Democrat Civil War Rages in Minnesota and Wisconsin

On today’s edition of The Scott Jennings Show, Scott breaks down a busy night of primary elections and what the results could mean for the 2026 midterms. Dustin Grage analyzed Minnesota’s races after Republicans nominated Michele Tafoya for Senate and Lisa Demuth for governor, while Republican strategist Mark Graul examined David Crowley’s narrow victory over Francesca Hong in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary and the broader political landscape in the state. Scott also covered South Carolina’s Republican Senate runoff, major polling misses in recent Democratic primaries, the record-setting sale of the Los Angeles Lakers, and controversy surrounding the Indiana Fever and Sophie Cunningham. Later, political strategist Henry Olsen explored whether Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should seize the moment and run for president in 2028, and newly minted Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya joined Scott to discuss her Minnesota primary victory and upcoming general-election battle against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The voice of free speech, the truth delivered, common sense
for the American people. Welcome to the Scott Jennings Show.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The Democrat Civil War continues to rage. Socialists win Minnesota
but lose a shocker in Wisconsin. We have the latest
primary results from last night. We have Michelle Tafoya joining
us live today to discuss the Senate race in Minnesota.
And we have elections analyst Henry Olsen. A pack day

(00:33):
of election news Here on the Scott Jennings Show. We
have major sports business news. The Lakers have been sold
incredible numbers behind this deal details ahead, and amid the
rubble of despair in Columbia, a little story of hope
as a tiny baby is saved following a devastating earthquake.
We bring you that as well. Today is Wednesday, August

(00:57):
the twelfth. I'm Scott Jennings Broadcasting for Salem. Coming to
you live from Washington, d C. On this day, eighteen
seventy seven, we take you to Menlo Park, New Jersey.
A young inventor sat inside a noisy workshop, staring at
a hand cranked cylinder wrapped in tinfoil. The contraption looked

(01:17):
almost ridiculous. A metal stylus rested against the foil. Attached
to it was a small diaphragm and a funnel shaped mouthpiece.
The inventor leaned toward the machine, turned the crank and
magic cut ten.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Mary had a little Lama's freaks for quite a snore,
and everywhere that's many went, the lamb would shoot home.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
A human voice returned from the past, a little poem
spoken aloud, and then replayed for the first time. In
human history. Until that moment in eighteen seventy seven, every
sound ever made had vanished the instant it was made.
A speech, a song, the voice of someone you loved
once spoke, and it was gone forever. But this machine

(02:03):
could capture it, preserve it, and play it again. The
inventor called his creation the Phonograph. The world would eventually
call him the Wizard of Menlo Park, But today you
know him as Thomas Alva Edison, and he used the
phonograph for the first time on this day, August twelfth,

(02:24):
eighteen seventy seven. Breaking news out of the world of sports,
the Los Angeles Lakers are being sold again in a
record shattering deal. Venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney
CEO Bob Iger have agreed to purchase the legendary franchise
for twelve and a half billion dollars. It's the largest

(02:47):
price ever paid for a North American professional sports team.
The stunning sale comes less than a year after Dodgers
owner Mark Walter purchased control of the Lakers from the
Bus family for ten billion dollars. This man flipped the
Lakers for two and a half billion in profit, just unreal.
Kushner and Iger had been pursuing an NBA expansion team

(03:09):
in Las Vegas, but pivoted and made Walter an aggressive
offer for one of basketball's most iconic brands. The transaction
still requires approval from the NBA's Board of Governors. Election
news big primaries last night. The civil war continues to
rage inside the Democratic Party between the establishment and the socialists.

(03:31):
Both claimed some victories last night. Let's started Minnesota, where
radical progressive socialist Peggy Flanagan was nominated for the United
States Senate and she's the current Lieutenant governor of Minnesota.
She's one of the craziest Democrats anywhere in the country.
She's been a leading voice for local law enforcement to
not cooperate with federal immigration officials, and she's one of

(03:56):
the leading agitators trying to stoke civil unrest on the
streets of Minneapolis. I want you to listen to Peggy
Flanagan calling for people to take to the streets and
create chaos. Cut eleven.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
If you are sick and tired of your government being
ransacked by Donald Trump and his minions, literally taking away
healthcare from your neighbors, is stealing food off of the
table from seniors and children, and generally being uncool with
the fact that our neighbors are being disappeared ps without
due process. It is just called kidnapping. Then show up

(04:31):
and use your voice. Put your body on the line.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Put your body on the line. That's the thing about
these radicals. They don't care how many people get hurt
or even die in service to this extremist political ideology.
But in her primary last night, Minnesota Democrats nominated her
to replace Amy Klobaschar who is the current Senator and

(04:56):
now candidate for governor. The Republican nominee for the it
will be Michelle Tafoya, the legendary sportscaster. Cut twelve.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
In those last twenty years, this state has traveled one
hundred miles per hour in the wrong direction, and Minnesotans are.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Worried about it, very very worried about it.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
And look, it's happened under the leadership of single party rule,
under the establishment candidates, the career politicians who have been
in office that have brought us to a place that
your reporter just described, a place where a lot of
people are embarrassed by our state. The fraud, all of
the crime, all of the things that are going wrong
in education, the taxes. It's an embarrassment right now, particularly

(05:38):
the fraud.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
And later in the show, we do have Michelle Tafoya
joining us live to discuss what I think is a
sleeper race for Republicans up in Minnesota. Over in Wisconsin,
the Radical Socialists suffered a setback when Francesca Hong lost
the nomination for governor in a squeaker to Milwaukee County
Executive David Crowley. Hong had led some pre election polling

(06:02):
by enormous margins double digits, but Crowley surged after re
entering the race, and he had the endorsement of retiring
Governor Tony Evers and millions of dollars in outside support.
Crowley edged Hong by just over three thousand votes, which
is less than a half a percentage point. Hong's campaign
was damaged by scrutiny of her previous social media post

(06:25):
she wants to abolish the police and ice and eliminate
the United States Senate and cancel Thanksgiving. Crowley now faces
Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany in November. It's expected to be
one of the country's most competitive gubernatorial races. Although Crowley's
win certainly puts Democrats in a much stronger position than

(06:46):
they would have been in with Hong. What is remarkable
about this race is how wrong the polling was. The
last five polls in Wisconsin averaged Hong being ahead by
twenty one percent. She lost.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Now.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
The same thing happened in Michigan last week, where the
last five polls averaged together showed l Sied winning by
fourteen points. Now he won, but barely. He won by
about a point. What's really impacted by these huge polling
misses are the betting markets. I'm sure lots of money
was lost by people betting on that race in Wisconsin

(07:20):
that the polling had said was a sure outcome. Certainly,
the polling caused the national media coverage to make it
seem like the Socialists were surging, when in fact the
opposite was true. Something is wrong with polling, at least
in Democratic primaries right now. This bears some discussion as
we head into the fall, when political coverage will be

(07:41):
shaped by polls that may not be accurately capturing the
electric down in South Carolina, the Republicans voted to replace
Lindsay Graham on the November ballot, and they will have
to vote again. A runoff is now in store for
Darlene Graham and Congressman Ralph Norman, who took the top
two spots. Both were far from the fifty percent needed

(08:02):
to win the nomination outright. Russell Frye and Mark Sandford
finished third and fourth. Darlene Graham is Lindsey Graham's sister.
She has the Senate seat now as she was appointed
by the governor upon her brother's death, and she carries
Trump's endorsement into this runoff against Ralph Norman. But Darlene
Graham faces a genuinely uphill fight. She received only about

(08:24):
one third of the vote, despite already serving in the Senate,
and despite endorsements from Trump, Governor McMaster, and the Republican establishment.
Norman can argue that roughly two thirds of primary voters
wanted somebody else. The key question is where the Fry
and Sandford voters are going to go If they consolidated

(08:44):
behind Norman, Graham's famous name and powerful endorsements may not
be enough to save her in the runoff. And this
just end of the Scott Jennings show. An unexpected hearing
in Luigi Mangioni's federal case has been scheduled for Friday morning.
This is fueling speculation that the alleged killer of United

(09:07):
Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson could be working on a plea agreement.
We are going to keep a close eye on what's
going on in the courts in New York City. All right,
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your Relief Factor story with us. We're going to continue
our political coverage after this next commercial break. We have
pardon me. We have Minnesota political expert Dustin Grage joining
us from Minneapolis to analyze the primary. Last night, stay
with us here on the Scott Jenning Show.

