
that show people like AOC, people like Jasmine Crockett, And
as those people get more and more attention, Republicans start
to look pretty good again. Even if you were starting
to think, Okay, maybe for these midterms, I'm gonna go
(25:47):
with the other guys. So I do think we're also
seeing that pop up in primaries. Democrat primaries are insane.
I look at, for example, you know Zoab the destroyer
in New York that he's gonna have both in the midterms.
But even before that, look at the New Jersey governor's race.
That's one that I'm keeping a close eye on just
to see the impact because you have a lot of
(26:09):
people who vote in New Jersey and work in New
York and are gonna be seeing this for several months now.
So I do think that we're benefiting from a political
climate that is much more favorable to us than it
was at this time in President Trump's first term. But
you still can't take anything for granted. That's why I
am so hyper focused on Republicans getting out, making the
(26:29):
case of the big beautiful bill, finding the positives for people,
dispelling the negatives, and doing what you were saying about
President Trump going on offense, not taking the crap for
media that often, you know, sets in these narratives of
you know, total dishonest coverage about bills, things, we're doing
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
No, I agree, I worry about that in New York.
I just spent a lot of time here, and I
don't know's I do too.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I think that we're we can't get too ahead of
our skis thinking this is going to help us, because,
for one, unless something crazy happens, that lunatic is going
to be the next mayor of New York City and
there's a lot of damage that he can do. Republicans
might feel good about being able to sort of run
against that and capitalize on it, but the damage that
will come from that will still be catastrophics. I don't
(27:14):
think anyone should really be celebrating from either side on that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Well yeah, I mean, but the sad thing is is
the problem is you know, Cuomo, Adams, and Curtis Slowa.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Sliwa Slowa, I'm saying it's the last name wrong. I
think I think you're right with Slila Sleiwa.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, they're splitting the non Zoron vote, and so the
challenges If it was just Doron versus like, you know,
Cuomo or versus Adams, he'd probably lose. But you know,
you've got three other people sort of splitting like the
somewhat normal vote in the city.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, and that's why you look at like Bill Ackman.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
He had that really long thread about how he was
in people, he's so thoughtful, and his take was after
meeting with Cuomo and he wanted Cuomo.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
To drop out because he didn't have the energy.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
But then there was pulling a few days later that
showed that Adam's unfavorability was so high that there was
very little path for him even in a one on
one against Zorn. So I think whatever is going to
happen needs to happen fairly soon, because if all those
guys get in this race out of their own pride,
they're going to pave the way for Zoron even more
than it needs to be. So I think You're right
(28:24):
that splitting is a huge concern, and I don't know
who has this sort of you know, clout to come
in and say, okay, guys, sit down here, when of
you's got to get out. The tough thing is like,
it's not going to be President Trump because even though
Adams and Sliewa might listen to him, Cuomo won't, you know.
And so I don't know who can broke or that,
but something needs to shift.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Well, then you've got all the egos and politics.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I had the same thought process that oh, Cuomo and
Curtis should drop out, and then but then I saw
the same poll you did, and I was like, oh, man,
Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Is really unpopular.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So yeah, well you know, we'll be looking for all
these things moving forward politically. But Matt, great to having
the show, my friend. Appreciate you sharing your insight and
your time with us today.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Thank you for having me. Thank you for your work.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
You put together such a good show and I know
you hustle to get the facts right and it is
very much appreciated.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
You're fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Thank you well, so were you. Take care Matt, appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
You too, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
That was Matt Whitlock. Appreciate him for coming on the show.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we cut
to the heart of what matters to you. Today, we've
got Matt Whitlock on this show. He's the host of
Ten Minute Drill, a senior vice president at CRC Advisors,
and he's also worked for National Republican Senatorial Committee Senator
Mike Lee, a lot of people like that on Capitol Hill.
