Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's just be honest.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Dwight can book some terrible guests, but every once in
a while he done good. Yeah, And it was a
nice surprise to have this next man come on with
us today. I was like, what we getting Scott Jennings
to come on with us? And finally we worked it out. Scott,
how are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm great live from your nation's capital, but glad to
be talking to the folks back home in Kentucky.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Hey, can I tell you that Tucker Carlson would have
got the time right? It's almost Hey, Scott Jennings, the
new book. I love the title. I haven't ready yet,
but we're getting ready to head off to Mexico. I
think we'll buy it today to take it with me.
A name of the book is a Revolution of common sense?
How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for Western civilization.
(00:46):
Has the political landscape really been distilled down to common
sense versus total insanity? Because someone think of it has Scott,
But what's your take on that?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Man? Well, you know the President used that phrase in
his inaugural address. That's where I got it. And I
was sitting on the set at CNN in January thinking man,
that'd be a great title for a book, and so
I went to pitch the president on it. But yeah,
I mean the short answer is yes. I mean, effectively,
that's how he has rebranded his political coalition. And if
(01:18):
you know, if he's for common sense by definition, the
other guys are uncommon nonsense. And the book kind of
chronicles some of the issues where, you know, these are
what we would call eighty twenty issues or maybe ninety ten,
you know, whether it's putting boys in girls sports or
paper straws, or I don't know, stopping the flood of
illegal immigration. I mean, these are all very sort of
(01:40):
lopsided issues, and they're not terribly political. They're just sort
of common sense, like the average person will say, well, yeah,
that doesn't make any sense to have an open border,
doesn't make any sense to let boys play in girl sports.
And so Trump has effectively used that construct to return
to the White House. This book is about the first
one hundred hundred and twenty days of the administration where
he just kind of, you know, overran his opposition with
(02:03):
these common sense issues.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Scott Jennings is our guest here. Look, I think you're
the only reason that they're watching CNN, it's it's sort
of like you. You know, your personality and how you're
handling yourself is practically propping up the network. How did
all that come about, that they were going to put
you on this show and then stack it against you.
How did that idea come about and you said, sure,
(02:25):
I'll do that.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well. Last year during the election, our CEO Mark Thompson
had a great idea, which is, we should have a
debating show. You know, there's an election going on, we
should have a debating show. So they were going to
do it as a short term deal, but it was
so popular they've left it on the air. And when
they decided to do the debating show, they came to
me and said, listen, you know, we need you to
show up here a few nights a week and they
(02:49):
the campaign and so I did it and it really
took off. And I think what we've done. And by
the way, it's our one of our highest rated shows.
It's for advertisers, it's one of the best. It does
great online and it creates viral clips, so it's good
for the brand. But I think I think what I've
done is I've made CNN safe for conservatives.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Again.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So now you know, we've we've cultivated a little cadre
of us that go on and debate and you and
if you turn it on during the day, you see
Republican Congressman, you see Jamie Comer, you see Andy Barr,
you see and all of a sudden, people are like, hey,
maybe CNN is safe again. And by the way, it's
it's great. You know, if you want to hear both
(03:27):
sides of a debate, that's what they're doing. And so
I have nothing but good vibes for CNN, and I
think it was a smart idea to kind of try
to return some balance to what you're hearing on the air.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Scott Jennings is our guest. The brand new book it's
out now, a Revolution of common Sense, get it. I'm
going to be reading this one on Mexico. But let's
let's keep it on CNN because I got to tell you,
I hate talking politics. My wife's in the House of Representatives,
and people think by the fault that I want to
talk I hate. It drives me the nuts. How do
you keep your composure when it's five against one on
(03:58):
CNN and every thing that they're thrown at you is
complete nonsets. How do you not You're so even tempered,
and you just come back with facts and then they
try to blow those up. How do you keep composure? Man?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Well, the way to stay calm in debates and in
a lot of professional settings is preparation. And I know
I'm gonna have four or five people yelling at me
about any given topic. And I don't always know the topics,
and I certainly don't know how Abby is going to
produce the segments or set them up, and I don't
know what clips she's gonna play, but I kind of
generally know what I think, and I will never be
(04:33):
out prepared when it comes to the facts, and that
is the number one way to remain calm. I am
always going to know more about it than everybody else.
And then the other way, of course, is just to
understand that, you know, my arguments are sort of ruled
by logic and facts. The liberal arguments are almost always
ruled by emotion and narratives, and you know, frankly, things
(04:53):
that are easily debunked, you know that they've seen online.
That's one of the craziest things about the show. I
find that the w liberals marinate in this sort of
blue andon, you know, online ecosystem where most of what
they've been told is simply not true. It's not happened.
Yet they walk in there saying I saw this, and
(05:14):
you can debunk it within ten seconds with some statement
or some fact that you've pulled up. It's amazing to
me how much of their life they live based on
emotion and sort of an alternate reality that doesn't really exist.
So you know, remaining calm knowing that that's what you're
going to face. It comes down to preparation and just
you know, you can't take any of it personally. You
(05:34):
just have to show up and you know, do your
deep breathing exercises and remember what you've prepared to do.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You do a great job, and sometimes they put some
lesser opponents up to but you do have some that
go back and forth with you. I think they genuinely.
I try to tell whether they like you or not.
I think they do. But you're right, they isolate themselves
and they never hear the other side of really and
then you because you do that common sense front porch
(06:00):
type of response, that makes sense. So let's talk about
these midterms. Look, the Democrats lost horribly with you know,
they picked three topics and they went after it for
the presidential election and lost horribly, and then they tripled down.
Most the Democrats used to know how to win, all right,
they had the White House for twelve in the last
(06:22):
sixteen years. They know how to win, and then they
seem like they've forgotten that and they are tripling down
on these topics and these issues. How will this midterms?
And again, I know it goes state to state and
all that, but how do you think this is gonna go.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well? Look, midterms typically don't go well for the party
in power, so historically speaking, Republicans would expect to not
do very well. So that's number one. Number Two, there
is some redistricting back and forth going on out there,
so we're not quite sure yet what the full map
that is going to look like. And if it all
shakes out the way some Republicans hope, it could give
(06:58):
the Republicans a little bit of a boost. Number three.
You know, look, most of the time these things come
down to one issue, the economy, and if people feel
like the trajectory of their life and of the economy
is good, the reward policies and if they feel like
it's not they won't. The final thing I would say
is that the Republicans still do have a strategic issue,
which is in a tactical issue, which is a lot
(07:18):
of people like to turn out to vote for Donald Trump,
but they don't like to vote, or they won't turn
out for other Republicans. Even in twenty twenty four, Trump
won the national popular vote, but we lost Senate seats
in three or four places. Trump wins the state and
we lost the Senate race. You had a bunch of
people who went and filled out ballots for Trump and
they left everything else blank. And so until the Republicans
(07:41):
sort of solve that issue, it's going to put them
at a strategic disadvantage whenever he's not on the ballot.
And I'll break the news that he's not going to
be on the ballot ever again. And so the party
has got to figure out how to convert his people
into regular Republicans. Heretofore they haven't done it, but I
know that's the number one priority at the Republican Nowtional Committee.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Scott Jennings is our guest. Get the new book, A
Revolution of Common Sense. How Donald Trump stormed Washington and
fought for Western civilization. Scott, let's let's go back to
a CNN for a minute. You're on CNN, and I
think it's evident you've ben mentioned that CNN might be
a safe place now because it's it's leaned, and so
(08:22):
is mainstream media for that matter, it's leaned hard left.