Speaker 6 (10:47):
He's the author of the best selling book A Revolution
of Common Sense Peers.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Scott Jennings continuing political coverage on the Scott Jennings Show,
we stay with Minnesota, where the Democrats have nominated Lieutenant
Governor Peggy Flanagan is their nominee for the United States
Senate race that is now open. And she's a socialist.
And believe me, the Republicans have noticed. I want you
to take a listen to this cut fourteen souther Meli kooma.

Speaker 7 (11:14):
My name's Peggy Flanagan.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
Oh Minnesota knows Peggy an extremist Democrat who served under
failed Governor Tim Wallas. Peggy champions the radical transgender agenda
and wants to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Peggy's
endorsed by Minnesota's far left Senator Tina Smith and is
promising to work with Bernie Sanders to obstruct Donald Trump.

Speaker 9 (11:34):
I have absolutely no doubt that Peggy is going to
follow in.

Speaker 8 (11:38):
Peters footstofs Minnesotans know Peggy Flanagan. That's why they'll reject
her this November.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Joining us now to discuss Minnesota political expert Dustin Gregy. Dustin,
you see how the National Republican Senatorial Committee that's their advertisement,
is going after Peggy Flanagan. Is this the right vector
is tying her to Bernie Sanders and the far left.
Is that the way forward for the Republicans in Minnesota.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Well, just really pick your poison on how we actually
go after her, because it's all over the place. There's
Bernie Sanders, there's Keith Ellison and as well. Maybe that's
not as well known people might know. The group the
DLGA Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association. The staffers that are a
part of that organization actually shared staff between Graham Platner

(12:28):
as well as Peggy Flanagan. So Graham Platner staffers are
working the Peggy Flanagan i ees right now. So like
everything across the board, she is attached to every leftist group.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
The DSA are.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
In Minnesota, and Minneapolis are part of her campaign staff.
They helped push her through. And the great news, especially
for Michelle, as we come into all of this, internal
polling for Angie Craig turned out to be pretty accurate.
The early polling showed about what the results were last night.
But get this, Scott, the internal polling with Angie Craig showed,

(13:01):
and this was her argument to Democrats to nominate her
over Peggy was that when you tie the fraud specifically
to and to Peggy Flanagan as the number two in
charge of the entire state under Tim Walls where all
this fraud occurred. We have a tied race right now Minnesota.
And this is why Tim Scott's ben so bullish on Minnesota.
He is labeled this is the outside shot at winning

(13:24):
an additional seat. He thinks we have a shot in
a path to fifty four seats in the Senate if
we were to get our way, and he views Minnesota
as a part of that path right now.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I tend to agree. I think Minnesota is a
sleeper campaign for the Republicans in the Senate. Let's talk
governor's race for just one second. I know Klobashar got
the nod for Democrats. What happened in the Republican primary
for governor Mike Lindell. The pillow guy was running, but
he didn't win, did he? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (13:53):
No, And frankly, just at the end of the day,
and this isn't a knock on the Trump endorsement. The
only reason this race was competitive in the first place,
what was because of the Trump endorsement.

Speaker 10 (14:01):
It's a powerful one.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
Lindell and an internal polling was as low as twenty
one to twenty percent. He ended up getting in the
mid thirties by the end of this thing, so Trump
brought it to be closer. But at the end of
the day, Lisa Damuth is a superb candidate. Her running mate,
Ryan Wilson, I frankly think should even be top a ticket.
He raised two million dollars for VANCE when he came
to town. He's a part of the America Versus Policy

(14:24):
Institute here in Minnesota. He was the president of that organization.
This is a stack ticket. These are two candidates who
could run for governor outright in their own right. But
now they're combining forces. And now we have Lisa Damuth,
a woman and by that also a black woman. The
Minnesota starts Ubune. You got a laugh at them as well,
and how they've covered for Democrats over the years, and

(14:45):
how Tim Walls has gone away with everything. They came
out instantly printed a story saying Amy klobashar first woman
to lead a major ticket in Minnesota. Well, I'm sorry,
start Tuburne, but Lisa Damuth is a woman and a
black woman. If she were elected, she'd i mean, the
first of the kind in the country's history. But we're
just going to ignore that. But the great news is, Yeah,

(15:06):
like Scott, you've noticed with Tim Walls running the nationwide,
now there's a national microscope on this stuff now and
the Start Tribune in the local media isn't going to
be able to get away with this stuff going forward,
and now we're going to be able to expose it.
And now Minnesota is in play.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Dustin, I'll give you the last word. I've got thirty
seconds here. Because Flanningin is lieutenant governor, she's been in
state government and is running for the Senate. And because
obviously the legacy of Tim Walls is going to be
a topic in the governor's race. How much is the
topic of fraud and all the massive amount of fraud
that's been found in Minnesota state government. Is it going
to permeate both campaigns? Should it? I assume that's one

(15:45):
of the victors of Republicans will take right No.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
Absolutely, It's the number one polling issue right now. And
to the point, Angie Craig even did internal polling on
how would a Tim Wall's endorsement influence her race? Because
behind closed doors, Tim Walls was the prit Agie Craig.
He thought she had the better path, but the internal
polling I'm told showed Tim Walls actually wasn't even that
favorable for Angie Craig and that nomination process. So they

(16:11):
went to Gwen Walls. Miss I opened the windows to
smell the burning tires, was more popular than her husband.
So they came out with Gwen's endorsement for Anngie Craig
I'm at the eleventh hour to try to push her through.
So that's how badt In Walls's toxicity is. And of
course Peggy is tied right to him.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, Dustin Greggy from Minnesota, thanks for the analysis. We
moved to Wisconsin after this. Stay with us on Scotch
and straight talking without the bluster.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
When you positively need the truth, this is where you
come with the sketch intting show.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
A couple of views items for you here. On Wednesday,
August the twelve, a total solar eclipse is beginning to
dazzle millions of people in the prime viewing locations in Iceland, Spain,
and a small corner of Portugal. CNN's got live coverage

(17:05):
as the eclipse unfolds. Now, when will this happen again.
There'll be another eclipse over Southern Spain, North Africa, Saudi Arabia,
and Yemen on August the second of next year. The
United States must wait until twenty forty four, when there'll
be a total solar eclipse over North Dakota and Montana.

