06-27-24 Interview - Benjamin Allbright Previews Tonight's CNN Presidential Debate

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Ben Albright. I'm Mandy Connell.Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the second
hour of the show. And tonightat six pm we are going to do
and this is where we got todo the tonight special rule. Where's the
trailer guy when you need him?No, Tonight at six o'clock, we
are doing a debate, a debatepregame. Yeah, we're doing a pregame
show. We're gonna, you know, talk about We're gonna use a lot

(00:21):
of sports cliches like they're gonna leaveit all on the field. Absolutely gonna
gi it. Yeah, he's allTonight guy exactly. And Ben Albright is
going to be a part of this. Now. Ross and I philosophically are
very close. There's a few areaswhere he and I differ. But how
would you self describe yourself politically?How do you self identify? I identify

(00:42):
as a centrist with libertarian underpinnings,but I tend to be I'm kind of
all over that. There's some thingsI agree with the liberals on. There's
some things I agree with the conservativeson. There's some things I agree with
the libertarians on. I think anythingthat your roads freedom is generally a bad
call. All right, So that'syou know that, That's kind of where
I come down. I'm not ideologicallyanything. I don't like dogmatic. I'm

(01:03):
not dogmatic in anything like that.I try to view each individual issue as
you know, does this issue's what'sthe best thing for the most amount of
people in this particular issue. Iand somebody asked me what my political philosophy
is, and it really it comesdown to one simple question. When I'm
talking about or thinking about an issue, does this make us less free or
more free? Like that's my startingposition, Like is this going to create

(01:26):
an undew burden on citizens who otherwiseshouldn't have that? And so I think
that maybe you're a little closer tome than I realized you were. I
thought you were at some point Ihad the impression that you were like a
wack of do to liberal. ButI don't think you've ever really been a
whack a doo to liberal. No, and people people have called me all
kinds of things. I've worked forboth parties. Is an independent contractor.

(01:49):
I worked for the Wesley Clark campaignand I worked for the My Cockabee campaign,
both in data and analytics. I'vevoted for both parties. I don't
tend to endorse too many candidates,but you just dedicated it on that.
I endorse in crying and so youknow I've done both. I voted independent
in twenty sixteen, I voted forpresident, voted Democrat in the last election

(02:12):
for president. I'll probably do itagain this one. But that's not an
indictment of conservativism at all. It'sthat part pursse. But I think that
if you don't see yourself and Itotally get that, you don't see yourself
as a party idea log because Idon't really see myself as a party idea
log. But I feel like atthis point in Colorado, especially with the

(02:32):
current makeup of the Colorado Republican Party, you got two choices. You can
either step out of the party,which I tried to do in a fit
of peak, or you can say, you know what, let's just let's
see if we can fix this,because in Colorado especially, we need balance.
We need I'm not saying we needto have a fully Republican House and

(02:53):
Senate and governorship. What I'm sayingis we've got to put the brakes on
some of the worst ideas that's onthe right and the left. I think,
yeah, I think we need peopleof integrity to be in there that
you know. I mean, Ican't say incorruptible, because everybody's succepted on
some level, and there are compromisesyou have to make in politics to get
things done, but people of integritywho view how do we get things done?

(03:15):
We all, all of us wantto improve American We all want this.
Is not us against that, andthere's this dialogue that we've created where
it's this red team, Blue team, us against it. We're all Americans.
We all want the best for America. We just disagree fundamentally on how
to get there. And so Ithink if we can start creating constructive dialogues,
and I want people in there whocould have constructive dialogue and do that.
Let me run this by you,because this is something I've been like

(03:37):
pondering around in my head for alittle while. It's interesting because when I
was a kid, so I wasa child of the eighties, and you're
little behind me, not nearly tenyears behind me. Yeah, so you're
I grew up during the Reagan administration. When you're a little kid, you
don't really pay attention. But evenback then I was aware of. You
would have an issue, whatever theissue might be, and then you have
a lot of conversations on the eveningnews that we had to watch, where