We're going to impac the fallout from the devastating Texas floods.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So many young children have died in these floods, truly heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
But what are Democrats doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They're trying to politicize this tragedy for political gains. So
we'll get into that with Matt. Also, we're going to
talk about the Big Beautiful Bill. If you look at
parts of the bill they pull well, you know, people
want border security, people want things like that, but overall
the bill does struggle in pulling. So what does that
look like for the midterms heading into them? For Republicans,
(00:56):
you've got people like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling
it a crime scene due to what he says or
medicaid cuts.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So how do Republicans counteract that? What does that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Messaging need to look like, particularly when historically the party
in charge does struggle in a midterm. I'm astly gonna
ask Matt about a new victor. Davis Hansen op ed
his scathing critique of America's experts and they're crumbling credibility.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So tune in.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
We'll talk to Matt Whitlock about a lot of things
and get his insight, particularly all his time in politics.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So stay tuned for Matt Whitlock. Well, Matt Whitlock, It's
great to have you on this show.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I've known you for a little while now, so you
have been doing hitting the TV circuit, but you've been
on Capitol Hill for or you've worked on Capitol Hill
in and around Washington, DC and politics for a long
long time, and you know a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So great to have you on the show. Appreciate you
making the time.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thanks for having me, big fan, big fan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
You know, it's kind of disgusting because is you know,
we're still finding out how many people have died in
Central Texas. There's still you know, search and rescue recovery
efforts that are underway.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Over ninety people have died.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That number are going to continue to climb, and yet
Democrats are using this as an opportunity for politics. It
really is.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It's gross. Yeah, really it's gross.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And it begins with this sort of model of you know,
let's blame Trump, let's figure out how he can pin
this on him, and then you know, usually five to
six hours go by and you get new data that shows, okay, wait,
this wasn't Trump's fault. There actually was good staff and
for the weather services. You get the people saying, oh,
it's Trump's fault because he's ignoring climate change, and then
you get the experts that are coming out and saying, no, actually,
(02:43):
this is pretty similar to a pattern they've had for
a long time. But it really is just gross to
see again, as you said, they're still finding bodies and
it already has become such a nasty political conversation. I
think it just speaks to where our kind of political
cultural dynamic is right now, which is really toxic.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well's interesting too, because it's not just like the low
brow Democrats who are just you know, completely gross and
always taking cheap shots.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's also people like David Oxwrod.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yep, yeah it is, and George Stephanopolis and even like
Dana Bash, who I think actually tries pretty hard to
be fair, had like a big segment right away was
this climate change and did Trump do this? And it's
like a lot of times when media people are asking
questions like that, it's because they want to make the point, Yes,
it is Trump's fault and this was climate change. And
that's really really disappointing to see that. Again, like a
(03:33):
lie travels around the world before the truth can get
its shoes on. We see that so much because of
those more prominent media figures.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
But it's like it's sad in an environment like this,
you know, to sort of immediately turn to politics. But
it's kind of just where we are politically at this
point in the country, where like the hatred for Trump
is so great that it supersedes human decency to you know,
focus on what's in court right now, which is finding
(04:01):
you know, these young girls, of trying to find you know,
you know, to try to rescue people, to recover people
as well, and so you know that the supersedes all else.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It reminds me a lot of how democrats react to like,
you know, gun violence. It's always immediately, you know, how
can we blame the NRA and whatever lawmakers are not
angry enough about the NRA before we even know the
facts on the ground, They've set up this sort of
knee jerk reactionary machine to inject politics before we know
(04:32):
any facts. And often, you know, based on the circumstances
of the shooting, it will disappear from media as soon
as details come out. But that's exact same thing we're
seeing with Texas, with you know, how can we blame Trump,
How can we blame you know, Republican involvement before we
even know so much of how this happened. I think,
to your point, it's really tragic.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, and of course, you know they're turning into Doge
cuts and you know, any sort of reduction in spending,
you know they're they're going to sort of use US
is a political weapon in times like these, So you know,
this is not the last we're going to see of
this moving forward. Essentially, every you know, any tragedy is
going to be blamed on, you know, Doge in any
sort of spending reductions that we do.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And the White House is already sort of setting up
a model to work in overtime to refute that they're
doing a good job at this. But again, by the time,
you know, they're able to sort of get the facts
out there and highlight the local experts who are saying
everything these you know, more politically minded left wing people
are saying is crap, like it's it's you know, unfortunate.
