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Justin Haskins Gives His Post Election Thoughts · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go, third hour of the Morning
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Show with Preston Scott. It is Tuesday, November the twelfth,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: one week later, and they're still counting votes in some
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: parts of this country, which is mind numbing to me,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: but great to be with you this morning. That's Jose
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio one B
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm joined by our good friend Justin Haskins of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the Heartland Institute. Hello, sir, good morning.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: How are you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing well. It's a tempered attitude, but let me
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  Speaker 1: turn that around. How are you?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, believe it or not. I don't know how
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: you felt going into election day a few days leading
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: up to luction day, but I felt extremely confident that
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: it was going to be a big lowout, and so
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I was not shocked by what happened. I thought that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the poll numbers seemed to indicate that this was going
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to happen, and it did. I think it is in
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: some ways obviously great where the American people, including a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: lot of groups that are traditionally aligned with Democrats, came
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: out in full force saying we do not support what
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the Democrats are offering. We do not want this agenda.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: We want to go in a completely different direction. And
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  Speaker 2: I think all of that is great, But I'm not
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you know, popping champagne bottles yet either, because ultimately, winning
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: elections really doesn't matter if you don't put the right
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: policies into place. And I hope that happens, but until
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: it happens, you know, I care a lot more about
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  Speaker 2: policy than I do about politics. Just put it that way.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Justin I likened the aftermath to coming back to a
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  Speaker 1: house that you've been away from for four years and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: finding out that there have been squatters and that the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and that the house has been destroyed from the inside.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And I think it's a very fair and I think
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  Speaker 1: it's an accurate analogy. I'm not sure that the American
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  Speaker 1: people that supported the change that we got understand how
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: badly damaged our nation is on almost every front.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's I think that's a great point.
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  Speaker 2: And when you look at the policy agenda that Trump
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  Speaker 2: has going in, there's a lot of great things. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he wants to lower taxes, he wants to end the
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  Speaker 2: war with the Ukraine, which I think globally would do
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  Speaker 2: more for the economy than almost anything that he could
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  Speaker 2: do he's got pro energy policies. All these things are
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: going to be great. But yeah, you're one hundred percent right.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the damage that's been caused will take years
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  Speaker 2: to fix. Some of it is, you know, semi permanent.
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  Speaker 2: I fear because of the way the administrative state is
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  Speaker 2: set up. What he needs desperately is a Congress who
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: will go in there and clean house. And he's not
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  Speaker 2: going to get that. He's not going to get that,
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  Speaker 2: And I think Republicans need to start really understanding that
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  Speaker 2: they are not going to have the votes to really
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: make sweeping changes like they need to. And so Trump
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: has to do all of this through executive action, and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good thing. He will do it,
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  Speaker 2: but ultimately we want to see laws passed. Those are permanent.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Executive orders can easily be overturned, and there's limits to
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: what you can do, right, So people do need to
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: temper their expectations a little bit because without the votes
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: in Congress, you're not going to have gigantic sweeping changes.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: We've got a minute left in this segment. Why do
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  Speaker 1: you think even though he'll have a majority more than
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: likely in the House, and he does in the Senate,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: wouldn't he get things done through the House in the Senate?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the short answer to that is you need
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  Speaker 2: to have big margins in the House and the Senate
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  Speaker 2: to really get things done. But especially in the Senate,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you're always you're going to have a handful of Republicans
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  Speaker 2: in the Senate who are more moderate and are not
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  Speaker 2: going to go along with the kind of big, sweeping
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: vision that we conservatives want to see the House. It's
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: less of the problem, but it's still an issue. And
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  Speaker 2: that's true with Democrats by the way, too. There's a
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  Speaker 2: reason why Biden and Democrats in his first two years
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  Speaker 2: really didn't pass that many laws. It's because it's really
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  Speaker 2: hard to do unless you have I mean, Joe Manchin
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  Speaker 2: and people like that got in the way of it, right,
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  Speaker 2: So you need to have huge, huge margins, and he's
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: not going to have that.