(04:00):
they would all talk about it,and then they would all make a big
announcement they'd come to a compromise andthey had worked out the situation, and
everybody's like, oh, oh,that's so good, that's so good,
you worked it out. Everybody compromised. Now, compromises a dirty word,
right, And I think the onlypeople that are to blame for that is
the politicians who demagogue each other.So when you do compromise and maybe get

(04:21):
something done, everybody on either sidefeels like they got cheated somehow because the
other team got anything. But isn'tthat the side of a hallmark compromise that
everybody felt they lost? You know, I mean that's not okay in politics
now there is some game we're likeany win for you is a loss for
me, instead of how do wemake this work so everybody gets as much

(04:45):
as they can hope to get whilestill solving the problem. Right. And
you know what, if I werea policy you know, the first thing
I would do is if I werepressent I would find the person who most
disagrees with me. I'd go tothe center, find the person that most
disagree with me on everything, andfind one issue, one issue that I
know we agree on and I workwith want it immediately, Let's get stuffed
done. See that's very Dave ofyou. Like have you ever seen the
movie Dave? Okay, so oneof the things like Dave is Dave.

(05:08):
First of all, it's a greatmovie. I just watched it maybe six
months ago, and it stands upand it's fantastic. So in it,
the actual president who has a completeahole, has a massive stroke and they
find a guy who looks like himand they basically replace him with replacement Dave
because they think they can just pullthe strings. But it turns out replacement
Dave is actually one who wants tocompromise and solve problems and all of these
things. But I don't think thatespecially the politicians who have been in office

(05:32):
in DC for so long. I'mnot talking about anybody who's been there less
than five or six years. Theold Guard. This is the game that
they set up, These are therules that they wrote, and by God,
by golly, they're gonna live bythem, and they don't give a
crap what you do. They're soentrenched in these positions. I don't know

(05:53):
how to fix that, that isthe question. And there is such a
a jaded, nihilist, extensive defeatthat a lot of the younger generations which
is staying out of politics, feelsbecause of this wall that was created by
them. And so the people thatwe get now that are running for these
offices a lot of times are notthe most qualified or even qualified to run
for them. They're people that arepower hungry, narcissistic, whatever, and

(06:15):
they're they're leaning into, hey,I can get this and turn it into
a book deal after, you know, after sitting there building a brand,
right, Yeah, that's exactly thenew There's a new wave of politicians that,
to me, are building a brand, and I don't like that.
That is, I want people whoare called to serve. I want people
who feel like they can make apositive difference. But even those people,
you know, I've been in thisbusiness for a really long time and I've

(06:38):
seen many, many, many peoplethat I supported at at you know,
every level, whether it's state,local, or at the federal level.
And going to d C changes peoplefaster than any other. Very much like
life move that they can make.I watched it happen real time, in
real time. With all with alldue respect to former Governor Mike Huckabee,
he was a phenomenal governor in Arkansas. He was an absolute phenomenal governor.

(07:00):
And I personally don't like the personthat he's become. I don't like some
of the things that he says.Now I still agree with him on some
things, but there are other things. I'm like, Man, you've gone
along, you've changed from who youwere. Yeah, But being a governor
does not often always translate to beingin DC, because being a governor,
you are the big cheese, right, You're the one, You're the guy,

(07:20):
you're the buck stops here. Andit's much more challenging I think in
DC because of the amount of horsetrading that still goes on on a daily
basis. Well, yeah, itis constantly going on. There, constantly
deals being struck, There's constantly conversationsthat are happening. And I think it's
more challenging when you've been the executiveto go make that job unless you are

(07:45):
president, right, And if you'represident, all's well, right, because
you are the top figure head andall that. Yeah, no, I
agree with that, and that's againI'm not trying to disparage you know,
former government howckemy. I just he'schanged significant. I watched it happen in
real time with referring to your Washingtonchanges people. It does, and it's
really I think that Washington, DCis by far the most corruptible or corrupting

(08:07):
city in the world as far asI can tell, because when people go
up there, man, they startto breathe that rarefied air, they start
to wear that congressional pin on theirjacket, and people open doors for them
and offer them a great table ata restaurant and many get They like that,
Ben, They'll like it a lot. So what are you expecting from
tonight's debate? Well, I don'tknow if what I'm expecting, I'm hoping