For so long did they twist narratives? They only place
seconds of a comment to take it out of context,
you know, on purpose, just to undermine whoever conservative the
story might be about. What's their motivation behind that is
just because they were do the fact the facto they
(08:44):
went to college became liberal, or what is the motivator there?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well, I'll just speak about the corporate media and mass
media and mainstream media in general. The University of Syracuse
a couple of years ago did a study about who
works there and the vast, vast, vast majority of people
who work in media now are Democrats and something like
three percent were Republicans. And so the business in the
industry generally has become very insular. They know each other,
(09:11):
they hire each other, they marry each other, they go
out to dinner with each other. They only really hang
out with each other, and so when you create an
insular system where everybody has the same general political ideology,
that is the result. And so one of the reasons
I do this job on CNN is to show conservatives
we can't really seed any ground. I mean, we need
conservatives at CNN, we need a conservative, and now they
(09:34):
have Barry Weiss running CBS News. I think is she's
not really a conservative, but she is fair as an
actual journalist and a critical thinker. You need people who
don't just come from one far end of the spectrum
of the political spectrum. We have to not seed this ground.
And so am I a bit of a pilgrim in
(09:55):
an unholy land? Yes, but there's some there's something to it.
I'm trying tying to show everybody else, Hey, it's okay
to do this, It's safe to do it, and by
the way, it's necessary to do it if you want
to save America and say Western civilization, we cannot see
this territory fully.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
To the radical left, well, there is leaning one way
and then there's doctrine.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Video.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I got to tell you it broke my heart. Sixty
minutes invented investigating reporting journalism, and the Kamala interview is
just there wasn't one person in the room. There wasn't
one producer, there wasn't a videoographer, there wasn't there wasn't
one person that said wait, wait, wait, we can't we
can't do this like there was. That's that's what scared
(10:38):
me the most, is that there wasn't one person to
say no, we can't do this.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
That kind of broke my heart. With sixty minutes did.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That well, it was a it was a serious mistake.
And you know, of course, I've been around long enough
to remember when CBS and Dan Rather, you know, manufactured
that story about George W. Bush back in his presidential campaign,
and they ended up paying the price for that. I mean,
I think on unfortunately what happens, and I don't think
this is true of everybody, but sometimes in campaigns, people
(11:06):
get really emotionally involved in it and they stop thinking
of themselves as journalists and they start thinking themselves as
political operatives, and they say, you know, I have the
tools and the means to potentially affect outcomes here, and
I'm going to do it. Look what happened in twenty
twenty when the Hunter Biden laptop story was broken by
The New York Post Look at the effort that went
into calling that Russian disinformation. Look at the effort that
(11:28):
went into censoring that information from the American people. What
in that case, you had a bunch of people. Look
at the effort in other media outlets to immediately try
to discredit what the New York Post had correctly uncovered.
So let me think about it. If you were a
journalist and you had the story of the century, which
is this laptop shows all kinds of corruption in the
(11:48):
family of the person who's the most likely next president
of the United States, wouldn't you be all over that?
But in that case, not only were they not all
over it, they were trying to cover it up and
discredit it. Why because we were on the doorstep of
an election. And so at that point you cease being
journalists and you start being a political activist. And I
think unfortunately sometimes in campaigns, people get the emotions, get
(12:10):
the better of people, and that's how they act, and
it's not good.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And the same story went along with COVID. There was people,
there was doctors losing their jobs and loosening to their
careers over it. Let's let's keep on another scander. Let's
talk about the Epstein files. It's thrown in your face
a lot on CNN, But the fact of the matter
is facts are facts. The Biden administration had these files
for four years, nothing was done. Do you think that
(12:34):
we'll see any names on this that will shock us,
or will anything even come of it? I know now
the Clinton's are refusing testimony or well anything actually evolved
from this. In your opinion, Scott Jennings, Gosh, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It would be shocking to me if there weren't a
few names that emerged. I mean, I'm expecting, though, to
see a lot more Democrats than anything else. And I
think the Democrats may have blundered into something here. They
want this so badly to be a story about Trump
and Epstein. What we know is that Trump got rid
of Jeffrey Epstein, and we also know from these emails
that Epstein hated Trump. Now we also know that long
(13:08):
after Epstein was convicted, Trump had gotten rid of him
out of his world. But the Democrats never did. You know.
He's fundraising with Hakeem Jeffries. He's getting, you know, questions
via email from Larry Summers about how to pick up
younger women. He's you know, programming. Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat
member of Congress. So over time you see Trump gets
rid of Epstein, but Democrats never do. And so what
(13:31):
I'm looking for in the files is just how tight
end to the left was Jeffrey Epstein even after they knew,
even after they knew the guy was a total creep
and a convicted sex criminal. So what is the extent
of it? I mean, your guest is as good as mine.
And when will it all come out? I assume sometime
in the next couple of weeks. But I think the
Democrats are going to be answering some questions about why
(13:53):
their own people were as tied in with Epstein as
they appear to be.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The big shift for me was, you know, when I
grew up, you know, the Democrats seemed to be like
the oh, the kind of the fun party and not
a little judgmental, and they just kind of just, hey,
you do what you want, man, it's a free country,
YadA YadA. And the Republicans always seemed like the banker
and the three piece polyest suit and then telling me
how I should live my life. And then those parties,
(14:17):
those ideals flipped, and then the Democrats got emotional, and
my twenty one year old son at the time said, Dad.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's simple. Trump broke liberal's brains.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And I think, as simple as that statement is, I
think it's true. I think they just could not figure
him out and it broke their brains, and that's why
they're screaming at us all the time.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I think you're describing two things. One, the constituencies of
the parties did change. The Republicans became the party of
the working class. I think about people like my dad,
who I talk about in my book. You know, this
was a union guy who was the biggest Clinton guy,
knew garbage man and a factory worker. There wasn't a
bigger Democrat when I was growing up. He was the
first person to tell me Donald Trump was going to
(15:05):
be the next president. And of course I liked everybody
else who had been trained up in regular politics was like, oh,
you're full of craft, you don't know anything. But he
was right and I was wrong. Not the only time
in my life that's happened, but for millions of people
like my dad, working class people, you know, people who
felt like the political elites had at best left them
(15:25):
behind or forgotten about them, and at worst actively sought
to punish them for their values. They decided that the
Democrats had just stopped caring at all, and so they
came over to the Republican Party. And in the Republican Party,
some people that didn't like Donald Trump migrated to the Democrats.
And so you have seen a big switchover in constituency.
(15:46):
And of course this has also led to a changing
a little bit of economic platform policy in the Republican Party.
What's interesting is the Democrats I don't think have actually
changed their platform, even though they've absorbed, you know, some
of these more moderate suburban Republics over the last few years,
their platform and their attitude has only gotten more liberal
and more socialists. And I wonder, you know, when are
(16:06):
these old moderate Republicans going to come back and realize
it's no fun being in the socialist party because that's
what they're in right now.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Well, let's talk about that for a second. The way
certain people are switching behaviors, particularly Bill Maher for a
couple of years now, it's almost like.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This transformation has been crazy.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It's been stunning. Are you surprised to see the route?
I mean, Bill Maher speaking the truth now?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So Bill Maher. I think there's traditional liberals and that's
what Bill Maher is, and then there's these modern liberals
who have become illiberal, meaning they don't even want you
to have a conversation with a conservative. They don't want
you to have dinner with somebody that you know that's
a Republican. And so Bill Maher, it's okay to be liberal,
and it's in the classic sense, meaning we could have
(16:50):
different points of view on issues. But you know, we're
all Americans here, can't we talk to each other? And
Bill Mahers, you know what was his big sin? He
went to have dinner with Donald Trump at the White House.
And now they can't get enough of attacking this guy,
and they so, I mean, what kind of an America?
