09 11 24 The morning after the debate conversation with SC GOP Chair Drew McKissick

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Jonathan and Kelly Show.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Jonathan Rush Wit a minute, I'm talking now, you know mine?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Please?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Does that sound familiar Kelly Nash?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
She's going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was
going to send her a maga hat the Jonathan and
Kelly Show.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh he had the best one liners of the night
for sure, Yeah he did. Now what was that in
Kamala's ear? Hmm, being openly dismissed and very quickly offhandedly
dismissed all across the internet. We can't talk about that
coming up in a minute. There it is, been waiting
on this perspective. It's the Jonathan and Kelly Double Secret

(00:35):
Probationary Hotline. Kelly Nash's walk up on the phone sc
G O P chair but Drew MCKISSI.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning, good morning, We're doing great.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is the morning after the Great Debate. Give me
your takeaways and then we'll ask you about whether a
second one's coming.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Well, yeah, I think it's. Uh, it was a debate
where both sides got some of what they want. I
don't think either side definitely got all of what they want. Uh,
you know, I think she had an answered, you know,
not as many questions on the economy or immigration. Is
I would have liked to have seen, you know, the
moderator getting do a very good job, in my opinion,
on pressing her on those issues, on flip flops on

(01:13):
a lot of issues that she's made within the last
several months, any issues that she's flipped loped on, it's
kind of a you've got a running scorecard now. Uh.
And you know, she she was was talking about stuff
that she hasn't tried since she's been vice president. And

(01:34):
I think one thing Trump did, I think very well
in the closing statement was pointing out, you know, Okay,
you've got all these great ideas, why haven't you been
doing any of this since she didn't vice president? You
haven't been talking about any of this. You haven't been
pressing you know, your president on this. And you know
answers obvious is, hey, you know it's time to try
to run in a general election. And yeah, she hasn't

(01:55):
competed for very much and much less, received one single
vote for rather than ever. And you know, now she's
trying to tailor her platform to suit the general election masses.
I think, you know, Trump, for his part, you know,
going into the debate. My point of my thought strategy
wise was, you know, no matter what one, don't take

(02:17):
debate because she's going to try debate you and to
talk about immigration, economy, inflation, and crime, rents, repeat back
and forth, back and forth. He obviously hit the immigration
issue a good bit, man. I think it's usually about
the number two, sometimes number one issue in most polls.
I think he took more of debate than he could
have seeing any let her get him a little bit rattle,

(02:40):
But at the end, I think both of them got
a little bit of what they want. But it might
increase the odds it was going to be a second debate.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
South Carolina GOP chairman Drew Machissic on the show, and
I'm glad to hear you not really attacking the moderators
this morning, because that seems to be when I'm on
right wing media today, that's pretty much the sole focus
is how bad the moderating was and how obviously biased
it was. We've heard for as long as you've been

(03:09):
a sports fan, you've heard if you're complaining about the referees,
then you've got bigger problems. But sometimes the referees are
bad people. I mean look at like, you know Tim Donahey,
he was the NBA ref. He ended up going to
jail because he was involved in gambling. So sometimes they
are very biased to the point where it affects the contest.
But in a bigger picture, Trump was was in a

(03:32):
three against one type of thing, but he knew that
going into it, as did the Republican Party. Uh do
you when he went down the rabbit hole? How did
you feel about that? I mean, when when she baited
him with that obvious and people are leaving his his
uh you know, his rallies early I was I was like, please,
don't don't go back, but he did? Did Did he

(03:55):
do a lot of damas to himself? Or is that
just something that more like people on our side are
picking up on it.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
I mean, obviously it bothers us because I think that
the main thing, the main issue is anytime you're not
talking about what you want to talk about, you're wasting time.
And so in that sense, that was that much less
time that he talked about the economy, crime, immigration in
place the things that she does not want to talk about.