(17:25):
I don't know what Trump term will be in at
that point, but I'm sure the President Trump will be
celebrating the total eclipse in twenty forty four. One other
note out of the Department of Justice, a two count
indictment has been unsealed today, charging eleven individuals with conspiring
over a decade to orchestrate more than one thousand sham

(17:47):
marriages to fraudulently obtain immigration status for foreign nationals, primarily
people who come from China. Some of these individuals paid
up to one hundred thousand dollars per sham marriage, according
to the indictment. Now this is coming out from the
brand new confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanch. She says the

(18:10):
Department of Justice is rooting out fraud everywhere, including in
our immigration systems. Todd Blanche newly confirmed with a blockbuster
indictment today. Let's continue our political coverage today, let's move
over to the state of Wisconsin. As we reported to
you at the top of the show, it was a
rather shocking result in the primary for governor on the

(18:31):
Democratic side. All of the pre election polling had shown
the crazy radical socialist Francesca Hong with a massive commanding lead.
The betting markets followed that everybody thought Francesca Hong was
going to win the Democratic nomination for governor, but that
did not happen last night. She lost to David Crowley.

(18:55):
Here to discuss this is Wisconsin political expert Mark Grohl. Mark,
thanks for coming here on the Scott Jennings Show. This
is kind of the talk of the town I've got
in Washington today. All the political media down here had
just decided that Hong was going to win, but Wisconsin
Democrats had something else in mind. From your vantage point,

(19:16):
what happened last night.

Speaker 11 (19:19):
You know, Scott, what we saw was a ten day
avalanche of attack and negativity on Francesca Hong from Democrats,
from Republicans, from media, and it caught up on her.
And I think ten days ago she was going to
win fairly comfortably, but after ten days of NonStop bashing

(19:43):
her and it really wasn't about our policies.

Speaker 10 (19:45):
The interesting thing was, it wasn't.

Speaker 11 (19:46):
About her thoughts on taxation or economic development or defunding police.
It was more about some of the crazier things she
said about things like Thanksgiving. I mean, there were story
after story after story about how she said let's cancel Thanksgiving,
and I think a lot of people stopped and said,

(20:06):
WHOA wait a minute. A lot of Democrats stopped and said,
WHOA wait a minute. This is not somebody who can
win in November. You had Governor Tony Evers say she
could not win in November. You had several other Democrats
say she could not win in November. So last night
was all about Francesca Hong, County executive. Krawley is actually
a strong Democratic candidate and I think going to be

(20:28):
a formidable one this November.

Speaker 10 (20:30):
But it really wasn't about him last night.

Speaker 11 (20:32):
This was about whether you were four or against Francesca Hong,
whether you thought she was going to be the right
candidate for Democrats in November, or if you wanted.

Speaker 10 (20:43):
To try to stop her.

Speaker 11 (20:43):
And David Crawley was the mechanism to stop her, and
they were successful, very very close, obviously, but the establishment
strikes back, if you will, and they were able to
ensure that she did not receive the nomination. Now they're
going to have to build a campaign around County Executive
Crawley and Congressman Tiffany has had a great the Republican

(21:06):
nominee has had a great start to his campaign and
he is in a strong place.

Speaker 10 (21:12):
And now they're going to really have to build.

Speaker 11 (21:14):
A campaign around Counting Executive Crawley, who had dropped out
of this race. Remember maybe folks don't know that he
actually dropped out of the race because he said he
had no path to winning. And then the front runner
establishment at that point was the current lieutenant governor who
had a campaign finance scandal and her campaign imploded, so
probably got back in as this is our last hope

(21:36):
to stop Francesca Hong, and it was successful.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Mark. I want to talk to you about the polling
in this race because we saw something similar happen in
Michigan last week, and the Democratic primary polling simply did
not come anywhere close to matching the outcome. I'm going
to read you the last five polls Hong plus eighteen,
Hong plus twenty two, Hong plus twenty, Hong plus thirteen,

(22:03):
Hong plus eleven, and the most recent two were plus
eighteen and plus twenty two. I mean, you'd have to
forgive an external observer for assuming that Hong was winning
this going away. The same thing happened in Michigan Abduel
lsied and that Senate primary was thought to be winning handily.
He won by about a point. You're arguing that Hong
sort of collapsed at the end, But you've been around

(22:25):
a lot of campaigns. Is something going on with polling
in the Democratic Party right now where people just aren't
able to capture what's going on or the socialists being overrepresented?
Are people afraid to say they're going to vote for
an establishment Democrat? What's your opinion about what's going on?
And and we add to that, how should we put
that in our analysis machine here as we look ahead

(22:49):
to the fall analysis that we're going to be doing
here on seeing n in other places.

Speaker 11 (22:54):
Well, I think the last part of that let's start
with there, Scott. I just think people need to be
careful about Paul. I mean, I think we've seen now
election cycle after election cycle, not just in these primaries,
but in general elections as well, that polling is not
accurately capturing the electorate. And I think the struggle is
for polsters to be kind to them, is how do

(23:17):
they mirror who's actually going to turn out. I mean,
we've certainly seen that with President Trump. He has folks
who turn out solely for him, frankly, and they're not
captured and that demographic that they're modeling these surveys after
and I think last night in Wisconsin, yes, there was
a collapse by the Hong campaign, but if she was

(23:38):
truly up to twenty some points, she still would have
won even with the epic collapse that we saw over
the last ten days. So we've got to be careful
about polling. We've got to understand that it is not gospel.
It is somebody's best guess.

Speaker 10 (23:53):
Right.

Speaker 11 (23:53):
They're talking to maybe fifteen hundred people out of and
there's going to be a million plus people who turn
out for that primary, as we saw last night, and
they don't know for sure. They are doing their best guess,
and we've all got to kind of step back and say,
all right, this is their best guess and start looking
at some of the other things that should give us

(24:15):
a good indicator of what's happening in the race. In
Francesca Honk's case, over these last two weeks, she was
getting pummeled on television and by Republicans and Democrats alike,
and she spent no dollars on any sort of traditional advertising.
I mean, she really ran a wonderful, brilliant campaign for

(24:37):
four or five months, because when she first got in,
nobody took her seriously. But she did this great grassroots campaign,
really electrified the left.

Speaker 10 (24:46):
By in unconventional ways. But you can't just do that.

Speaker 11 (24:52):
You have got to have more conventional campaign and you
can't not run television and radio ads to try to
connect with voters. You can't rely solely on social media
to get your message out. And I think that's something
that we learned from that campaign as well, and I
think all of us as observers should have looked at
and say, wait a minute, she got outspent about thirty

(25:12):
to one in the last two weeks. When people in
Wisconsin really start paying attention to primaries, I mean we're
in August here at summer, people are enjoying the outside,
They're not really paying close attention.

Speaker 10 (25:23):
To politics these days here in our state.

Speaker 11 (25:26):
So I'm we all need to look at some of
the other factors that go into determining typically how candidates
do an elections, and not just rely solely unpolling.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Talking to Mark Grohl, who's a political expert and analyst
from Wisconsin. Mark, I'll read you a comment here from
Sean tren He's an analyst over at Real Clear Politics.
If you want my super simple explanation of Wisconsin polling,
Hong had been at about forty percent in the poll
since mid July, and she got forty percent. Given how

(25:58):
the last two weeks went, I can completely believe that
undecided's broke overwhelmingly against her. Of course, it seems like
in that analysis every single undecided person would have had
to have broken against her. So it may be some
mixture of a collapse and the fact that these socialists

(26:19):
are just somehow being overrepresented in this polling. Let me
shift gears back to Crowley for a second. Mark, So,
I think Republicans have been gearing up to face Hang
and we sort of knew what that campaign was going
to look like. Sort of crazy verse common sense. You
say Crowley is going to be a harder opponent for
the Republicans to tackle. What kind of a Democrat is he?
Does he have his own liberal tendencies? How, in your opinion,

(26:42):
should Tiffany attack the Crowley campaign.