How many people already have the cemented narratives. But you're
(05:36):
totally right, this is going to be a case all
the time where we get one day of insane news
about look at what Trump and Elon let happen before
we find out, oh, actually it wasn't connected to that
at all.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think it's a huge.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Problem, and they're going to do this with the Big
Beautiful Bill as well. Heading into the midterms, We've already seen,
you know, House Minority Leader Keem Jefferies say things on
the House floor like people will die tens of thousands,
perhaps year after year as a result of the Republican
assault is what he's calling it on the healthcare of
the American people. You've got the D Triple C saying
(06:10):
that you know, they're going to go up with ads
against Republicans already really sort of laying the groundwork that
the Big Beautiful Bill is going to be a rallying
cry for the left.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
How do you think that will go politically?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
So I was in the Senate in twenty seventeen when
we passed the Trump tax cuts, which also included the
end of the Obamacare individual mandate, and I remember at
that time we had really really similar, you know, doom warnings.
You know, everyone's gonna die, people will you know, be destitute,
and there will be huge problems and giant deficits. And
almost every single one of those predictions ended.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Up being wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But what's unfortunate is those predictions and the sort of
machine behind them limit what people are actually willing to
do from a policy sense, because they're so worried of
the marches and the activists who come in and say,
you know, you've got blood on your hands for this policy.
But when you look at the big, beautiful bill itself,
particularly the Medicaid and Snap components that Democrats are so
hyper focused on, these are eligibility requirements, and when you
(07:10):
break down the numbers of who's going to lose care,
it is overwhelmingly that people who should not be on
these programs in the first place, whether it's illegal immigrants,
which we know more than a million illegal immigrants are
getting Medicaid right now. But even more than that, it's
the able bodied video gamers. And we have data to
show that the number of able bodied young adults with
(07:31):
no dependents, who don't have a disability, they are playing
more video games and doing more TV video watching, streaming
than your average person because they have a free time.
Those are millions and millions of people that we shouldn't
want on the program. And when you look at the
fact that there's about thirty five million people in the
country right now below the poverty line and seventy million
(07:54):
people on Medicaid, the math just doesn't add up. And
so there should be a vehicle to get people off
these programs, these safety net programs who shouldn't be on them.
And when I hear Democrats talk about, you know, fifty
thousand people will die a year because of these work
requirements things like that, I have to point out. We
know right now there's about seven hundred thousand people on
(08:14):
waiting lists for Medicaid hiring community based services for the
type of home care. But so many people with severe
disabilities need they can't get it because they have to
compete against these able bodied young men who shouldn't be
on Medicaid in the first place. And the wait time
for all these services is up to forty months, which
again sounds like Europe.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It sounds like socialized medicine.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And if it sounds like that to you, it's important
because what Democrats have done with medicaid expansion and trying
to make it more attractive for able body young men
to jump on this is their project to create socialized
medicine in America through medicaid by turning it into single
pair and things like that. And so that's why this
system sounds more and more like Europe and less like
(08:57):
a free market system. And so again, these eligibility checks
are incredibly popular, as are almost all the individual components
of the.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Big beautiful bill.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
But if you turn on the media, all you hear
is doom and gloom about how this is going to
hurt so many people and be a tax cut for
the rich. The rich have the exact same tax cut
or tax rate after this bill that they had before.
Nothing is changing for them except the fact that the
tax cuts that help the economy so much from twenty
seventeen until.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Now are extended.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And I do hope Republicans go on offense on the
fact that every Democrat in Congress just voted for one
of the biggest tax increases we've ever seen by opposing
the extension of these incredibly popular tax cuts from twenty seventeen.