(04:21):
You know, it's not to say that, you know, okay,
I see answering the question at some point. But you've
only got ninety minutes here in front of the American people,
So don't let her bate you into wasting time talking
about something that is not on that list.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
When he did talk about those issues, though, again he
pressed them home, know, as Holy Trump can do, and
it clearly got under her skin. I think, out of
the moderator's skin. There are a whole lot of folks
out there who are living this stuff, you know, every day,
and that's that's the thing. You know, that these are
issues that you don't have to convince people to care about.
They already care about these issues. And so in that sense,

(04:57):
he's fighting downhill whenever he is talking about those things,
and it's a problem for her. First strategy was try
to spend his little time talking about it by you know,
baiting him, diverting attention or rambling and running out the clock,
which she very frequently did. And I would say in
this case, the moderators did let her get away with
not coming back to the questions that they asked you

(05:19):
about the economists, where she would pivot and start running
out her two minute clock. You know, but she can't
complain about the other person's track. You have to focus
on what you can do and what you need to do,
and in my mind, that has continued to focus on
those issues like a laser.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I'm sure the Democrats were excited that she was able
to as she didn't really answer the question, but she
didn't offer up any word salads that she's been famous for,
and she didn't break out of the huge cackle only
a couple of times and she was able to contain it.
But I did laugh out loud when immediately after the
debate I heard I guess it was on MBC that

(05:55):
her committee wanted to go ahead and schedule the second debate,
and I'm thinking, okay, well, plainly they didn't get everything
they wanted because they've got to be able to get
their candidate to explain some of these issues exactly.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
That tells you right there that they know they didn't
get everything that they need. Clearly. There was a poll
came out a couple of days ago. I think it
was something like it was a New York Times poll
that over sixty percent of the folks in the country
want major change, major change. And then when they were
asked which candidate represents you know, the kind of what

(06:27):
they believe the major change is that they want or
they're looking for. I think it was forty five percent,
said Kamala Harris. Fifty two to fifty three percent said
Donald Trump. So you know, when you're the in company
administration and that many people want change, you've got a problem.
They've still got a sales job to do. I think
they clearly know that.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
And again Trump's strategy, Trump's priority, in my opinion, again
should be focusing on those issues that are at the
top of that list, over and over for the next
fifty was it six days or something like that, ad
knowledge until people are just sick of hearing about it.
If he does that, this is his election to lose
in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
South Carolina chairman for the GOP Drew McKissick. I, did
you talking about polls? I just heard one this morning
CNN poll after the debate. Ninety six percent of people
surveyed after the debate said it has no effect on
their voting. I believe that there's four percent out there

(07:25):
though who it doesn't you know, obviously four percent can
swing an election. The best thing that they got for
Kamala Harris last night was her favorability his sword from
thirty percent when she got into the race. She's now
according to the last night's debate results, she's up to
forty eight percent favorability. Do you think that that is

(07:48):
going to be enough for her to win this election?
Is just that she's more likable person than Donald Trump
to a lot of Americans?

Speaker 3 (07:55):
I would say, you know that if the election is
a personality contest, it's not the best ground that we
want to fight on. I mean, people that you know
love President Trump are the folks who you know don't
like his personality, like his policy. Some people let the
fact the personality get in the way of the policies,
uh and even discussing the policy. So you know, we

(08:15):
don't want this to be a personality contest. We want
this to be an issue contest and where people will
stand on those issues. And he's got a successful record
to actually hold up there on these issues, you know,
which he tried to do a few times last night,
whether it's the economy and how will it did in
jobs and you know, in controlling the border, and the
record you know on crime at the time before they

(08:36):
made the transition, So you know, that's that's his challenge
that was coming back and focusing on those things. And
you know, on the Democrat side, the problem is that
they have again being in the coming administration, she represents
the same policies essentially, but she's just a different salesman, uh.
And that's the problem they really have, and I think

(08:58):
they're going to try to focus it on personality to
be sure.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know, obviously, two of the biggest things talked about
going into the debate last night was can she bait him?
And will he bully her? And some of the conservatives
I've been hearing talking this morning, in particular, you're talking
about how the ABC guys really didn't hold her to
task on defunding the police, defunding ice, Medicare versus private insurance,
the tax plans, spending on housing small businesses, and tax

(09:25):
on tips, and that Trump should have brought those questions
to her and they were disappointed. And I'm like, but
was it that part of the debate rules that the
candidates could not question each other, and that would have
put ABC in the position where they could point out, sir,
you're you're not going to be the bully, You're not
going to be asking questions. We're asking questions.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
You're exactly right, and you know you hope, you wish
that moderators would do a little bit more very job,
but you know again is probably you know, we can't
count on that. That's why traditionally our candidates have to
be better, is because you're always a fighting against a
media which is rooting for the other side. I'm trying
to help them, but you know, in as far as
he can bring those these tes up and to make

(10:04):
her look mad by comparison, you know that selful. Uh.
And you know, if we go forward and we do
another debate, that would be I think fine. I followed
him when I would have done the debate was over,
and would be to accept a Fox News debate and say, look,
I'm gonna be and such as see with Fox News
and such us time I invite you to join me.
And you know that's that's the end of the conversation.