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  Speaker 1: Justin what's more important who he puts in the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: or who ends up being the leader of the United
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  Speaker 1: States Senate.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that's an easy one. That's an easy one. United
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  Speaker 2: States Senate absolutely matters far more. And what I think
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  Speaker 2: people really underestimate how important leadership positions are in legislatures
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  Speaker 2: and that's not just at the federal level. That's also
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  Speaker 2: at the state level too. Leadership has the ability to
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  Speaker 2: kill legislation before it ever gets to the floor, and
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  Speaker 2: they do it by putting it in certain committees. They
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  Speaker 2: do it by you know, striking deals with various factions
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  Speaker 2: in the party or on the other side, they have
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  Speaker 2: the ability to keep the right people out of committee assignments,
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  Speaker 2: and by doing that kind of controlling what gets through
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  Speaker 2: and what doesn't. And so the committee process, which is
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  Speaker 2: the first stage of how legislation gets passed, is all
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  Speaker 2: controlled in a lot of ways by the head of
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  Speaker 2: the party in that particular chamber. So the head of
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  Speaker 2: the Senate, especially because there are so few the margin
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  Speaker 2: for error there is so low, because you need to
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  Speaker 2: have sixty votes in a lot of cases to get
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  Speaker 2: over a filibuster. In the Senate, you're already dealing with
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  Speaker 2: that problem. And now if you have a leader up
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  Speaker 2: there who doesn't want to do what needs to be
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  Speaker 2: done in order to transform the country in a positive way,
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  Speaker 2: it's not hard for that person to stop it from happening.
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  Speaker 2: And so Mitch McConnell was a huge impediment to a
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  Speaker 2: lot of really good things happening. Not everything he did
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: was bad, but a lot of really great pieces of
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  Speaker 2: the legislation died because of Mitch McConnell, and that's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen again, I fear.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that leads me to the question John Thune and
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: John Cornyn have apparently kind of been considered Mitch McConnell light.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's Rick Scott. Who's the best choice.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, Rick Scott's obviously the best choice. I
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  Speaker 2: don't think there's any question about that whatsoever. But I
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  Speaker 2: don't think Rick Scott has any chance of winning. And
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  Speaker 2: that's extremely unfortunate. But it's just the way that Washington works.
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  Speaker 2: The establishment in Washington has a lot of power, They've
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  Speaker 2: got a lot of favors they call in. In these
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  Speaker 2: kinds of situations, it's very difficult for an outsider to
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: break through. That. It is possible, but it's very very difficult.
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  Speaker 2: And I think in this situation, you're not going to
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  Speaker 2: see Rick Scott make it as the head of this
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  Speaker 2: It just isn't going to happen. Now, that doesn't mean
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: all hope is lost or anything like that. A lot
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: can be done, and Jnald Trump is ultimately the you know,
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  Speaker 2: he's got the bully pulpit. He's the biggest name and
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  Speaker 2: face and power in the Republican Party. So a lot
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: of stuff can happen, but make no mistake about it,
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  Speaker 2: it is going to be a challenge.
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  Speaker 1: Does a lot key issues doesn't trump when it's all
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  Speaker 1: said and done, though, have all of the key demographics
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  Speaker 1: that he might not have won but that he won
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: over significant percentages. You look at the state turnout in
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: New York and Illinois where he just I mean, he
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: didn't win the states, but he won a lot of
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  Speaker 1: voters over in those states. That mandate isn't going to
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  Speaker 1: carry enough weight with Fune and Cornin to move the needle.
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  Speaker 1: They're not able to read the tea leaves.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Well on certain issues. I think it will. But when
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  Speaker 2: when you're talking about gutting the administrative state, you know,
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  Speaker 2: shutting down the Department of Education or gutting the Department
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: of Education, you know, some of these really big important
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  Speaker 2: things that need to happen, I don't know if that's
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  Speaker 2: the case. Yeah, I don't know if it matters. Now
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  Speaker 2: we'll find out. The truth is this, we haven't had
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  Speaker 2: a situation quite like this in a very long time,
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  Speaker 2: because really we haven't had a mandate president election presidential
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: elections since Obama the first time. I mean, it's been
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  Speaker 2: a while. And Obama the first time when he ran
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  Speaker 2: and won in two thousand and eight, if you remember,
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  Speaker 2: he got huge, huge majorities in the House and the
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  Speaker 2: Senate out of that way, bigger than what we're about
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  Speaker 2: to see here. So it's been a while since we've
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  Speaker 2: seen a president come in with a mandate. Typically they
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: barely get in, and that wasn't the case this time around,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: and so we will find out soon how much that matters.
