September 2, 2025 • 6 mins
Rich Lowry speaks with Mendte in the Morning about Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral campaign and how he is covered by the media.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's talk to Rich Lowry, editor in chief of
the National Review. He's with us every Tuesday at this time. Rich,
I know you've written about this. I completely understand why
Donald Trump won stricter laws, stricter voting laws in state
after state after state. You seem to have a problem
(00:20):
with just the male in voting part of that right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm not a fan of mail in voting. My preference
would be that everyone the way it used to be,
goes same day invosts in person. It's more fool proof,
it's better for the voter, and it's more secure. But
we're just far beyond that world. Unfortunately passed it maybe
you know, left it behind maybe three decades ago, and
the federal government doesn't have the power to end mail
(00:47):
in balloting certainly present can't do it by executive order.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So the only alternative here, unless you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Want to give Democrats a huge tactical advantage, you need
Republicans to vote by mail as well. So I'd be
shocked if Republican consultants aren't working the president and won't
get some endorsement of mail in voting before the November
mid terms, the same way he endorsed it before the
November twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That is really fascinating that you said Republicans have to
vote by mail as well. Does it really matter how
you vote? As long as you vote.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It does matter because if you're running a turnout operation
and so they're high propensity voters and low propensity voters,
high promensity voters vote no matter what. So what you
want to do when you're running your turnout operation, you
want all those people to go and vote, so you
can take them off your list and you don't have
to contact them anymore. You don't have to see whether
they can help them get to the polls. Then you
can focus on the real low propensity voters. Republicans didn't
(01:42):
do this in twenty twenty hurt them at the margins.
They did do it in twenty twenty four, help them
at the margins.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
So if you.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Don't have your voters voting early and the other side
does have their voters voting early, it's a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
The other part of this the changes he wants to
make to voting laws, which you're right, he can't do it.
State by state has to do this, but you know
by by having an executive order at least gets attention
to the issue our voter IDs. And you have to
be for voter IDs, right, I mean, there's really no
reason not to have them.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, it's the opposition to this is totally absurd. And
going back to mail and voting, the states that do
it best, I don't. I don't like these states. Some
just will send you reg your voter they send you
a ballot. They don't know where you're whether you're still there,
you haven't requested it. So the states that do it well,
like Georgia and Florida, they have a lot of security,
including in Georgia you've got to provide the proof the
(02:37):
identity you know, you're a driver's license number or a
photocopy of some other ID to even request a ballot.
So in our day and age, where you've got to
show a driver's license to do anything, you know, to
get into an office building in New York in a
lot of cases, of course, you should have to do
it to vote.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, you know, I've just played a little while ago
an old clip from a podcast of zorin Mom and Zurimm.
Donnie said, there, that's not that he's a socialist. He says,
I'm a full on socialist. But not only that, he
sees himself as the forefront of a movement to bring
socialism across the country. So this is a bigger play
(03:17):
than he's ever admitted. During this campaign. He seems to
play it back a little bit, but he was full
on socialist and says the country would be better off
if we were all socialists. So it's this is getting
a little more frightening than just the thought of a
socialist taking over in New York City. He wants to
(03:39):
spread this across the country.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, it's just sincere and passionate socialist or
communist or whatever you want to call him. And hopefully
now that we're past Labor Day, people will focus on
this New York City a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But the problem is his two main adversaries, you know, well,
I don't know whether I should call it include Eric
Adams in that category, but I will Cuomo and Adams
they have higher unfavorable ratings in the socialist slash communists,
so they need to focus all their fire on him,
get his unfavorables up, try to make him unacceptable to
a crucial failings of democratic voters, and then maybe something
(04:14):
breaks breaks loose.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Otherwise, the guy is heading straight to Gracie Manchin, and.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He seems to get favorable coverage, and he doesn't get questions,
tough questions asked by the media. I know he hides
a lot, so I can't blame the media completely, but
when they do get a chance to go after him,
they don't go after him. They seem like they're playing
into this.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, not the way he should, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And it's because he's new and he's exciting and he's
good on social media, so none of that matters if
he's going to destroy the city, which I think there's
a high risk of.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But you're right, his coverage is much too favorable.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that last poll was fascinating
to me in the show that Andrew Cuomo would beat
even if Slee was in the race, that Cuomo would
beat Mom Donnie head to head if Eric Adams gets
out of the race. Now, the math doesn't seem to
add up on that, but if that is the case,
(05:10):
I think Eric Adams could be a hero right now
if he were to jump jump out of this race.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, I mean, he's a dead man walking at the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Adam Republicans don't like him, and independence think he's corrupted
and in effectual, which he is. So there's just no
case for it except for taking whatever it might be
at the end of the day, eight percent of the
vote or something that might might be determinative in a
real close race.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So as hard as they tried, as hard as the
Republicans and Donald Trump tried, the Epstein files and the
controversy over it is not going away. It's been reignited today.
There's going to be hearings today, Ten of the victims
are going to be on Capitol Hill. Where do you
see this going well?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That the Trump administration kind of very quickly buckled and
turned around and said they wanted to get the grand
jury materials were released by the judge.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Judge said no because he Jesus don't usually do this.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So I think they'll end up either there'll be a
congressional vote or they'll release more to try to take
off the pressure. But this is a highly irregular process,
that this is not how this is supposed to work.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, I think it's going to be a disaster no
matter how they play this out. And I can't believe
that it has legs again, but we shall see. It
does have legs again, and something's going to happen because
the Democrats have enough Republican votes to go along with it.
Rich Lowry, editor in chief of the National Review, with
us every Tuesday at this time at nine oh five.