So as you go point by point through this bill,
the individual components are incredibly popular, and Republicans have their
(09:48):
work cut out for them trying to erase the lies
and dishonesty from Democrats in the media about the bill
as a whole.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We've got to take a quick commercial break more with
Matt Whitlock on the other side. I do think there's
a challenge in this sense, Like even if you look
at some of the polling, like as you pointed out,
the individual components, like you know, securing the border, things
like that, those are popular and they pull well. But
like at hole as a whole, the bill has not
been pulling as popular. You know, you know, whether you know,
(10:18):
a lot of the polling has been skewed over the years,
but you know, Fox had a recent one where you know,
fifty nine percent opposed it. There's been some other pulling
as well on the totality.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Of the bill.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh, you know, do you think there's a danger in
just the largeness of it, of being able to sell
it or do you think, you know, I guess, how
do Republicans sell that? How do those how do they
turn those numbers around heading into the midterms.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
That's such an important question.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
I do think they have to break down what the
bill is, they have to rebrand it. One way that
they did it back in twenty seventeen was highlighting the
individual benefits, particularly as companies saw their own you know,
were able to keep more of their own money to
pay their own employees they hired. They were able to
pass on the benefits of that by expanding, by giving
out bonuses to their employees, things like that. This will
(11:06):
be a bill that needs to be told in story
form as people go through and talk about the benefits
to it. It is hard to message on a you know,
near miss of catastrophe. It's hard to message on you
almost just had this massive tax like it's still good
policy and it's still important to do. But that is
part of the reason this is such an uphill battle
(11:27):
is conveying to people what their tax situation would have
been if this didn't happen, that at the worst possible time,
they would have seen an increase of fifteen hundred dollars
a year on their tax bill and seeing all these
other horrible fees go up, and so they do need
to go on the road point by point and explain
to people that there is something for everyone in this bill.
(11:47):
You know, whether it's no tax on tips for somebody
who's working, you know, hourly jobs or in the service industry,
whether you're a senior talking about the deduction to your
Social Security taxes, talking about as you said, immigration enforced
continues to be one of the most popular things President
Trump is working on. This gives a massive cash infusion
to carry that out. Gun owners, the decrease on taxes
(12:11):
for suppressors, that's a huge one they've been fighting on
for years. It gets more and more niche as you go.
But the point is there is something for everyone. In
the downside that Dems are talking about are things that
simply aren't going to materialize, particularly when you talk about
these tens of thousands of deaths that didn't happen when
we got rid of the individual mandate, and it's not
going to happen because of eligibility checks that make Medicaid
(12:34):
work better and longer for the people actually need it.
So again, we do have our work cut out for
us and selling this. But I also think it's going
to be an exercise of seeing the bill come into
play and realizing that there's been so much crying wolf
from Democrats.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I definitely think the medicaid aspect is going to be
probably you know, the prickliest part about it. You know,
we're kind of already seeing like Representative Chris Papas, who's
running for Senate in New Hampshire, you know, going on
earth least attempting to go on offense, saying that forty
six thousand people in New Hampshire will lose their health insurance.
(13:08):
I know there's been some Congressional Budget Office estimates, you know,
saying millions of people.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Could lose coverage.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So I do think that's probably like the biggest point
of concern. Would you agree with that in terms of
that's sort of like the biggest point of vulnerability potentially.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I think it's the biggest point of vulnerability if people
don't understand what the medicaid reforms in this bill actually were.
And that's one thing I think Scott Besson, you know,
on Sunday, did a really good job great.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I say, put him on.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
TV every week, if not more, if you can the
way that you described both the Medicaid eligibility check but
also the misconception about Medicaid cuts. One thing that he
pointed out that's so important here is Medicaid is going
to continue to grow. It will still be about ten
percent larger in ten years from now than it is
right now. So it's not cuts to Medicaid as a program.
(13:57):
It is trying to ensure that it doesn't continue to
row so astronomically that we can't afford it in that
it's not actually helping people. So when people like you know,
Pappus or for example Amy Klovich a brought out a
bunch of patients the week of the vote to say
this person's Medicaid is at risk, and he brought out,
for example, a dad with a disabled daughter to say
her Medicaid is at risk, the reality is and I
(14:19):
wish if our media was as aggressive fact checking Democrats
as they are against Republicans, they would have pointed out
nothing about this built risks that girl's medicaid. But what
does risk her access to Medicaid is Democrats' insistence that
she compete for care against illegal immigrants and people who
are able bodied with no dependence and no disabilities who
(14:41):
shouldn't be on the program in the first place. So again,
the problem here is media has not fact checked Democrats
on these numbers. They haven't fact checked Democrats on the
fact that every time you hear a Democrat talk, they're
tacking on another two or three million who are going
to lose their health care without any actual sort of
data behind it. They just kind of to keep expanding
and expanding and expanding and hoping that nobody checks on it.
