March 4, 2026 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Luck and Load from Michael Verie Show is on the air.
That American dream is slipping away. I don't have to
tell you that you're feeling your lives. You see in
your shrinking wages, in the cost of everything from groceries
to healthcare, to college to filling.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Up your car at the gas station.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It keeps going up and up and up, and the
future keeps receding further and further and further away. That
really speaks to a lot of pessimism here about the
American dream. How it feels like it's out of region.
You know, home ownership for too many people in our
country now is elusive. You know, gone is the day
of everyone thinking they could actually live the American dream.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm here today with a message of hope for all Americans.
With your vote in this election, I will end inflation,
I will stop the invasion, and I will bring back
the American dream.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When you're not starng and I'll me you pray now,
help you can. We're winning by a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're leading by a lot, We're leading.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
In the balls.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Every single state looks like we are. And with your
supporter November fifth, America will.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Be bigger better, boulder, richer, safer, and stronger than ever before.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
When you're not small, and I'll be your brain. I'll
help you can.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
For those who abandoned hope, we'll restore hope, and we'll
welcome them into a great national crusade to make America
great again.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And that's why I'm here today, That's why I'm standing
before you, because we are going to finish what we start.
That we started something that was America. We're going to
complete the mission. We're going to see this battle through
to ultimate victory.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
We're going to make America great again.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
No need somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This election is a choice between whether we will have
a four think of this.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Four more years. I could you stand it. It's four
more years of.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Incompetence, stupidity, and failure and disaster, or whether we will
begin the four greatest years in the history of our country.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I think we have a real chair make America great again.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And quite simply put, we will very quickly make America
great again.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
We broadcasting as I do from Houston, Texas. We are
today a bit the day after the Super Bowl. We
had our big primary yesterday, and that means that everybody
who does what I do, and every activist, candidate, consultant, operative,
(03:24):
and a lot of odors are today a bit beleaguered.
We've been in the throes of primary season. It was
the first primary of the year Texas, Arkansas, and I
think North Carolina had primaries yesterday. A number of races
will go to runoffs, and unfortunately those runoffs are way
(03:49):
down the road, ten weeks away, and that's, in my opinion,
a terrible thing because people lose interest. It also means
that you spend a lot of your time in an
election year where the most important wins are in November,
you spend another two and a half months with two
(04:11):
Republicans beating each other up. And that costs a lot
of money. Speaking of money, John Cornyn, who is a
four term US Senator, he would end if he's reelected,
he would end at eighty years old. He would be
in the Senate. And you know, President Trump is seventy nine.
(04:33):
But President Trump is a very different seventy nine than
John Cornyn. But John Cornyn was on the ballot and
he had two challengers, the Attorney General Ken Paxton and
Congressman Wesley Hunt, and Cornyn actually surprisingly led going into
the runoff just barely over the Attorney General Ken Paxton
(04:58):
and Wesley Hunt, who ended in third, ended up with
fewer votes than expected, but partly because Cornin unloaded on
Wesley Hunt. He made it his campaign. DC made it
very personal and very nasty. Now do you think Wesley
(05:19):
Hunt is likely to then help Cornyn go back to
the Senate to do that again, or do you think
he is motivated now to help Ken Paxton, our very
popular attorney general win the Senate seed we are about
to witness in the state of Texas, what I would
argue is going to be the nastiest primary campaign that
(05:44):
we have ever seen because, and I'll tell you the basis,
Washington d C just spent more money on John Cornyn,
the very unpopular senator from Texas who's been there for
four terms, just spent more money on his campaign than
has ever been spent on a primary campaign, non presidential
primary campaign in American history by far. Do you know
(06:08):
why they spent so much money? They have to, So
that's money that can't be used in November to beat
the Democrats. That's money that can't be used in swing
states where we want to beat Republic, where we want
to beat vulnerable Democrats and Senate races. Oh no, no, no,
the National Republican Senatorial Committee diverted all that money where
(06:31):
a water hose would have been a fine contribution for
them to make for one of their own. He's part
of the club to send him back to DC.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
But no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
They spent a record amount of money trashing Wesley Hunt
and Ken Paston to get John Cornan in the runoff.
And what they ought to do, because now the runoff
will be lower turnout, what they ought to do is
go all right, The people of Texas don't like Cornyn.
(07:01):
We knew that, the people of taxes that they booed
him at the state convention. The polls show they didn't
like him. We spent a fortune and he can't win.
He didn't. We're gonna we're not going to put good
money after bad. But that's not how they operate. They
(07:23):
operate to win. Because remember, this is the important thing
you must never forget. And I can tell by your
emails that many of you forget this. Politics and government
is not for the machine, about the wealth creation of
our nation, the safety and security of our nation, the
comfort of our people. It is a business for them,
(07:50):
it is about power and money. They will use you
and your emotions so much so that you might actually
even occasionally think they believe as you do, but they
do not. Never, never forsake your spotty senses that these
people are out for themselves and they've got to defend
(08:12):
John Cornyn. They just have to because they own him
and they can't own Ken Paxt Michael Arry Show enjoy it.