Speaker 11 (26:46):
Yeah, well, I think you're going to have to look
at what is going on in Milwaukee County. Right, So
he is the Milwaukee County executive, and I think there's
a lot of people throughout the state of Wisconsin who
don't want to see what's happening in Milwaukee County, whether
at some of the crime issues, whether it's the high
taxes that they have there, things of that nature are
really what Congressman Tiffany is going to have to focus

(27:07):
on because when you get outside Milwaukee and the rest
of the state of Wisconsin, places like Green Bay and
Lacrosse and o'claire in Wassaw, they don't want to have
the same problems that are in Milwaukee brought to.

Speaker 10 (27:22):
Their communities.

Speaker 11 (27:23):
So I think that's really going to be what the
focus that you're going to see from the Tiffany campaign is.
All Right, you tout your executive experience, Let's take a
look at what that executive experience is producing in results
for the County of Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Mark, final question for you, We've got about a minute
to go here. I guess you've got one congressional campaign
going on in Wisconsin that might be considered a toss up.
The incumbent is Derek Van Orden, a Republican, and he's
facing a repeat challenge from Rebecca Cook. How do you
analyze the Van Orden campaign.

Speaker 11 (27:58):
It's going to be tight and close and a difficult
one for sure. Rebecca Cook, who is this is her
third time running, which is pretty remarkable, but she was
the establishment candidate as well, right, She had a very
credible opponent in the primary, and yet the Democratic establishment

(28:20):
went all in with her. She has raised an incredible
amount of money, stuff we've never seen for congressional race
in Wisconsin.

Speaker 10 (28:27):
So she's going to.

Speaker 11 (28:28):
Be very difficult to be But I think the district
still is one that is conservative in nature. It's one
that certainly is not pro Democrat socialist. So I think
the event order and campaign is going to point to
where the Democratic Party is moving set aside the Hong stuff,
but just in general, how the Democratic Party is moving

(28:50):
so far to the left and that's not going to
play well in those communities. In the third district, which
is largely rural lots of farmers things of that nature.
I think Congressman Val Order is going to be able
to pull it out, but it's only going to be
one that's going to be a hard thought race.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
All Right, We'll be watching Wisconsin. Mark Grahl's our man
on the ground in Wisconsin. Mark, thanks for your time today.

Speaker 10 (29:13):
Absolutely thanks. Scott all Right.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Just two weeks before his tragic assassination on September tenth
of last year, Conservative leader and our friend Charlie Kirk
sat down for one of his final interviews to wrestle
with a timeless question, does God Still Speak Today? That
conversation became the foundation for the powerful and provocative new
documentary Can You Hear Me Now? That explores prophecy, faith,

(29:39):
scripture history, and the role that believers are called to
play in our culture today. Follow director Matthew Thayer's investigation
examining the evidence weighing today's most prominent prophetic voices against
scripture history, political and scientific scrutiny. Rather than asking you
what to think, the film invites you to to examine

(30:00):
the evidence and consider the Biblical foundations and reflect on
what it all means for believers living in today's culture.
You can go to Salem Noow dot com. That's where
you're gonna want to download this or stream It's salemanow
dot com. Really fascinating piece of film. I encourage you
to check it out. More to come after this it's
Scott Jitting's on sale.

Speaker 6 (30:22):
If the leftists haven't had enough yet, there's more. This
is the Scott Jetting Show.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
All right. I've not been bugging you about this for
a few days, but I feel compelled to let you
know that your time is almost up. If you'd like
to join us on the Unforgettable Gulf of America cruise,
happening in November just after the election. We'll go in
and out of Fort Lauderdale. Imagine taking a vacation after

(30:49):
this tumultuous election and calming your spirit in the turquoise waters,
dipping your feet in the white sand beaches, eating our
credible food, and having insightful conversations about the future of
this country. Mike Gallagher and I will be there. Well,
you'll have insightful conversations with me. With Gallagher, I can't

(31:11):
make those promises, but you will be entertained. We will
dive into the issues shaping America and American politics as
we cruise through some of the most stunning destinations while
honoring the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation.
Book your cabin today, because if you don't, you're going
to run out of time. Text the word cruise to
nine four eight seven eight, or visit Scott Jenningshow dot

(31:33):
com and click on the Gulf of America cruise banner.
All right. Following up on a little news that just
came into the Scott Jennings Show, I mentioned Todd Blanche
with a major announcement today. He says the Department of
Justice is aggressively cracking down on birthright citizenship scams. Say

(31:55):
that ten times real fast. Let's listen to Todd Blanche
cut seventeen of birth tourism schemes.

Speaker 12 (32:01):
We've also directed the Civil Division to prioritize the denaturalization
of naturalized citizens who have obtained citizenship through fraud. Our
fantastic lawyers have filed a record number of complaints, more
than one hundred and twenty at this point since January twentieth,
twenty twenty five. We are a nation of borders and sovereignty.

(32:22):
The greatness of America is only as strong as our
willingness to protect it, and I am proud to be
part of the whole of government approach to bring down
sophisticated networks like this.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's Todd Blanche talking about this network that they're attacking.
They've charged eleven individuals with conspiring over more than a
decade to orchestrate one thousand sham marriages to fraudulently obtain
immigration status for foreign nationals. It seems like an excellent project.
By the way, those foreign nationals mostly coming from China.
Great project for Todd Blanche to be working on. In

(32:59):
one case, they say individuals were paying one hundred thousand
dollars per sham marriage. I mean, you literally have people
paying one hundred grand to get in this sham marriage
for the purpose of defrauding our immigration system. So Todd
Blanche off to a strong start since his confirmation as
Attorney General. One other story I wanted to bring you.

(33:21):
We talked a little bit about it earlier this week,
but the terrible earthquake down in Columbia, seven point four
magnitude earthquake. This happened on Monday, and there were all
sorts of collapsed buildings, lots of destruction, Lots of people
have died, lots more people have been injured. It's just
a grim situation down in Columbia. And by the way,

(33:43):
they have a new president. He was just sworn in
last Friday. The government's trying to get it under control
down there. But amid all the death and destruction that
we have seen in this earthquake, there was some good news.
A remarkable story really about the survivor of a six
month old baby boy. He was pulled from the rubble

(34:06):
of a collapsed department building. Take a listen to this
cut thirteen. If you're watching on the stream, you saw

(34:26):
that remarkable footage, which by the way, comes to us
from my colleagues over at CNN International. But pulling that
extraordinarily tiny baby just six months old. That baby was small,
and we're going to put it up on the stream
here one more time. You've got a number of people
working in that rubble, and I mean, it's so surreal

(34:47):
to see them pulling that baby out, and it's so
heartwarming to know that that baby is alive. So even
amidst all of this devastation down in Columbia, there is
a little bit of good news to report to you.
Some people are being rescued. At least two hundred and
twenty four people are dead, more than twenty five hundred

(35:08):
have been injured, and there are three thousand people in
Colombia who are still missing. It is a grim, grim
scene down there. But you know, even amidst for what
amounts to hell on earth for those people, occasionally you
can find a little bit of a little bit of hope.
And our friends over at CNN International certainly did pulling

(35:29):
this tiny six month old baby out of the rubble
seven point four magnitude earthquake. By the way, that's no joke.
And if your buildings and your infrastructure aren't built to
with stand something like that, lots of terrible things can happen.
We're going to take a break and do more news
after this. It's common sense for the American people. Scott

(35:50):
Jennings on Salem.