Is that the kind of America you want? But that's
that's what the prevailing attitude is on the left, not
(17:10):
that you uh not that you can't uh not only
can you not be a conservative, you're not allowed to
have a conversation with the conservative. They don't They don't
want you to know your neighbor. They don't want you
to be integrated in your society, in your community with
people who have different political persuasion. That's pretty dangerous for
American culture opinion.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
It's about to get worse for him too, because he
just booked Laura Trump for a club random scotchat that serious.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Pauline said before the election there was going to be
the tightest race in history. We might not know for weeks.
And then I'm watching MSMB. I was bouncing around that morning.
I texted a buddy that you and I both have together,
and I said, he's going to win and we're going
to know before ten because they're interviewing where did they
park themselves at MSN and be Philadelphia and Temple University
(17:59):
and yeah, and they started interviewing these young black women
and men and they're going down the line and the
brave ones said I'm voting for Trump, and they and
I'm voting for Trump and and that to them broke
their brains again. They're like, how is that possible? Right,
there's no way We've lost a young black vote, and
and and the MSc was panicking, and that's when it
(18:20):
hit me. I was like, he's gonna win and we're
gonna know early. That was that was a crazy nice goy.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Jennings. Yeah, it was crazy and of course by nine
ten o'clock. I mean I was tracking it in the
CNN studio. I knew we had it. I was looking
at these different counties or some Bellweather counties in Florida
and Virginia and some other places. Not only was Trump winning,
he was winning them huge, and everybody's sitting there new
like Trump's got this. But we didn't call the race
(18:46):
for several hours, you know. Yeah, it took us a
while to come to grips with it. I think I
got on at three point thirty eight am and was like,
y'all want me to tell you why you lost or
you want to keep going. But but it was absolutely true.
But think about what you were told in the three
weeks before the election. You know, Oh my gosh, a
poll in Iowa, Harris is going to win Iowa. Oh
(19:06):
my gosh, all the Puerto Ricans are mad. So Harris
is going to win Pennsylvania, which never made any sense
to me. Oh my gosh, Harris is surging and Trump
is sinking. Here at the end, they were trying to create.
They were trying to will momentum into existence. That's not journalism,
but that is what the political information distribution complex does
(19:27):
they try to create narratives and alternative realities instead of
just telling you the truth. And in that case, they
had everybody believe in Harris was on her way, and
anybody who was paying attention out in the middle of
the country knew knew she was never ever going to
be Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Scott Jennings is our guest.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Last again, they don't run her again, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I'd be surprised if the Democrats nominated Harris again. I
think they're far more likely to go a different road.
But if they wanted to try it again, fine with me.
I mean, and one.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Last question, Scott Jennings, You were former deputy director of
political affairs for George W. Bush. Does he ever call
you up, going hey Jennings, see a football game or
call you up? Do you keep in contact with him
at all or not?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I see him every so often. We will have Bush
administration like at the Presential Library in Texas, will have
like a reunion of the administration of the campaigns. I
saw him at an event a couple of years ago
in DC hit a speaking gig, and I got to
go backstage and chat with him for a few minutes.
But it's fairly infrequent. I do keep in touch with
my old boss, Karl Rove, yeah, who is on Fox
(20:36):
News and he and I actually just chatted with him
the other day. I'm gonna go down to Texas and
do a speaking event at his behest as part of
my book tour. So yeah, I keep in touch with
the Bush guys. You know, some of them went the
other way. They're not they're not big Trump fans. I'm
not sure they're super happy with me about the whole thing.
But but I'll just be honest. I think we're in
a fight for the future of Western civilization. And if
(20:58):
you want me to throw in with the progressive, socialist,
radical whatever, you know, I'm just I'm just not going
to do it. I'm just I'm sorry. I mean, there's
no politician I agree with one hundred percent of the time.
But I know who I disagree with. I knew who
I disagree with one hundred percent of the time, and
that's the Democrats right now, because they've gone, they've lost
their minds. And it truly and in my opinion, the
(21:21):
Republicans under Trump back to the title of common sense.
That's where I am on it, and that's where I'm
going to be.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Yeah, well yeah, and I will know that. I think
the Republican Party is a bit fractured right now, and
I hope it works it out, whatever that might mean.
But the new book is Scott Jennings, by the way,
A Revolution of Common Sense, How Donald Trump stormed Washington
and fought for Western civilization. Scott. I cannot wait to
read this book. Thank you for the time, man, I
(21:48):
appreciate you, Jennings.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I stopped by the Barnes and Noble out into Paddock
shops when I was home this weekend, and let me
just tell you they were sold out. They were sold
out so they could fly it off the ship, flying
off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I love it, job, man, keep up the fight, all right,
I love it all right, Thanks dude.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Happy Thanksgiving by the way.
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Speaker 1 (22:46):
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Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you're sixty five or older and you're looking for
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to see how you like it.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
No Towers is exactly that.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
It's a towers with great views all over the city
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or do whatever you want. So if you're sixty five
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(23:22):
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for a couple of months. Back after this on news
radio eight forty whash.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That's what I'm talking about here. Those pipes like a
beautiful angel. It's like hearing my wife singing the shower
only good a lisha wdd.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
How you doing, Hey, I'm doing really well. How are you, man?
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I'm doing great now that I'm talking to you. Let's
talk about this new album double album Christmas Album? What
made you look Christmas? For some reason? You're really into it?
You've wrote your director? Have you written and directed Christmas
movies too as well?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Well? I did write the last Christmas movie that I made,
which was in twenty twenty called Christmas Tree Lane. I
wrote that story and I produced it, as well as
writing two songs for it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Let's talk about the new record because it's got some
big names on it. How long did it take you
to get this record? And by the way, when you've
recorded it, is it one of those deals where you
record in August and you're trying to get in the
Christmas spirit.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (24:37):
You know, one hundred and twelve degrees outside and you're
singing Frosty the Snowman.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
I've certainly made Christmas movies in the middle of the summer,
which I referenced by the way on the song Soap
said snow but I in this case. The album was
recorded in April, and I knew at Christmas time before
that that I was going to record the album in
(25:03):
a few months. I had decided that this was the
time I've been thinking about it for years, and so
I spent the next few months really immersing myself in
what I wanted the album to sound like. I kept
right on listening to Christmas music, and I continued writing
song was both by myself and with some other incredible
(25:24):
writers like the names you mentioned that are on the album.
So by the time we recorded it in April, I
felt like I was still in the Christmas spirit. I
never really got out from the previous Christmas.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Let's talk about your acting for a second, because the
story I get on you is that you get your
first acting job at seven years just seven years old,
and you're not from an entertainment family that I know of.
So Number one is a true You get your first
acting job at seven years old, and number two, are
you terrified when you walk out on the sound stage
(26:00):
because no family experience and you're thrown out there as
a child? What was it like?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
I was not terrified, And you're absolutely right. That was
my first movie.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
I was seven.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
I felt like I had found what I was part
of what I was supposed to be doing, Like almost
like I was seeing forward into my destiny. I sensed
that I had that I was going to do this
for the rest of my life, if I was lucky,
that is. But I really wanted to. And I owe
(26:34):
a lot of that to David Lynch because as the
director of Doune and the one who gave me this
opportunity out of out of nowhere. Really it was it
felt like acting was not only fun, but it was
honorable and grown up to do it for a living.
(26:56):
And rather than being a king iiotic crazy like a
diabolical place to be, most film sets are just plain amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
It's magic, and it's it's a whole group of people
working together, working really hard to create something that will
last forever. It's such a special thing to do. It's
never lost on me that it's both very unusual and
really really a blessing beyond measure that I get to
(27:32):
do this for a living and I have for forty years.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Wow, it's hard. You look so young. That's incredible. Let's
talk about last year though, you and Nicholas Cage. You
do this independent film, independent movie, and it's called Long Legs.