She sounds like early Cydney Lauper unshibled. And that's not
(08:32):
a compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I know.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh it's Gwen Stefani. Okay, it's kind of cute. And
is that the one Blake Shelton got with. Isn't she
older than him? You know, there's a thing about that,
like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore back back in the day,
like where a woman was hot and then you meet
up with her later and I think you're still kind
(08:57):
of in love with or in luss with with the
you know who she was some number of years ago. Yeah,
there's something to be said for that. So the Iran
strikes are big in the news, and I want to
I want to talk about something because we have the midterms.
(09:20):
It's November and I kind of just I don't have
an answer to it, but I just want to talk
generally about something and put it on your plate to
think about. You're a talk radio listener, Therefore you're not
the average voter. You're far more informed, far more informed
(09:46):
than the average person. And that's because you You're far
less likely to go to a concert than somebody who
listens to top forty station. Right You're There's there's a
lot that goes into that. It's the demographic and the
behavioral patterns. You're a person who pays attention to the
(10:08):
political scene, and that's why you listen to talk radio.
But the votes will be cast in November by more
than just us, and so the question will be what
will people who are not tuned into what's going on,
how will they vote? So you know that the strikes
(10:30):
in Iran, I think that the president believes they're in
our best interests. Whatever you may believe about that, I
think he does believe they're in our best interest. I
think that he genuinely cares about the security of our
nation and the world. I think he genuinely believes, legitimately
(10:51):
believes that a weakened Iran is better for the region
and for America. I think he does believe those things.
I think that it was not hard for him to
get to the stage where he felt comfortable authorizing the strikes.
(11:18):
I think we've had a loss of life. We've had
a loss of life of less than ten so far,
and that's not nothing. But it's not the same as
putting boots on the ground. Is It is tolerable, not acceptable,
but tolerable. People are not going to scream and holler
that you're getting our kids killed at six, probably, although
(11:43):
I think it comes off as callous if you don't
appear to care deeply about it. Now, there was a
flippant comment he made about boots on the ground, and
my spidy senses star to tingling, and my hair on
the back of my neck went up. And the reason
(12:05):
is because Donald Trump is at heart not a warmonger.
And he is the only president in my lifetime who
did not, sorry Carter would qualify. He is the only
president in my lifetime other than Carter, who I think
does not secretly fantasize about being a wartime president. Clinton
(12:30):
would say as he was leaving the White House that
his great regret was that he would not be tied
to a military moment, because presidential moments of greatness are
tied to our military and victory. It was like he
was coaching the team during the off season and couldn't
win the Super Bowl. That is the way these people think.
(12:52):
That is not how Donald Trump thinks. He is at
heart an isolationist with regard to not in hangling our
military with other countries. Now there's two schools of thought.
There is the well, the Jews and Israel are controlling
Trump these days, and they've dragged him into their effort.
(13:15):
And then there is the the that's that's kind of
you know, the far right and some far left. If
you go far enough around it comes full circle. And
then there is the crowd that really really wants the
involvement and they have been praising him. Now, praise can
(13:37):
be a dangerous thing because it can make you, it
can it can blind you to the criticism. And the
praise is coming from, for instance, within Iran, the really
cute girls who are now taking off their book because
and making videos. Well news flash, because apparently a lot
of people didn't know Irani. A lot of Ironi women
(13:58):
are extraordinarily hot Irani and Lebanese women have an international
reputation of being gorgeous international pageants, they typically do well.
Men who travel the world, and women for that matter,
will tell you that they're known for being very attractive.
They have a certain nose and a certain skin pallor
(14:21):
and all that sort of stuff. But all of a
sudden that happens. So that has created quite a little
online sensation of these pretty girls interesting. And if you say, Michael,
you're talking about creepy weird stuff, am I, because you
know what they're not doing. You're not seeing dudes doing
dances and going hey, you're seeing pretty girls. By the way,
(14:44):
you saw the same thing with Venezuela. That is not
to be underestimated the impact that has on people's psyche.
It is also the case that you're seeing crowds of
people in Iran and in the United States who are
cheering the Iran strikes and the eradication of the top
(15:06):
layer of the government. And you see it where there
are big Irani populations like Los Angeles, and that's not
lost on a president. It's nice for a president who
has had to watch, say Mogadishu, where he's sent in
the fads and they're doing the right thing. But you
see these very active crowds out there surrounding the ICE agents,
and you know that eventually you've got to put one
(15:28):
of these people down. They're going to try to run
you over, they're going to try to stab you, they're
gonna try to shoot you. They're going to try to
do something bad to you. And an ICE agent is
going to have to defend themselves. That's just a fact.
And when it does, then you're going to have to
fade the heat. And it's not easy. So it's nice
for the president to get some positive reaction. That's not
(15:49):
lost on a president. Linda Johnson would be inside the
White House. You've ever been to the White House, you
get you can get really really close to where the
people are inside a sleep or having dinner. And so
a protest at the White House they push you back
a little further down than they used to back in
those days late sixties. But the students would be at
(16:11):
the gates screaming in Unison, Hey, hey, LBJ, how many
kids have you killed today? And he talked about that
affected him for the rest of his life. So getting
a nice response that is not lost on President Trump.
More on this coming up. The difficulty with terrestrial radio,
and that is if you listen to our show as
you're driving home or to work or whatever else, versus
(16:34):
a podcast. And now about half our audience know is
by podcasts and half is terrestrial radio. So if you're
listening on podcasts, you're listening almost through. But I don't
get to do the show the way a traditional podcast does.