(15:04):
And I mean, they've been lucky that nobody really has.
But as you talk about how this is actually going
to work taking people off, about eighty percent of the
country believes there's fraudway it's going to be used in Medicaid,
and about sixty five to seventy percent support the eligibility requirements.
But what Democrats have convinced people is that Republicans are
taking a chainsaw to the program so that people who
(15:25):
actually need the program are going to lose it.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
But that's just not the case.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
The reality is the people that are going to lose
Medicaid are the people that shouldn't be on it in
the first place. That's going to make it work so
much better for the people actually need it. And Republicans
have to keep following the lead of people like Scott
Besson and getting out there shouting it from the rooftops,
even holding media accountable for letting Democrats get away with
so much dishonesty on this topic.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, I do you think the difference now between you know,
when we're getting hit with the Path to Prosperities stuff
with Paul Ryan. You know, the difference now is Trump right,
and the Republican Party has become a lot more aggressive
under him, a lot you know, like gone are the
days of Oh, a binder is full of women, you know,
like with Roney, it's like we're just you know, Trump
(16:08):
has sort of encouraged the Republican Party to be you know,
hit back a little bit more strong, you know strong.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Uh. You know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I worked for Tommy Thompson, who was sort of like
the pioneer of medicaid reform in Wisconsin with Wisconsin Works.
You know, Bill Clinton actually copied his model when he
was president to reform medicaid and it was a positive
for the state of Wisconsin. I mean, the caseloads declined
by more than ninety percent for welfare and the economic
status of those that are part of Wisconsin Works improved,
(16:38):
So you know, it was to the benefit of the
individuals involved with sort of the work requirements as part
of that reform. So, you know, I viewed that aspect
is definitely as a positive and really all of it.
It's just you know, obviously we're talking about the politics
of things. I wanted to ask you, Victory Davis Hansen
had an interesting article talking about how, you know, everyone
(16:59):
just keeps getting things wrong in the age of Trump,
whether it's tariffs, whether it's saying that we're going to
enter into World War three, if President Trump engaged with Iran.
You know, the list goes on and on, and he
blames like the universities for you know, sort of waging
this war against free thinkers, free speech, free expression.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Do you sort of agree with that assessment.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I guess part of me thinks too, it's like this
Trump derangement syndrome that you know, previously smart people are
now blinded to any sort of objectivity. But you know what,
do you think sort of that source of why the
experts continue to just be so blatantly wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I think that's such a good question.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And for one, I read everything to David Santsili, so
I think he's so smart. But he also just has
such a long view of these cultural conversations that I
think are so important. This reminds me a lot of
a conversation that we've been having, you know, particularly with
media for the last week, with pulling about fourth of July,
showing that people no longer are as proud to be Americans.
And to me, that goes back to the university system,
(18:05):
and it goes back to the education system, that is,
you know, convincing young people that America is a problem
that we need to sort of put our you know,
the ugliest parts of our history to the forefront when
we educate kids and then are surprised that more people
aren't proud to be Americans. And I think with Trump too,
when your north star is criticizing an individual, it gets
(18:26):
impossible to see the forest for the trees. And that's
what we've seen both, you know, from kids coming out
of school, academia, Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
If your north star is this guy is bad.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I mean, some of the things we've seen from Democrats
the last six months just knee jerk reaction to anything
Trump does puts them in some pretty bizarre positions. And
I think, you know, a version of this is the
Abrago Garcia conversation. The fact that you had Democrats, you know,
flying Tel Salvador to have margaritas with a guy who
is a serial wife abuser, likely involved in human traffick,
(19:00):
likely involved in gangland murders, doing this just because they
needed to oppose Trump. And that has trickled down to
such a huge part of our society that view the
urgency of opposing anything Trump does as more important than
being right, being you know, having good sound policy and
ideas about our country or history anything like that.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
And it really does worry.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Mean, I think it's a huge problem, and I think
Victor nails it when he talks about what this means
for you know, free expression and the future of our society.
