07-15-24 Interview - Dan O'Donnell Host on WISN in Milwaukee

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to thethird hour of the show, and I
am thrilled to be seated next toa fellow talk show host. He is
Dan O'Donnell on WISN here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You guys have a great
talk radio market here. Well,thank you. I do appreciate it.
None of us, however, herein Milwaukee have a listener made theme song.
However, that is a bop.As the kids say, isn't that

(00:23):
awesome? I love u shit tohear the whole thing. It's amazing,
But we don't want to need totalk about me anymore. I wanted to
bring you on because a lot ofpeople who've never been here, so you
don't really have a sense of howdisruptive the RNC is for Milwaukee. Boy
howdy, it is hard to getanywhere from point A to point B right
now. Essentially the downtown is aghost town everybody has known for years now,

(00:48):
and certainly in the last couple ofmonths. If you don't need to
be in downtown Milwaukee, which isreally obviously the business and commercial hub of
the entire region, just don't go. Basically, it's impossible to get off
of the freeway pretty much every freewayexit heading into Milwaukee is closed, so
you actually have to get off alittle bit north or west of the city

(01:11):
and then kind of drive in.So just imagine the entire city of Denver,
and geographically Milwaukee is I think roughlythe same size. You have a
much bigger population, obviously, butwe are a very spread out city.
The entire downtown area is much smallerthan Denver. But just imagine it completely
shut down. And that's what you'vegot here. I wanted to ask how

(01:33):
do wisconsin its feel about this?Because you guys, are you still you
know? Are you purple? Orare you red? Are you blue?
Where are you now? Oh?My goodness, Wisconsin is probably the ultimate
purple state. In fact, outof all of the swing states, the
ones that are likeliest to determine thepresidential race this November, I would argue

(01:53):
that Wisconsin is the closest we typicallyfloat back and forth. In fact,
in twenty six sixteen, Donald Trumpwon Wisconsin by roughly thirty thousand votes.
In twenty twenty, he lost toWisconsin by roughly twenty thousand votes. Okay,
we're a state of five point sevenfive point eight million people, so

(02:14):
you've got several million votes in twentythousand, to thirty thousand votes typically separates
the two candidates. Not only that, going all the way back to two
thousand and four, the two thousandand four presidential election decided again by less
than a percentage point. George W. Bush very narrowly lost to John Kerry.
So this is a state that's rightdown the middle. And as you

(02:35):
can imagine, people in Milwaukee isa pretty democratic city. Is you could
about a ninety ninety five percent Democrat. I mean, it's typical blue city.
If you hate Donald Trump, ifyou hate Republicans, you're really to
talk. If you love Republicans,if you're anywhere in the suburbs of Milwaukee,
which is like one of the mostconservative areas of the state, you
love it. You love the factthat the RNC is here. You probably

(02:57):
aren't going to go down to Milwaukeefor much. The Brewers are on the
All Star break, so there's nota whole lot of reason to come from.
Nothing going on right now, andMilwaukee actually in the summertime. We
just finished last weekend. We billit as the world's largest music festival.
It's it used to be eleven straightdays of just NonStop music. Now it's
three straight weekends and it's just ahuge party. In a couple of weeks
we have the Harley Davidson Festival.You guys have to make the most of

(03:22):
summer because your winters it is.Imagine. Imagine it's like Colorado, but
without the beautiful snow and skiing andwinter sport. It's like a totally flat
Colorado with all of this. Wegot like two feet of snow in a
day last January. I mean,so yeah, we've got We've got the
Harley Fest with Red Hot Chili Pepperscoming to town. We have got We're

(03:45):
the city of festivals, the DeerCity Festival city were known as because we
really do have a festival culture wheredowntown is bustling, and now it's just
completely shut down. I mean it'sa ghost town inside that security perimeter,
so hard to get just figure outwhich way to go. It's a lot
going on. I want to askyou about the now announced pick that Donald

(04:06):
Trump has said JD. Vances hisvice president, and then if you read
the announcement that he said out ontruth Social he specifically starts to reference Midwestern
states at the bottom. He's goingto be out talking. Does that make
a difference in Wisconsin? Because jdVance is an Ohio guy, which I
realize not Wisconsin but Midwestern guy.Does that make a difference. I think

(04:28):
it does to some extent. I'mnot one that believes in the geographical draw
of a running mate, if thatmakes any sense. I think Vance is
much stronger on the ticket because youcan so forcefully yet articulately make the case
for Donald Trump and make the casefor populist conservative MAGA values and the MAGA
ticket. This also solidifies this asthere was some thought that there was going

(04:54):
to be balance on the ticket.Marco Rubio, even though he's very conservative,
is sort of seen as being morefrom that establishment wing of the party
that that might be the pick tobalance it out. I think Trump is
really leaning into the idea that thisis the mega populist party. Now.
I have a theory that I justformulated a little while ago, and that

(05:15):
is Trump's only got four more years, right, and he knows he's not
going to be running for reelection.I think that he chose jd Vance at
least in part because he perceives thatif jd Vance goes on to become president,
he will continue the mantle of Trumppolitics. Yeah, what do you
think? Oh? Absolutely, Ithink that is one hundred percent of Vance
is thirty nine years old. Okay. If let's say Trump and Vance win

(05:38):
in November, he'll be one ofthe younger vice presidents that we've had in
recent memory and have in fact,I think the youngest VP since Richard Nixon
was Eisenhower's vice president. You're goingback all the way to nineteen fifty two,
so he is going to be Ifhe would then be elected president,
he would be forty three forty fouryears old in the election of twenty two

(06:00):
twenty eight. That would put himas one of the youngest presidents in American
history. I think Teddy Roosevelt atage forty three is the youngest ever.
So this is a guy who isbeing advanced. And remember he's still a
freshman senator. He's still in hisfirst art. He was just elected less
than two years ago. So thisis a guy who has had just a
remarkable assent in politics. But clearlyI think is someone that Trump sees himself

(06:26):
in and as you said, itkeeps the party under the influence of the
Trump brand of populist conservatism. DanO'Donnell, I appreciate you making time for
me. You can listen to himon the iHeartRadio app in Crystal Clear digital
Audio at WISN and Milwaukee. Youand I should do a cruise in tour
trip together. I would absolutely towalk to him. Please. Dan is

(06:47):
a cruise and tour guy too,so I would love to do one with
you in the near future. We'llhave to make that happen. Mandy.
If your listeners have not yet donea cruise intour trip with you, I
can tell I just got back.I just got back a couple of weeks
ago from Venice. We had aprivate ship. This is how good these
people are. I took ninety ofmy closest friends from Venice down the Croatian

(07:08):
coast the Adriatic Sea. We're doingNormandy for theadieth anniversary of D Day.
London to Normandy to Paris in acouple of weeks. I mean, you
have got to go with Mandy.I'm told, Mandy, your husband was
very nearly my guide two years ago. Yeah, in all world, he
was very nearly when my guide forIreland until he got covides. I gave
him COVID he'll never forgive me forthat, Dan o'donnald I so appreciate you

(07:30):
stopping buy Oh, of course anytime, Mandy. All right, we got
to take a quick break. We'llbe right back after this