We have to do it in blocks of time because
(16:54):
there is a commercial break. That's how the bills get paid.
Everybody's bills get paid, whether it's podcast or anything else
such just the nature of the beast. But it affects
my storytelling style because sometimes I have something that takes
a while to lay out that you can do if
you're Joe Rogan and you've got a forty five minute segment.
(17:16):
We don't have that. So let me try to make
this all make sense. We just had three states with
the first primaries of the year this year, Arkansas or
North Carolina, and Texas. We were very steeped in the
Texas primary. And rather than go into a lot of
the details, because you can look those up they're easy
to see, I want to tell you where I think
(17:38):
people are and that's not just within those who voted,
it's people who didn't vote. And our challenge is in November.
I think that the strikes in Iran are very popular
with the Republican base, a lot of whom are just like,
(17:59):
it's fun to bump stuff, and there's nothing wrong with
that view. It is fun to watch stuff being bombed.
And if that bothers you, you're a girl or a
man who likes to sit down, A man who sits
down when he piece. Most dudes like to stuff watch
stuff being bombed. You know. When we were kids, we
(18:20):
liked firecrackers. There is a natural human reaction to that.
And you can say there's not because you're a sissy,
but there is. When Schwartzkough blazed onto the scene in
the early nineties and became an overnight sensation, it's because
this big barrel chested guy that looks just like uncle
(18:42):
Buddy at your dear Lease that you see twice a year,
you know, who swills whiskey and is a real good
shot and looks exactly built like that kind of fat, big,
you know, but a man's man kind of guy. When
Schwartzkof was talking big like that and saying what he
(19:03):
was saying, he rallied the American people. George H. W.
Bush had over a ninety percent approval rating when when
Operation Desert Storm was completed. It was the highest approval
rating since the rating system had started, depending on which
system you use in the thirties or forties, but certainly
(19:24):
in the modern era. And in fact, that's why Clinton
was really the only strong candidate in ninety two, and
he was wounded. He was going to run in eighty eight,
but he had the sex scandals because the Democrats didn't
believe they could beat George H. W. Bush. So the
good candidates Mario Cuomo, al Gore, the candidates who were
thought to have a real future, stronger candidates, they stayed
(19:46):
out of the race. Bill what's the guy's name for,
Bill Bradley. The candidates who were who were thought to
be much stronger, stayed out of that race. So the
point is people were mesmerized by Operation Desert Storm, American
(20:06):
technology and this. You know, we grew up on video games,
war games. This was real. All I'm trying to say is,
don't underestimate the psychological boost Trump gets from people seeing
stuff getting blown up and our people are the ones
(20:29):
that are blowing it up, and we're not bringing people
back in body backs. In fact, there's hardly any mention
of the deaths that have occurred that's not by accident.
The focus is on the success. And a lot of
Americans at the work site, at the job site, at
the construction site, a lot of Americans when they see
(20:53):
that holmyani or they say homina I guess it's how
they pronounced this one. That he's been killed, that makes
a lot of people happy. And the way this works
is you follow that up with women there saying my
(21:14):
sister was raped, my mom was raped, my father was killed.
So if you weren't already convinced that this dude who
looks kind of like a homeless guy with a big
beard and dresses kind of funny, that he's a bad guy,
they're there to tell you that. And so the American
(21:34):
psyche is behind that. Here's what worries me. If you
put boots on the ground, you will necessarily start suffering deaths.
There's no way around that. The Iranis are not Iraq
(21:57):
circa nineteen ninety one, or for that matter, two thousand
and three. The problems we had in Fallujah, for instance,
the problems we had in much of Iraq were caused
by Iran. They've got better firepower, better training, they're better warriors,
(22:19):
and you're on their turf when we put if But
when we put troops on the ground in a mid
term election, that can go one of two ways. In
(22:40):
the short term, it rallies a lot of support for
our president. Most Americans will rally and unite behind our president.
This is an American tradition. When we go to war,
we unite behind our president. It's just done. Now here's
(23:01):
what worries me in this environment. As we've said many times,
Trump can do something that is insanely popular. He's trying
to get the Save Act accomplished. Past depending on the poll,
you got between seventy five and ninety percent of Americans
who agree with the provisions of Save Act. But we
(23:24):
can't even get the Republicans to do it. Crazy right, deportations,
Between sixty five and ninety percent of Americans believe in deportations.
Look how fast that turned against this president. So when
you put boots on the ground and you start, no
matter how successful, you are losing some of your guys.
(23:47):
What do you think is going to happen. What do
you think is going to happen? A minute that happens. Look,
I'm not a boots on the ground guy. I'm not
a warmonger. I don't mind blowing people up. I don't
mind using our technology. All of that is fine. I
am anti war. I'm I'm in the more of the
Ron Paul category. I don't believe in going to war
(24:08):
unless it's absolutely positively necessary, and I don't think most
of these efforts are. It's just something we need to
keep an eye on because this could cause us to
lose and lose big league in November, and I don't
want that. Harry a post or truth social this afternoon,
(24:33):
quite out of character for him. I'm going to read
it to you. This comes after the primary in Texas
that we just finished yesterday, and we'll have runoffs in
ten weeks. We had a brutal Republican primary where it
was the most expensive, the most money ever spent for
(24:53):
a primary candidate went to propping up John Cornyn, who's
unpopular in Texas, against Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt. And
the President posted this this afternoon at around I think
it came in around noon. He said the Republican primary
(25:15):
race for the United States Senate in the great state
of Texas, a state I love and won three times
in record numbers, the highest vote ever recorded by far. Cannot,
for the good of the party and our country itself,
be allowed to go on any longer. It must stop. Now.