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  Speaker 2: The other thing to remember too, that's different about this
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  Speaker 2: situation is Trump isn't going to run again. So how
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  Speaker 2: does that play into the calculus in Washington for all
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: of these figures who are worried about upsetting Trump. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know, you know, I truly don't know. So there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of unknowns here too.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Four years. Donald Trump has four years. I load the
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  Speaker 1: fact that he's going to have to do so much
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  Speaker 1: by executive order, because as you mentioned, it just leads
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to this back and forth, this ping pong game of
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  Speaker 1: policy that loath. We need to get an energy policy
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: in law, We need to get some things for our
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: defense in law. But you mentioned though the four years,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: how important is it that he kind of tee up JD.
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  Speaker 1: Vance and give him some real responsibility as a vice president,
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  Speaker 1: because in my opinion, he is a remarkable asset to
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the weird things. Another weird thing about
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  Speaker 2: the situation is that you have an incoming president who
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: can't run for a second term right from the very start,
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  Speaker 2: and so he really has an opportunity here to kind
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  Speaker 2: of pick the successor. He did that with JD. Vance.
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  Speaker 2: You wouldn't pick someone other than your successor to be
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: your vice president in that situation. And so it makes
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  Speaker 2: no sense to me to have him just sitting on
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  Speaker 2: the shelf, not really doing anything, which sometimes is what
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  Speaker 2: happens with vice presidents. I can't imagine that they won't
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  Speaker 2: use him in that way. They have to give him
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  Speaker 2: real responsibilities and FaceTime with the American people and give
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: him the chance for Americans to really get to know
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  Speaker 2: who he is and to have some wins. And I
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: think that they will do that, and I think all
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: indications are that that's the plan.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, JD. Vance is one of the few on
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  Speaker 1: our side justin that can actually make the argument and
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  Speaker 1: doesn't need a note or a teleprompter to do it,
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  Speaker 1: because he seems to come from a place of policy
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  Speaker 1: where he doesn't need notes. So if you were to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: pick the areas that you would put him front and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: center on, what would that be?
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Oh boy, I would say immigration. That to me would
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: be the number one thing, because that's a hard topic
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: for Trump to talk about. Sometimes he speaks in generalizations.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We all know, we've heard the clips from Trump. We
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: know that his policy ideas are in the right you know,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: or in the right space. We know that when he speaks,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: we get the point as conservatively understand what he's trying
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: to say. But he has this tendency to say things
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: that are a little bit exaggerated or you know, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: and that's that's a Northeast thing. By the way, I'm
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: from the Northeast. That's what people do. This is the
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: way it's so it's it's totally normal up there, but
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: it's in politics that makes you know, the media uses
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: that to their advantage to say, look, he's being dishonest,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that he's being dishonest, he's making a larger point in
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: your nitpicking. But that's that's the problem for Trump. But
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Katie Vance doesn't have that issue. And the immigration issue
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: is such a sensitive topic because of the nature of it,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: and you need to have you need to balance being
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: compassionate with being reasonable and responsible and and all of
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: that's very hard to do. And I think the American
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: people are absolutely ready to fix that issue for the
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: first time in decades, They are ready to fix it.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: A lot of independence historically have not been ready to
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: fix it, and I think they are now. That's one
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: of the big reasons Trump won. And I think it's
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: a perfect issue for Jadevance to deal with.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I've had discussions with a lot of people in the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: wake of the election, justin and mentioned with the work
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: that's ahead, that the sequencing of that work is vitally
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: important that you have to do certain things before you
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: do certain other things. If you were advising Donald Trump
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and his team, what would be the most important one, two,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: three things in order that need to be done.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Well. I think the border is a huge one. I think,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: you know, I think if you don't fix the border,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: you're going to have all kinds of long term issues.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: We've seen that play out. They have to fix that
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: I would say that the war in Ukraine is another
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: gigantic one. If they can actually end that war, not
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: only will the world be a lot safer, the economy
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: will be a lot better. Energy prices will go down.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: The Ukraine has been related to global inflation and stuff like.
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  Speaker 2: It's not the only cause of it, but it is
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: a problem, and so I think that's a huge, huge issue.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I think domestic energy production, we need to control our
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: own destiny when it comes to energy. We need to
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: bring jobs back to the United States. We need to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: lower the cost of everything, and you do that by
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: lowering the cost of energy, because the cost of energy
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: is tied to everything. And the Biden administration, despite what
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: they've been telling people for the past year, have worked
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: very hard to reduce domestic oil and gas production. And
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of that can be undone, almost all of
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: it through executive action, and that's exactly what needs to happen.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: So I think those are three really big priorities. Of course,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: there are a million other things that are important. You know,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: ESG and you know, social credit scoring and banking and
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: all the stuff that you and I have talked about
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: many times. But I think those are three key issues,