Speaker 6 (35:51):
Stay with us.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
We check at the headlines. The Los Angeles Lakers are
being sold a businessman, businessmen, i should say, Josh Kushner
and Bob for a record breaking twelve billion dollars. This
is interesting because last year Mark Walter bought a controlling
interest in the team for ten billion. This man flipped
the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 8 (36:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Josh Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, who
is the President's son in law. Some economic news out
today on inflation actually somewhat encouraging. Let's listen in here.
Here's award winning financial markets economist John Lonski talking about
it on Fox Business. Cut eight.

Speaker 7 (36:28):
It seems to me this is a pretty good news.

Speaker 13 (36:30):
It is good news, and I could not help but
note that the annual rate of course CPI inflation, that's
excluding food and energy. Will you want energy out of it?
Because of the matter in Iran? Take that out two
point five percent in July. That's back to where it
was prior to the start of the Iran conflict. This
tells me that inflation is not spreading out beyond energy,

(36:54):
beyond gasoline price.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
It's good news, and the White House has taken notice
of the data. Deputy Press sect Or terrykush de Si
says they see evidence in the data that things are
moving for the American economy in the right direction. Cut nine.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
If you are sick and tired of.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
I don't think we have I don't think we have,
cush de Si. But basically the White House says they're
paying attention to the data and they believe that it
shows the president's economic agenda is working. And we are
continuing our coverage of the twenty twenty six midterm. Montana's
first congressional district is an open seat contest in the

(37:38):
western half of the state, taking in Missoula, Bozeman, and Kallispell.
Republican Ryan Zinki is retiring after winning the district by
about eight points in twenty twenty four. Republicans have nominated
conservative radio hosted army veteran Aaron Flint, who captured more
than half the vote in a four way primary. He
faces Democrat Sam for Staff, who is heavily affiliated with

(38:02):
the Bernie Sanders Alexandria Ocassio Cortes socialist wing of the
Democrat Party. President Trump carried this district by twelve points,
and the Cook Political Report rates the race as likely Republican.
What is Aaron Flint telling the people of Montana? Let's
take a listen cut number one.

Speaker 14 (38:21):
I'm thrilled to give my complete and total endorsement to
Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Flint. Aaron is a fifth generation Montana
and a decorated combat veteran, Aaron, Well, support our military,
protect our vents, and defend our Second Amendment. Aaron will
also fight for strong, secure, sovereign border. Vote for Aaron

(38:43):
Flint to represent Montana's first congressional district.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
She will never let you down.

Speaker 9 (38:49):
I'm Aaron Flint and I approve this message.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Pretty strong endorsement for our next guest, Aaron Flint joins
us on the Scott Jennings show erin always good to
have another radio guy on his way to Washington, d C. Hopefully.
I'm really interested in your background radio obviously a decorated veteran,
and they tell me that you are in the Montana
Rodeo Hall of Fame. Talk to us about your journey

(39:15):
from all of this interesting background to deciding to run
for Congress.

Speaker 9 (39:20):
Well, you know you mentioned that I got a Great
Western Media Award from the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and
Hall of Fame for fighting for our Western lifestyle and
our Western way of life. But people, they'll see the
big belt buckle and they say, well, what event did
you do in the rodeo And I'll say, well, I
did a bunch of goat ropes in the Middle East
over the years since nine to eleven. So most folks

(39:41):
usually get a kick out of that, But you know,
I've been incredibly blessed Scott. First off, it's an honor
to be on your program today. You've got common sense
right behind you. If ever there were a race in
the country that was about common sense over the crazy,
this is the race right here in western Montana. But
I've been incredibly I joined the military after the nine
to eleven terror attacks, and I've been able to fight

(40:05):
for freedom while serving in the military. But then when
I came home from deployments overseas, I was able to
get right back behind that microphone and fighting for our
freedom here at home as well. So I've just been
in credible with less to get this opportunity.

Speaker 10 (40:18):
Over the years.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Well, you've certainly got the right background that we would
want for someone to go into public service, and the
way you're seeking this fall your opponent, on the other hand,
I can't. I mean, there's a lot of races going
on in the country. This one is a bright line.
You're running against a Democrat Socialist of America radical named
Sam for Stag And you know what I think is

(40:40):
interesting about this is less our audience thinks that these
socialists are sort of confined to urban areas, you know,
New York City or other big cities. No, there there
are Democratic Socialists of America crazies out there, even in
rural America and including Montana. Tell us about your opponent
for STAG and where you all differ on the issues.

Speaker 10 (41:02):
Well, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 9 (41:03):
The socialists desperately want a win outside of New York City,
and they want a Mom Donnie in Montana. They want
the ability to say that they're far left crazy can
win even in the heartland of America. That's why we
will and have got to stop them this November. Scott,
to know what you're thinking. I know what some of
your listeners are thinking. They're saying, Oh, this is going

(41:24):
to be an easy race. You've got a fifth generation
Montana combat veteran goes to bat for Montana every day
behind the microphone, versus this far left, AOC endorsed socialist
from Portland who is a lobbyist for the most far
left crazy stuff. You can imagine sanctuary cities for illegal aliens,

(41:45):
defund the police men, and girls' bathrooms, taking away girls'
sports opportunities. This guy was a lobbyist for the craziest
of the crazy. But here's the deal. This district here,
Western Montana is one of the most competitive races in
the country. It's an open seat. This is a district

(42:06):
where this great new US Senator Tim Sheehey barely lost
this Western Congressional district even though he won statewide. He
lost this district to John Tester back in twenty twenty
four by less than a percent. Steve Danes, Senator Steve
Danes barely won this Western district in twenty twenty by
just under a point. So this is a battleground seat.

(42:29):
And that's why we have got to get the resources
so we can stop the socialists from taking over the
heartland of American We're going to do it because, yeah,
this is common sense versus crazy. Couldn't be more crystal clear,
as long as we get the resources to tell that
message to the folks here in Montana.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Aaron, I think what you're saying about Montana will come
as somewhat of a surprise to our listeners around the country.
The idea that democrats or democratic socialists might have a foothold,
or at least a political base to stand on in
a congressional election in Montana. You're arguing it's going to
be a pretty close race. Tell us, if people around
the country want to get in touch with your campaign,

(43:08):
what's the best way for them to do that.

Speaker 9 (43:11):
Go to flint Formontana dot com.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
That's our website.