We have an easy to beat radical left opponent, and
(25:37):
we have to totally focus on putting him away quickly
and decisively. Both John and Ken, that's John Cornyn and
Ken Paxson ran great races, but not good enough. Now
this one must be now, this one must be perfect.
My endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable.
(25:59):
It is such an order to realize and say that
almost everyone I endorse wins, and wins by a lot,
especially in Texas. I will be making my endorsement soon
and will be asking the candidate that I do not
endorse to immediately drop out of the race. Is that fair?
We must win in November. Thank you for your attention
(26:22):
to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. I don't recall
him making that offer before, do you, or Mom? I
don't recall him making that statement before. Now. There are
two ways to look at this, and you need to
understand something because I get emails on this and it
always bothers me. I am a believer in putting every
(26:44):
position on the table for discussion, even if that's not
a position I agree with or believe. I believe that
it's good to know what all the different criticisms and
compliments could be on a particular matter.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
So it is.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
The downside to what he's offering. Hey, I'm going to
endorse one or the other of you, and I expect
the other one to drop out. The downside is you
could argue, and I would argue, Donald Trump should not
choose our senator. The people of the Republican primary should
I think that's fair to say. Now, if you say
(27:22):
I love Trump, he can do no wrong. Michael shuts
your mouth. Trump is king, Okay, not fine. I think
there are people like that. I don't always agree with
Donald Trump's choices. I think I think doctor Oz in
Pennsylvania was an embarrassment. It was a horrible choice, and
I think that's why we lost that. I think that
sometimes Donald Trump gets bad information and he can't know
(27:50):
who's doing a good job in all fifty states, so
he has to trust somebody, and it's kind of the
telephone game at each level, each in the link, you
got to trust that the person he's trusting is making
good judgments. So I don't like the idea of Donald
Trump single handedly choosing our nominee. Let me put that
(28:12):
out there. However, I trust that Donald Trump's choice is
also my choice, which is Ken Paxton, and that he
wants Corny In out of the Senate. So I think
he's going to endorse Paxton. He likes Paxton a lot,
(28:35):
and I think he's going to endorse Paxton, and I
think he's going to ask Cornyn to step out of
the race now if he does that. As the president,
Donald Trump is a deal maker. The art of the
deal is about it's about finding a way to give
(28:59):
somebody a win and to do what you want them
to do. It's really about getting people to do what
you want them to do. And there's a caratnustic approach,
and you've seen Donald Trump, you know, you've seen him
employ both of those. I think he's starting. I think
by putting that out there rather than just doing it,
(29:20):
what he's hoping to do is engender a great deal
of conversation by party leaders and the grassroots to say, guys,
if y'all drag this primary for the Senate seat out
for ten weeks and we don't have a winner, we
don't have a nominee until almost June, that means you're
(29:41):
not going to be able to attack. The Democrats have
their choice, Beto Jesus we call him. His name's James Talerico,
and he's going to be hard to beat. He's going
to be hard to beat for reasons we'll get into,
but not right now. He's going to be very difficult
to be and we've got to be on our game
in the presence right about it that and the President
is looking at that with eyes wide open and a
(30:03):
full understanding and appreciation for the opposition. In order for
us to beat Tallerrico, we need to get on that
sooner rather than later. Number one. Number two, you dragged
this thing out for ten weeks. You're going to burn
a lot of cash. And it's important to understand that
there's only so much cash available. That cash comes from donors,
(30:25):
and when you burn all the cash in a primary,
you don't have cash for the general and that's a
real problem. So you've got a situation where you're burning
all this money that you need to beat the Democrat
in November, fighting amongst yourselves in April and May for
(30:49):
the next ten weeks. Well, you also have the problem
that you're going to be hurting the reputation and the
brand of whoever the winner of the nomination is, because
(31:10):
that's what you do. If you're a twenty four year
US senator. You don't have a good record. In Texas,
we don't like him. He was against the borderwall, he
was against Trump, He's four red flag laws. He's wrong,
he's wrong on a number of issues. You can't run
on that. So when you can't raise your own positives,
(31:37):
which if you've been in the game for a long time,
you can't, the traditional strategy as you drive up your
opponent's negatives. So the theory goes, people will vote for
you not because they like you, but because they dislike
you less than your opponent. And that's a real strategy, right.
So what the President's trying to do is avoid that.
(32:00):
I don't know if he'll be successful, but I think
he can be successful without being successful, by which I
mean he's gonna make this before he makes his endorsement
he's going to put a lot of pressure on the
other person, and I think that's Cornyn. He's not just
endorsing Paxton. He's making his endorsement matter. He's affecting things
(32:22):
in ways that use his public support. So everybody's going
to go yes, and everybody's going to agree, and then
when he comes out for Paxton, Corny's like, I don't
want to do that. He's also giving Cornyan an exit,
an exit ramp, as they say, a way to the
dignity exit if he wants to
Luck and Load from Michael Verie Show is on the air.
