Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Rich Lowry | Editor-In-Chief of National Review on the State of Trump's Presidency Following Democrat Massacre of GOP in Midterms

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Rich Lowry | Editor-In-Chief of National Review on the State of Trump's Presidency Following Democrat Massacre of GOP in Midterms · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let me talk to the great Rich Lowry, National Review. Richard,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: good morning, buddy. How are you?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good, Sid.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: How are you? How do I sound, Rich? I'm pissed.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you it's happier times. We're at
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: your induction into the Hall of Fame.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was so nice. It feels like a million
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: years ago, Rich. Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I was at table 17, your table once. I had
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of chance to study you from behind, Sid.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what'd you say?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Fine, a fine physical specimen. And you look a little
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: bit like Vin Diesel from behind, I have to say.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got the bald head, the big broad shoulders.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I've got all that, right? You were awesome.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It was moving. Great to see everyone there. Great to
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: meet your mom. Congratulations again. But as you say, it
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: feels like a very long time ago.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a horrible couple of days. I mean, look,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'll ask you the most important question of all. A
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: lot of people believe that President Trump's presidency is over.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It's done. They'll spend two years fighting investigations and doing
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of vetoes. But in terms of getting
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: anything done that's really going to change our country for
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the better, it's done. Other people like Israelis, they're scared
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to death. They'll now be hesitant to do anything against Iran.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So it's a very simple question. For all intent purposes, okay,
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  Speaker 1: is President Trump's presidency over?
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  Speaker 2: No. Just because so much of what he was doing
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: had nothing to do with Congress, right? He gets a big,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: beautiful bill. Lake and Riley Act, which was great. Wanted
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to get the SAVE Act, didn't get it. I think
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: there's one other thing in there. A housing bill passed, right?
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  Speaker 2: But otherwise, he had zero interest in legislating through Congress.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And the big things he did, most memorable and consequential
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: things he did on his own, immigration enforcement, high on
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  Speaker 2: the list, Iran war, high on the list, a whole
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  Speaker 2: bunch of other foreign initiatives, whether it's trying to get
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: peace in Ukraine, Russia, or Yankee... Zelensky's chain, or threatening Greenland,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: or having a trade war with Canada, and then a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: bunch of other stuff, you know, small scale. The grass
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: in D.C. is going to be better. I'm fixing the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: reflecting pool. I'm building a ballroom. And he just looms
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: so large because of his media and cultural presence. So
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I think all that stays the same. It's no doubt
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  Speaker 2: it's a big blow. I heard you yesterday. I think
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. The election was about Trump. There was
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  Speaker 2: repudiation about Trump. There's no reason to try to dance
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: around Trump. But he's not vaporized. He's not going away.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: It could be painful, especially the investigations. But his presidency
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: is not over.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: So you agree with me. Good. So we heard about
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: gas prices and, you know, J.D. Vance is talking about
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Iran and Israel. All that goes into play. We know that.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But really, like I said yesterday, I'll double down today.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I hate Trump. That's it. That's why he lost. Some
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of those things are the reason why.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. but it's a much larger picture, but for
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Republicans to vote against President Trump, which they had to do.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: There's no way the Democrats would have enjoyed that much
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: success without Republicans voting Democrat. What was that all about?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Deep unhappiness. You know, I have people I'm very close
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to who, for the last 10 years, have thought I'm
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: too critical of Trump. And Last six months, last year,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: they now hate Trump and think I'm too favorable to Trump.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And it's largely prices. And then also since he's out,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: he's in this for himself because a lot of the
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: grift going on around him. So I think that those
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: were major driving factors in this election in turning Republicans
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: against Democrats. And also, I also don't think we should
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: dance around, and I don't think you do. The Iran
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: war is a huge problem. It was never... popular. He
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: didn't win it. He hasn't won it yet. Thank you
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: for saying that. In terms of their pocketbooks, everyone in
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  Speaker 2: the country. There's no way that wasn't an accelerant on
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: what happened.
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  Speaker 1: Of course it was. And look, you can call me
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: a Trump sycophant all day. I'm okay with that. I am.
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  Speaker 1: But have I not been... immensely critical. I mean, I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: got mad at Katsimatidis and KT and others that came
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  Speaker 1: on this show months ago and said, we've already won
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  Speaker 1: the war. Ridiculous. Of course you didn't win the war.
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  Speaker 1: We haven't won anything. I mean, it was great. We
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: strangled so the Iranian people can't eat and the stock
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: market went up. What does that mean? We still haven't
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: won the war. I'm okay with that. It's true. Yep.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Totally agree. Totally agree. And he's in real trouble now, right? Unfortunately,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Tuesday night was a fantastic night for the IRGC, right?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: They blew up the MOU because they thought they could
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: keep prices up and it would lead to a debacle
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: for Trump in the election. And that would constrain him.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And that seems to be exactly what's happened. Certainly had
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the debacle. And it's hard to see how his leverage
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: hasn't drastically reduced. Is he really going to bomb them
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: again after this election? It's hard to see. Maybe he does.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: And maybe he can just sit on the blockade. And
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: if we do it for the next two years, there's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: some chance that regime cracks. And that would be a
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: huge accomplishment, a world historical accomplishment. But after this, is
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Trump really going to be comfortable just sticking with that
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: with gas above $ 4 a gallon for the rest of
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  Speaker 2: his term?
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  Speaker 1: Maybe.
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  Speaker 2: It's hard to see. I don't know how he gets
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  Speaker 2: out of it.
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  Speaker 1: Neither do I. And if he does, I could hurt
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  Speaker 1: Republicans and their chances of winning the presidency in 28
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  Speaker 1: and maybe, God forbid, correcting what we saw on Tuesday night.