(10:26):
We're you doing this on Fox, We're not doing it. Uh.
And you know, let it go with that.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
South Carolina Gop Sherriman, Drew McKissick and uh, you know,
you talk about substance and it's really more about style.
With the Democrats, that was pretty painfully obvious. When Jen Saki,
the former spokesperson for the White House, said that the
debate was over, it was a wrap. As soon as
Kamala Harris shook Donald Trump's hand. That was a power move.

(10:55):
And she has already won the presidency by the handshake.
When you hear stuff like that, I mean, how do
you push back on that.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
One way is to do exactly what we're doing right
now is just laugh. I mean, yeah, look, okay, whatever.
You know, she shook his hand. Well, all right, fine,
you know, I mean, you know what people normally do
when you still walk out of states for a debate,
Usually they'll take one another's hand, like okay, we'll looked impolite,
not to I think, but you know, I mean that
certainly when you're talking about swing states around the country

(11:27):
like Pennsylvania and uh, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Georgia. Uh.
You know, this election isn't gonna turn on he shook
his hand. Uh. And you know that's another thing. This
election is not a national election. We've got about six
states that are on the tipping point one way or another.
I think Trump has a little bit of an edge,

(11:48):
but staying focused on those issues, and then the turnout
operation is what's going to get it done well.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Donald Trump, in his own words last night, said the
two biggest issues of the border and also our upcoming election.
And to the at that end, I know we can't
do anything about Pennsylvania, which is probably are a print
of the results. But for the state of South Carolina,
I know that we are woefully short of election poll workers.
How are we doing with encouraging persons to get involved
in What would you say to people who have the opportunity, Well, first.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Off, when it comes to poll watchers for Republicans here,
we're looking for people who want to do that, to
be poll watchers there at the polls on election day
as well as during an early voting period. You can
go to scgop dot com slash volunteer scgop dot com
slash volunteer if you want to be a poll watcher,
that's great. If you want to help us turn out

(12:37):
the vote, we're looking for that. Take your phone calls
and knocking doors. There's something for everybody to do. We
just need everybody to do a little bit more than
what they're doing right now. And also, by the way,
we're helping them with Georgia. You know, Republican turnout in Georgia.
I've been in communication with the state party chairman over there.
We don't have a state wide race this year, don't
have as much going on as we typically do an

(12:59):
election cycle, so we can send some manpower George's way.
Folks here can make turnout calls for Georgia as well.
To go to scgop dot com, slash volunteer and sign up.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
And Drew McKissick, you mentioned that we're looking good here
in South Carolina. We're not really a swing state, but there,
you know, are a lot of people who would still
like to support Republican candidates right now. What should they do?

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Well? Again, We've got, you know, a targeted number of
races here in South Carolina, state House and State Senate races,
some county wides stuff, But our real opportunity this year
is expand our majority in the State House and State Senate.
That's what we're focusing most of our time and resources
on here, but again needing volunteers to help do that. Also,

(13:43):
by the way, there are campaigns who are looking to
recruit paved door knockers. You want to make I think
it's twenty two dollars an hour. By the way, that
they're paying for a paid door knockers. If you guys
are looking for a side gig, you know you can
go to scgop dot com slash door as the goop
dot com slash door knockers. Sign up there we connect

(14:05):
you with those campaigns. If you know some college kids
or other younger folks, maybe they're out of college and
just have some free time. Making twenty two bucks an
hour knocking doors is a great way to spend some
free times.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
The GOP chairman, Drew McKissick, thanks, thank you for your time, sir.
I appreciate your insights from last night's debate.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Absolutely, I'll have a great one.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
So this is the morning after. Do you think we'll
have another morning after? As we've been talking about and
mentioned a few minutes ago, the possibility of a second debate.
He said it was open to it.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, he's positioning it as Kamala loss. That's why she
wants a second one. You know, I don't know why
she wants a second one. To be honest with you,
if I'm the Harris campaign, last night, when as good
as they could have ever hoped for in the sense
that she became more likable, not to me, but to