Speaker 9 (43:13):
If you can volunteer, if you can donate, do whatever
you can, and yeah, help us get the word out
here this November. We're all about bringing back common sense.
We need to mine and manufacture in America again. We
need to make our timber industry great again, fix our forests.
We're still chewing on all this smoke coming out of
Oregon and Washington right now, and we've got to bring

(43:35):
back trades and trades education, and that's how we're going
to bring back common sense here. But this race could
determine control the US House of Representatives. But from a
Montana standpoint, we got to keep the crazy out of Montana.
And if they elect somebody like my opponent, they're going
to turn western Montana into Portland, and lord knows we
can't have that.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, it would be kind of shocking to see a
member of Congress from Montana voevoting for the most radical
outlandish political policy ideas in America. But that's what's on
the ballot in November. Aaron Flynn is our guest, a
fifth generation Montana He's a father, he's a husband. He's
a combat veteran. He was in the US RB National
Guard Reserves for more than twenty years. He led combat

(44:19):
patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan. He hunted down terrorists in
Africa in the Middle East. He retired with the rank
of Lieutenant colonel, two bronze stars. He's a talk radio
host and somehow along the way got inducted into the
Montana Rodeo Hall of Fame, which is an incredible thing. Aaron,

(44:39):
we really appreciate your time today. We wish you luck
on your campaign, and you gotta protect Montana from these socialists.
It really is. I'll give you the last ten seconds.
But this common sense versus crazy, common sense first communism,
that's what's on the ballot in the November election, isn't it.

Speaker 9 (44:57):
That's right, Let's keep the crazy out of Montana. This
could be the seat the determines control of the US
House of Representatives. Go to Flintformontana dot com. Scott Jennings
appreciate all you do. Appreciate your time. God blessed good
to be with.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
You all right, erin thanks for your time today. Let's
get a quick message in here about supplements. Now you
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(46:13):
three weeks is just seventeen dollars and seventy six cents.
We're gonna talk more WNBA when we come back. It's
Scott Jennings on Salem s David.

Speaker 6 (46:23):
Slay the leftist narratives one by one. This is the
Scott Jennings Show.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Okay, back to the WNBA beat. Every day these folks
find some new way to make themselves look ridiculous. You
know my opinion, I think there's something deeply wrong with
the leadership of the league, but also the leadership of
one team, the Indiana Fever, and the head coach, Stephanie White.

(46:50):
She's just demonstrated again why she's not fit for command
of a women's basketball team. Now, remember how all this started.
Sophie Cunningham took a flagrant foul from another player named
de Jena Carrington. You've seen it. I'm sure she was
darned near decapitated by a clothes line while she was

(47:11):
going up for a layup. Carrington, the player who committed
the foul, was ejected from the game, and then she
went online. If you're watching the stream there it is man,
I mean, absolute savagery. She then goes online and blames
the controversy on quote white privilege. So, Sophie Cunningham is

(47:35):
the Fever player who plays for the coach Stephanie White.
After the game, her coach Stephanie White had a very
simple job. That's to defend Sophie Cunningham. That's what you'd
expect any coach to do. Instead, Coach White defended Carrington,
the player who had fouled Sophie Cunningham. She questioned whether

(47:58):
the foul was even intentional, and then she said, you know,
I didn't even see it in real time. Today, evidence
has come forth a photo showing coach White looking directly
at the play as it was happening. So she even
lied about having not seen it when it happened. Anyway,

(48:19):
Coach White's initial reaction understandably infuriated Fever fans. It infuriated
fans of Sophie Cunningham. So White, who's very sensitive to
online commentary. Apparently she called another press conference before the
team's next game, and rather than just admit that she
had mishandled the moment, she delivered a sermon attacking everybody else,

(48:44):
blaming everybody else.

Speaker 15 (48:46):
Listen to cut two for those who have anything to
say about the play in the last game, I didn't
see the play in real time.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
I went straight to a press conference.

Speaker 15 (48:54):
I thought the play got called right, thankfully Sophie's Okay.
Was it egregious?

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Absolutely?

Speaker 15 (49:00):
When you have a chance to watch that over and
over and over on replay, you can see that I
didn't have that in real time.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
I take personally.

Speaker 15 (49:10):
Any suggestions that I don't one hundred percent always have
my players back. I ride with them ten toes down
all the time, all the time. The hate, the fear mongering,
the divisiveness, the stuff that's trying to hijack our league
will not win. We will not be divided. Every day
these women put their on the line, love will win,

(49:33):
grace will win, Humility will win, and kindness will win.
I stand by them. I will always stand by them.
Everybody else can go to hell.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Now. I'm not like a super marketing genius. However, if
I were an employee, a high ranking employee, of a
business organization that was losing millions upon millions upon millions
of dollars a year, and I had some level of

(50:09):
responsibility to try to bring in more customers to reverse
that trend of nonprofitability, I might consider saying something other
than everyone who has comments can quote go to hell.

(50:30):
If you watch this press conference, we showed it on
the stream. Here she's pounding the podium. She is screaming
at the people who have an opinion, Well, guess what
coach white sports fans have opinions. And there it is again,
she's pointing, you've never seen this an angry lady. But

(50:53):
why is she angry? She has really nothing to be
angry about. She gets to coach basketball for a living.
We should all be so lucky. She's angry that she
made a mistake which does not defend her player, and
that a bunch of people noticed it. And the way
she is dealing with her anger is to blame all

(51:13):
of you. If you love Sophie Cunningham, or you love
the Indiana fever, or you love women's basketball, it's your fault.
It's your fault for noticing. You ever notice how this
happens with the libs. You're not supposed to notice when
we say something stupid. You're not supposed to notice. When
we come up with some kakamami argument for something, you're

(51:35):
not supposed to notice. But that's what's happening here, Fans,
of Sophie Cunningham are being blamed for noticing that her
own head coach did not have her back, and frankly,
now we're noticing that she lied about not seeing the
play in real time. She obviously did see it. There's
something deeply wrong with the people they have recruited to

(51:56):
leadership positions in this league, and players like so Cunningham
and the fans are suffering because of it. We take
a break more after this, Scott Jennings on Salem.

Speaker 7 (52:08):
Stay with us.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Very definition. I've never back down here, Scott Jennings. After
these big election nights, I love to turn to our
friend Henry Olsen, American political analyst, commentator, senior fellow at
the Ethics and Public Policy Center, for his insightful takes. Henry,

(52:31):
welcome back into the Scott Jennings Show. I want to
go over the races with you that we saw last
night and really talk about the primary season. But I
want to do that second. I want to start with
what you have written today in the Washington Post. You
have a column out about Alexandria Ocassio Cortes and the
idea that she might run for president. It seems to

(52:53):
me she is clearly setting herself up for that. But
you've got an interesting take on it today, tell us
about it.

Speaker 16 (53:00):
Yeah, I just think I have never seen in my
life around politics a wide open lane as big as
exists on the Democratic Party's left flank, with no national
leader ready to occupy it, and aoc if she ever
wanted to run for president.

Speaker 7 (53:15):
My calum today says, this is the time.

Speaker 16 (53:18):
You will never have fifty percent of the party searching
for somebody just like you with virtually no competition. Now,
if she doesn't want to be president, that's another thing.
But I watched her interview with John carl If she
didn't want to be president, there would have been different
ways to answer that question. I think she does, and
if she doesn't grab it now, she will regret not

(53:40):
doing it for the rest of her life because somebody
else is going to become the progressive heart throb and
she may never have a second chance to grab the
brass ring.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
All right, let me play devil's advocate, because I think
you make a compelling argument about why she should do
it now. I'll just play devil's avocant. In the moments
where she has gone out onto the world or national stage,
to try to prove herself. She has stumbled. She went
to the big foreign policy conference over in Europe and
kind of made a fool out of herself. I was

(54:11):
actually standing in the wings over at ABC on Sunday
morning watching her do her interview. I think the idea
of simply laughing off woke one is not going to
fly with most Americans. So I think there's still work
to do here. Do you think the other Democrats see
those stumbles and say she's a shiny object but there's

(54:32):
not much there or does that even matter to Democrat
voters in your opinion?