That American dream is slipping away. I don't have to
tell you that you're feeling your lives. You see in
your shrinking wages, in the cost of everything from groceries
to healthcare, to college to filling.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Up your car at the gas station.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It keeps going up and up and up, and the
future keeps receding further and further and further away. That
really speaks to a lot of pessimism here about the
American dream. How it feels like it's out of region.
You know, home ownership for too many people in our
country now is elusive. You know, gone is the day
of everyone thinking they could actually live the American dream.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm here today with a message of hope for all Americans.
With your vote in this election, I will end inflation,
I will stop the invasion, and I will bring back
the American dream.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When you're not starng and I'll me you pray now,
help you can. We're winning by a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're leading by a lot, We're leading.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
In the balls.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Every single state looks like we are. And with your
supporter November fifth, America will.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Be bigger better, boulder, richer, safer, and stronger than ever before.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
When you're not small, and I'll be your brain. I'll
help you can.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
For those who abandoned hope, we'll restore hope, and we'll
welcome them into a great national crusade to make America
great again.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And that's why I'm here today, That's why I'm standing
before you, because we are going to finish what we start.
That we started something that was America. We're going to
complete the mission. We're going to see this battle through
to ultimate victory.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
We're going to make America great again.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
No need somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This election is a choice between whether we will have
a four think of this.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Four more years. I could you stand it. It's four
more years of.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Incompetence, stupidity, and failure and disaster, or whether we will
begin the four greatest years in the history of our country.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I think we have a real chair make America great again.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And quite simply put, we will very quickly make America
great again.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
We broadcasting as I do from Houston, Texas. We are
today a bit the day after the Super Bowl. We
had our big primary yesterday, and that means that everybody
who does what I do, and every activist, candidate, consultant, operative,
(03:24):
and a lot of odors are today a bit beleaguered.
We've been in the throes of primary season. It was
the first primary of the year Texas, Arkansas, and I
think North Carolina had primaries yesterday. A number of races
will go to runoffs, and unfortunately those runoffs are way
(03:49):
down the road, ten weeks away, and that's, in my opinion,
a terrible thing because people lose interest. It also means
that you spend a lot of your time in an
election year where the most important wins are in November,
you spend another two and a half months with two
(04:11):
Republicans beating each other up. And that costs a lot
of money. Speaking of money, John Cornyn, who is a
four term US Senator, he would end if he's reelected,
he would end at eighty years old. He would be
in the Senate. And you know, President Trump is seventy nine.
(04:33):
But President Trump is a very different seventy nine than
John Cornyn. But John Cornyn was on the ballot and
he had two challengers, the Attorney General Ken Paxton and
Congressman Wesley Hunt, and Cornyn actually surprisingly led going into
the runoff just barely over the Attorney General Ken Paxton
(04:58):
and Wesley Hunt, who ended in third, ended up with
fewer votes than expected, but partly because Cornin unloaded on
Wesley Hunt. He made it his campaign. DC made it
very personal and very nasty. Now do you think Wesley
(05:19):
Hunt is likely to then help Cornyn go back to
the Senate to do that again, or do you think
he is motivated now to help Ken Paxton, our very
popular attorney general win the Senate seed we are about
to witness in the state of Texas, what I would
argue is going to be the nastiest primary campaign that
(05:44):
we have ever seen because, and I'll tell you the basis,
Washington d C just spent more money on John Cornyn,
the very unpopular senator from Texas who's been there for
four terms, just spent more money on his campaign than
has ever been spent on a primary campaign, non presidential
primary campaign in American history by far. Do you know
(06:08):
why they spent so much money? They have to, So
that's money that can't be used in November to beat
the Democrats. That's money that can't be used in swing
states where we want to beat Republic, where we want
to beat vulnerable Democrats and Senate races. Oh no, no, no,
the National Republican Senatorial Committee diverted all that money where
(06:31):
a water hose would have been a fine contribution for
them to make for one of their own. He's part
of the club to send him back to DC.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
But no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
They spent a record amount of money trashing Wesley Hunt
and Ken Paston to get John Cornan in the runoff.
And what they ought to do, because now the runoff
will be lower turnout, what they ought to do is
go all right, The people of Texas don't like Cornyn.
(07:01):
We knew that, the people of taxes that they booed
him at the state convention. The polls show they didn't
like him. We spent a fortune and he can't win.
He didn't. We're gonna we're not going to put good
money after bad. But that's not how they operate. They
(07:23):
operate to win. Because remember, this is the important thing
you must never forget. And I can tell by your
emails that many of you forget this. Politics and government
is not for the machine, about the wealth creation of
our nation, the safety and security of our nation, the
comfort of our people. It is a business for them,
(07:50):
it is about power and money. They will use you
and your emotions so much so that you might actually
even occasionally think they believe as you do, but they
do not. Never, never forsake your spotty senses that these
people are out for themselves and they've got to defend
(08:12):
John Cornyn. They just have to because they own him
and they can't own Ken Paxt Michael Arry Show enjoy it.
