Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Jon Decker, WOR White House correspondent Interview

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Jon Decker, WOR White House correspondent Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There is so much to talk about right now in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the Donald Trump world. Apparently, that deal he had, that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: energy deal he had, and he said, I've got a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: big announcement. We've reached a deal between Ukraine and Russia
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: over not hitting each other's oil supplies or energy supplies. Well,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like that happened. No. Because... Minutes after
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: he said it, the Russians hit an energy area in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Ukraine and took it out. And Zelensky had a great line.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: He said, apparently Putin doesn't read truth social.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: And then look at Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have hit.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: that main airport, three days in a row. They have
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: no defense system up. And I can't wait to find
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: out how. I've labeled this the pretend I'm on the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: ballot tour of President Donald Trump to get the Republicans
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: over the top.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Here's the amazing thing about that tour. John Decker has
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: hit a new echelon in his career. As a matter
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of fact, I think we have to call him Mr.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Decker now when we introduce him. Of course, he's the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: WOR White House and Washington correspondent and host of the podcast,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: The White House Briefing Room with John Decker. It can
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: be found in the iHeartRadio app. But, John, you got
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: an exclusive with the president coming up?
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, it will be in Alaska. I'm traveling on Air
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Force One to Alaska in just a few hours. It's
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: a long trip out there. And then the president will
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: do a campaign event for Senator Dan Sullivan, a campaign
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: rally there.
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  Speaker 1: In Wasilla, Alaska.
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  Speaker 3: And right before he hits the stage, right before he
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: does that campaign rally, he's going to do an exclusive
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: television interview with me. So glad I was able to
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: secure that. And I'm looking forward to that much later today.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: That's wonderful. You know, I don't want to get too
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: inside baseball on this, but how do you go about
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: securing that interview?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Well, you make a pitch. It's like being a salesman.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: And you make that sales pitch to the people that
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: would make that decision on behalf of the president. And
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I'm really good at selling myself and selling the idea
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: of why this interview is important for the president. I'll
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: give you essentially what the sales pitch was. So I
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: work for a company that owns the most powerful television
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  Speaker 3: station in Alaska. It's a powerhouse. Fifty percent of Alaskans
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: watch that station. And what better place to do an
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: interview with me representing that station? And so I think
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: that really had an impact on their decision. And I
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: think that is ultimately why the president said, yeah, I'll
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: sit down with John Decker. Sure.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: That's a tremendous sales pitch, by the way. But he also,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we've said this before, Curtis, if you've noticed that the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: president likes John Decker. Oh, no doubt. He keeps asking,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: keeps saying, John, points to him and says, go ahead,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: ask a question. You know what John's answer to that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is always? Go ahead, John, you can say it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: No, tell me what you're getting at.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: He says, what's not to like?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: What's not to like, exactly. If the moment presents itself,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: because I'm sure you're going to be talking about Saudi
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Arabia and what would Trump do as the Houthis have
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: hit the major airport three days in a row. It
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: doesn't seem the Saudis have an ability to defend themselves
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: from the incoming cruise missiles.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: We had on... 9-11, the families asked only one thing.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't talk about Zoran Mandami. They said, please investigate
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the Saudi family's involvement in the attack on 9-11. They
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: turned to J.D.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Vance.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Please bring it back to the president. Remember, the president
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: said that he would. I wonder if he's had the
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  Speaker 2: time to do that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. You know, I have to also
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: explain to you just something. You raise a really good question,
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  Speaker 3: a really good topic. But part of my pitch was this,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: and it was really important to me to do this.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you build a relationship with the White House team.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: You build a relationship with the White House. I said,
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  Speaker 3: we're in Alaska. The reason why you're going to Alaska
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: is because of the Senate race. This Senate race in
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  Speaker 3: Alaska with Senator Dan Sullivan running for a third term
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: could determine who controls the Senate. It's pretty unbelievable to
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: think about that. And I said to them, my interview
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: with the president is focusing exclusively on that race. So
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I want to ask those types of questions, Curtis, and
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I will get an opportunity to ask those questions, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: not in this upcoming interview.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, understood. Tell me what the disconnect is here, because
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  Speaker 1: I don't think the president comes out and makes an
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: announcement about an energy deal between Ukraine and Russia without
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: really believing it's true. It would be foolish to, because
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: you end up looking bad. But almost immediately, Russia attacked
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Ukraine's energy supplies. And I was saying before you came on,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that Zelensky had a great line when he said, apparently
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Putin doesn't read truth social. So what is going on?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Is there no energy deal? And why would the president
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: say something like that when there's no deal?
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Well, I think the president is, we've talked about this before, Larry.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: He is the eternal optimist. And he has a conversation
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: with Putin, which he did last week. He spoke about
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  Speaker 3: maybe the contours of a deal. Then he gets on
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: the line and speaks with Zelensky. speaks about what he
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: spoke with with President Putin. And Zelensky says, yeah, that
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  Speaker 3: sounds good to me. I'd be for that. And the president,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: I'm just getting in his head, probably thinks we got
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: a deal. But the problem is the president says this often,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Larry and Curtis, it takes two to tango. And Putin
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  Speaker 3: just doesn't want to end the war. Putin just doesn't
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  Speaker 3: want to do a deal, even at this rate, this
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  Speaker 3: level in which you're just stopping all attacks on each
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: country's energy sectors. And that's the reason why this war continues.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: You know, February of next year will mark the fifth
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: year that this war has been going on.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: John Decker, I call this President Donald Trump's pretend I'm
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: on the ballot tour as he stumps for Republican candidates.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: How overall is that concept working with the, you know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the ingrained MAGA Republicans that he's trying to get out
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to help win the midterms?