One hundred and twenty nine million. It brings in that's
going to make you feel pretty good.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Right, Yeah, it felt sury ill and yes, incredible. You
never know, obviously when you make a movie what is
going to happen with that movie. You might make something
that a few people see, or you might make something
(28:16):
like in our case, we weren't even finished filming it.
It was a low budget independent film and we still
had ten days to go filming it in Vancouver when
meon Films saw a couple of scenes, one with me
and Nick and one with just Nick as Long Legs,
(28:37):
and they decided to buy the movie. And we got
that news, and we all felt really good about that
because we knew that meant a significant number of people
might have the chance to see the film in movie theaters.
But then Neon turned around and delivered the most extraordinary campaign,
(28:58):
hands down, that I've ever had the privilege to be
a part of. They were nothing short of brilliant, and
the box office, they told me later, they were told
that it was what's called a statistical anomaly in the business,
where it so far surpassed what they believed the movie
(29:19):
was going to do business wise. They don't even know why.
It just had that effect on audiences. So it was
wild and I'm so honored, and I loved that role.
She was so obviously different from me.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
But to talk about that for a second, is it
just me or are you somewhat drawn to playing complicated characters?
Speaker 5 (29:41):
I am okay.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Is that your choice or is it just a thought
because I see you play a lot of super complicated
characters and it seems quite difficult. That's your choice, you
want to do that.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I love doing all sorts of roles. My one main
objective is to not play the same role over and over.
And sometimes I'm offered roles that I'm not particularly drawn to,
and if I if I'm in the middle of doing
something else or just feel I'm not the right person
(30:16):
for the role, I will turn it down. Or there's
other roles too that I very much want to play.
And still, like all actors, you put your cart and
soul into an audition and you kind of have to
let go of whether it goes your way or not.
(30:36):
It's part of it is just destiny, nothing personal. But
there's certainly roles that I am excited about that I
don't have any control over whether I'll be asked to play.
But the role I just played in a movie called
The Big Kill, which was filmed in Toronto this fall,
(30:59):
was a character that I loved. She is complicated, but
she's also kind of a regular girl. She's very funny
and very dark sense of humor. It's a horror comedy,
but it's got some great comedians like Pete Holmes and
Natasha Ledger in it, and Skeet Ulrich, who's of course
(31:24):
very well known for so many things including Scream. The
whole gen X cast, and I got to feel like
I'm part of an ensemble, but you know, it was
it got to exercise the comedic muscle for me too,
which I haven't done in a while, so that was
super fun.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
This is Tony and Dwight Show, the other guy. He's
he booked you as a guest.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
While question.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
One of my well you have a by the way,
long legs, Long Legs scared the crap out of all
all of us. I took the family to go see
that thing. In Nick Cage, I forgot. I didn't after
this is how you know you got a good role.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We didn't. After a while, you forget it's Nick Cage
doing that role. It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
It was crazy, great job in that one. But mister
Holland's Opus, you played a high school student. What was
it like working with the Richard Dreyfus.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
I found him to be lovely, so respectful, is the
thing that I remember the most about him, because as
an eighteen year old and really just getting started at
that point, very few credits under my belt. Obviously I
got the role, and I had to audition many times
to get it and prove myself. But still, it's Richard Dreyfus.
(32:44):
He's a legend. And I didn't know if he was
going to look down on me a little, just as
a new actor and a young actor. And I was
so struck by the respect that he treated me with,
much like mister Holland treated his students in the movie.
He never tried to direct me or you know, telled
(33:09):
me to make a different choice. He just treated me
like a peer, and I think it helped me feel
as vulnerable as I did in the audition and allowed
me to be to bring what I intended to the
character and create it together. And then he took the
whole cast and crew out to a restaurant in LA
(33:29):
to thank them for his Oscar nomination and told us
before dinner that he couldn't have done it without each
and every person in the room and wanted to share
the nomination.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, I got okay, I got one more acting question.
I want to bounce back to your music. I have
hit a tour two So you do a spot on
twelve and a half Man or two and a half Man.
You do a spot on there, and it's with Charlie Sheen,
of course, and you do a strip tease. Is Charlie
(34:01):
Sheen's sexual appetite and reputation and let's face you're a
beautiful woman and you know strip tease and he's Charlie Sheen.
Was there any flirting going on on the set that
you tried to hit on your Is it pretty much professional?
Speaker 5 (34:16):
This was about if I recall correctly, it was about
a year before all the real crazy behavior began in
that chapter. Anyway, he at the time was a very
happily married man who was just about to welcome twins.
(34:39):
So yeah, quite lovely, but also a bit boring in
terms of story. But no, he was. I think he
was sober. He was super focused and nice, and all
he was doing was talking about his wife and like,
any day now she's going to give birth. So I
think we were all we knew the live show could
have been hand sold if obviously, if she went into
(35:02):
into labor, we'd have to work around that. But no,
he was. He was great at that time.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
At least you went joins the show get her new album.
We heard the title track coming in. Well, let's close
with that too, if you don't mind title track from
her brand new album. I think I'm spending Christmas with you.
Let's talk about the tour, because the closest date you
have to our city right up the road, Nashville, Tennessee,
on my anniversary December third, next week next Wednesday, my anniversary,
(35:34):
right up the road. It looks like these dates are
selling really well.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Yeah, they are now Saint Louis a few days ago
was completely sold out, and Orlando, Florida, we added a
show the same day because the first one sold out
super fast, and now it looks like that one's there's
like ten tickets left, so we're going to sell that
out too. That's this Sunday. And then Yeah, I live
(36:02):
in Nashville, Tennessee now, so that is going to be
a special show. My whole band will be.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
With me, Dagon I'll be in Mexico from my honey anniversary.
I don't get to go, oh well, dang it, but
you know whats gonna.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Be can come out and they can tell you how.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Oh wait a minute, if you do want to go
to Nashville, show is Third and Lindsay, and it's going
to be a live stream. I might streaming in Mexico.
That's what I'll do. I'll just streaming in Mexico. Can
I say before we get out of this interview, I
gotta say I hated your guts on Walking Dead.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
That good? That means I, oh.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
My gosh, I almost didn't do the interview. I hated
you so much.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I just did you.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Did you do the comic con type circuit after you
do Walking Dead and you go out to meet the fans.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Yes, I did, I did do that. I did a
lot of the Walkers, Stalcer conventions, lots of the comic
cons around the world. I love the Walking Dead. That
was so honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Well listen. I love the new record. I spent time
with it last night. It's a double record. Alicia, well done,
well done.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Hopefully you'll make this Christmas to her a thing and
the wife and I could come see you in Nashville
next year.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Oh I sure hope. So happy anniversary, and thank you,
Dwight and Tony.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Thank you, best luck you will see Alicia see it later.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
You're such a liar.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
I really did I do. I tracked the way no
way you listen to that? That's my wife. I called
your house last night and all I could hear was
a C D C. Well I didn't play them at
the same time. You know, it's kind of like mixing
a drink, you know when the act casts, you know,
too much Christmas Christmas with all.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
The singers on the air the last forty eight hours,
I've submerged myself into your album.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I do I listen to listen. Barrow Hey, Craigsbest Cars
dot com. Why buy new when you get the exact
same product. You save thousands and thousands of dollars his
new car look, new car smell, even that coveted factory
new car warranty. You just don't get that depreciation. Happy
fiftieth anniversary to Craig and Landworth. Go to Craigsbest cars
(38:20):
dot com
Let's just be honest.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Dwight can book some terrible guests, but every once in
a while he done good. Yeah, And it was a
nice surprise to have this next man come on with
us today. I was like, what we getting Scott Jennings
to come on with us? And finally we worked it out. Scott,
how are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm great live from your nation's capital, but glad to
be talking to the folks back home in Kentucky.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Hey, can I tell you that Tucker Carlson would have
got the time right? It's almost Hey, Scott Jennings, the
new book. I love the title. I haven't ready yet,
but we're getting ready to head off to Mexico. I
think we'll buy it today to take it with me.