But you've got to have more people like Victor, Davis, Hanson,
Elon Musk others who are creating those universes where it's
okay to say what you believe, it's okay to push back,
you can be comfortable, you know, going against the grain
(19:45):
with what pop culture and everybody else is saying about things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You know, the Brego Garcia situation is wild to me
that they decided to to, you know, go full throttle
for a marilynd Man from a Salvador who you know,
we at least who has been alleged by the federal
government of being a human smuggler, among other things.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's did not have that my bano card quick break,
stay with us.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Do you think, you know Elon wanting to launch this
new party, the America Party. He says that it's going
to be pro gun, pro bitcoin, pro free speech, et cetera,
et cetera. I mean, a lot of those issues are
you know, issues that our voters care about, that Republicans
care about. You know, we're already looking at a midterm
where traditionally the party in charge, or historically the party
(20:38):
in charge loses seats. We don't have a lot of
seats to lose, particularly in the House. You know, how
will this formation of a new party impact us in
the midterms, which historically could already be tough for us.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know, I am somebody who actually likes Elon. I
have a lot of association for.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
The con stations he started, whether it's doze and actually,
you know, pulling back the layers to understand the terrible
things our government's funding. I think the work he did
on that is critical. People will say, oh, he didn't
cut enough, or the top line numbers weren't enough. He
started a conversation that was really really important that will
be carried out for years.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But also free speech.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
What he's done with Twitter and making it a platform
where people could actually, you know, talk and have conversations.
Obviously there's conversations about the technical side of it, but
I think pushing back a big tech is critical. So again,
I appreciate so much of what he's done. I also
understand his frustration with the two party system. I feel
that way constantly. But I think what he's going to
find here is creating a third party that is disproportionately
(21:41):
conservative is only going to help the people that want
to throw him in jail, the people that want to
investigate him and his companies, the people that cheered for
the failure of his stock prices, and the people who
firebombed his dealerships, because they will be the beneficiaries when
he splinters a party that overwhelming he agrees with. And
I think that's the challenge here there's not an actual
(22:04):
constituency that supports all of his exact priorities to a t.
It's always going to be broken up, and right now
those break broken up parts are going to fall between
one party or the other. And unless Democrats also had
multiple parties of their own, different fractions of liberals and
we have the sort of European you know, four or
(22:24):
five party system where you build coalitions, Elon's is just
going to create a Democrat supermajority.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And I think that he's probably going.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
To change course on this before he gets too far
down the road as he considers what empowering that other
side might do. I do hope that like he's able
to course correct and see the challenges here before the
sort of back and forth with President Trump gets too far,
because I think that can you know, really ebb and flow,
and it seems to be more on the side of
like getting ugly again, which you know isn't really help
(22:56):
of anyone. Again, Like, the other good thing that Elon
did for us that I should have included is his
financial support and organizing did have a huge role in
us winning the majorities that we have in President Trump
winning and I think it's going to counter all of
that almost immediately to do this third party thing and
help Democrats.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, just I worry that sometimes when things enter into
like the personal element that you know, then you sort
of lose sight of oh, yeah, well we have all
these things in common, because then it's just like, you know,
I don't like this guy, and now we're at war
type mentality exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That's a huge risk.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, so I do worry about that a bit.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
But you know, we'll see, you know, heading into the midterms,
I guess, you know, how are you feeling about where
Republicans stand right now? I mean, we're I know, we're
pretty far out, so you know, obviously anything can happen
in politics this far out, But how do you sort
of assess the lay of the land today?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Totally? That's a really good question.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
So I do think that one my most fundamental take
is this is not twenty seventeen and twenty eight In
twenty seven eighteen, when you consider where President Trump was
right now, there was the massive Muller Report investigation. Democrats
were the protests that we've seen, the like no King's
Day nonsense, things like that. They do not have a
(24:15):
fraction of the same energy and uniformity that we saw
with like Women's March and the Resistance in twenty seveneen
and twenty eighteen. And part of it is the fact
that the protests we're seeing now are primarily dark money,
you know, pop up group driven exercises. I do think
that there's a lot of people who are true opponents
of President Trump who show up to these, but the
(24:36):
energy is not the same, and that's what we're seeing
in polls.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
President Trump, his.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Approval rating and his current political situation is night and
day different than it was in twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And the wins that he's putting on the.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Board right now, I think are the kind of things
that could potentially drive the historic shift that you would
need for Republicans to overperform in twenty twenty six. And
I also just think Republican are really benefiting from the
Democrats total, total, total lack of.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Identity and their own civil war.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And I think that, like there's an Axios article today
on Monday about Democrats under pressure from their base to
commit violence or to be shot, trying to disrupt and
ice rate things like that Democrats have totally lost it
and I think that as they continue to have that
sort of civil war fallout, it's going to be hard
(25:27):
for them to sort of mobilize in the way to
really capitalize in twenty twenty six. And when you look
at who their current standard bearers are, you've got polls
that show people like AOC, people like Jasmine Crockett, And
as those people get more and more attention, Republicans start
to look pretty good again. Even if you were starting
to think, Okay, maybe for these midterms, I'm gonna go
(25:47):
with the other guys. So I do think we're also
seeing that pop up in primaries. Democrat primaries are insane.