Speaker 16 (54:37):
Well, some of that stuff I don't think matters, you know,
laughing off woke one, as you say, matters in a
general election, But in a Democratic primary, laughing off woke
one is probably the right approach. The question is can
she think for a Democratic primary and for a general election.
So look, I definitely think that the Munich Security Conference
was a problem for her. She needs to train, she

(54:58):
needs to read her brief, she needs to come up
to speed on things about foreign policy that she probably
has not thought us deeply about.

Speaker 7 (55:06):
But I'll tell you this.

Speaker 16 (55:07):
In nineteen sixty seven, Ronald Reagan had a live debate
with Senator Robert F. Kennedy about the Vietnam War, and
Kennedy came off so badly he berated his staff for, however,
setting himself up well. A year later, he was the
Democratic nominee because he learned from his mistakes. He was
able to deal with circumstances he hadn't been prepared for

(55:28):
in nineteen sixty seven, and but for the assassin's bullet,
he might have been the president of the United States.
I'm not saying AOC will learn from her mistakes, but
she's got time. If she wants to be president, she
has to make that her first, second, third, and fourth objective,
and that means learning how to get better at things
she's not good at already.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Now, so you say in your piece in the Post
today that becoming president is two parts skill and one
part luck, and I agree with you, And you know,
some of this has to do with finding the right
moment to do it and being ready for the moment
when it comes. I want to deviate just for a moment,
because you're arguing about AOC today, But I think JD. Vance,

(56:10):
the Vice President, has to answer some of these same questions.
It clearly looks like he's setting up to run, and
he probably will run, and I would suspect he would
get the party's nomination. There may be people who argue
to him, vice presidents never rarely ascend to the oval office.
You're going to have to follow Trump for a third time.
It's hard to replicate or even replace Donald Trump. Maybe

(56:32):
you should wait. You're a very young person. In some ways,
both of them are so young that they're probably have
people telling them. You may want to wait for a
better opportunity. I suspect, though, your opinion is when the
moment presents itself, you just have to go for it
in presidential politics. Is that what you think?

Speaker 16 (56:50):
Yeah, that is absolutely what I think. Particularly with the
vice president, you're never going to be the sitting vice
president again. As the sitting vice president, he presumably is
carrying on a popular president's legacy. And regardless of the
overall popularity of Donald Trump and the electorate, he remains
very popular with the Republican Party primary elector at base.

(57:15):
If he wants to be president, he's got to grab
the moment, and of course for him, that means also
learning to do some things that he doesn't do as well.
In some ways, he's better at some things that AOC
needs to get better at, you know, like dealing with
hostile questions or things outside of his comfort zone. But
he's not as charismatic on the stump as she is.

(57:35):
Maybe he needs to learn not to become an entertainer,
but need to become a little bit more exciting when
his speeches. That's not all has to be a lectured
So he needs to work on some things too. But
you know, if somebody convinces him otherwise, maybe he can
run again. But you never know, and you'll never be
the sitting vice president again. And gosh knows what would

(57:57):
happen if he didn't run a Republican RAN came a
two term president. He would never be in the conversation
again in his lifetime. If he wants it, he should
go for it and just get better at what he
doesn't do as well.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Henry Olsen is our guest American political analyst, senior fellow
at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a columnist
for The Washington Post. Henry, let's get back to AOC
in the democratic field. So you're looking at her as
having an excellent chance of capturing the nomination. But there's
a whole bunch of Democrats who are circling around this
thing right now. Which of them do you believe is

(58:31):
the strongest opponent that would be able to possibly stop
the socialist freight train that AOC could potentially be in
the cabin for.

Speaker 16 (58:42):
I know this will surprise people if I would say
Vice President Harris. And the reason why is that the
voter base that most clearly does not want a Democratic
Socialist is the African American voter base. They vote against
the African, They vote against the DSA candidate in every opportunity,
whether the candidate is black, as was the case in
Wisconsin yesterday with David Crowley, or whether the candidate is white,

(59:05):
which is the case with Daily Stephen, and she is
both African American herself and commands the plurality loyalty of
that voting group. Pee foota judge, has always had a
terrible time with African American voters. He had a problem
with he was a mayor of South Bend with that community.
He did abysmally among them in South Carolina and in

(59:26):
the Nevada caucuses when he ran in twenty twenty. It's
just defies belief that suddenly the voting base that exists
to deny Democratic Socialists their choice will suddenly warm to
this guy, and that leaves Gavin Newsom, and I'd say
he sits somewhere between the two of them in the
ability to do that. He's certainly a talented politician. But
if you said me right now, who is in the

(59:46):
best position to be the establishment candidate and actually win
the Democratic nomination against in AOC, I would say it's
Kamala Harris.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
The Democratic National Committee has recently shaken up its nominating calendar.
They put in South Carolina first. Do you interpret that
move as the establishment of the Democratic Party trying to
stop AOC or another socialist from just running away from
it with it from the outset.

Speaker 16 (01:00:14):
I think that is something that they are thinking of now.
I think when they were doing at the time, what
they wanted to do was avoid what they used to have,
which was two very very progressive states going first, Iowa
and New Hampshire. The African American base is the single
largest demographic base outside of a racial group that votes
in Democratic Party primaries. Between a fifth and a quarter

(01:00:37):
of all Democratic primary votes will be cast in by
African Americans, and South Carolina is the state that is
small and manageable enough for an outsider candidate to do
well in, but is dominated by African Americans. So I
think it is now a question that is on their mind,
But I think when they were doing it, they were thinking,
let's not have two white states first, Let's reward the

(01:00:59):
group that is the most loyal primary and general election
voting electorate, and let's put a state dominated by them first.

Speaker 7 (01:01:06):
And I think that's the primary reason South Carolina is first.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
All right, Henry, let's talk about more recent happenings. Last night,
we had primaries going on in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We'll
start with Wisconsin. The Socialists took a stumble there, Francesca
Hong even though she was leading, and all the late
polling collapsed and Crowley did win. That was the establishment

(01:01:30):
pick in that race. What was interesting to me was
that the polling didn't match the results, and something similar
happened in Michigan the week before. As an elections analyst,
you're looking at this polling major misses in two states.
Is there something going on with polling inside of the
Democratic Party right now? And how should we take that
as elections analysts ourselves as we move into the general election.

Speaker 16 (01:01:52):
Yeah, I think that it's very difficult to poll a
primary because you don't have the demographic benchmarks that you
have in a general election. Like a general election, you
know that African Americans are going to be between ten
and thirteen percent of the elector, you don't know that
in a primary.

Speaker 7 (01:02:05):
In Michigan. You had the biggest.

Speaker 16 (01:02:07):
Turnout in a Democratic primary in history, not just for governor,
not just for Senate. There are more people who cast
a Democratic ballot in the senatorial primary in Michigan last
week than had voted for president in any of the
primaries ever. If I were a Polster, I would not
tune my turnout model to the highest ever in recorded history.