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  Speaker 1: That ain't going to help. Well, let me get to J.D. Vance.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you like him more than I do.
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  Speaker 1: I went to visit him. I did like him. He
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  Speaker 1: was very affable and very nice, but he's full of crap.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't like him, okay? I'm on record many,
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  Speaker 1: many times saying that. I don't know if Marco Rubio
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  Speaker 1: was going to run, but he's my choice. It's never
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: been close, and it's still not close. And even though J.D.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Vance may have said some things yesterday in that tweet
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  Speaker 1: that you agree with, I'm sure he did. I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: he did. He had just met in the White House
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: with the president and others. He could have waited a day,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a couple of days, a couple of hours later. He's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: already taken the president to task. And then you get
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Don Jr., the president's son, who's out there with emojis 100%.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Because you know Don Jr. loves J.D. Vance. But doesn't
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  Speaker 1: he know his father is getting murdered today? I'm just
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  Speaker 1: saying it seemed a little disloyal to me from J.D.
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  Speaker 1: Vance and his own son, Don Jr., to call out
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the reasons why we got killed on Tuesday night that
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: point directly at President Trump.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't discount the possibility. In fact, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's true that Vance's pollster sampled some small sample of
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Republicans who voted Democrat. And these are the four answers
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  Speaker 2: that came back from those pollsters. from those people. They're
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: clearly part of it, right? They're not the entirety of it.
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  Speaker 2: If that's your account of the election, it's really distorted
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: because corruption was high on the list, prices, which includes tariffs,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: were high on the list, and the Iran war was
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: there too. So I don't think there's anything wrong with
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: that necessarily. But there are lines in there that would
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  Speaker 2: read as direct challenges to the president. Like the thing like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: if you think this is worth it, you know, losing
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  Speaker 2: all these seats for this war, make your case, like
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  Speaker 2: in a challenging way.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, he has made that case. I
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  Speaker 1: think the president has made that case a thousand times.
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather lose six Senate seats and not give Iran
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  Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is the most direct challenge to a
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  Speaker 2: president we've ever seen from a vice president.
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  Speaker 1: So you're agreeing with me. So you're agreeing with me.
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  Speaker 1: What J.D. Vance did, while some of it may have
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: been factual, was entirely grotesque and disloyal.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's because the starting gun's gone off in 2028,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: and he thinks that the people, and this is another
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  Speaker 2: key line at the end where he says, if you've
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: been telling us all along, you know, you're nuts, this
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: is crazy, this is going to be very bad, well,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: I forget the exact verbiage. That's Tucker Carlson, right? That's
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Greene. That's that whole faction that he's directly
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  Speaker 2: talking to.
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  Speaker 1: That's your friend Megyn Kelly, too, by the way. I
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  Speaker 1: hate to say it. No, she's your friend, but her, too.
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  Speaker 1: She would love that.
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  Speaker 2: I was on with her election night. I'm friends with her.
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  Speaker 2: But she, too, has been on this. And look, by
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the way, unfortunately, just about the war, they've been right.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: All the other stuff, you know, the Jews have been
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: conspiring to do this. And, you know, they tried to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: kill him in Butler. And that's why he was too
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  Speaker 2: afraid to resist B.B.
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  Speaker 1: Nunn.
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  Speaker 2: You know, all that is just noxious nonsense. But anyway,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: it's a signal to those people, I'm with you, right?
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  Speaker 2: And that's how it's going to run. They're going to
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: be a key part of his campaign. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think Vance is one of them, but he
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: wants them on board.
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  Speaker 1: No, he's one of them. He's one of them. He
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: has to be a little more careful because he's a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: vice president, just like Mom Donnie. Mom Donnie will be
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: wearing a filthy keffiyeh and yelling in the streets, but
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: he's mayor, so he can't do that. Vance is absolutely
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: one of them. I got to tell you, God rest
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk's soul. He was a good man. He really was.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: And they say things about Charlie now that are just
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: not true. Now he felt about certain things when he
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: said about certain things. That whole turning point family, a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: lot of those people are very dangerous. I'm sorry. And J.D.
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  Speaker 1: Vance is one of them.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So, you know, he ran this by the president, by
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the way, apparently. That's the reporting. But he's in such
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: a ticklish spot because, you know, if you're a married man,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: you know this. If you've been through life, you know this.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you run something by someone and they say, yeah, sure,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: you know, go ahead. But they actually don't like it.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: And they resent it. They're a little pissed about it.
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  Speaker 2: And it kind of grows over time. So Vance has
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: to be really careful. Maybe Trump turns against the war
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: at some point. But there's no sign of that so far.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: And he's going to run against the war. So how's
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: that going to work out? Because he desperately needs Trump's endorsement.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: And the other thing that's going on in 2008 is
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: DeSantis very aggressively out there, speaking in really frank terms
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: about what went on, including saying last night with Laura
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Ingraham that this was a rebuke of Trump. which is
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: kind of an extraordinary thing for a politician who still
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: has national aspirations to say. So I think DeSantis may
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: be thinking, you know, there's an opening here for someone
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: who's like, thank you for your service, sir, but we're
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: moving on.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: And that would distinguish him from from advance, maybe other
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: candidates in the race. But it's beginning. You know, it's
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: already started.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: It really has. DeSantis did say, too, that how do
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: you expect me to win a presidency? if he got
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: her asses kicked in Texas on Tuesday night. Nikki Haley
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: seemed to be a little more up for it. She
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: did an interview yesterday, too, and she took apart Republicans
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and Democrats and said we can still come back from
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: all this in two years. We'll see. Rich Lowry, there's
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: nobody better. I love you, buddy. Thank you so much.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Excellent job. Rich Lowry right there, National Review.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 10:39
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• 10:42
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• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and X. See you next time for a new episode
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: so you never have to wonder.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?