A name of the book is a Revolution of common sense?
How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for Western civilization.
(00:46):
Has the political landscape really been distilled down to common
sense versus total insanity? Because someone think of it has Scott,
But what's your take on that?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Man? Well, you know the President used that phrase in
his inaugural address. That's where I got it. And I
was sitting on the set at CNN in January thinking man,
that'd be a great title for a book, and so
I went to pitch the president on it. But yeah,
I mean the short answer is yes. I mean, effectively,
that's how he has rebranded his political coalition. And if
(01:18):
you know, if he's for common sense by definition, the
other guys are uncommon nonsense. And the book kind of
chronicles some of the issues where, you know, these are
what we would call eighty twenty issues or maybe ninety ten,
you know, whether it's putting boys in girls sports or
paper straws, or I don't know, stopping the flood of
illegal immigration. I mean, these are all very sort of
(01:40):
lopsided issues, and they're not terribly political. They're just sort
of common sense, like the average person will say, well, yeah,
that doesn't make any sense to have an open border,
doesn't make any sense to let boys play in girl sports.
And so Trump has effectively used that construct to return
to the White House. This book is about the first
one hundred hundred and twenty days of the administration where
he just kind of, you know, overran his opposition with
(02:03):
these common sense issues.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Scott Jennings is our guest here. Look, I think you're
the only reason that they're watching CNN, it's it's sort
of like you. You know, your personality and how you're
handling yourself is practically propping up the network. How did
all that come about, that they were going to put
you on this show and then stack it against you.
How did that idea come about and you said, sure,
(02:25):
I'll do that.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well. Last year during the election, our CEO Mark Thompson
had a great idea, which is, we should have a
debating show. You know, there's an election going on, we
should have a debating show. So they were going to
do it as a short term deal, but it was
so popular they've left it on the air. And when
they decided to do the debating show, they came to
me and said, listen, you know, we need you to
show up here a few nights a week and they
(02:49):
the campaign and so I did it and it really
took off. And I think what we've done. And by
the way, it's our one of our highest rated shows.
It's for advertisers, it's one of the best. It does
great online and it creates viral clips, so it's good
for the brand. But I think I think what I've
done is I've made CNN safe for conservatives.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Again.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So now you know, we've we've cultivated a little cadre
of us that go on and debate and you and
if you turn it on during the day, you see
Republican Congressman, you see Jamie Comer, you see Andy Barr,
you see and all of a sudden, people are like, hey,
maybe CNN is safe again. And by the way, it's
it's great. You know, if you want to hear both
(03:27):
sides of a debate, that's what they're doing. And so
I have nothing but good vibes for CNN, and I
think it was a smart idea to kind of try
to return some balance to what you're hearing on the air.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Scott Jennings is our guest. The brand new book it's
out now, a Revolution of common Sense, get it. I'm
going to be reading this one on Mexico. But let's
let's keep it on CNN because I got to tell you,
I hate talking politics. My wife's in the House of Representatives,
and people think by the fault that I want to
talk I hate. It drives me the nuts. How do
you keep your composure when it's five against one on
(03:58):
CNN and every thing that they're thrown at you is
complete nonsets. How do you not You're so even tempered,
and you just come back with facts and then they
try to blow those up. How do you keep composure? Man?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Well, the way to stay calm in debates and in
a lot of professional settings is preparation. And I know
I'm gonna have four or five people yelling at me
about any given topic. And I don't always know the topics,
and I certainly don't know how Abby is going to
produce the segments or set them up, and I don't
know what clips she's gonna play, but I kind of
generally know what I think, and I will never be
(04:33):
out prepared when it comes to the facts, and that
is the number one way to remain calm. I am
always going to know more about it than everybody else.
And then the other way, of course, is just to
understand that, you know, my arguments are sort of ruled
by logic and facts. The liberal arguments are almost always
ruled by emotion and narratives, and you know, frankly, things
(04:53):
that are easily debunked, you know that they've seen online.
That's one of the craziest things about the show. I
find that the w liberals marinate in this sort of
blue andon, you know, online ecosystem where most of what
they've been told is simply not true. It's not happened.
Yet they walk in there saying I saw this, and
(05:14):
you can debunk it within ten seconds with some statement
or some fact that you've pulled up. It's amazing to
me how much of their life they live based on
emotion and sort of an alternate reality that doesn't really exist.
So you know, remaining calm knowing that that's what you're
going to face. It comes down to preparation and just
you know, you can't take any of it personally. You
(05:34):
just have to show up and you know, do your
deep breathing exercises and remember what you've prepared to do.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You do a great job, and sometimes they put some
lesser opponents up to but you do have some that
go back and forth with you. I think they genuinely.
I try to tell whether they like you or not.
I think they do. But you're right, they isolate themselves
and they never hear the other side of really and
then you because you do that common sense front porch
(06:00):
type of response, that makes sense. So let's talk about
these midterms. Look, the Democrats lost horribly with you know,
they picked three topics and they went after it for
the presidential election and lost horribly, and then they tripled down.
Most the Democrats used to know how to win, all right,
they had the White House for twelve in the last
(06:22):
sixteen years. They know how to win, and then they
seem like they've forgotten that and they are tripling down
on these topics and these issues. How will this midterms?
And again, I know it goes state to state and
all that, but how do you think this is gonna go.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well? Look, midterms typically don't go well for the party
in power, so historically speaking, Republicans would expect to not
do very well. So that's number one. Number Two, there
is some redistricting back and forth going on out there,
so we're not quite sure yet what the full map
that is going to look like. And if it all
shakes out the way some Republicans hope, it could give
(06:58):
the Republicans a little bit of a boost. Number three.
You know, look, most of the time these things come
down to one issue, the economy, and if people feel
like the trajectory of their life and of the economy
is good, the reward policies and if they feel like
it's not they won't. The final thing I would say
is that the Republicans still do have a strategic issue,
which is in a tactical issue, which is a lot
(07:18):
of people like to turn out to vote for Donald Trump,
but they don't like to vote, or they won't turn
out for other Republicans. Even in twenty twenty four, Trump
won the national popular vote, but we lost Senate seats
in three or four places. Trump wins the state and
we lost the Senate race. You had a bunch of
people who went and filled out ballots for Trump and
they left everything else blank. And so until the Republicans
(07:41):
sort of solve that issue, it's going to put them
at a strategic disadvantage whenever he's not on the ballot.
And I'll break the news that he's not going to
be on the ballot ever again. And so the party
has got to figure out how to convert his people
into regular Republicans. Heretofore they haven't done it, but I
know that's the number one priority at the Republican Nowtional Committee.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Scott Jennings is our guest. Get the new book, A
Revolution of Common Sense. How Donald Trump stormed Washington and
fought for Western civilization. Scott, let's let's go back to
a CNN for a minute. You're on CNN, and I
think it's evident you've ben mentioned that CNN might be
a safe place now because it's it's leaned, and so
(08:22):
is mainstream media for that matter, it's leaned hard left.
