Rob Astorino, WOR and NewsMax host Interview

Rob Astorino joins Mendte in the Morning to talk about Elise Stefanik withdrawing her nomination for UN Ambassador and how Kathy Hochul is using her power to affect Stefanik.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get right to Rob Astorino, host of The Rob
Astorno Show on w r Saturday's four to five, host
of Saturday Agenda one to three on Newsmax, and former
Westchester County executive. So where do you want to start, Rob?
How about a least stephonic.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Go Ahead's so bad for her, Larry, Yes, I really do. Well.
I mean I've known her quite a while, and in fact,
when I ran in twenty fourteen against Cuomo, you know,
I'm criss crossing the state and whenever i'd go to
the North Country any you know, anywhere above Albany, she was.
She was running for Congress for the first time. So
she and I spent a lot of time together campaigning,

(00:39):
and you know, we've become very friendly, and I just
I feel terrible for her because this would have been
perfect for her as ambassador, and obviously, you know, she
had checked out emotionally as a congresswoman. She was preparing
to be you know, not only dominated, which she was,
but to be confirmed next week. And she definitely would
have passed. There's no question. Now you know, she's got

(01:01):
to run for reelection. But you know, when this was
happening in November, when Donald Trump was picking members of Congress,
starting with Matt Gates and then Waltz and then Elise
and and there were a few others. I'm like, I'm
doing the math. I'm like, I hope they're doing the math,
because we're getting pretty close to being like losing the House.
But you know, more than that, what happens is you

(01:24):
now have to raise gazillions of dollars and defend seats
that probably you'd win. But who wants to take a
chance when it was a three four five vote margin.
And that's kind of the place that they're in right now.
And they can't take a chance because they're looking at
what's happening. And Republicans are losing special elections right now,

(01:44):
which is typical you know, Trump derangement syndrome, you know,
president of the other party, all that stuff, and it's happening.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Except there were special elections in those other states and
many of them are replaced with Republicans. This is Kathy
Hochel once again putting a thumb on the scale and
not allowing a special election, which at least a fan
it called corrupt. You know, she is trying so hard
to get into good graces of the Democratic Party. Because

(02:13):
she's seen her poll numbers. She knows she's in trouble.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, no question. I mean she's totally not only manipulated,
but she's election interference. There's no question about that, because
the law is pretty pretty simple on what it says,
and the Democrats wanted to make sure that there wasn't
a special election within ninety days of a vacancy. So
she was going to play that game and make sure
that seat stayed vacant. But again, you know, Republicans are

(02:40):
losing right now. They lost a very special you know,
a special election for state Senate in Pennsylvania in a
district Trump won by like twenty points. They've lost a
few others, and you've got this big race in Wisconsin,
which is definitely a proxy. This is a state Supreme
Court race, which will decide which way the courts go

(03:01):
in Wisconsin, either conservative or liberal. And you'd say, well,
what does that matter, Well, it matters a lot because
they're going to redistrict and they could take away two
seats from Republicans, which could flip the House election laws,
the presidential election ballots. All this stuff is mattering. One
hundred million dollars has been poured into this one race

(03:23):
in Wisconsin and Elon Musk and Donald Trump are on
the ballot. That's what That's what Democrats are doing everywhere,
and they are energized right now and Republicans are not
that this isn't this is an issue, and that's why
Donald Trump couldn't even take a chance on a least
Stephonic's seat where unfortunately the fifteen county chairs they can't

(03:43):
agree on who should run. It's a mess up there.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know, it's funny because I guess you're right. You know,
the reality on the ground, especially in some of these districts,
is different than the reality we're seeing in the polls.
Because CNN and MSNBC of Fox that all their polls
just recently have Donald Trump riding high and the Democrats
still down near the bottom. So is it just these

(04:07):
specific districts that they're losing or are those polls incorrect.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
The polls can be right and wrong at the same time.
They could be right that overall nationally, people think we're
starting to head in the right direction generally speaking, the
like what Donald Trump is doing. But yet Donald Trump's
approval rating is somewhat underwater in most polls, some he's above,
but when you zero in on a district. Right now,

(04:35):
the Democrats are going ballistic right as you were just
talking about before the news. They're lying about Social Security
and Medicaid. They're scaring people and the energy right now,
the hate for Trump and for Musk and pretending that
he's going to cut everything is energizing their base. Republicans

(04:56):
feel like fat and happy, like, hey, we got the House,
we got the Senate, we won the present. See things
are great. I don't need to vote. And this is
what we're seeing. Democrats are winning these special elections.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, talk about scaring the public. I didn't get to
play this sound bite, but Patty Mary was talking about
a possible ebola breakout because of health and human services
being cut. For I mean, it's just is just insane.
I want to stay with the least defining for one
second before we move on to something else, because you know,

(05:26):
the day after the inauguration, her nomination moved on on
a voice vote. I mean it was overwhelming. It was
it was overwhelming. She was going to get confirmed easily,
and I kept thinking, what's going on? Why are they
holding this up? That could have happened that week and
she would have been in. So I think they've been
holding up this nomination for a long time just for

(05:48):
this moment. Is that what you believe?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Uh, that's what I know? You know? Okay, yeah, because
again a part of that, look, some of them are
blaming Stephonic for not saying, here's my candidate, here's who
I want to succeed me. I don't know if that's fair, because,
excuse me, in a special election, it's really up to
the county chairs to determine, and they didn't get their

(06:12):
act together. The Conservative Party had one candidate they were
going with. The Republicans could not decide. There were like
four or five candidates that they were splitting. Nobody could
get a majority. So it was partly the problem of
the chairs and the party, and then it was partly
the problem of okay, we can't take a chance now

(06:34):
because the poll numbers for those two House races in
Florida where they should be romping, they're getting out spent
ten to one, and it's likely they'll definitely win the
Gates seat, but the Wall seat is a lot closer
than they expect, and Daytona Beach that if they lose
that seat. I mean it, it is really bad sign

(06:54):
for next year.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, so that's the Republicans run that So if they
hold off the election until after the vote, than you
know that they're scared and they'll do exactly the opposite
that they did in New York. He it's always great
to talk politics with you. Rob Astorino, host of The
Rob Astorino Show on wors Saturday from four to five pm.
Host of Saturday Agenda one to three on Newsmax. He

(07:16):
has a busy Saturday. Former Westchester County executive, look forward.
What do you have on the show this weekend.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I'm going to talk more about this, about at least
some more stuff I've learned and why it's so important,
and really what is happening around the country right now?

Speaker 1 (07:31):
All right? Rob Astorino, host of The Rob Astorino Show.
Catch him tomorrow. Thanks Rob, Thanks Larry,