I look at, for example, you know Zoab the destroyer
in New York that he's gonna have both in the midterms.
But even before that, look at the New Jersey governor's race.
That's one that I'm keeping a close eye on just
to see the impact because you have a lot of
(26:09):
people who vote in New Jersey and work in New
York and are gonna be seeing this for several months now.
So I do think that we're benefiting from a political
climate that is much more favorable to us than it
was at this time in President Trump's first term. But
you still can't take anything for granted. That's why I
am so hyper focused on Republicans getting out, making the
(26:29):
case of the big beautiful bill, finding the positives for people,
dispelling the negatives, and doing what you were saying about
President Trump going on offense, not taking the crap for
media that often, you know, sets in these narratives of
you know, total dishonest coverage about bills, things, we're doing
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
No, I agree, I worry about that in New York.
I just spent a lot of time here, and I
don't know's I do too.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I think that we're we can't get too ahead of
our skis thinking this is going to help us, because,
for one, unless something crazy happens, that lunatic is going
to be the next mayor of New York City and
there's a lot of damage that he can do. Republicans
might feel good about being able to sort of run
against that and capitalize on it, but the damage that
will come from that will still be catastrophics. I don't
(27:14):
think anyone should really be celebrating from either side on that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Well yeah, I mean, but the sad thing is is
the problem is you know, Cuomo, Adams, and Curtis Slowa.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Sliwa Slowa, I'm saying it's the last name wrong. I
think I think you're right with Slila Sleiwa.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, they're splitting the non Zoron vote, and so the
challenges If it was just Doron versus like, you know,
Cuomo or versus Adams, he'd probably lose. But you know,
you've got three other people sort of splitting like the
somewhat normal vote in the city.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, and that's why you look at like Bill Ackman.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
He had that really long thread about how he was
in people, he's so thoughtful, and his take was after
meeting with Cuomo and he wanted Cuomo.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
To drop out because he didn't have the energy.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
But then there was pulling a few days later that
showed that Adam's unfavorability was so high that there was
very little path for him even in a one on
one against Zorn. So I think whatever is going to
happen needs to happen fairly soon, because if all those
guys get in this race out of their own pride,
they're going to pave the way for Zoron even more
than it needs to be. So I think You're right
(28:24):
that splitting is a huge concern, and I don't know
who has this sort of you know, clout to come
in and say, okay, guys, sit down here, when of
you's got to get out. The tough thing is like,
it's not going to be President Trump because even though
Adams and Sliewa might listen to him, Cuomo won't, you know.
And so I don't know who can broke or that,
but something needs to shift.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Well, then you've got all the egos and politics.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I had the same thought process that oh, Cuomo and
Curtis should drop out, and then but then I saw
the same poll you did, and I was like, oh, man,
Eric Adams.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Is really unpopular.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So yeah, well you know, we'll be looking for all
these things moving forward politically. But Matt, great to having
the show, my friend. Appreciate you sharing your insight and
your time with us today.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Thank you for having me. Thank you for your work.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
You put together such a good show and I know
you hustle to get the facts right and it is
very much appreciated.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
You're fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Thank you well, so were you. Take care Matt, appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
You too, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
That was Matt Whitlock. Appreciate him for coming on the show.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week until next time.
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