For so long did they twist narratives? They only place
seconds of a comment to take it out of context,
you know, on purpose, just to undermine whoever conservative the
story might be about. What's their motivation behind that is
just because they were do the fact the facto they
(08:44):
went to college became liberal, or what is the motivator there?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well, I'll just speak about the corporate media and mass
media and mainstream media in general. The University of Syracuse
a couple of years ago did a study about who
works there and the vast, vast, vast majority of people
who work in media now are Democrats and something like
three percent were Republicans. And so the business in the
industry generally has become very insular. They know each other,
(09:11):
they hire each other, they marry each other, they go
out to dinner with each other. They only really hang
out with each other, and so when you create an
insular system where everybody has the same general political ideology,
that is the result. And so one of the reasons
I do this job on CNN is to show conservatives
we can't really seed any ground. I mean, we need
conservatives at CNN, we need a conservative, and now they
(09:34):
have Barry Weiss running CBS News. I think is she's
not really a conservative, but she is fair as an
actual journalist and a critical thinker. You need people who
don't just come from one far end of the spectrum
of the political spectrum. We have to not seed this ground.
And so am I a bit of a pilgrim in
(09:55):
an unholy land? Yes, but there's some there's something to it.
I'm trying tying to show everybody else, Hey, it's okay
to do this, It's safe to do it, and by
the way, it's necessary to do it if you want
to save America and say Western civilization, we cannot see
this territory fully.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
To the radical left, well, there is leaning one way
and then there's doctrine.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Video.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I got to tell you it broke my heart. Sixty
minutes invented investigating reporting journalism, and the Kamala interview is
just there wasn't one person in the room. There wasn't
one producer, there wasn't a videoographer, there wasn't there wasn't
one person that said wait, wait, wait, we can't we
can't do this like there was. That's that's what scared
(10:38):
me the most, is that there wasn't one person to
say no, we can't do this.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
That kind of broke my heart. With sixty minutes did.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That well, it was a it was a serious mistake.
And you know, of course, I've been around long enough
to remember when CBS and Dan Rather, you know, manufactured
that story about George W. Bush back in his presidential campaign,
and they ended up paying the price for that. I mean,
I think on unfortunately what happens, and I don't think
this is true of everybody, but sometimes in campaigns, people
(11:06):
get really emotionally involved in it and they stop thinking
of themselves as journalists and they start thinking themselves as
political operatives, and they say, you know, I have the
tools and the means to potentially affect outcomes here, and
I'm going to do it. Look what happened in twenty
twenty when the Hunter Biden laptop story was broken by
The New York Post Look at the effort that went
into calling that Russian disinformation. Look at the effort that
(11:28):
went into censoring that information from the American people. What
in that case, you had a bunch of people. Look
at the effort in other media outlets to immediately try
to discredit what the New York Post had correctly uncovered.
So let me think about it. If you were a
journalist and you had the story of the century, which
is this laptop shows all kinds of corruption in the
(11:48):
family of the person who's the most likely next president
of the United States, wouldn't you be all over that?
But in that case, not only were they not all
over it, they were trying to cover it up and
discredit it. Why because we were on the doorstep of
an election. And so at that point you cease being
journalists and you start being a political activist. And I
think unfortunately sometimes in campaigns, people get the emotions, get
(12:10):
the better of people, and that's how they act, and
it's not good.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And the same story went along with COVID. There was people,
there was doctors losing their jobs and loosening to their
careers over it. Let's let's keep on another scander. Let's
talk about the Epstein files. It's thrown in your face
a lot on CNN, But the fact of the matter
is facts are facts. The Biden administration had these files
for four years, nothing was done. Do you think that
(12:34):
we'll see any names on this that will shock us,
or will anything even come of it? I know now
the Clinton's are refusing testimony or well anything actually evolved
from this. In your opinion, Scott Jennings, Gosh, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It would be shocking to me if there weren't a
few names that emerged. I mean, I'm expecting, though, to
see a lot more Democrats than anything else. And I
think the Democrats may have blundered into something here. They
want this so badly to be a story about Trump
and Epstein. What we know is that Trump got rid
of Jeffrey Epstein, and we also know from these emails
that Epstein hated Trump. Now we also know that long
(13:08):
after Epstein was convicted, Trump had gotten rid of him
out of his world. But the Democrats never did. You know.
He's fundraising with Hakeem Jeffries. He's getting, you know, questions
via email from Larry Summers about how to pick up
younger women. He's you know, programming. Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat
member of Congress. So over time you see Trump gets
rid of Epstein, but Democrats never do. And so what
(13:31):
I'm looking for in the files is just how tight
end to the left was Jeffrey Epstein even after they knew,
even after they knew the guy was a total creep
and a convicted sex criminal. So what is the extent
of it? I mean, your guest is as good as mine.
And when will it all come out? I assume sometime
in the next couple of weeks. But I think the
Democrats are going to be answering some questions about why
(13:53):
their own people were as tied in with Epstein as
they appear to be.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The big shift for me was, you know, when I
grew up, you know, the Democrats seemed to be like
the oh, the kind of the fun party and not
a little judgmental, and they just kind of just, hey,
you do what you want, man, it's a free country,
YadA YadA. And the Republicans always seemed like the banker
and the three piece polyest suit and then telling me
how I should live my life. And then those parties,
(14:17):
those ideals flipped, and then the Democrats got emotional, and
my twenty one year old son at the time said, Dad.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's simple. Trump broke liberal's brains.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
And I think, as simple as that statement is, I
think it's true. I think they just could not figure
him out and it broke their brains, and that's why
they're screaming at us all the time.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I think you're describing two things. One, the constituencies of
the parties did change. The Republicans became the party of
the working class. I think about people like my dad,
who I talk about in my book. You know, this
was a union guy who was the biggest Clinton guy,
knew garbage man and a factory worker. There wasn't a
bigger Democrat when I was growing up. He was the
first person to tell me Donald Trump was going to
(15:05):
be the next president. And of course I liked everybody
else who had been trained up in regular politics was like, oh,
you're full of craft, you don't know anything. But he
was right and I was wrong. Not the only time
in my life that's happened, but for millions of people
like my dad, working class people, you know, people who
felt like the political elites had at best left them
(15:25):
behind or forgotten about them, and at worst actively sought
to punish them for their values. They decided that the
Democrats had just stopped caring at all, and so they
came over to the Republican Party. And in the Republican Party,
some people that didn't like Donald Trump migrated to the Democrats.
And so you have seen a big switchover in constituency.
(15:46):
And of course this has also led to a changing
a little bit of economic platform policy in the Republican Party.
What's interesting is the Democrats I don't think have actually
changed their platform, even though they've absorbed, you know, some
of these more moderate suburban Republics over the last few years,
their platform and their attitude has only gotten more liberal
and more socialists. And I wonder, you know, when are
(16:06):
these old moderate Republicans going to come back and realize
it's no fun being in the socialist party because that's
what they're in right now.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Well, let's talk about that for a second. The way
certain people are switching behaviors, particularly Bill Maher for a
couple of years now, it's almost like.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This transformation has been crazy.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It's been stunning. Are you surprised to see the route?
I mean, Bill Maher speaking the truth now?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So Bill Maher. I think there's traditional liberals and that's
what Bill Maher is, and then there's these modern liberals
who have become illiberal, meaning they don't even want you
to have a conversation with a conservative. They don't want
you to have dinner with somebody that you know that's
a Republican. And so Bill Maher, it's okay to be liberal,
and it's in the classic sense, meaning we could have
(16:50):
different points of view on issues. But you know, we're
all Americans here, can't we talk to each other? And
Bill Mahers, you know what was his big sin? He
went to have dinner with Donald Trump at the White House.
And now they can't get enough of attacking this guy,
and they so, I mean, what kind of an America?
Is that the kind of America you want? But that's
that's what the prevailing attitude is on the left, not
(17:10):
that you uh not that you can't uh not only
can you not be a conservative, you're not allowed to
have a conversation with the conservative. They don't They don't
want you to know your neighbor. They don't want you
to be integrated in your society, in your community with
people who have different political persuasion. That's pretty dangerous for
American culture opinion.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
It's about to get worse for him too, because he
just booked Laura Trump for a club random scotchat that serious.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Pauline said before the election there was going to be
the tightest race in history. We might not know for weeks.