(14:55):
a lot of Americans. She did not seem in over
her head. She said numerous times, I have a lot
of I have a plan. Now. I did see some
people mocking that because there was an episode of The
Office I think it was where the guy was being
interviewed for the job and he was like, well, I
have a plan. They're like, well, can you tell us

(15:16):
your plan? And he's like, well, not till I have
the job. I can't tell you my plan. I have
the job, but trust me, it's a good plan, good point,
and you're going to want that plan, but I'm not
going to give it to you in advance. And that's
kind of where she is. She doesn't have a plan. Look, honestly,
most people I think who are critical thinkers would say
her plan should be the same plan that Joe Biden

(15:38):
has had, because that's what she signed up for. She
was further to the left of Joe Biden in those
debates back in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, So why would
she be if the mood of the country is we
need significant change, Why would you want the person who's
been co signing this current plan.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
The timing I thought was interesting on this Maybe this
is a tail as well. You have the biggest endorsement,
certainly on the internet, one of the biggest endorsements you'll get.
Stopped off this morning pretty early into the coverage on
MSNBC to point out that Taylor Swift had endorsed Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Was that I thought she had already done that. I
thought so too, but she typed it up and put
it on the social media yesterday.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Exactly so officially, when you know, unless Taylor Swift is
somehow magically going to be able to perform at about
three thousand polling sites in seven different states at the
same time, I don't really see that moving the needle.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, I mean, I mean, it's not like it's going
to hurt her. No, it doesn't hurt in the least.
Anytime you get an endorsement. That's a nice thing. I
did a kind of chuckle.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Was that bigger than the list Cheney endorsement?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was it bigger than Elon Musk's I don't know, but
I did chuckle at the way she said, I've done
my research, as if there was an opportunity where maybe
in her research she would have just worn herself over
to Trump, that there was this possibility, Boddy, the Taylor
Swift was a suddenly going to be a Trump star.
That's a great point.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
I've done my researchy.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah she did it. That sounds like a Kamala answer,
you know.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
The thing that that amazed me. And maybe this will
I can't imagine there's gonna be a second debate, but
if there is, maybe this will prove the point. It
seemed like that watching Kamala and watching Trump, knowing all
the verbiage that has surrounded this debate prior to the opening,
and we kind of knew where ABC was going to

(17:35):
come in on this. I mean, come on, you're talking
about ABC. So if they're going to fact check anybody,
it's going to be Trump. So you know what the
environment is going to be, like, you've already gotten the
heads up they're going to try it all. Rather, so
they wanted the microphones open so she could come in
and say her famous line like she used with pints.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
In fact, the Trump beat her to it was amazing.
That was great.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
I just it just it just seemed like this is
a great side by side comparison of someone who's coachable
and someone who's not. And I just wish that somebody
would have walked in the room prior to the debate,
several days prior and said, look, even Tiger Woods as
a swing coach, we got people in the room that
can help you make sure that you're positioned so that

(18:17):
when you take the stage, you would not miss the
opportunity like she took full advantage of. She nearly ran
across the stage to shake his hand first. But it
was those kind of nuances. I think that probably if
anything between the non answers, if anything is going to
play into the independence that we're viewing, it would have
been the side by side facial expressions. Rachel matto first

(18:39):
thing out of her mouth last night was that we
were all admonished and that we should have known. As
a television executive taught her decades ago, when you have
a situation like this, the best way to view it
is with the volume off.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean, think about what she just said, Uh huh,
watch the debate with the volume off and just look
at their faces to decide who's winning. And that's what
what an insane thing to say, But really not a surprise.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
And then, strangely enough, she didn't even draw the comparison
in the nineteen sixty debate between Nixon and jfk.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Well and for I think most people know that story,
but basically it was a survey of people who heard
it on the radio thought Nixon won, people who saw
the television broadcast thought that Kennedy won. And so, yes,
appearances do matter. But reality is that Kamala Harris has
to figure out a way still in my opinion, to

(19:36):
separate herself from Joe Biden. She can go up in
the polls. She might get a bump from this. I
don't know if she will or she won't. But Trump
has been the one over the last week or two
that has been starting to trend and separate himself from her.
You'll see a couple of polls every now and again.
I like to call him outliers because that's not the
majority of polls, but they're the ones that will be
cited by the mainstream media where Kamala Harris is suddenly

(20:00):
hide or ahead in a swing state. The reality of
it is, even in the nationwide vote, Donald Trump still
in the lead as of this morning. You haven't had
a Republican win the nationwide vote and forever, I mean
it was George Bush. The laws want to do like that, so,
uh said George W. Bush. Yeah, I don't even know
that he did it, so it might not have happened