She sounds like early Cydney Lauper unshibled. And that's not
(08:32):
a compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I know.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh it's Gwen Stefani. Okay, it's kind of cute. And
is that the one Blake Shelton got with. Isn't she
older than him? You know, there's a thing about that,
like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore back back in the day,
like where a woman was hot and then you meet
up with her later and I think you're still kind
(08:57):
of in love with or in luss with with the
you know who she was some number of years ago. Yeah,
there's something to be said for that. So the Iran
strikes are big in the news, and I want to
I want to talk about something because we have the midterms.
(09:20):
It's November and I kind of just I don't have
an answer to it, but I just want to talk
generally about something and put it on your plate to
think about. You're a talk radio listener, Therefore you're not
the average voter. You're far more informed, far more informed
(09:46):
than the average person. And that's because you You're far
less likely to go to a concert than somebody who
listens to top forty station. Right You're There's there's a
lot that goes into that. It's the demographic and the
behavioral patterns. You're a person who pays attention to the
(10:08):
political scene, and that's why you listen to talk radio.
But the votes will be cast in November by more
than just us, and so the question will be what
will people who are not tuned into what's going on,
how will they vote? So you know that the strikes
(10:30):
in Iran, I think that the president believes they're in
our best interests. Whatever you may believe about that, I
think he does believe they're in our best interest. I
think that he genuinely cares about the security of our
nation and the world. I think he genuinely believes, legitimately
(10:51):
believes that a weakened Iran is better for the region
and for America. I think he does believe those things.
I think that it was not hard for him to
get to the stage where he felt comfortable authorizing the strikes.
(11:18):
I think we've had a loss of life. We've had
a loss of life of less than ten so far,
and that's not nothing. But it's not the same as
putting boots on the ground. Is It is tolerable, not acceptable,
but tolerable. People are not going to scream and holler
that you're getting our kids killed at six, probably, although
(11:43):
I think it comes off as callous if you don't
appear to care deeply about it. Now, there was a
flippant comment he made about boots on the ground, and
my spidy senses star to tingling, and my hair on
the back of my neck went up. And the reason
(12:05):
is because Donald Trump is at heart not a warmonger.
And he is the only president in my lifetime who
did not, sorry Carter would qualify. He is the only
president in my lifetime other than Carter, who I think
does not secretly fantasize about being a wartime president. Clinton
(12:30):
would say as he was leaving the White House that
his great regret was that he would not be tied
to a military moment, because presidential moments of greatness are
tied to our military and victory. It was like he
was coaching the team during the off season and couldn't
win the Super Bowl. That is the way these people think.
(12:52):
That is not how Donald Trump thinks. He is at
heart an isolationist with regard to not in hangling our
military with other countries. Now there's two schools of thought.
There is the well, the Jews and Israel are controlling
Trump these days, and they've dragged him into their effort.
(13:15):
And then there is the the that's that's kind of
you know, the far right and some far left. If
you go far enough around it comes full circle. And
then there is the crowd that really really wants the
involvement and they have been praising him. Now, praise can
(13:37):
be a dangerous thing because it can make you, it
can it can blind you to the criticism. And the
praise is coming from, for instance, within Iran, the really
cute girls who are now taking off their book because
and making videos. Well news flash, because apparently a lot
of people didn't know Irani. A lot of Ironi women
(13:58):
are extraordinarily hot Irani and Lebanese women have an international
reputation of being gorgeous international pageants, they typically do well.
Men who travel the world, and women for that matter,
will tell you that they're known for being very attractive.
They have a certain nose and a certain skin pallor
(14:21):
and all that sort of stuff. But all of a
sudden that happens. So that has created quite a little
online sensation of these pretty girls interesting. And if you say, Michael,
you're talking about creepy weird stuff, am I, because you
know what they're not doing. You're not seeing dudes doing
dances and going hey, you're seeing pretty girls. By the way,
(14:44):
you saw the same thing with Venezuela. That is not
to be underestimated the impact that has on people's psyche.
It is also the case that you're seeing crowds of
people in Iran and in the United States who are
cheering the Iran strikes and the eradication of the top
(15:06):
layer of the government. And you see it where there
are big Irani populations like Los Angeles, and that's not
lost on a president. It's nice for a president who
has had to watch, say Mogadishu, where he's sent in
the fads and they're doing the right thing. But you
see these very active crowds out there surrounding the ICE agents,
and you know that eventually you've got to put one
(15:28):
of these people down. They're going to try to run
you over, they're going to try to stab you, they're
gonna try to shoot you. They're going to try to
do something bad to you. And an ICE agent is
going to have to defend themselves. That's just a fact.
And when it does, then you're going to have to
fade the heat. And it's not easy. So it's nice
for the president to get some positive reaction. That's not
(15:49):
lost on a president. Linda Johnson would be inside the
White House. You've ever been to the White House, you
get you can get really really close to where the
people are inside a sleep or having dinner. And so
a protest at the White House they push you back
a little further down than they used to back in
those days late sixties. But the students would be at
(16:11):
the gates screaming in Unison, Hey, hey, LBJ, how many
kids have you killed today? And he talked about that
affected him for the rest of his life. So getting
a nice response that is not lost on President Trump.
More on this coming up. The difficulty with terrestrial radio,
and that is if you listen to our show as
you're driving home or to work or whatever else, versus
(16:34):
a podcast. And now about half our audience know is
by podcasts and half is terrestrial radio. So if you're
listening on podcasts, you're listening almost through. But I don't
get to do the show the way a traditional podcast does.