(08:28):
to see because this is a verythis is a unique debate. This is
interesting because energy for both these candidatesis at a historic low, and so
what you see is they do havetheir fervent bases and whatever else, but
that the white swath of Americas isvery I'm holding my nose and voting for
one of these guys. Right,And so I think what this debate needs

(08:48):
to do is have somebody convince oneof the two has to convince the largest
swath of the American public that holdingyour nose for me is less bad than
holding your nose for the other guy. And I think these two both need
to hammer home specifically at economics,talking about even though the economic underpinnings in
America are very good right now we'reup on Wall Street that you know,
the now all this kind of stuff, it's good, inflation is still at
a high and prices at the registerare still high, and that matters.

(09:09):
The pittis are good if you know, Joe Mama is going to the to
the store and has to pay,you know, one hundred dollars for a
cumber, which is real. Butyou get the point and what the causes
are behind that, because I don'tthink we're doing a very good job delineating
that the number one cause behind inflationisn't who's president, it's energy costs.
Energy costs make up three percent ofwhat inflamation is though, because and this

(09:30):
is an area where Biden and Trumpare almost interchangeable, because government spending being
out of control is a massive driverof inflation, and so we've got to
fix that. And neither of theseguys have a good track record. And
that's the other thing economically, likewhat is your economics package to do that?
Because Trump, who a lot ofpeople view as the economics guy,
is economics are protectionism and tariffs,which are inherently inflationary policy. So you

(09:52):
know, we need I need themto delineate better how you're going to solve
this because what you've put out sofar is not that well. I'm hopeful
and and we'll see hopeful, we'llsee if it actually matters. Steve Moore,
who I talk to a lot onthe show Economists, and he's on
Trump's economic advisory team, and Iask him every time I talk to him,
I'm like, Steve, tell me, is the president actually going to
listen on government spending? And he'slike, look, we're hammering at home

(10:16):
every opportunity we get. So we'llsee what happens. But it's going to
be fascinating to see them try todifferentiate themselves because what I hear from the
Biden campaign is we're gonna invest inAmerica, which means more spending. Right
when I think there's a real weaknessthere when you look at how some of
the things that they have aggressively wantedto spend money on it that simply have
not happened well, and some ofthem are goods. There are inherent investments

(10:39):
in America and government spending that arebelieve it or not good. Infrastructure spending
is a good thing. It providesa boost to the economy, it boosts
our infrastructure. Obviously he's actually spenton infrastructure, but that's not then what
do we get right? So we'reon the same page as far as that
kind of stuff goes. I thinkthat the other part of this is messaging.
The Democrats are horrific at messaging.By the Biden administration has accomplished a
few good things. You wouldn't hearanything about it because they're terrible on the

(11:01):
messaging. Now on the Trump sideof the House, they they've fallen victim
to one of the worst things theyhave it sandbagged Biden for this, uh,
this debate. They've basically been tellingyou how terrible he's gonna be,
that you should have been setting thebar so high, changed himself up on
the podium that he's won. It'sand I'm saying I'm like, dude,
have you guys, have you guysnot ever paid attention to sand bagging Bill
Clinton was one of the greatest stepswhere he labeled himself the comeback kid,

(11:24):
even he hadn't come back from anything. Well, the best part about that
is, like in the last twodays, Trump's like, wait, now,
he's a very formidable tell you justright the message. Yeah, they
realized that Biden's the bar was lyingon the ground right, Yeah, he
doesn't even have lift his foot up. Let's trip over it. It'll be
fine. But you're right about that. I mean, you see it in
sports all the time where the coachthey ask about the opponent could be the

(11:45):
worst football team in the history offootball team. They'll be like, well,
you know their defense is coming onand we've got to really pay attention
to that. One of the greatestoffends every team they were playing was the
greatest. They're playing Citadel and it'sthe greatest team. It is the sand
bag your opponent, so that youset yourself up that. I think the
two main things I want to seetonight is a cogent and on point Joe
Biden that shows that he is ableto lead a country that the faculties are