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll see.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, we won't know the answer to that, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: until all the votes are counted after November the 3rd. But,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I've traveled with the president this past Saturday.
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  Speaker 3: I was on Air Force One, went down to Tennessee,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: and crowds love him. You know, it's true. The MAGA
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: base has not left the president. That is the bottom line.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: The problem is independents have left the president in terms
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: of what I see in the polling, and independents typically
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: determine who wins elections. And right now, those independents are
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: dissatisfied with President Trump and his policies that he's pursued,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: high gas prices. So although the president's trying to get
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: the energy level up among Republicans to get them out
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: to vote for the midterm elections, the key, I think,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: in this entire midterm election will be how do independents vote?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Do they come out to vote? And do they vote
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  Speaker 3: against the Republican candidate?
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  Speaker 1: I spoke a couple of days ago with a Democratic
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  Speaker 1: strategist who's now in Pennsylvania. He's working on a couple
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of the congressional races in Pennsylvania and then the one
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  Speaker 1: big one in New Jersey as well. And I talked
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: about exactly what you're talking about now about Donald Trump
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: getting out in the campaign trail. And I said, well, listen,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: if this midterm is all about Donald Trump, doesn't that
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: help the Democrats as much as the Republicans? And he said,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: this is a Democrat saying this. He is a generational
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: talent when it comes to getting out the vote. And
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  Speaker 1: I thought that was really kind of stunning. But I
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  Speaker 1: imagine he's only talking about getting out the vote for
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans. He gets out the vote for the Democrats,
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  Speaker 1: I would think, too.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that's right. You know, the president wants this
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: midterm to be about him, but Democrats want this to
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: be about him as well. And we already know what
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: happened in the 2018 midterm election. That was the president's
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: first term. Republicans did not do well. Republicans lost control
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  Speaker 3: of both the House and the Senate. And so could
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: history repeat itself, you know, in the 2026 midterm elections?
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: I don't know. But, you know, just based upon polling
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: right now, it certainly doesn't look good for a number
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  Speaker 3: of Republicans who are running, trying to hold seats in
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  Speaker 3: the U.S. Senate. And that's something that at the very
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: beginning of the cycle, I did not foresee. I said
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: there's no way that Democrats retake control of the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: But now it's a real possibility.
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  Speaker 2: Well, to the rescue, as he promised, Elon Musk, with
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  Speaker 2: close to $ 400 million, he's delivered two-thirds of it. The
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  Speaker 2: additional third will be delivered to save the Senate for
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the Republicans. How do they intend on using that money?
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  Speaker 2: That's a lot of money, $ 400 million to spread into about,
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  Speaker 2: I would say, eight contested races.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough.
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  Speaker 3: It's tough to go against that, you know, in terms
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  Speaker 3: of matching that on the Democratic side. That's a ton
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  Speaker 3: of money that's being spent. And I don't know if
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  Speaker 3: you've seen, the number out there about how little that
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: is in terms of Elon Musk's net worth. It's a
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  Speaker 3: huge amount of money, but it means nothing to him.
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  Speaker 3: It's like you and I losing a penny. That's how
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  Speaker 3: amazing it is in terms of how wealthy Elon Musk is.
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  Speaker 3: But how is that money being used? It's going to
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  Speaker 3: be used to just get out the vote. to put
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: campaign commercials on the air in all of these competitive
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: battleground states. Texas in particular, that is one of the
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  Speaker 3: most expensive states to run statewide in the entire country.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of that money, quite frankly, is being
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: spent on Texas, trying to help out Ken Paxton, the
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: attorney general there, who's hoping to keep that seat in
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  Speaker 3: Republican hands. It's now held by Senator John Cornyn. But
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: we've seen polls which indicate that Ken Paxton is trailing
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: James Tallarico. So that's where a lot of that money
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  Speaker 3: is going to be spent.
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  Speaker 1: I know you cover the White House, but this is
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  Speaker 1: a question about the U.S. Senate. If the Democrats take control,
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  Speaker 1: is there any chance that Chuck Schumer stays on as leader?
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: That's a very good question. I think, you know, I
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: think we're putting the cart before the horse. You know,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: I just think let's let's see what happens there. You know,
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  Speaker 3: he's going to if that's a big if. But if
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Democrats retake control of the U.S. Senate, who's going to
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: be the first person in front of a television camera
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  Speaker 3: crowing about how he's responsible? It's going to be Senator
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer, right? Do you have any doubt about that?
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: No.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: So we'll see what happens. I think that first Democrats
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: have to cross that threshold to win back the Senate,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: and then they'll confront, depending upon who those new Democratic
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: members are, their allegiance to Chuck Schumer. Then we'll see
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: whether or not he remains the leader of the Senate
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: and the leader of the Democrats for the next two years.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: I do appreciate it, John Decker, who won't have time
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: to go fishing in Alaska with the president while you're
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: there interviewing him exclusively. We do appreciate all of your
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: knowledge and input on those questions we asked you. Have
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: a safe trip. Oh, wow, he fell into the abyss.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: He's already fishing out there. He baited the hook.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: He's got a plane to catch. He's salmon fishing.