Look forward to talking to you again next week. Rich.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Thanks thanks for having me Tuxing
Now let's talk to Rich Lowry, editor in chief of
the National Review. He's with us every Tuesday at this time. Rich,
I know you've written about this. I completely understand why
Donald Trump won stricter laws, stricter voting laws in state
after state after state. You seem to have a problem
(00:20):
with just the male in voting part of that right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm not a fan of mail in voting. My preference
would be that everyone the way it used to be,
goes same day invosts in person. It's more fool proof,
it's better for the voter, and it's more secure. But
we're just far beyond that world. Unfortunately passed it maybe
you know, left it behind maybe three decades ago, and
the federal government doesn't have the power to end mail
(00:47):
in balloting certainly present can't do it by executive order.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So the only alternative here, unless you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Want to give Democrats a huge tactical advantage, you need
Republicans to vote by mail as well. So I'd be
shocked if Republican consultants aren't working the president and won't
get some endorsement of mail in voting before the November
mid terms, the same way he endorsed it before the
November twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That is really fascinating that you said Republicans have to
vote by mail as well. Does it really matter how
you vote? As long as you vote.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It does matter because if you're running a turnout operation
and so they're high propensity voters and low propensity voters,
high promensity voters vote no matter what. So what you
want to do when you're running your turnout operation, you
want all those people to go and vote, so you
can take them off your list and you don't have
to contact them anymore. You don't have to see whether
they can help them get to the polls. Then you
can focus on the real low propensity voters. Republicans didn't
(01:42):
do this in twenty twenty hurt them at the margins.
They did do it in twenty twenty four, help them
at the margins.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
So if you.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Don't have your voters voting early and the other side
does have their voters voting early, it's a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
The other part of this the changes he wants to
make to voting laws, which you're right, he can't do it.
State by state has to do this, but you know
by by having an executive order at least gets attention
to the issue our voter IDs. And you have to
be for voter IDs, right, I mean, there's really no
reason not to have them.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, it's the opposition to this is totally absurd. And
going back to mail and voting, the states that do
it best, I don't. I don't like these states. Some
just will send you reg your voter they send you
a ballot. They don't know where you're whether you're still there,
you haven't requested it. So the states that do it well,
like Georgia and Florida, they have a lot of security,
including in Georgia you've got to provide the proof the
(02:37):
identity you know, you're a driver's license number or a
photocopy of some other ID to even request a ballot.
So in our day and age, where you've got to
show a driver's license to do anything, you know, to
get into an office building in New York in a
lot of cases, of course, you should have to do
it to vote.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, you know, I've just played a little while ago
an old clip from a podcast of zorin Mom and Zurimm.
Donnie said, there, that's not that he's a socialist. He says,
I'm a full on socialist. But not only that, he
sees himself as the forefront of a movement to bring
socialism across the country. So this is a bigger play
(03:17):
than he's ever admitted. During this campaign. He seems to
play it back a little bit, but he was full
on socialist and says the country would be better off
if we were all socialists. So it's this is getting
a little more frightening than just the thought of a
socialist taking over in New York City. He wants to
(03:39):
spread this across the country.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, it's just sincere and passionate socialist or
communist or whatever you want to call him. And hopefully
now that we're past Labor Day, people will focus on
this New York City a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But the problem is his two main adversaries, you know, well,
I don't know whether I should call it include Eric
Adams in that category, but I will Cuomo and Adams
they have higher unfavorable ratings in the socialist slash communists,
so they need to focus all their fire on him,
get his unfavorables up, try to make him unacceptable to
a crucial failings of democratic voters, and then maybe something
(04:14):
breaks breaks loose.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Otherwise, the guy is heading straight to Gracie Manchin, and.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
He seems to get favorable coverage, and he doesn't get questions,
tough questions asked by the media. I know he hides
a lot, so I can't blame the media completely, but
when they do get a chance to go after him,
they don't go after him. They seem like they're playing
into this.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, not the way he should, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And it's because he's new and he's exciting and he's
good on social media, so none of that matters if
he's going to destroy the city, which I think there's
a high risk of.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But you're right, his coverage is much too favorable.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that last poll was fascinating
to me in the show that Andrew Cuomo would beat
even if Slee was in the race, that Cuomo would
beat Mom Donnie head to head if Eric Adams gets
out of the race. Now, the math doesn't seem to
add up on that, but if that is the case,
(05:10):
I think Eric Adams could be a hero right now
if he were to jump jump out of this race.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, I mean, he's a dead man walking at the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Adam Republicans don't like him, and independence think he's corrupted
and in effectual, which he is. So there's just no
case for it except for taking whatever it might be
at the end of the day, eight percent of the
vote or something that might might be determinative in a
real close race.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So as hard as they tried, as hard as the
Republicans and Donald Trump tried, the Epstein files and the
controversy over it is not going away. It's been reignited today.
There's going to be hearings today, Ten of the victims
are going to be on Capitol Hill. Where do you
see this going well?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That the Trump administration kind of very quickly buckled and
turned around and said they wanted to get the grand
jury materials were released by the judge.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Judge said no because he Jesus don't usually do this.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So I think they'll end up either there'll be a
congressional vote or they'll release more to try to take
off the pressure. But this is a highly irregular process,
that this is not how this is supposed to work.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, I think it's going to be a disaster no
matter how they play this out. And I can't believe
that it has legs again, but we shall see. It
does have legs again, and something's going to happen because
the Democrats have enough Republican votes to go along with it.
Rich Lowry, editor in chief of the National Review, with
us every Tuesday at this time at nine oh five.
Look forward to talking to you again next week. Rich.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Thanks thanks for having me Tuxing
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