And then I'm watching MSMB. I was bouncing around that morning.
I texted a buddy that you and I both have together,
and I said, he's going to win and we're going
to know before ten because they're interviewing where did they
park themselves at MSN and be Philadelphia and Temple University
(17:59):
and yeah, and they started interviewing these young black women
and men and they're going down the line and the
brave ones said I'm voting for Trump, and they and
I'm voting for Trump and and that to them broke
their brains again. They're like, how is that possible? Right,
there's no way We've lost a young black vote, and
and and the MSc was panicking, and that's when it
(18:20):
hit me. I was like, he's gonna win and we're
gonna know early. That was that was a crazy nice goy.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Jennings. Yeah, it was crazy and of course by nine
ten o'clock. I mean I was tracking it in the
CNN studio. I knew we had it. I was looking
at these different counties or some Bellweather counties in Florida
and Virginia and some other places. Not only was Trump winning,
he was winning them huge, and everybody's sitting there new
like Trump's got this. But we didn't call the race
(18:46):
for several hours, you know. Yeah, it took us a
while to come to grips with it. I think I
got on at three point thirty eight am and was like,
y'all want me to tell you why you lost or
you want to keep going. But but it was absolutely true.
But think about what you were told in the three
weeks before the election. You know, Oh my gosh, a
poll in Iowa, Harris is going to win Iowa. Oh
(19:06):
my gosh, all the Puerto Ricans are mad. So Harris
is going to win Pennsylvania, which never made any sense
to me. Oh my gosh, Harris is surging and Trump
is sinking. Here at the end, they were trying to create.
They were trying to will momentum into existence. That's not journalism,
but that is what the political information distribution complex does
(19:27):
they try to create narratives and alternative realities instead of
just telling you the truth. And in that case, they
had everybody believe in Harris was on her way, and
anybody who was paying attention out in the middle of
the country knew knew she was never ever going to
be Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Scott Jennings is our guest.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Last again, they don't run her again, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I'd be surprised if the Democrats nominated Harris again. I
think they're far more likely to go a different road.
But if they wanted to try it again, fine with me.
I mean, and one.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Last question, Scott Jennings, You were former deputy director of
political affairs for George W. Bush. Does he ever call
you up, going hey Jennings, see a football game or
call you up? Do you keep in contact with him
at all or not?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I see him every so often. We will have Bush
administration like at the Presential Library in Texas, will have
like a reunion of the administration of the campaigns. I
saw him at an event a couple of years ago
in DC hit a speaking gig, and I got to
go backstage and chat with him for a few minutes.
But it's fairly infrequent. I do keep in touch with
my old boss, Karl Rove, yeah, who is on Fox
(20:36):
News and he and I actually just chatted with him
the other day. I'm gonna go down to Texas and
do a speaking event at his behest as part of
my book tour. So yeah, I keep in touch with
the Bush guys. You know, some of them went the
other way. They're not they're not big Trump fans. I'm
not sure they're super happy with me about the whole thing.
But but I'll just be honest. I think we're in
a fight for the future of Western civilization. And if
(20:58):
you want me to throw in with the progressive, socialist,
radical whatever, you know, I'm just I'm just not going
to do it. I'm just I'm sorry. I mean, there's
no politician I agree with one hundred percent of the time.
But I know who I disagree with. I knew who
I disagree with one hundred percent of the time, and
that's the Democrats right now, because they've gone, they've lost
their minds. And it truly and in my opinion, the
(21:21):
Republicans under Trump back to the title of common sense.
That's where I am on it, and that's where I'm
going to be.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Yeah, well yeah, and I will know that. I think
the Republican Party is a bit fractured right now, and
I hope it works it out, whatever that might mean.
But the new book is Scott Jennings, by the way,
A Revolution of Common Sense, How Donald Trump stormed Washington
and fought for Western civilization. Scott. I cannot wait to
read this book. Thank you for the time, man, I
(21:48):
appreciate you, Jennings.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I stopped by the Barnes and Noble out into Paddock
shops when I was home this weekend, and let me
just tell you they were sold out. They were sold
out so they could fly it off the ship, flying
off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I love it, job, man, keep up the fight, all right,
I love it all right, Thanks dude.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Happy Thanksgiving by the way.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Too, Tony's break aut alignment. This is where I'm talking about, finally,
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you a three year thirty six thousand mile warranty. That's
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Speaker 1 (22:46):
Trade No Towers.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you're sixty five or older and you're looking for
a place to live, why don't you do stay for
the winter. It's just a winter stays, so you can
temporarily stay there for the winter for the next three
or four months and don't commit to a long term
to see how you like it.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
No Towers is exactly that.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
It's a towers with great views all over the city
of Louisville from all their one to two and three
bedroom condos which you can decorate any way you want
or do whatever you want. So if you're sixty five
or older you're thinking, I don't want to shovel snow
at my house and do whatever I'm where I'm living,
let's do that. Let's get to trade Noaks for just
the winter and you might stay for the spring. So
(23:22):
give them a call at five eight nine thirty two
eleven five eight nine thirty two eleven and ask about
the stay for winter. The winter stay temporarily stay there
for a couple of months. Back after this on news
radio eight forty whash.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That's what I'm talking about here. Those pipes like a
beautiful angel. It's like hearing my wife singing the shower
only good a lisha wdd.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
How you doing, Hey, I'm doing really well. How are you, man?
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I'm doing great now that I'm talking to you. Let's
talk about this new album double album Christmas Album? What
made you look Christmas? For some reason? You're really into it?
You've wrote your director? Have you written and directed Christmas
movies too as well?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Well? I did write the last Christmas movie that I made,
which was in twenty twenty called Christmas Tree Lane. I
wrote that story and I produced it, as well as
writing two songs for it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Let's talk about the new record because it's got some
big names on it. How long did it take you
to get this record? And by the way, when you've
recorded it, is it one of those deals where you
record in August and you're trying to get in the
Christmas spirit.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (24:37):
You know, one hundred and twelve degrees outside and you're
singing Frosty the Snowman.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
I've certainly made Christmas movies in the middle of the summer,
which I referenced by the way on the song Soap
said snow but I in this case. The album was
recorded in April, and I knew at Christmas time before
that that I was going to record the album in
(25:03):
a few months. I had decided that this was the
time I've been thinking about it for years, and so
I spent the next few months really immersing myself in
what I wanted the album to sound like. I kept
right on listening to Christmas music, and I continued writing
song was both by myself and with some other incredible
(25:24):
writers like the names you mentioned that are on the album.
So by the time we recorded it in April, I
felt like I was still in the Christmas spirit. I
never really got out from the previous Christmas.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Let's talk about your acting for a second, because the
story I get on you is that you get your
first acting job at seven years just seven years old,
and you're not from an entertainment family that I know of.
So Number one is a true You get your first
acting job at seven years old, and number two, are
you terrified when you walk out on the sound stage
(26:00):
because no family experience and you're thrown out there as
a child? What was it like?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
I was not terrified, And you're absolutely right. That was
my first movie.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
I was seven.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
I felt like I had found what I was part
of what I was supposed to be doing, Like almost
like I was seeing forward into my destiny. I sensed
that I had that I was going to do this
for the rest of my life, if I was lucky,
that is. But I really wanted to. And I owe
(26:34):
a lot of that to David Lynch because as the
director of Doune and the one who gave me this
opportunity out of out of nowhere. Really it was it
felt like acting was not only fun, but it was
honorable and grown up to do it for a living.