We have to do it in blocks of time because
(16:54):
there is a commercial break. That's how the bills get paid.
Everybody's bills get paid, whether it's podcast or anything else
such just the nature of the beast. But it affects
my storytelling style because sometimes I have something that takes
a while to lay out that you can do if
you're Joe Rogan and you've got a forty five minute segment.
(17:16):
We don't have that. So let me try to make
this all make sense. We just had three states with
the first primaries of the year this year, Arkansas or
North Carolina, and Texas. We were very steeped in the
Texas primary. And rather than go into a lot of
the details, because you can look those up they're easy
to see, I want to tell you where I think
(17:38):
people are and that's not just within those who voted,
it's people who didn't vote. And our challenge is in November.
I think that the strikes in Iran are very popular
with the Republican base, a lot of whom are just like,
(17:59):
it's fun to bump stuff, and there's nothing wrong with
that view. It is fun to watch stuff being bombed.
And if that bothers you, you're a girl or a
man who likes to sit down, A man who sits
down when he piece. Most dudes like to stuff watch
stuff being bombed. You know. When we were kids, we
(18:20):
liked firecrackers. There is a natural human reaction to that.
And you can say there's not because you're a sissy,
but there is. When Schwartzkough blazed onto the scene in
the early nineties and became an overnight sensation, it's because
this big barrel chested guy that looks just like uncle
(18:42):
Buddy at your dear Lease that you see twice a year,
you know, who swills whiskey and is a real good
shot and looks exactly built like that kind of fat, big,
you know, but a man's man kind of guy. When
Schwartzkof was talking big like that and saying what he
(19:03):
was saying, he rallied the American people. George H. W.
Bush had over a ninety percent approval rating when when
Operation Desert Storm was completed. It was the highest approval
rating since the rating system had started, depending on which
system you use in the thirties or forties, but certainly
(19:24):
in the modern era. And in fact, that's why Clinton
was really the only strong candidate in ninety two, and
he was wounded. He was going to run in eighty eight,
but he had the sex scandals because the Democrats didn't
believe they could beat George H. W. Bush. So the
good candidates Mario Cuomo, al Gore, the candidates who were
thought to have a real future, stronger candidates, they stayed
(19:46):
out of the race. Bill what's the guy's name for,
Bill Bradley. The candidates who were who were thought to
be much stronger, stayed out of that race. So the
point is people were mesmerized by Operation Desert Storm, American
(20:06):
technology and this. You know, we grew up on video games,
war games. This was real. All I'm trying to say is,
don't underestimate the psychological boost Trump gets from people seeing
stuff getting blown up and our people are the ones
(20:29):
that are blowing it up, and we're not bringing people
back in body backs. In fact, there's hardly any mention
of the deaths that have occurred that's not by accident.
The focus is on the success. And a lot of
Americans at the work site, at the job site, at
the construction site, a lot of Americans when they see
(20:53):
that holmyani or they say homina I guess it's how
they pronounced this one. That he's been killed, that makes
a lot of people happy. And the way this works
is you follow that up with women there saying my
(21:14):
sister was raped, my mom was raped, my father was killed.
So if you weren't already convinced that this dude who
looks kind of like a homeless guy with a big
beard and dresses kind of funny, that he's a bad guy,
they're there to tell you that. And so the American
(21:34):
psyche is behind that. Here's what worries me. If you
put boots on the ground, you will necessarily start suffering deaths.
There's no way around that. The Iranis are not Iraq
(21:57):
circa nineteen ninety one, or for that matter, two thousand
and three. The problems we had in Fallujah, for instance,
the problems we had in much of Iraq were caused
by Iran. They've got better firepower, better training, they're better warriors,
(22:19):
and you're on their turf when we put if But
when we put troops on the ground in a mid
term election, that can go one of two ways. In
(22:40):
the short term, it rallies a lot of support for
our president. Most Americans will rally and unite behind our president.
This is an American tradition. When we go to war,
we unite behind our president. It's just done. Now here's
(23:01):
what worries me in this environment. As we've said many times,
Trump can do something that is insanely popular. He's trying
to get the Save Act accomplished. Past depending on the poll,
you got between seventy five and ninety percent of Americans
who agree with the provisions of Save Act. But we
(23:24):
can't even get the Republicans to do it. Crazy right, deportations,
Between sixty five and ninety percent of Americans believe in deportations.
Look how fast that turned against this president. So when
you put boots on the ground and you start, no
matter how successful, you are losing some of your guys.
(23:47):
What do you think is going to happen. What do
you think is going to happen? A minute that happens. Look,
I'm not a boots on the ground guy. I'm not
a warmonger. I don't mind blowing people up. I don't
mind using our technology. All of that is fine. I
am anti war. I'm I'm in the more of the
Ron Paul category. I don't believe in going to war
(24:08):
unless it's absolutely positively necessary, and I don't think most
of these efforts are. It's just something we need to
keep an eye on because this could cause us to
lose and lose big league in November, and I don't
want that. Harry a post or truth social this afternoon,
(24:33):
quite out of character for him. I'm going to read
it to you. This comes after the primary in Texas
that we just finished yesterday, and we'll have runoffs in
ten weeks. We had a brutal Republican primary where it
was the most expensive, the most money ever spent for
(24:53):
a primary candidate went to propping up John Cornyn, who's
unpopular in Texas, against Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt. And
the President posted this this afternoon at around I think
it came in around noon. He said the Republican primary
(25:15):
race for the United States Senate in the great state
of Texas, a state I love and won three times
in record numbers, the highest vote ever recorded by far. Cannot,
for the good of the party and our country itself,
be allowed to go on any longer. It must stop. Now.