(01:02:31):
And it's pretty clear that the people who came out
of there would work rather than the most loyal Democratic
primary voters, were people who disproportionately favored Hailey Stevens. We
had a very high turnout in Wisconsin. I suspect some
of that was going on in Wisconsin as well, but
I think we also had the fact that almost all
of these polls were taken at least a week out

(01:02:52):
and Francesca Hong had one of the worst seven day
run ins to an election day that I've ever seen.
You don't want to run for governor of a rural
dominated state by saying you want to cancel Thanksgiving and
not only having said it, which if you want to run,
you know, notes to all of you eighteen year olds
if you want to become governor, don't ever say you
want to cancel Thanksgiving on a tweet. But then she

(01:03:15):
had a terrible answer to it, you know, like the
answer to do you really want to cancel Thanksgiving, which
is what Caitlin Collins asked her, is to say no,
that was me in an excitable moment. Of course, I
don't want to do that. Caitlin next question, and it
said she rambled around, and that's just bad. That's politics.
One O one. You've got a batting practice softball and
you whiffed. Okay, that's why Fanchester Hall lost and she

(01:03:37):
still almost won.

Speaker 7 (01:03:39):
That's the lesson.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
All right, thirty seconds for Henry Olsen. As we close
out the segment, let's look ahead to the midterms. Your
overall forecast right now, House and Senate. Where do the
two parties see their chances?

Speaker 16 (01:03:52):
You know, I think the Democrats have to be the
heavy favorites for the House just because of the national
headwinds behind their sales.

Speaker 7 (01:03:58):
On the Senate.

Speaker 16 (01:03:59):
I think it's basically a coin flip, is that it
doesn't take much improvement for Republicans to put it outside
the democrats reach. But between the national polls and the
Senate polls showing Democrats ahead and some of these strongly
Republican seats against weak Republican candidates, I think Senate control
is a coin flip right now.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
All right, Henry Olsen, thanks for your time today. You
can read Henry's pieces and the Washington Post and follow
along with his analysis on social media. He's a senior
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Henry always
appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 7 (01:04:33):
Thank you for having me on Scott.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
All right, Henry Olsen, great analyst. By the way, you
got to follow Henry. When we come back, we are
going to talk to one of the candidates who is
reacting to primary news from last night. Republican Senate candidate
Michelle Tafoya. You know her from sports broadcasting. She's running
for the Senate. She now knows her opponent Peggy Flannagan.
We'll talk about it right after this on the Scott
Jennings Show.

Speaker 6 (01:04:56):
Treat him to speak clearly with no leftist the scene.
This is the Scott Jenny Show.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Rounding out the show here on Wednesday, August the twelfth,
we keep focus on last night's primary elections and we
go back to Minnesota, the land of ten thousand Lakes,
but in recent months has become the land of ten
thousand cases of fraud, and that's going to be an
issue in this upcoming election in both the governor's race

(01:05:24):
and the Senate race. Let's focus on the Senate race.
The Democrats last night nominated the lieutenant governor, Peggy Flannagan,
and I'll just sum up Peggy Flannagan for you. She's
one of the most radical looney Tunes Democrats in America.
Republicans chose legendary sports broadcaster Michelle Tafoya to carry the
banner and the fall election, and she joins US Live

(01:05:46):
to discuss it. Michelle, Congratulations, you got nearly fifty two
percent of the vote in the Republican primary last night.
It wasn't even close. You won eighty out of eighty
seven counties. You come out of the primary with a
head of steam, and now it's time to take on
the radical socialists. How are you feeling today.

Speaker 4 (01:06:03):
We're thrilled. We are thrilled that our message resonated. Now
the real work begins, and we started first thing this morning.
You know, you just said it very very well. There
has been a crisis of leadership in the state of Minnesota,
and it has sent our state one thousand miles per
hour in the wrong direction. And that is because of

(01:06:25):
career politicians like Peggy Flanagan, who, as you mentioned, has
been by Tim Walls's side for the last eight years
and she has some very out of the mainstream views,
to say the least, and she has overseen this fraud,
not lifted a finger on fraud, barely said a word
on fraud. And is really it happened right under her nose.

(01:06:46):
It is her responsibility. She brought us to this place
of embarrassment along with Tim Walls. And I think Minnesotan's
already Scott to stand up and say, no matter what
our political stripe, unless we're extreme leftists, we want to
reclaim our state. We want to show our kids that
you got to hold these people accountable. You can't promote them,
and so here we are. We're going to be strong
and bring common sense to Washington on our state's behalf.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Flanagan has been one of the most outspoken supporters of
this trans ideology, letting boys play in girls' sports, putting
boys in girls' locker rooms. She's worn a T shirt
you know that says protect trans kids that had a
knife on it in some sort of a violent message there.

(01:07:31):
What do you make of that? I mean, she's obviously
leaning in to what is the most leftist radical ideology
going in American politics. Is that really going to fly
in Minnesota? I can't imagine most of your constituents up
there want this.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
No, I can't either. And this is a really an
eighty twenty eighty five to fifteen issue in Minnesota, not
only the sports angle, but just the trans angle of
subjecting children to this ideology.

Speaker 7 (01:07:58):
I mean, these are kids.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
I don't know if you heard the.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
Story recently about Tim Walls making room and the budget
for these dolls with removable parts where you could put
the privates wherever you wanted, and they are available for
kids from the age of four. It Scott the age
of four. Now, I remember my kids when they were four.
This is not the kind of thing we would ever

(01:08:20):
introduce to them. But this state, at least Saint Paul,
our government and Peggy flannagain think that's okay, and they
are pushing this ideology. Leave kids the hell alone. I mean,
let them go through there. You know, she said last night,
when kids tell us who they are, we should believe them.
And I'll just use the example of my son telling

(01:08:41):
me he was Darth Vader or a stormtrooper for years,
and we let him play the role when he was
at all and playing, but you know, we weren't going
to go do anything surgical about it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
Yeah, Democrats like Peggy Flannagan think you're four and five
year old need to know more about gender fluidity than
they do phonics. And that is a real problem, right,
And I mean, I mean, at some level, what is
it we're supposed to be teaching kids and they want
to focus on these gender issues. It's it's really outrageous.
We've got about a minute to go with Michelle Tafoya. Michelle,

(01:09:12):
I think your race last night emerged as one of
the great pickup opportunities for the Republican Party. I think
it's a sleeper race. A lot of folks are focused
on Michigan and some of the other states. I think
you have an excellent chance. There are people all over
the country who want to stop this radical socialist takeover
of America, and Flannagan is the poster child for if

(01:09:34):
they want to get in touch with you, how do
they do that?

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Just please follow us on every social platform. And then
there's Michelle Tafoya dot com. It's Michelle with one L
M I C H E L E Tafoya t A
f o ya get close in your Google bar and
it'll get you there. I'm sure Michelle Tafoya dot com.
We'd love to have volunteers, We'd love to have contributions.
We're going to need it. This is still an uphill battle.

(01:09:58):
This is Minnesota, after all. But I think I think
you're right. I think this is a very good pickup opportunity.
I heard from a number of people last night that
I'm very encouraged to have heard from, and they think
it's an opportunity to We're going to put everything we
have into this because Minnesota want to go where Peggy
Flanninger wants us to go.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Common sense Michelle Tafoya versus Crazy Peggy Flanagan. We'll be
tracking the race. Michelle, thanks for your time. We end
the show today, did come back tomorrow, and we thank
you for listening. It's Scott Jennings on Salem. See you