(26:56):
And rather than being a king iiotic crazy like a
diabolical place to be, most film sets are just plain amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
It's magic, and it's it's a whole group of people
working together, working really hard to create something that will
last forever. It's such a special thing to do. It's
never lost on me that it's both very unusual and
really really a blessing beyond measure that I get to
(27:32):
do this for a living and I have for forty years.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Wow, it's hard. You look so young. That's incredible. Let's
talk about last year though, you and Nicholas Cage. You
do this independent film, independent movie, and it's called Long Legs.
One hundred and twenty nine million. It brings in that's
going to make you feel pretty good.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Right, Yeah, it felt sury ill and yes, incredible. You
never know, obviously when you make a movie what is
going to happen with that movie. You might make something
that a few people see, or you might make something
(28:16):
like in our case, we weren't even finished filming it.
It was a low budget independent film and we still
had ten days to go filming it in Vancouver when
meon Films saw a couple of scenes, one with me
and Nick and one with just Nick as Long Legs,
(28:37):
and they decided to buy the movie. And we got
that news, and we all felt really good about that
because we knew that meant a significant number of people
might have the chance to see the film in movie theaters.
But then Neon turned around and delivered the most extraordinary campaign,
(28:58):
hands down, that I've ever had the privilege to be
a part of. They were nothing short of brilliant, and
the box office, they told me later, they were told
that it was what's called a statistical anomaly in the business,
where it so far surpassed what they believed the movie
(29:19):
was going to do business wise. They don't even know why.
It just had that effect on audiences. So it was
wild and I'm so honored, and I loved that role.
She was so obviously different from me.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
But to talk about that for a second, is it
just me or are you somewhat drawn to playing complicated characters?
Speaker 5 (29:41):
I am okay.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Is that your choice or is it just a thought
because I see you play a lot of super complicated
characters and it seems quite difficult. That's your choice, you
want to do that.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I love doing all sorts of roles. My one main
objective is to not play the same role over and over.
And sometimes I'm offered roles that I'm not particularly drawn to,
and if I if I'm in the middle of doing
something else or just feel I'm not the right person
(30:16):
for the role, I will turn it down. Or there's
other roles too that I very much want to play.
And still, like all actors, you put your cart and
soul into an audition and you kind of have to
let go of whether it goes your way or not.
(30:36):
It's part of it is just destiny, nothing personal. But
there's certainly roles that I am excited about that I
don't have any control over whether I'll be asked to play.
But the role I just played in a movie called
The Big Kill, which was filmed in Toronto this fall,
(30:59):
was a character that I loved. She is complicated, but
she's also kind of a regular girl. She's very funny
and very dark sense of humor. It's a horror comedy,
but it's got some great comedians like Pete Holmes and
Natasha Ledger in it, and Skeet Ulrich, who's of course
(31:24):
very well known for so many things including Scream. The
whole gen X cast, and I got to feel like
I'm part of an ensemble, but you know, it was
it got to exercise the comedic muscle for me too,
which I haven't done in a while, so that was
super fun.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
This is Tony and Dwight Show, the other guy. He's
he booked you as a guest.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
While question.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
One of my well you have a by the way,
long legs, Long Legs scared the crap out of all
all of us. I took the family to go see
that thing. In Nick Cage, I forgot. I didn't after
this is how you know you got a good role.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We didn't. After a while, you forget it's Nick Cage
doing that role. It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
It was crazy, great job in that one. But mister
Holland's Opus, you played a high school student. What was
it like working with the Richard Dreyfus.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
I found him to be lovely, so respectful, is the
thing that I remember the most about him, because as
an eighteen year old and really just getting started at
that point, very few credits under my belt. Obviously I
got the role, and I had to audition many times
to get it and prove myself. But still, it's Richard Dreyfus.
(32:44):
He's a legend. And I didn't know if he was
going to look down on me a little, just as
a new actor and a young actor. And I was
so struck by the respect that he treated me with,
much like mister Holland treated his students in the movie.
He never tried to direct me or you know, telled
(33:09):
me to make a different choice. He just treated me
like a peer, and I think it helped me feel
as vulnerable as I did in the audition and allowed
me to be to bring what I intended to the
character and create it together. And then he took the
whole cast and crew out to a restaurant in LA
(33:29):
to thank them for his Oscar nomination and told us
before dinner that he couldn't have done it without each
and every person in the room and wanted to share
the nomination.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, I got okay, I got one more acting question.
I want to bounce back to your music. I have
hit a tour two So you do a spot on
twelve and a half Man or two and a half Man.
You do a spot on there, and it's with Charlie Sheen,
of course, and you do a strip tease. Is Charlie
(34:01):
Sheen's sexual appetite and reputation and let's face you're a
beautiful woman and you know strip tease and he's Charlie Sheen.
Was there any flirting going on on the set that
you tried to hit on your Is it pretty much professional?
Speaker 5 (34:16):
This was about if I recall correctly, it was about
a year before all the real crazy behavior began in
that chapter. Anyway, he at the time was a very
happily married man who was just about to welcome twins.
(34:39):
So yeah, quite lovely, but also a bit boring in
terms of story. But no, he was. I think he
was sober. He was super focused and nice, and all
he was doing was talking about his wife and like,
any day now she's going to give birth. So I
think we were all we knew the live show could
have been hand sold if obviously, if she went into
(35:02):
into labor, we'd have to work around that. But no,
he was. He was great at that time.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
At least you went joins the show get her new album.
We heard the title track coming in. Well, let's close
with that too, if you don't mind title track from
her brand new album. I think I'm spending Christmas with you.
Let's talk about the tour, because the closest date you
have to our city right up the road, Nashville, Tennessee,
on my anniversary December third, next week next Wednesday, my anniversary,
(35:34):
right up the road. It looks like these dates are
selling really well.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Yeah, they are now Saint Louis a few days ago
was completely sold out, and Orlando, Florida, we added a
show the same day because the first one sold out
super fast, and now it looks like that one's there's
like ten tickets left, so we're going to sell that
out too. That's this Sunday. And then Yeah, I live
(36:02):
in Nashville, Tennessee now, so that is going to be
a special show. My whole band will be.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
With me, Dagon I'll be in Mexico from my honey anniversary.
I don't get to go, oh well, dang it, but
you know whats gonna.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Be can come out and they can tell you how.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Oh wait a minute, if you do want to go
to Nashville, show is Third and Lindsay, and it's going
to be a live stream. I might streaming in Mexico.
That's what I'll do. I'll just streaming in Mexico. Can
I say before we get out of this interview, I
gotta say I hated your guts on Walking Dead.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
That good? That means I, oh.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
My gosh, I almost didn't do the interview. I hated
you so much.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
I just did you.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Did you do the comic con type circuit after you
do Walking Dead and you go out to meet the fans.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Yes, I did, I did do that. I did a
lot of the Walkers, Stalcer conventions, lots of the comic
cons around the world. I love the Walking Dead. That
was so honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Well listen. I love the new record. I spent time
with it last night. It's a double record. Alicia, well done,
well done.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Hopefully you'll make this Christmas to her a thing and
the wife and I could come see you in Nashville
next year.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Oh I sure hope. So happy anniversary, and thank you,
Dwight and Tony.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Thank you, best luck you will see Alicia see it later.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
You're such a liar.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
I really did I do. I tracked the way no
way you listen to that? That's my wife. I called
your house last night and all I could hear was
a C D C. Well I didn't play them at
the same time. You know, it's kind of like mixing
a drink, you know when the act casts, you know,
too much Christmas Christmas with all.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
The singers on the air the last forty eight hours,
I've submerged myself into your album.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I do I listen to listen. Barrow Hey, Craigsbest Cars
dot com. Why buy new when you get the exact
same product. You save thousands and thousands of dollars his
new car look, new car smell, even that coveted factory
new car warranty. You just don't get that depreciation. Happy
fiftieth anniversary to Craig and Landworth. Go to Craigsbest cars
(38:20):
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