(20:22):
this century. Republicans don't win the popular vote, but they
do win the ones that matter, the electoral college. And
right now Trump is, in my opinion, looks like he's
he's leaning towards close to three hundred electoral votes.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Now, as we mentioned a minute ago, and Kelly points
out correctly, Taylor Swift's endorsement is huge on the internet,
but it's not just the universe of the Internet that
was viewing last night. As you saw in some of
the focus groups, some of the elderly people or some
of the older people, not elderly, some of the older
people are not even online, so they don't even know.
And then the news coverage on the main street channels

(20:59):
is one of the make sure they used that particular
point about the reference having to do with illegal immigrants
eating dogs and cats.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
When they say it's been debunked, like when you saw
what's his name from California yesterday basically crying in this inwell, yeah, swallwell,
and he's like, this has been a long ago debunked story. Well,
first off, Eric, it didn't even become a story till
this weekend, So it couldn't have been long ago debunked
because it wasn't even a story. Secondly, as Donald Trump

(21:29):
pointed out, it's appearing in local television news. It's not
like it's just YouTubers. Although there's a bunch of YouTubers
who are posting interviews that they're doing as well with
local citizens who are complaining. And I mean, look, I'm
not a huge duck lover, but if I took my
kids to the pond to feed the ducks and somebody

(21:50):
snatched one and beheaded it in front of my children,
I would be quite upset as well. So I don't
blame them for being upset and wanting to get that
story out. And like Donald Trum pointed out, I'm also
not surprised that the city manager for was at Springfield, Ohio,
decided to say, we don't have any credible reports of that.
That's probably in your best interest to say that it's not.

(22:12):
In fact, it's not reality. But that's in your best
interest to say.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
That, Oh I was looking forward to paraphrase out of
a few good, do we have any evidence at all
that illegal immigrants were eating cats? You mean other than
the fur on her lips? The reference. Now that's bubbling up.
And I didn't even see Thista earlier this morning that
the ear ring she was wearing is actually an ear piece.
I had no idea nova Hi is the designer name

(22:39):
of that. Now, of course that was quickly dismissed. She
didn't have any ear She was not communicating. But in
the same article where they pointed out she was certainly
not communicating with her staff, they went on to dissect
the rules that the staff would not have communication with
them on the podium, and in particular, not even during

(23:00):
the commercial breaks. So there was a carve out there
in their own defense. It was kind of like when
you heard David Muir last night, in the first three
seconds say that ABC has shared none of the questions
with either one of the candidates. I literally laughed out
loud when he said that in the intro. Why else

(23:21):
would you say that in the intro?

Speaker 1 (23:25):
You mean because they did share it with the Harris campaign. Yeah,
just not the candidates.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
And then at the very beginning. I'm speaking of the
beginning of the debate. I hadn't thought about this this
last night. In his very first question to Kamala Harris,
did he screw up and say that when when President Trump,
when you and President Trump were elected in twenty twenty,
did he say Trump instead of Biden? De mure say that.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
It slipped by me if he did. Okay, all right,
any but look here to your point about the theatrics
of it all, because that's basically what we're saying, Kamala
Harris is better at reading scripts than Donald Trump. We
also know that AOC won her election basically by winning
an audition. They had an audition. You can go look
that up in Brooklyn. Was it now about eight years ago?

(24:15):
Where she won that who can deliver these lines the
most passionately? She won it, and then that group decided
to put her forward for the Democrat nomination. She shocked
the incumbent, and that was based on the groundswell of
support because she's a great actress. So if you're somebody
right now, a young person considering a career in politics,
if you want to become a Democrat, you need to

(24:36):
study theater. If you want to become a Republican. You
need to study policy. I'm hoping I'm not one hundred
percent sold on this yet, that the Americans of today,
much like the Americans of previous generations, are going to
base their choices on who has the best policies, not
who can deliver the lines the best. That's a dangerous game,

(25:00):
I get it. And if I'm wrong on that, that
I'm wrong on that, and we've and we lose the
country for the most part, we then become a country
of theatrics that goes towards socialism. So but they, I mean, yes,
they have a plan. The plan is we are going
to wow you with our our great ability to read lines.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
And don't be surprised if you actually see my formerly
talented and left at Kamalala Camagala hat