(12:07):
there. And on the other side, Donald Trump, clip your answers,
you can keep the singers in.Stop with the weird rambling stuff because people
transcribe that and then they're like,well, wait a minute, you're talking
about this guy and not being cogent. Yes, want to clip your answers,
be concise, that's all you needto do. Well, neither of
them can afford to get angry.That we already know that because neither of
them do angry very well. Soit's going to be very interesting to see

(12:28):
how this debate format comes across,because this debate format could actually suck the
error out out of the room alittle bit because it's so controlled. Why
did the Republicans agree to know audience, well, we talked about well,
I don't know if that was.They did not want to Multiple Texters said
that Trump addressed this on Hannity andthey did not want to say no to

(12:50):
any sort of any sort of nobecause they knew the Biden administration would be
used on Yeah, we want todebat, So they basically were like,
bring it wherever you want to meet, you want to meet by the tether
ball court, Let's do it.They were just the idea of muting the
mics. I don't like the ideaof not having a live audience because it
does change the aposophere. The mutingof the mics. We were talking about
this earlier with Ross is super interestingto me because of the potential for Trump

(13:15):
to get under Biden's skin or Bidento get under trump skin with those under
the breath comments, we won't beable to hear right right, but yeah,
you'll see the reaction across the stage. That has potential. And one
of our texters earlier today said thathe wants Trump to just like write down
on his notepad, like I'm asuper I think that's what a lot of

(13:39):
people are tuning in for, sortof the car crash, the PT barn
and part of it, like what'sgoing to go wrong? How is this
going to just fly off the rails? And so I mean, I I
was the championship debater in high school. This is a different Chilay no way,
you know, this is different.Obviously there's no informal, formal logic
rules and things like that here,so we won't have those kinds of things.

(14:00):
But I enjoy this kind of stuff. I do a Joye. One
of my favorite debates of all time, and if you get to go back
and watch it was Romney versus Obama. Obama is very eloquent, and people
said he won that debate, butif you go watch it now, yeah,
Mitt Romney was right about everything,literally everything, and so it's funny
to look at those in hindsight.The Obama presidency was always style over substance.

(14:22):
I totally agree with it. Sothat debate was lost because the moderators
decided that Mitt Romney was wrong andcorrected him even though he was actually writing
about all of the points that hemade. So all right, guys,
so tonight, here's what we're doing. Then we're doing six to seven pregame,
and I would love people in mylistening audience. I need your need
a favorite folks. We need tocreate our first CNN presidential debate Bingo card,

(14:46):
so we can all have a Bingocard. And what I was thinking
is I will get a bunch ofthings that should be on the Bingo card,
and then I will create three Bingocards and I'll just put him down
and you will all take one withoutlooking at it. Okay, right,
So then we'll play bing go duringthe debate and see who who comes in
first. So degenerate that I am. You could bet on some of these
things at sports books. Oh yeah, I already has. That's on Trumps

(15:11):
witch hunt. Oh yeah, andI am uh come on, man,
come on man, each one ofthose I've got to I got a little
little bet on to have a littlefun. Hey, I'm writing those both
down right now. We got whichtime we got? Come on, man,
so add those to the there there, they're there. I'm gonna guess
convicted Felon makes an appearance. Ohinteresting. See. I think they'll avoid

(15:33):
that. I think they'll I thinkthey'll use subtext on that one. Rather
think he brings it right at him. I think he brings it right at
him because they have to figure outand well, yeah, but they have
to figure out if that's a goodattack line. They have to And this
is all about messaging going forward,right. I just think, like,
if I'm advising on this, I'msaying you keep your hands clean. You
never say that to the candidate,but your operatives say it. We say

(15:54):
it in the spin room afterwards.I think that Joe Biden does not like
the perception that even though they're almostthe same age that people still perceive Trump
to be much more virile and vigorright. So Biden doesn't like that.
So I think there's part of himthat is going to want to come out
and try and show his toughness.And I don't know if he's going to

(16:15):
be able to resist the convicted Fellonton. Well, I don't know. I
would advise against that. We'll seehow We'll see how that goes. Okay,
people are already taking you to taskall the tax fine I know for
saying that Biden accomplished some good things. Yeah, and I'll say this,
like to anybody listening right now,if you can't name two things that that
your opponent has done, you're biased. I can name think good things that