We have an easy to beat radical left opponent, and
(25:37):
we have to totally focus on putting him away quickly
and decisively. Both John and Ken, that's John Cornyn and
Ken Paxson ran great races, but not good enough. Now
this one must be now, this one must be perfect.
My endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable.
(25:59):
It is such an order to realize and say that
almost everyone I endorse wins, and wins by a lot,
especially in Texas. I will be making my endorsement soon
and will be asking the candidate that I do not
endorse to immediately drop out of the race. Is that fair?
We must win in November. Thank you for your attention
(26:22):
to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. I don't recall
him making that offer before, do you, or Mom? I
don't recall him making that statement before. Now. There are
two ways to look at this, and you need to
understand something because I get emails on this and it
always bothers me. I am a believer in putting every
(26:44):
position on the table for discussion, even if that's not
a position I agree with or believe. I believe that
it's good to know what all the different criticisms and
compliments could be on a particular matter.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
So it is.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
The downside to what he's offering. Hey, I'm going to
endorse one or the other of you, and I expect
the other one to drop out. The downside is you
could argue, and I would argue, Donald Trump should not
choose our senator. The people of the Republican primary should
I think that's fair to say. Now, if you say
(27:22):
I love Trump, he can do no wrong. Michael shuts
your mouth. Trump is king, Okay, not fine. I think
there are people like that. I don't always agree with
Donald Trump's choices. I think I think doctor Oz in
Pennsylvania was an embarrassment. It was a horrible choice, and
I think that's why we lost that. I think that
sometimes Donald Trump gets bad information and he can't know
(27:50):
who's doing a good job in all fifty states, so
he has to trust somebody, and it's kind of the
telephone game at each level, each in the link, you
got to trust that the person he's trusting is making
good judgments. So I don't like the idea of Donald
Trump single handedly choosing our nominee. Let me put that
(28:12):
out there. However, I trust that Donald Trump's choice is
also my choice, which is Ken Paxton, and that he
wants Corny In out of the Senate. So I think
he's going to endorse Paxton. He likes Paxton a lot,
(28:35):
and I think he's going to endorse Paxton, and I
think he's going to ask Cornyn to step out of
the race now if he does that. As the president,
Donald Trump is a deal maker. The art of the
deal is about it's about finding a way to give
(28:59):
somebody a win and to do what you want them
to do. It's really about getting people to do what
you want them to do. And there's a caratnustic approach,
and you've seen Donald Trump, you know, you've seen him
employ both of those. I think he's starting. I think
by putting that out there rather than just doing it,
(29:20):
what he's hoping to do is engender a great deal
of conversation by party leaders and the grassroots to say, guys,
if y'all drag this primary for the Senate seat out
for ten weeks and we don't have a winner, we
don't have a nominee until almost June, that means you're
(29:41):
not going to be able to attack. The Democrats have
their choice, Beto Jesus we call him. His name's James Talerico,
and he's going to be hard to beat. He's going
to be hard to beat for reasons we'll get into,
but not right now. He's going to be very difficult
to be and we've got to be on our game
in the presence right about it that and the President
is looking at that with eyes wide open and a
(30:03):
full understanding and appreciation for the opposition. In order for
us to beat Tallerrico, we need to get on that
sooner rather than later. Number one. Number two, you dragged
this thing out for ten weeks. You're going to burn
a lot of cash. And it's important to understand that
there's only so much cash available. That cash comes from donors,
(30:25):
and when you burn all the cash in a primary,
you don't have cash for the general and that's a
real problem. So you've got a situation where you're burning
all this money that you need to beat the Democrat
in November, fighting amongst yourselves in April and May for
(30:49):
the next ten weeks. Well, you also have the problem
that you're going to be hurting the reputation and the
brand of whoever the winner of the nomination is, because
(31:10):
that's what you do. If you're a twenty four year
US senator. You don't have a good record. In Texas,
we don't like him. He was against the borderwall, he
was against Trump, He's four red flag laws. He's wrong,
he's wrong on a number of issues. You can't run
on that. So when you can't raise your own positives,
(31:37):
which if you've been in the game for a long time,
you can't, the traditional strategy as you drive up your
opponent's negatives. So the theory goes, people will vote for
you not because they like you, but because they dislike
you less than your opponent. And that's a real strategy, right.
So what the President's trying to do is avoid that.
(32:00):
I don't know if he'll be successful, but I think
he can be successful without being successful, by which I
mean he's gonna make this before he makes his endorsement
he's going to put a lot of pressure on the
other person, and I think that's Cornyn. He's not just
endorsing Paxton. He's making his endorsement matter. He's affecting things
(32:22):
in ways that use his public support. So everybody's going
to go yes, and everybody's going to agree, and then
when he comes out for Paxton, Corny's like, I don't
want to do that. He's also giving Cornyan an exit,
an exit ramp, as they say, a way to the
dignity exit if he wants to
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