(16:36):
Trump did, even though I personallydon't like him. I don't like his
style. I don't like the waythat he does things. Uh. He
was great on marijuana. He wasgreat with the releasing of the with the
felons, the overhauling the justice thing, he was great with. He created
that you can if you decide thatyou need certain medication, that you want
to do certain things. He helpedpay the right to try right, the

(16:57):
right to try. Yeah, Sothere was still a lot of things I
think that he did to foster libertyin some of those things. And I,
again, I have absolutely no problemwith saying positive things that my opponent
does. I think that. Ithink that's a good thing. I think
we should all be able to dothat. In fact, I challenge everybody
to night. Find two things youliked that whomever you don't support said in
that debate. Find two things forthat, and kid, keep yourself grounded

(17:18):
with that. Okay, so wewant your bingo cards. Suggestions what is
going to happen to tonight's debate thatshould be on the bingo cards. You
can text those to five six sixnine. Oh, I was thinking about
doing this tomorrow. I'm kind ofnew. I'm kind of thinking about this.
What about a rod tomorrow because we'llprobably maybe have another pair of tickets
for MKOTV right tomorrow night. Sowhy don't we have a limerick contest?

(17:40):
If you watch the debate tonight,write yourself a limerick. It's super easy.
There once was a man from Nantucket. No, we don't do that
one. You know, most peopledon't know how the rest of that goes.
You don't want me to say onyour let's say it on the radio,
I'll say it on the Facebook card. I was probably like thirty before
I knew what the rest of itwas. I don't run and roll those
kind of circles, but I didthose kinds of heel. I'm standing properly,

(18:03):
I know, I know. Yeahanyway, so I'm thinking about but
I love limericks, so I mightdo a limerick contest to win tickets.
We don't know. I just wantpeople to watch the debate tonight, and
it's because I want Here's the thing. It's very frustrating to me when people
will like tune in to this showor Ross's show or whatever a week before

(18:25):
the election and basically send an emailsaying, well, who do I vote
for? Erware that do a littledue diligence, Like I could absolutely tell
you to vote for it, andI'd love for you to vote for the
people that I recommend. But isthat really a thriving civic society? Is
that really us doing our role?It always kills me when people talk about

(18:45):
their rights but they never talk abouttheir responsibilities and being an informed voter as
one of them. So there yougo, Hey, Rod, check the
text line. We got a textyou might need to look at their Mandy,
I thought you became an independent.You sure sound like a Republican.
Maybe you're in, I know,independent in name only, no fun fact.
This is fine. So after DaveWilliams was elected the chairman of the

(19:07):
GOP, I went to my computerand then a fit of peak, I
tried to change my party affiliation.Thought I did, and did not until
I got my primary ballot and itwas just the Republican and I was like,
so I went back in check.So I didn't toggle something, I
didn't hit submit. I don't knowwhat I did. Oh, I love
that you had crank on again.I don't know. He's a great guy.
I mean, he's a really greatguy. Smart and that's it.
He has integrity. So I'm happythat he came out of that in the

(19:32):
fifth. I think he's going toend up going to Congress barring any you
know, insane October surprise, andthat will be good for the fifth Congressional
district because he lives there and lovesit and knows what they need down there.
Ye. So, and that's reallyall you want. So nobody wins.
It's stupid. Yeah, hopefully somethingconstructive positive. I'll hear the highlights.
I'm sure you will hear the highlights. Low lights too. Then all

(19:53):
right, i'll see at six o'clocktonight. No people in pants? Right?
No pants? I have pants onright now? Do have? But
there I went to the yacht rockconcert, so it was kind of like
a little bit yacht rock to yeahYeah. I wanted to carry it over,
carry the vibe. Normally, whenpeople say, you know, normally
they specifically tell me I have towear pants. So this is a departure
with no pants. This is nopants night. It's going to be popcorn.

(20:15):
It's going to be a lot offun. So we'll do that a
little bit later. That has beenall bright